FT8TW

BV6LC

About this app

Leave the laptop at home. FT8TW turns an Android phone into a complete FT8 station: decode, transmit, control your radio and keep your log, all from something already in your pocket.

Accurate timing is what makes or breaks portable FT8. FT8TW synchronises its clock from GPS or the network, so your transmissions land in the right slot even when you are far from home.

DIGITAL MODES
• FT8 (15 s slots) and FT4 (7.5 s) — designed to complete a contact when the signal is far below what you can hear
• JS8 — keyboard-to-keyboard chat built on the same weak-signal technology
• WSPR — transmit and decode propagation beacons
• SSB push-to-talk, plus an experimental FT2 mode

RADIO CONTROL (CAT)
• More than 80 radio models: Yaesu, ICOM, Kenwood, Elecraft, Xiegu, QRP Labs, FlexRadio, Lab599, (tr)uSDX, mcHF and others
• Connect over USB serial, Bluetooth SPP, or WiFi (FlexRadio SmartSDR, ICOM RS-BA1, Xiegu X6100)
• Frequency and mode follow the band and mode you pick; PTT via CAT, RTS, DTR or VOX
• A built-in radio test tool checks CAT and audio one step at a time and shows the commands and replies verbatim, so a cable or setting problem looks like one instead of a mystery

QSO LOGGING
• Contacts are logged automatically, with ADIF import and export
• Upload to QRZ.com, Cloudlog / Wavelog and PSK Reporter
• ITU zone, CQ zone and DXCC statistics
• Maidenhead grid tracker drawn on an OpenStreetMap map

CONTESTS AND ACTIVATIONS
• Contest mode with grid exchange
• ARRL Field Day exchange, including the log fields you need to submit an entry
• SOTA and POTA references written straight into the log

IN THE FIELD
• No account, no sign-up, no advertising. Decoding and transmitting need no internet connection at all
• Automatic replies to CQ, with priorities you choose (distance, signal, zone or DXCC)
• Waterfall and spectrum display, with adjustable colour schemes
• Interface in English, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Polish, Spanish and Greek

WHAT YOU NEED
• An amateur radio licence and a callsign — the app will not transmit without one
• Android 5.0 or later
• For CAT control: a USB OTG adapter, a Bluetooth serial adapter, or a radio with a network interface
• For audio: a USB sound card such as a Digirig, the radio's own USB audio, or simply the phone microphone next to the speaker

FT8TW is free. There are no paid features, no subscriptions and no advertising. If the app is useful to you, you are welcome to buy the developer a coffee — it unlocks nothing, and
everything stays open either way.

FT8TW is maintained by BV6LC and is based on FT8CN by BG7YOZ. Thank you to the original author.

73!

Ratings and reviews

Installed on my Pixel 8 phone, opened the app, tuned the radio to 14074 kHz USB, and the app started decoding. Too easy. Next, to find a simple interpretation of the readout, hihi. I'm so new to FT8 that I'm just learning it's only to make minimalist contacts but not to ragchew :( As a CW op, being able to display all the FT8 whistles coming out of my loudspeaker is a good tool for seeing where the band is opened to for my QTH.

incredible work was a fan of the original but this is next level I am so greatful worked my first FT2 on a POTA this weekend

its great however....I'd be awesome if you could integrate it to work with rcforb app because im most of the time working remote over the net to my radio and I can't use this unless you know of a solution that I don't know of.

What’s new

• Fixed the app freezing when changing frequency or band (most often on the FTX-1)
• QSO log map: "show all on map" no longer opens an info window for every record, and info windows can now be turned off
• "Show my transmitted signal" renamed to "Draw a simulated TX spectrum", now off by default