This doesn't turn your phone into a ham transceiver at all.
It turns your phone into a transceiver controller.
Given that a cell phone is a transceiver, this headline is rather disappointing clickbait.
I've used a few handheld transcievers and they tend towards clunky user interfaces-- tiny, fiddly displays, highly modal keys, and basically needing to memorize the manual to use it.
Even worse-- there's not a strong correlation between the quality of the RF unit and the user-interface. The Yaesu FT-60 is a reliable, high-quality radio, with all the user friendliness of a live porcupine.
But with a 6-inch pocketable touchscreen you could solve most of the UI problems, and focus on the radio problems.
Keeping the division also gives you flexibility-- you could design a 25-watt tabletop unit, or modules for different bands, that shared the same basic control software and UI
I used to use SDR for DAB radio in the nexus 7 in the dash of my BMW E46. It didn’t work very well but was closer to being some kind of radio receiver (not trans at least)
There are many cheap shanzhai android phones with walkie talkie ptt functions (around 400MHz iirc) for about a decade. We tried to convince manufactures to open up the software stack to no avail, while being bullied at local hackerspaces (“this is illegal!”). I am licensed.
Nice!! I wish it could do DMR though. Analog isn't used to much anymore in these parts. Although to be more precise, HAM radio has declined a lot but DMR repeaters are linked in groups so it seems like there's a lot more activity.
Exactly my thought. APRS is nice but I'm just not interested in buying another otherwise analog-only radio. I know a lot of the popular digital modes are hard due to proprietary components but I'd be a lot more interested in something that supported digital voice and higher rate data modes even if it were just M17.
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[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 39.4 ms ] threadI've used a few handheld transcievers and they tend towards clunky user interfaces-- tiny, fiddly displays, highly modal keys, and basically needing to memorize the manual to use it.
Even worse-- there's not a strong correlation between the quality of the RF unit and the user-interface. The Yaesu FT-60 is a reliable, high-quality radio, with all the user friendliness of a live porcupine.
But with a 6-inch pocketable touchscreen you could solve most of the UI problems, and focus on the radio problems.
Keeping the division also gives you flexibility-- you could design a 25-watt tabletop unit, or modules for different bands, that shared the same basic control software and UI
It just led me to finding this:
https://kicanvas.org/
worth a bookmark.
How far can such a device reach in a typical urban environment with the longer antenna?
Most radio amateurs would utilize a repeater to get over this limitation. Assuming there is a reliable repeater one is welcome to use nearby.