Some of you might know that, next to being a radio amateur, I’m also a professional programmer. I have my own company and work as a consultant making software for big companies.
My last project was for a client where I was in a position to study how to make apps for the iPhone and the iPad.
After 10 months the project finished and I decided to make an app that I could use myself. It should also be of such quality that I could sell it in the Apple app store through my own company!
I decided to make an app that would work on the iPhone and the iPad and that would show DX Cluster info. A DX Cluster is a “chatroom” or node into which amateur DX hunters can post information about DX either worked or heard. (see also the Amateur Radio Wiki )
This information is very useful for a radio amateur that is searching for that interesting station operating from the other end of the world and that is not yet in the “collection” of the radio amateur. I use a web based version of this a lot but if you’re on the go, the web site version isn’t a good solution. I looked in the app store and found that there are a few apps that do the same thing but none of them shows the location (country) of the stations in the list of items found!
I think this is the most important piece of information that you would want to see, so I put it in the list where you would expect to find it!
So, because the versions already in the app store didn’t meet my needs, I decided to make my own app for this. After some hard work and testing I finished the app and put it in the Apple app store. It’s become also my own most used app which shows that it is useful, at least for me! 😉
You can find it in the app store here: Mircules DX Cluster.
The info page is also on my own radio amateur website here.
It’s a universal app which means if you buy it once, you can use it on the iPhone AND the iPad without paying twice.
My next project is making a Mac OSx version of this app which will be put in the Mac OS app store.
You can find it there in not such a long time; weeks rather then months!