Packet Pad FAQ

Packet Pad Packet Pad lets you view Packet Radio transmissions on your iPad/iPhone/iPod. Just connect it to a radio (or even set it next to the radio's speaker), tune in a Packet frequency, and watch the decodes. 144.390 MHz on the 2 meter band is often active with APRS transmissions. Only 1200 baud packet is decoded.

Turn on the Info Packets ONly switch if you only want to see information frames (packets), and not display control packets.

Turn on the Bad CRC Packets switch if you want to see packets with CRC errors.

Want to clear the text? Give your iPad a shake!

To use this app, you need to feed the audio output from a your radio into the device. You can due this via one of several ways:

Set the device near the radio's speaker to pick up the audio. While easy to do, this is not ideal, as background noise can interfere with the audio, causing garbled decodes.
Plug headphones into the radio, and set one earphone near the mic. I find that with good quality headphones, this can work extremely well.
Use the microphone input jack of your device, by obtaining an appopriate cable and connecting the radio's line level output to the microphone input.
With the Camera Connection Kit, you can plug a USB sound input device into the iPad, and use a patch cable between it and the radio's audio output. This is by far the best solution.

You can use the volume indicator in the upper right corner to verify that audio is getting into your device, and that the volume level is appropriate.

If you're looking for a radio to use with the app, there are many different types to choose from. Take a look at our listing of radios to use with your app, to see several, along with some suggestions on how to choose a radio.

That's it!

Here are some details on directly connecting an audio line source to your iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch

Email your comments and questions to support@blackcatsystems.com

Last modified September 7, 2010