Looking for iPad database

[thecop]

I am looking for an app that would allow me to keep a frequency database on my iPad. I have a great program on my PC, but I just can't find anything similar for my iPad. I would appreciate any suggestions or advice you might be able to offer.
Thank you.
John

 

[SCPD]

Sounds like a good idea for an app. I'm doing some iOS programming now and this sounds like fun. It shouldn't be that hard either.

Give me 10 years and I'll get it out.

Just kidding... but don't hold your breath...

 

[thecop]

THANK YOU!
Amazing that, with the thousands of apps available and the marriage of radio monitoring and computers, this hasn't already been developed.
Not to push my luck here, but the PC program I use is designed primarily as a repository of scanner freq.'s but I do use it for some HF info. as well. I can view a page of records or one record at a time. I can search and even import .gifs and .jpegs to each record. I can include an entity's web site and lat./long. info.
Good luck and again, thank you for your consideration.
John

 

[pinballwiz86]

I am looking for an app that would allow me to keep a frequency database on my iPad. I have a great program on my PC, but I just can't find anything similar for my iPad. I would appreciate any suggestions or advice you might be able to offer.
Thank you.
John

RadioReference.com - Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference. It's all right there. If you want to use the database without internet, take a screen shot.

There's really no need for a frequency database app since you can't program a scanner with your ipad.

 

[thecop]

I am aware that I cannot program a radio via my iPad. As a member since 2002 I am aware of the value of RadioReference.
I do need a database app for two purpose: as a means to maintain a compilation of HF frequencies not listed in RR and for those times when I do not have internet access. Given the portability of the iPad I think such an app would be very worthwhile.
John

 

[ResQguy]

There's really no need for a frequency database app since you can't program a scanner with your ipad.

By that line of thinking, one wonders how they managed to sell so many scanner master and police call books. Took me years to teach my little bearcat to read print.

 

[jcherepy]

I am looking for an app that would allow me to keep a frequency database on my iPad. I have a great program on my PC, but I just can't find anything similar for my iPad. I would appreciate any suggestions or advice you might be able to offer.
Thank you.
John

What about using a spreadsheet in Numbers?

Bill

 

[pinballwiz86]

By that line of thinking, one wonders how they managed to sell so many scanner master and police call books. Took me years to teach my little bearcat to read print.

That's what radio reference is for...by that line of "thinking".

Sure, you can make an app but why? It would just be a glorified web browser like the qrz app.

 

[thundermedic]

If you could get the RR Database in a iPad app that is available offline, like what Uniden uses for the Scanner database, it would come in handy for lots of situations. With the ability to customize user lists for frequent reference, or to add HAM freq, it would be useful for the everyday scanner who travels, or for the HAM who is involved in ARES.

If only I knew how to program...

 

[vagrant]

What about using a spreadsheet in Numbers?

Bill

This seems like a viable solution. Just download whatever CSV file from the database, and open it in Numbers. Edit as needed.

 

[w2xq]

Wirelessly posted (Moto Droid Bionic: Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 4.3; en-us; SAMSUNG SM-P605V Build/JSS15J) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/1.5 Chrome/28.0.1500.94 Safari/537.36)

Evernote, not a database per se, but it captures a ton of data in a lot of formats... my favorite capture everything. HTH.

 

[thecop]

Funny you should mention Evernote as I gave that a try. I just could not get comfortable with it. I did, however, download a program I used to use quite often called HandiBase. I found a few templates that might just fit the bill. I can even make my own if need be. That said, I never had much of an imagination with regard to visual effects so I would still be inclined to purchase an app specifically deigned for the HF radio enthusiast!
John

Wirelessly posted (Moto Droid Bionic: Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 4.3; en-us; SAMSUNG SM-P605V Build/JSS15J) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/1.5 Chrome/28.0.1500.94 Safari/537.36)

Evernote, not a database per se, but it captures a ton of data in a lot of formats... my favorite capture everything. HTH.

 

[SCPD]

This seems like a viable solution. Just download whatever CSV file from the database, and open it in Numbers. Edit as needed.

Spreadsheets are nice but are better at computing than templates. I use them for smallish database files of lists myself.

I've also been looking for something "specific" to SWL/Radio that could be fun to develop. One idea that I like is having an attachment. Attachments could be audio recordings, logs, photos, skeds, HF Fax images, HFDL output, etc.

One area that's proven more complex of iOS development is making efficient use of the app space. On the surface, it seems easy but it can be frustrating at times... Since 98% of the users are using touch as the primary input method. Having to handle the pop-up keyboard and shifting the perspective is slightly tricky. Ideally, having pre-defined inputs would be ideal but not always practical for SWL.

The next complexity would be learning to store the app data to iCloud for off-site backup.

 

[Minus1]

'Bento' used to work fine for this — If you had it before it was foolishly discontinued.

The hopelessly optimistic authors (FileMaker) seriously expect you to fork out $329 for a mac version of FileMaker, that you can sync with their iPad app. Given that Bento exists, discontinuing it just to try and force people to fork out that much is sheer business incompetence.

The poor support for anyone wishing to transition from Access to FileMaker was another reason I decided they were a waste of time.

As I already have Bento, changing to something else seems not worth it. One iPad app I considered was TapForms Tap Forms | Organization in its simplest form . I haven't actually used it to be able to say how well it would serve your purpose though. There is a corresponding mac app for syncing too.

 

[KC8ESL]

If you're wanting an app for hf, go a step further and have a broadcast time query as well. You can view the database as a whole or only the frequencies that are active now.

It could be easy to add an input to the database from the gui so you can enter items on the fly without having to edit an xml or xls file. Call sign, freq, zulu broadcast, remarks.

And for the love of God, add a local and zulu clock.

The is merit for this database program. Don't knock the idea.