Android tablets in the ham shack? Anyone?

[IndyRick]

Hi, everyone. I don't know much about tablets, but, lately, I've had the urge to pick one up. BUT....I'm wondering if it'd be useful around the shack, or just a "toy". For those what might use one in the shack, whether for amateur radio, scanning, SWL, or whatever...tell us how you use it, how useful you find it, and anything else, positive AND negative, to help those of us who are on the fence about them.

Thanks,

Rick N9GSU

 

[KK4TTR]

Hi, everyone. I don't know much about tablets, but, lately, I've had the urge to pick one up. BUT....I'm wondering if it'd be useful around the shack, or just a "toy". For those what might use one in the shack, whether for amateur radio, scanning, SWL, or whatever...tell us how you use it, how useful you find it, and anything else, positive AND negative, to help those of us who are on the fence about them.

Thanks,

Rick N9GSU

As an IT professional and confirmed googlite, my term, and a recently minted HAM licensee, I can tell you android tablet's, smartphones, and chromebook are all about OS lite.

They're not nearly as powerful as full fledged operating systems, iOS, Wintel, and Lintel.

iOS is UNIX under the covers on some powerful hardware. You pay licensing for Wintel, and you can get Lintel with no licensing.

My suggestion is go with one of the nixes, iOS or Lintel, depending on your budget. If the programs aren't out there for anything you want to do, you can contribute back to the community, the way computing should be.

Droids are convenient form factors designed for specific tasks, device drivers are minimally supported, much like Wintel without the convenience. Convenient yes, powerful and flexible, no.

Yes, I admit to a certain bias against M$ and I'll gladly give my PayPal account to anyone who would like to contribute to my favorite charity, me. :lol:

Bottom line, yes droids are convenient form factors for listening to music, browsing the web, gmail, google maps, etc., but that's about it.

 

[n9mxq]

Use mine quite a bit for surfing an such. Just got the necessary OTG adapter to play with the SDR side of life. So far it's more toy than anything.


No bits were harmed in the posting of this message.

 

[ramal121]

I tried my Nexus 7 on UHF and it was OK, Mediocre on VHF, and was just plain horrible on 10 meters and below.

 

[KC8ESL]

If someone would write an ASIO driver for the android OS I could use a great sound card I own with it. Then someone would have to write up digital signal software for the android OS. I would probaby use it for PSK31 et al. I've never done HF digital modes.

 

[KK4TTR]

Use mine quite a bit for surfing an such. Just got the necessary OTG adapter to play with the SDR side of life. So far it's more toy than anything.


No bits were harmed in the posting of this message.

I was unaware of SDR, ahh the possibilities, Software-defined radio - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[kc0kp]

Hi, everyone. I don't know much about tablets, but, lately, I've had the urge to pick one up. BUT....I'm wondering if it'd be useful around the shack, or just a "toy". For those what might use one in the shack, whether for amateur radio, scanning, SWL, or whatever...tell us how you use it, how useful you find it, and anything else, positive AND negative, to help those of us who are on the fence about them.

Thanks,

Rick N9GSU

I do not use it in the shack, but I do use it mobile. After all, it is a mobile device. I have a Toshiba Thrive. I use it in both my 73 Cuda and my Dodge Durango to remote control a FT857 on Bluetooth. The radio is either in the trunk or buried under the third row seat on the Durango. I do not use the separation kit. Using a CAT5 cable I do the heavy remote control of the rig with the MH56 mic. Using RXTX for droid, I can see what frequency I am on, the SWR, mode, band, signal level etc. I tune the ATAS120 (only on the Durango) with an option button on the microphone.
This leaves the radio with control plate secure and hidden. The mic is in the console. That way knucklehead thieves don't steal the control head thinking he has the radio, the sun does not shine on the LCD heating and harming it and there is no announcement of the radio presence to the outside world.
As for software, I have been playing with the Android software development kit. I have been working with FTDI drivers to control stuff off the USB port. In particular trying to program an EDACS RSM using a Radio Shack scanner. Next would be a memory programmer for the FT857.
Craig

 

[kc0kp]

If someone would write an ASIO driver for the android OS I could use a great sound card I own with it. Then someone would have to write up digital signal software for the android OS. I would probaby use it for PSK31 et al. I've never done HF digital modes.

Have you looked into Bluetooth? That will get audio in and out of the tablet.

