HAM Test Prep Lite vs iSeismometer
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
HAM Test Prep Lite
Prepare for your amateur radio Technician license exam with practice questions and tests. Review FCC rules, track your progress, and identify areas needing more study. This version includes a portion of the question pool, with a full version available for purchase.
- Technician question pool
- Practice exams
- Progress tracking
- Immediate feedback
- FCC rule text viewer
- Zoomable figures
- Dark mode support
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Includes the Technician Question Pool effective July 1, 2026! NOTE: This "Lite" version contains only 2 of the 10 subelements in the question pool. Click the 'Buy Now' link in the app to get the FULL version. Join the amateur radio community! Become a HAM by obtaining your Technician class license! Amateur Radio License exams are composed of questions from a pool. Use this application prior to taking your exam to review and practice all possible questions. Then, test your knowledge with practice exams! After completing your first practice exam, the question pool screen will display your proficiency in each question group for all practice exams you have completed. This will identify areas in which you need further practice. You may choose to receive immediate feedback on right and wrong answers when taking a practice test. On practice tests, questions in a group will not be repeated until all of them have been used. Some questions require you to review associated Figures. These figures may be zoomed and panned on iPhone/iPod touch. FCC rule text is viewable within the application. All sections can be browsed from the main screen. Additionally, for questions where rule sections have been identified, the rule text can be viewed on the question screen when studying the question pool or reviewing test results. An in-progress practice test can be resumed if you exit the test or the application. Current Technician question pool is valid through June 30, 2030. This "Lite" version only contains questions from subelements T1 and T6. Versions of this application for both the General and Extra license classes are also available. This app has these additional features: • Accessibility option for vision-impaired users to exclude questions with figures • Dark mode support • Portrait and Landscape support on iPad • Swipe gestures to navigate between questions • Tap on answer to select it • Double-tap or use pinch gesture to zoom Figures on iPhone and iPod touch • Buttons to skip to next/previous wrong answer in test results • ARRL question number displayed on practice tests • Configurable Test Settings • Optional randomizing of test answers • Optional auto-advance during test
iSeismometer
Transform your iPhone into a sensitive seismometer to detect and visualize vibrations. Explore its educational and data-collecting capabilities for fun or serious applications.
- Converts iPhone to seismometer
- Detects and visualizes vibrations
- Data collecting capabilities
- Educational use
- Adjustable frequency settings
- Re-track previous data
- X-Y-Z illustrated graphs
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iSeismometer turns your iPhone or iPad into a seismograph. Set it on a table, tap the desk, and watch the ground move. You will be surprised how sensitive your phone is. It has been doing that since the App Store opened in 2008, when it reached #1 in Education in Japan, Austria, Finland, and Greece. Version 1.7 is a complete rebuild: faster, clearer, and finally a real instrument. LIVE SEISMOGRAPH • Three axes at up to 100 samples per second, drawn like a strip-chart recorder • Scroll back through up to an hour of history while it keeps recording • Gravity filter with a real corner frequency, so slow tilt disappears and earthquakes stay • Live spectrum: see the frequency of footsteps, a washing machine, or a passing truck at a glance • Dark mode and a full iPad layout EVENT DETECTION • A seismologist's STA/LTA trigger flags every tremor with its peak acceleration, duration, and dominant frequency • Three sensitivity levels, from "only real shakes" to "every footstep" • Events are shaded on the traces and listed so you can jump straight to them RECORDINGS • Every session is saved automatically as compact raw data, split into hourly files • Browse by day, open any recording, scrub to its events, and see its spectrum • Export CSV, or pick up the raw files in the Files app and in Finder • Keep them for a day, a week, a month, or forever WAS THAT AN EARTHQUAKE? • Live USGS feed on a globe, filtered by time window and magnitude • Tap a quake for its depth, time, and the official USGS page STREAM TO YOUR MAC • Open iSeismometer on a Mac on the same Wi-Fi and your phone finds it by itself • The Mac shows every device streaming to it side by side, with its own recordings and event detection • Reconnects on its own after the screen locks, the network drops, or the Mac restarts Made for fun and for learning. A phone carries a MEMS accelerometer, not a broadband seismometer, so it feels footsteps and trucks far better than distant earthquakes. Put it on a solid floor, plug it in, keep the screen awake, and you have a home seismic station. iSeismometer is not a substitute for official earthquake early warnings or emergency alerts. Questions and ideas: info@objectgraph.com "This is a novelty app but one that also helps you learn something new... one of those things that is very captivating once you've looked at it once." — The Independent Guide to the iPhone 3GS
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: HAM Test Prep Lite at 4.7 against iSeismometer's 3.6. HAM Test Prep Lite also leads on review sentiment (88% vs 76%). iSeismometer's advantage is monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases) and iOS requirement (16.0 vs 18.6). On price, ratings volume, update cadence and ads there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
HAM Test Prep Lite holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 3.6. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 167 and 170 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 88% of HAM Test Prep Lite's written reviews are positive against 76% of iSeismometer's.
HAM Test Prep Lite ships an update every 8 months, iSeismometer every 7 months. The most recent releases landed on September 8, 2026 and September 17, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | HAM Test Prep Lite | iSeismometer |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (167 ratings) — better | 3.6 (170 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 87.7% of reviews — better | 76.4% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 167 | 170 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 8 months | Every 7 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 18.6 | 16.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 3 MB | 3 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Patrick J Maloney LLC | ObjectGraph LLC |
Customer experience
HAM Test Prep Lite
iSeismometer
User reviews
HAM Test Prep Lite
From 167 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Great for passing tests
- 👍 Excellent study tool
- 👍 Helpful for preparation
- 👍 Easy to use
- 👍 Great practice test
Room to improve
- 💰 Paid version expensive
- ❓ Free version limited
- 🐛 Inconsistent answers
- 🐛 Clunky interface
- ❓ Unclear test completion
iSeismometer
From 170 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Sensitive and accurate
- 👍 Simple and easy to use
- 💡 Useful for various applications (e.g. monitoring vibrations, detecting heartbeat)
Room to improve
- 🐛 Crashes or freezes on newer devices
- 🔋 High battery consumption
- 🔒 Lacks security/privacy features (e.g. no option to disable data transmission)
Bugs and requests
HAM Test Prep Lite
Reported bugs
4 issues- Correct answer changes
- Clunky interface
- Hard to see green letters (correct answers)
- Free version useless
Requested features
4 requests- More features for free app
- More test variety
- Ability to run subset of questions
- Clearer test completion indicator
iSeismometer
Reported bugs
3 issues- Buttons/controls not working on newer iOS versions
- Keyboard not appearing in text input fields
- Inconsistent performance across device models
Requested features
6 requests- Add sensitivity control
- Implement zero control for reference plane
- Increase recording time
- Improve UI/UX (e.g. color coding, scrolling, chart speed control)
- Implement Richter scale or other measurement units
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- Add data export/sharing options (e.g. email, save to file)
In-app purchases
HAM Test Prep Lite
No in-app purchases
iSeismometer
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is HAM Test Prep Lite free?
Is iSeismometer free?
Which has better reviews, HAM Test Prep Lite or iSeismometer?
Do HAM Test Prep Lite or iSeismometer have ads?
Which is updated more often, HAM Test Prep Lite or iSeismometer?
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