Micro Notebook / Foldable Notebooks for FT8

Equipment
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Hello SOTA community

At the Surplus Party in Zofingen I stumbled across a small foldable notebook (folded in the size of a mobile phone) which is supposed to be W-LAN and FT8 capable, unfortunately I was not yet in the buying frenzy so I registered it and left it there and now someone else is happy about it. Unfortunately, I didn’t find anything on Dr. Google with Dragstore (that’s what the seller told me the thing should be called), so I’ll put the question to Schwarmwissen who knows something like that or even where to buy it.

73 de HB9HOR

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Hi Roger,

Maybe he meant the German webshop DragonBox. They sell UMPCs (Ultra Mobile PC), for example from GPD, which is probably what you’re looking for.

73, Stephan

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Hi Roger,
there are Smartphone apps to do basic FT8 now

For Android - FT8 Radio From Dhiru Kholia VU3CER

For IPhoneOS - Hotpaw

So you may be able to use the smartphone that you already have with you!

73 Ed.

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Thank you all for the tips. I’ll soon find out how to proceed. And meet you on the QRG.
73 de HB9HOR

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Here’s a video I put together on operating FT8 with the android app and a truSDX.

Adam
K6ARK

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As far as I can tell, the iOS app doesn’t support auto sequencing, so each message within a FT8 QSO needs to be manually triggered. Certainly the auto-repeat mode like on WSJT-Z won’t be there!

Activating with FT8 for me is all about tapping the “Enable” button then lying back, enjoying the view, a spot of lunch etc, then sometime later (maybe even after returning home) going into the ADIF files to see who I’ve worked…!

So as much as the idea of FT8 by a phone app appeals (I was a “pioneer” of PSK31 SOTA activating using a smartphone - TX Factor - Episode 1 (TXF001) - YouTube ), I’ll be persevering with my Windows 10 tablet for now!

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Given that the WSJTx and WSJTz are open source (I believe), I’m surprised there is no build for an Android tablet (on a phone the lack of screen estate could be a problem - hence the basic FT8 implementations for IPhoneOS and Android I guess).
There are Linux builds certainly of WSJTx, so why not Android? Or have I missed it as I’m not really a digital operator?

My, upgraded from Windows 8 to Windows 10 tablet, died a while ago and also lost out to the 3G networks here being closed down. My 1/4 of the price Android tablet has 4G LTE connectivity.

73 Ed.

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WSJT is written in a multitude of languages including Fortran. For high performance you need to compile the software as native code for your ARM CPU in AArch64 mode on Android, something which is not a common skillset. Never mind juggling with coming up with a viable UI for the limited screen sizes. It’s not “just” a recompile but quite a lot more.

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