In my last post about smartphones, I mentioned using a smartphone as a mobile filed terminal. The phone that you would normally use for emergencies can also run Android native communications apps.
When I wrote about the emergency smartphone as a field terminal, I envisioned using the smartphone as a very small tablet. Another idea that I had was using the smartphone as a portable desktop using a USB C mini docking station.
When my girlfriend upgraded from a Galaxy S10 to an S20-something there was this perfectly good phone sitting in a drawer. I have about at many refurbished smartphones as I have refurbished laptops, so I figured what’s one more?
It is my opinion that an Android phone is a required tool for ham radio. Between Echolink, APRSDroid, and Meshtastic a smartphone is practically a requirement. But from a hardware standpoint, if I was to make a portable Raspberry Pi box with LTE data, GPS, battery, and touchscreen, it would be double the price of a used smartphone and far clunkier. Add in a drop-proof case and the smartphone becomes a semi-rugged terminal that fits in your hand.
Bluetooth apps for radios range from basic programming ot full fledged off grid messaging. Rattlegram is an app for messaging with any radio, even crappy FRS radios, and Bitchat allows BLE mesh communication with no radio and zero Internet.
Other non-ham outdoor apps include Organic Maps for off-grid navigation, CivTAK for video game style map markers and location sharing, GeoCaching for real-life treasure hunting, and HipCamp which is like AirBnB, but for campsites.
When I envision a desktop PC, I think of a comfortable office chair, multiple external monitors, a full-size keyboard, and a proper mouse. Basically the antithesis of a smartphone. A smartphone, even one you have flashed and rooted, is not a “real” computer. Yes it has RAM and a CPU and all sorts of computer-sounding bits, but a smartphone isn’t a computer.
So the ideal ham shack setup for me now includes a real computer and a Samsung smartphone. Why Samsung? Because of Dex. It turns a Samsung phone into a desktop, reminiscent of Windows95. I wouldn’t put Dex in the same class as a modern office PC, but it’ll run a couple of apps simultaneously. You can buy an adapter with USB and HDMI for around $20, and it works with my cheap HDMI KVM switcher so I can have both Raspberry Pi os and Dex on my Raspberry Pi monitor, mouse, and keyboard.
Getting a proper Unix shell on a mobile phone takes a lot of work. Termux for Android is a lot closer to real Unix than Blink for iOS is, but if you want a real shell, you pretty much have to ssh to a remote server. That is super easy when you have reliable Internet access, and super difficult when you don’t. For this reason, I recommend a cheap Linux laptop, but if you have space and battery concerns, a portable Pi server is a handy alternative.
The portable Pi server build is just a headless Raspberry Pi running of a USB battery bank. No building, no soldering. You can run hostAPd on the Pi to turn the wifi adapter into an access point, or you can add in a small USB powered travel router, which will also run off of your battery bank. I like the gl.inet Mango.
My chief complaint about smartphones is storage. Not only is it over priced, it is a total pain to access files. One of the things that I enjoy on road trips is audio books and podcasts, which are easy enough to access at home in the city, but can be a challenge to access in remote areas. I will write more about my portable Pi setup, but I want to include audio and video streaming from local storage on the Pi.
The Pi, travel router, and battery bank aren’t exactly pocket sized, but they will fit in a backpack. Someday, I hope to have a truck or van that I can build a bunch of my gadgetry into. In my tiny Prius, space is at a premium.