CicadaTAK vs Demod

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 radios 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.

Demod turns your iPhone into a software-defined radio receiver. Connect to an SDR server on your own network or anywhere on the internet and explore the airwaves — from shortwave broadcasts and ham radio to aircraft, marine, and FM. Demod is a client for the most common SDR servers: • rtl_tcp — for RTL-SDR dongles • SpyServer — for Airspy and RTL-SDR • KiwiSDR — HF web receivers • OpenWebRX — web SDRs (HF, VHF and UHF) There's no hardware to plug into your phone. Point Demod at a server you run (a Raspberry Pi, PC, or Mac with an SDR dongle), or browse hundreds of public servers around the world and start listening in seconds. FEATURES • Real-time waterfall and spectrum display — Metal-accelerated and smooth • Pinch to zoom, drag to tune, two-finger pan • AM, NFM, WFM, USB, LSB, and CW demodulation • Decode CW (Morse), RTTY, PSK31, and FT8 on-screen (beta) • Time-Shift: pause and rewind live radio, DVR-style • Record what you hear — with a pre-roll of the moment you tapped • Live Text: on-device transcription of what you're listening to, with on-device translation of the captions (iOS 18+) and a full-screen transcript reader • Identify: one-tap "what is this signal?" — measures the signal on-device, matches it against a built-in band plan, and suggests the right mode (works with Siri: "ask Demod what this signal is") • Scanner: scan your memories, a band range, or let Smart scan find active signals across the captured spectrum • Spectral noise reduction, noise blanker, and mains-hum notch • Browse public KiwiSDR, OpenWebRX, and SpyServer receivers worldwide — list or map view • Save and recall favorite frequencies — import and export as CSV • Direct-sampling and upconverter support for HF • AirPlay output and Lock Screen playback controls • Adjustable bandwidth, gain (auto or manual), squelch, and display layouts PRIVACY Demod collects no data. No accounts, no tracking, no ads. Recording, transcription, translation, and signal identification all run entirely on your device — audio and text never leave it. Your settings, recordings, and transcripts stay under your control. Built for radio hobbyists, shortwave listeners, scanner enthusiasts, and ham operators who want a fast, native receiver in their pocket. Note: Demod is a receiver client and requires an SDR server to connect to. You can use a server you run yourself or one of the many free public servers listed in the app.