Craig

 

[n9mxq]

I was unaware of SDR, ahh the possibilities, Software-defined radio - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

And I can honestly say that my tablet SUCKS for SDR. It's a cheapy Arnova 7g3, and while it seems to process the info from the RTL stick with little to no problem, and surprisingly little lag to boot. The battery get's eaten very quickly.

The USB OTG cable I have allows charging while using the USB device and even while charging the battery can't keep up. Time to investigate different chargers to see if I can find one to keep up.

 

[KC8ESL]

I had not considered bluetooth but the problem is sourcing and destinating the audio. I would love to have apps that work like unitrunker, PDW, and DSD audio for the android devices I have.

Does anyone have suggestions for a GREAT bluetooth I/O (ideally balanced and unbalanced audio options - I'm a sound guy by trade) device and digital mode software for ham radio/scanning for the android tablets?

I know a $10 app is like paying for a $3000 radio in terms of the amount of money a specific app is versus buying hardware but I've done it once with my SDR app (SDR touch)and I would never turn back on that. Granted, its basically a 2.4MHz wide SpecAn that does demodulation of signals which in itself is extremely cool and has practical value, but I would like to see some coders develop more for the RTL SDR's and android.

 

[K4APR]

Yep! Finding all kinds of uses for Android in amateur radio:

SDR with a cheap DVI dongle:

APRSDroid via Bluetooth:

TNC-X/Bluetooth Link Box:

 

[JustLou]

As an IT professional and confirmed googlite, my term, and a recently minted HAM licensee, I can tell you android tablet's, smartphones, and chromebook are all about OS lite.

They're not nearly as powerful as full fledged operating systems, iOS, Wintel, and Lintel.

iOS is UNIX under the covers on some powerful hardware. You pay licensing for Wintel, and you can get Lintel with no licensing.

My suggestion is go with one of the nixes, iOS or Lintel, depending on your budget. If the programs aren't out there for anything you want to do, you can contribute back to the community, the way computing should be.

Droids are convenient form factors designed for specific tasks, device drivers are minimally supported, much like Wintel without the convenience. Convenient yes, powerful and flexible, no.

Yes, I admit to a certain bias against M$ and I'll gladly give my PayPal account to anyone who would like to contribute to my favorite charity, me. :lol:

Bottom line, yes droids are convenient form factors for listening to music, browsing the web, gmail, google maps, etc., but that's about it.

Wow. Everything you say about Android couldn't be more untrue.

 

[K4APR]

Wow. Everything you say about Android couldn't be more untrue.

+1!

 

[KC8ESL]

Oh well... thanks guys. Because of this thread I bought a barebones Bluetooth to serial adaptor. Now I just need to figure out how to get nmea0183 out of my tablet to my 396xt.

 

[N4CA]

Oh well... thanks guys. Because of this thread I bought a barebones Bluetooth to serial adaptor. Now I just need to figure out how to get nmea0183 out of my tablet to my 396xt.

I looked into that a bit, but since I don't have a radio that can do anything with it yet, I don't know what will work or how to set it up. However, I did find these apps that may be useful:

Free:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Saenko.GpsOverBt

$1.49:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.meowsbox.btgps_aml

$2.99:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ideasynthesis.solidsync.locate

 

[KC8ESL]

Thanks KC3!

It looks like the top app (freeware) will do everything I want. I figure I can split the pin sending data out the serial port to whatever devices I want and if I decide to go the aprs route I can return a feed from the tnc I pluck that data from.

If this actually works, I'll be in good shape to start off. Of course, there will be some "mundane detail" that I overlooked which will put that $9 part on the top of my junkpile, I'm sure of it.

 

[AgentCOPP1]

As an IT professional and confirmed googlite, my term, and a recently minted HAM licensee, I can tell you android tablet's, smartphones, and chromebook are all about OS lite.

They're not nearly as powerful as full fledged operating systems, iOS, Wintel, and Lintel.

Oh dear. The amount I disagree with you is extreme.

 

[KC8ESL]

For those wondering, the part arrived and as soon as I put 5v and ground to it, (after prompting my android tab to do so) it connected and I used the gps over bt app. I fed the data into my com port on my computer and it displayed it in a terminal program I use. Success is on it's way!

 

[N4CA]

That is good news!

Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using Tapatalk 4

 

[N2PYS]

Well I am getting a Samsung Note III 32 GB for free when it drops on the second of October and it is supposed to blaze with the 2.3 Quad core processor and the 3200 MAH battery & it is full stereo and like the Galaxy S4 it will have an in fared remote control built in and a stereo bluetooth all stuffed behind gorilla glass.

We shall see ??