Plan the net
Tell the app the mission. It picks radios you may legally use, the lowest power that reaches, the antenna, and what your phone can and cannot do.
Recommended build
Heads-up
Kit on hand
The same inventory, battery and reorder tracking as Garage Reorder 4DAT, applied to radios. The last column shows whether you may transmit on each radio with your current license.
| Item | Qty | Battery | Last test | You may transmit | Reorder |
|---|
What this device can do
The platform inventory decides which kits the planner may recommend. It is re-checked at every OS release.
| Capability | Android | iPhone / iPad | Mac |
|---|
Gear guide
Commercial radios, LoRa boards, receivers and accessories that work with RADIO 4DAT. Each card shows whether you may transmit with it under your current license. Cost tiers are 4DAT estimates: $ under $50, $$ $50–150, $$$ over $150.
What's inside: the radio chips
The same few chips power most of this gear. Knowing them tells you the range, battery life and which devices can talk to each other.
| Chip | What it does | Found in | Why it matters |
|---|
As an Amazon Associate, 4DAT earns from qualifying purchases. Links marked "Maker" go to the manufacturer. Amazon sets its own prices; check the listing. Product names are trademarks of their owners. Listing a product is not a claim that it is legal for every use. Check the license column.
Spectrum survey
| Channel | Frequency (MHz) | Power over floor | Status |
|---|
Direction finding
Link planner
Plane-earth model with clutter loss and radio horizon, the same equations as the white paper. Antenna height usually buys more range than power does.
Result
Assumes −120 dBm receiver sensitivity and a 1.5 m near-end antenna. The intercept estimate assumes a −130 dBm, +10 dBi receiver at 10 m. Planning aid only; field tests calibrate it.
TAK data modem
RADIO 4DAT packs a Cursor-on-Target message into a few dozen bytes, then offers only the paths your license allows.
Team picture
iTAK / ATAKSize and airtime
Voice: Mask mode
A mask cuts speech above 1 kHz by 3–12 dB, so consonants blur. Mask mode runs before transmit: a +6 dB shelf above 2 kHz, a presence lift at 3 kHz, noise suppression and light compression. Same filter as the bench toolkit's maskmode.py, which you can test live with a mask on.
| Time | From | Type | Bytes | Airtime | Path | Status |
|---|
Network
Routes
Tap to switch a route on or offWhere each message goes now
| Message | Sends on | Falls back to |
|---|
This phone as a gateway
When two routes are up at once, this phone can relay between them, such as passing mesh messages to the internet. Whether that is legal depends on the routes and your license.
Routing decisions are live; the routes are simulated until RADIO 4DAT drives real radios. Reach figures are typical values; the Link screen gives a site-specific estimate. Not legal advice.
PACE card
Test it end to end
Hands-on tutorials that prove each path with real radios, legally. Tick steps as you go; your progress stays on this device. RADIO 4DAT's own modem is simulated for now, so these use proven open tools: Meshtastic, Direwolf and APRSdroid.
Radio rules that trip people up
The radios are cheap and easy. The rules are not, and they hit former and current amateur operators hardest. Each card shows the rule, who it hurts, and what RADIO 4DAT does about it.
| Service | License | Radio must be | Data | Encryption | Relays | You, now |
|---|
This is a planning aid, not legal advice. Items marked "verify" need a check against the current rule text. Military frequencies come only from the unit spectrum manager.