HamWaves Sidekick vs Astrolabe

HamWaves Sidekick is an indispensable app for all amateur radio operators. We never seem to have access to user manuals when we need them. Even when we do, programming instructions are sometimes hard to understand. HamWaves Sidekick was written to solve this problem. Using a clean, gesture enabled interface, it provides clear, easy to follow step-by-step instructions to explain basic programming for dozens of popular handheld and mobile radios. Programming instructions are always available for offline use. It is extremely helpful for ARES and RACES groups that may need to add frequencies to a wide variety of radios on the fly. The app also provides one button access to the user manual for each radio. It will automatically download if it hasn't already been downloaded before. You can download only those manuals you are interested in or download them all. Once the manual is downloaded it will be available for offline use. The app covers dozens of popular handheld and mobile radios as well a few popular scanners. Included, are instructions for radios from Yaesu, Kenwood, Icom, Alinco, Anytone, Wouxun, Baofeng, BTECH, Quangdheng, TYT, TIDRadio, Radioddity and more. The app also includes helpful reference information such as frequency allocations, CTCSS/DCS tabes, Allstar commands, APRS reference for APRS capable radios, Packet radio commands, and much more. Links to user manuals are carefully researched to always provide the best quality manuals available for public distribution. Users are encouraged to visit our website and let us know of other radios they would like to see included in the app. We'll be happy to add them! Family Sharing is supported. Dark mode is supported.

Astrolabe turns your iPhone into a window on the heavens. Hold it up and the Sun, Moon, planets, stars, constellations, and even the International Space Station appear in augmented reality, placed exactly where they really are in your sky — for your location, at any moment in time. Drag the time scrubber to watch the Sun glide along its arc from sunrise to sunset, or pick any date — past or future — and see how the sky looked, or will look. Tap any body to read its altitude, azimuth, rise and set times, magnitude, distance, and the Moon's exact phase. Tap the empty sky to hide every control and just look. Astrolabe is built on precise astronomy (the SwiftAA / Meeus algorithms and an SGP4 satellite propagator), so positions are accurate to far better than you can point a phone. And it's honest about its one real limit: the iPhone compass. When the magnetometer drifts — indoors, near metal, in a reinforced building — a one-tap "Align to Sun" calibration locks the sky to reality. FEATURES • Live AR sky: Sun, Moon, and every planet at their true positions • Time travel: scrub the day or jump to any historical or future date • ~5,000 stars and the full set of constellation figures • ISS and bright-satellite tracking from live orbital data • Correct Moon phase, rise/set/transit, twilight, and golden-hour times • A "Today" timeline of every sky event, tap to jump there • Search any body and a live find-arrow that guides you to it • Daily trajectory arcs, cardinal markers, and a horizon grid • One-tap Sun/Moon calibration that bypasses compass error • View the sky from any place on Earth with a manual location • A clean Liquid Glass interface with light, dark, and night modes Works fully offline for the Sun, Moon, planets, and stars — only live satellite data needs a connection (and is cached). No account, no ads, no tracking. Augmented reality requires a recent iPhone with ARKit support.