APRS Mobile vs Skyby

APRS Mobile connects your iPhone and iPad straight to APRS-IS, the internet side of the Automatic Packet Reporting System used by amateur radio operators worldwide. Watch the stations around you live, look up any station, message other hams and beacon your position. No account needed. Work over your own radio too — with a Bluetooth or network TNC, or with nothing but an audio cable and the built-in software modem. LIVE MAP • Stations appear the moment they're heard, with their APRS symbols and callsigns • Tracks, PHG circles and a Layers panel: fixed, mobile and weather stations, digipeaters, IGates and objects • Via: one control for every link — APRS-IS, TNC and software modem STATION DETAILS • Tap a station for a quick card, then its full page, updated live • Last heard, beacon prediction, digipath, comment and status • Position, Maidenhead grid, speed, course, altitude and distance from you • Current weather, plus weather and telemetry charts APRS MESSAGING • Chat with any station, with conversations and message bubbles • Messages go out over APRS-IS or straight over your radio; IGates carry them between the two • Automatic retries until acknowledged, with receipts • Notifications for messages to your callsign, even with the app closed • Block or report a station; offensive language is hidden behind a tap RADIO — TNC (OPTIONAL) • Connect a Mobilinkd TNC4, or a TNC3 on Bluetooth LE firmware, to send and receive over your own radio • Or reach a KISS TNC on your network: Direwolf on a Raspberry Pi, or a TNC on a serial-to-WiFi bridge • Choose how messages and beacons go out, and where map stations come from: radio, APRS-IS or both • Stays connected in the background, so beaconing and receiving carry on • Run a fill-in digipeater or an IGate from your phone • A TNC and a radio are separate purchases; everything else works without them RADIO — SOFTWARE MODEM (OPTIONAL) • No TNC required: with an audio cable your phone is the modem — 1200 baud APRS decoded from your radio's audio • Transmit through a radio set to VOX, with adjustable TX delay and level • A live spectrum with both tones marked, a level check in plain language and a clipping warning • Receiving needs no licence; transmitting is off until you confirm you hold one OFFLINE MAPS • Download OpenStreetMap-based maps for the areas you care about, and the map works with no network BEACONING • Four ways to beacon, from Settings or the map: off, SmartBeaconing, every so often, or fixed • SmartBeaconing beacons more often when moving fast or turning, less when slow or stopped • Fixed position suits a home station: type it in once, and no GPS is used • Carries on in the background when you allow it, with a low-power mode • Choose your APRS symbol, comment and position ambiguity AND MORE • Search for any callsign, city or zip code • An Apple Watch app: beacon, messages, nearby stations and weather graphs • Imperial, metric and nautical units, any APRS-IS server Receiving is free: anyone can watch APRS activity and weather stations. Transmitting — beacons, messages, the digipeater — needs APRS Mobile Transmit, a yearly auto-renewing subscription with the first month free. If you had APRS Mobile before version 1.4, transmitting stays free for you. It also requires an amateur radio license; over APRS-IS it needs the passcode for your callsign, and over the air it has to be switched on by hand. Terms: https://aprsmobile.app/terms Privacy: https://aprsmobile.app/privacy The software modem uses the microphone to hear your radio. The audio is decoded on your device, never recorded and never sent. Weather and telemetry history charts, and offline map downloads, come from openaprs.ai; everything else comes straight from APRS-IS or your radio. Offline map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Positions you send can be seen on other APRS websites too. Continued use of GPS running in the background can dramatically decrease battery life. A live APRS-IS feed uses a lot of data.

Know exactly what's flying over you. Look up, and whatever is overhead appears on screen. Airliners, private jets, helicopters, and more, identified instantly. No searching, no typing, no menus. NOTE: Some features shown in the screenshots require Skyby Pro. Whether you're a planespotter camped at the end of a runway or a casual fan glancing up from home, Skyby reads the sky in real time and shows the aircraft directly above: the airline or operator, the aircraft type, the altitude, and, for scheduled flights, where it came from and where it's headed. An inbound indicator shows when a flight is coming into range. Two ways to use it: Set it and forget it. Prop Skyby on a desk, shelf, or windowsill and leave it running: a quiet radar for your patch of sky. Set an alert for the aircraft you care about, and Skyby chimes the moment one flies over. Pull it out and look up. On a walk or in the backyard, open Skyby and see what's flying over right now. From airliners to helicopters: Skyby identifies it all. The passenger and cargo jets, the private planes and business jets, the helicopters overhead. And yes, if a blimp drifts over, Skyby catches that too. Prefer to keep it to the airlines? Flip on Commercial Only in settings. Set your spot, or take it with you: Use your current location Drop a pin anywhere in the coverage area to watch the planes over home while you're away Or set the pin to live, and Skyby follows you as you move WHAT YOU GET Instant overhead ID for the aircraft above you Adjustable search area, up to 3 nm free (wider with Pro) Alerts that chime when a plane you care about flies over (A380 and 747 built in, free) An inbound indicator when a flight is coming into range Real routes and aircraft types for scheduled flights A logbook that saves your catches automatically Available across the US, Canada, UK, Europe, Australia/New Zealand, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Philippines and Singapore today, with more on the way Skyby Pro adds aircraft photos matched to the tail number (when available), custom alerts (any airline, aircraft type, flight number, or tail), your full logbook with search and bookmarks, detailed stats, and an even wider search radius. Skyby runs on iPhone and iPad, and it shines on iPad propped up on a desk or shelf. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/