Comparison

SWList vs PhosphorTEX

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

SWList

Discover and identify shortwave radio stations with access to curated EiBi and Aoki lists. Explore stations by frequency, band, or search criteria, and view detailed transmission information, including location on a map.

Highlights
  • Access EiBi and Aoki curated lists
  • Discover stations by frequency or band
  • Search by station name, country, or language
  • Connect to radio receivers via Hamlib
  • Filter for currently broadcasting stations
  • View station transmission details
  • Display transmitter location on map
Features
Read full description

SWList gives you access to the popular EiBi and Aoki lists, helping you easily discover and identify shortwave radio stations. The EiBi list, curated by Eike Bierwirth, is a highly valued resource within the SWL community.  The Aoki list, curated by Shigenori Aoki, is also widely used and recognized for its reliability. SWList offers four convenient ways to explore radio stations: - Enter a listening frequency to display stations transmitting nearby. - Select a specific radio band to view all stations within it. - Search by station name, country, or broadcast language. - Retrieve the frequency manually or automatically from your radio receiver, if connected via Hamlib. You can also filter results to show only stations that are currently broadcasting. For each station, detailed information is available, including transmission location, target area, and spoken language. If the transmitter’s location is available, you can display it on a geographic map and calculate the distance from your location. SWList also supports light and dark modes to suit your viewing preferences.

About

PhosphorTEX

Features
Read full description

PhosphorTEX is a real-time NAVTEX maritime-safety decoder for iPhone. Tune a shortwave receiver to 518 kHz, 490 kHz, or 4209.5 kHz, hold your iPhone near the speaker, and watch navigational warnings, gale warnings, ice reports, and other maritime safety information scroll across an authentic amber phosphor CRT display. NAVTEX (Navigational Telex) is broadcast worldwide under the IMO Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS). Every coast, mariners and ship's radio officers depend on it for up-to-the-minute storm warnings, search-and-rescue notices, navigational hazards, and coastal traffic advisories. PhosphorTEX brings that same live maritime feed to your iPhone — offline, on-device, no account, no network. SIGNAL PROCESSING PhosphorTEX implements the full CCIR-476 SITOR-B protocol stack in Swift with purpose-written DSP. • Synchronous 7-bit framer with DPLL clock recovery • Time-diversity FEC: alpha / rep pair-merge per CCIR-476 spec • Shift-until-valid phase search with sentinel-aligned alpha / rep routing — locks to the correct character boundary automatically • Polarity auto-detection — works with maritime-receiver tuning (mark ~1615 Hz) and SDR tuning (mark ~1085 Hz) equally, no toggles • Automatic frequency control with sub-bin parabolic peak interpolation and ±3 Hz/frame centre-tracking clamp • 170 Hz shift locked to spec (±85 Hz around centre) • Live 512-point FFT spectrum and scrolling waterfall display DECODE VIEWS • CARDS — parsed NAVTEX messages as colour-coded cards: station letter, subject badge (SAR/piracy, nav warning, met warning, ice report, met forecast…), serial number, timestamp, FEC quality badge, full body text • TAPE — raw teleprinter character stream, for purists NAVAREA SCHEDULE Built-in database of 42 NAVAREA coast stations across NAVAREA I through XVIII (Cullercoats, Niton, Rogaland, Oostende, Reykjavik, Mondolfo, Las Palmas, Horta, and more). The SCHEDULE tab shows a live 24-slot grid with the current 10-minute broadcast slot highlighted in real time against a ticking UTC clock. MESSAGE LOG Every decoded message is logged locally with timestamp, header, body, and FEC statistics. Swipe to delete. Tap for full view. Export the whole log as plain text via iOS share sheet. CONFIGURATION • Two phosphor themes: classic amber and green • Three font sizes for the decoded output • AFC on/off with manual mark frequency override for unusual receivers • Invert mark/space for LSB-convention receivers • Per-subject mute list (urgent D-category SAR/piracy messages always override) • Alert toggles for SAR/piracy and vital (serial-00) messages PRIVACY PhosphorTEX makes zero network requests. No account, no cloud, no analytics, no tracking, no third-party SDKs. Audio is processed entirely in memory — nothing is recorded, stored, or transmitted. Microphone access is used only for live signal decoding. WHAT YOU NEED An iPhone and a shortwave receiver tuned to NAVTEX — 518 kHz for international English, 490 kHz for national language broadcasts, or 4209.5 kHz for tropical HF. Most entry-level general-coverage receivers work. WebSDR audio played through a speaker works too. PhosphorTEX is part of the Phosphor suite of retro-CRT radio tools: PhosphorRTTY (RTTY), PhosphorCW (Morse), PhosphorFeld (Hellschreiber), PhosphorSSTV (slow-scan TV), and more. Look out for bundles as new apps become available. Built in Swift with Apple's native frameworks only. No external dependencies. Runs entirely on-device.

Screenshots

SWList4 screens
PhosphorTEX4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: SWList at every 2 months against PhosphorTEX's every 5 months. SWList also leads on iOS requirement (16.0 vs 26.4). PhosphorTEX's advantage is price ($0.99 vs $3.99). On ads, in-app purchases and device support 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

SWList costs $3.99 and PhosphorTEX $0.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

SWList ships an update every 2 months, PhosphorTEX every 5 months. The most recent releases landed on October 13, 2026 and October 11, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
SWList versus PhosphorTEX: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSWListPhosphorTEX
Price$3.99$0.99 — better
Rating3.8 (4 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews66.7% of reviews—
Number of ratings4 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 months — betterEvery 5 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaid—
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS16.0 — better26.4
Further details — not scored
Size5 MB3 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperStefano RampazzoStuart Woolley

In-app purchases

None

SWList

No in-app purchases

None

PhosphorTEX

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is SWList free?
SWList costs $3.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is PhosphorTEX free?
PhosphorTEX costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Do SWList or PhosphorTEX have ads?
Neither SWList nor PhosphorTEX shows ads.
Which is updated more often, SWList or PhosphorTEX?
SWList ships an update every 2 months, and PhosphorTEX every 5 months. Most recently, SWList was updated on October 13, 2026 and PhosphorTEX on October 11, 2026.

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