CicadaTAK vs Magic PTT

CicadaTAK turns your phone into a live tactical display for places with no cell service and no internet — backcountry, disaster response, large properties, search grids, event perimeters. It is the companion app for CicadaTAK mesh nodes: 900 MHz radio gateways you build yourself from a fully documented hardware recipe (parts list and instructions at cicadatak.com). Nodes form a self-healing mesh that reaches over a mile per hop and relays through every teammate, so coverage grows as the team spreads out. Your phone joins a node's WiFi and the radios do the rest. WORKS WITH ATAK AND iTAK • Nodes speak Cursor-on-Target in both directions — positions, chat and markers pass between this app and ATAK or iTAK devices on the same node • No TAK server, no data plan, no setup beyond joining the node's WiFi • Run this app, run ATAK, or run both side by side on one team LIVE TEAM MAP • Teammates update live with callsigns, colors and breadcrumb trails • A position that stops being current turns grey and shows its age instead of vanishing, so you always know how old the picture is • Offline maps — download aerial, topo and street layers onto the node and use them with zero internet • Drop markers, draw geofence zones, measure distance and bearing, save routes ENCRYPTED TEAM CHAT • End-to-end encrypted with your team passphrase — the key never leaves your team • Share photos from camera or gallery, carried over the radio, never through a server • Delivery receipts, canned quick replies, and roll call for fast accountability PUSH-TO-TALK VOICE • Live streaming PTT to the whole team — real voice traffic, not recorded clips • Tuned to stay intelligible on marginal links LONG-RANGE LoRa BRIDGE • Nodes fitted with LoRa hardware bridge to Meshtastic radios, carrying positions and text far beyond the main mesh • Three privacy modes, from open interoperability to fully dark RUN THE NETWORK FROM YOUR POCKET • Set up a new node from the app — no laptop, no terminal • Live topology graph of every radio link, colored by measured throughput • Node list with signal, battery and hardware status; one-tap ping for round-trip time • Trade speed for range across the whole team at once, with automatic revert if a node doesn't come back • Update node firmware over the air YOUR DATA STAYS YOURS • No accounts, no sign-up, no cloud, no analytics • Everything travels phone to your own radio to your teammates' phones • There is no server in the path, so there is nothing for us to see IMPORTANT • Full functionality requires CicadaTAK node hardware. Without a node the app runs in Standalone Mode: your own GPS on the map, offline map browsing, and every screen navigable — mesh chat, PTT and team positions activate when you connect to a node. • Nodes operate in the 902–928 MHz license-free ISM band on the United States channel plan, which is also licence-exempt in Canada,Mexico, and Australia. No radio license required. • Build your nodes at cicadatak.com — an open, fully documented hardware build on an open-source radio and mesh foundation.

Magic PTT is a push-to-talk radio network for people who like a radio in their hand: hams, GMRS and CB operators, preppers, truckers, boaters, off-grid families, and anyone who wants to stay in contact when it matters. Press to talk. Members on the channel hear you live over Nexus, our voice network with servers in the USA and Europe and failover that just happens. WHAT YOU GET • Channels and private rooms. Join the Home channel, the International channel, or a My Room a net admin has set up for your group. • Radio bridges. Some rooms carry real Brandmeister DMR talkgroup traffic and AllStarLink nodes, so there is always something to hear. • Live captions in 25 languages. Pick your language once in Settings and every transmission arrives as text in it, translated automatically. • Operators roster. See who is on, who is talking, and star the people you want to find again. • Magic Book. Your contact book. Confirm a two-way key, keep notes, and message from a station card. Hams export ADIF from Logbook. • Magic Grid. Opt-in grid squares on a live map. Never GPS, and gone the moment you disconnect. • Chat and photos with member-to-member translation. • Storm Watch weather alerts and the World Net Clock on the Stage desk. • The Slammer. A moderated net with a sense of humour: rule-breakers do a little time. HARDWARE WE ACTUALLY DRIVE Bluetooth speaker-mics with their own PTT button key Magic PTT directly: BTech BS-22 and BS-50, TidRadio Q2L, Inrico B01 and B02. Voice rides normal Bluetooth audio. The iPhone Action Button can be set to toggle PTT. ONE NETWORK, EVERY SCREEN The same station on your iPhone, on your computer with Magic PTT Desktop, and in any browser. Your settings, contacts and rooms follow you. MEMBERSHIP Magic PTT is a member network. New accounts are approved at the Welcome Desk, usually the same day. Voice on public channels is live and unrecorded; private rooms are ephemeral unless the room owner enables recording with everyone's consent. Built by one person, with the members telling us what to build next. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://magicptt.com/legal/privacy