ShackDeck comes to the iPhone: a remote and receivers to go

The ShackDeck app for iPhone and iPad reached the App Store on November 4, 2026, and got its first update, 1.0.1, on November 5. It is free and needs iOS 17 or newer. Until now the program ran only on Mac and Windows, and the phone version existed only for Android.

ShackDeck is a free ham radio program that puts an FT8 decoder and the other digital modes, a logbook, hundreds of public online receivers, satellites and a catalogue of stations worth hearing into one window. KRAKOBIT has taken it apart piece by piece, with an explainer for readers far from amateur radio.

The phone works in two roles. On its own it listens to the air: it picks an online receiver, decodes FT8 with its own decoder, shows the waterfall and the map with stations. There is no log and no transmitting in that mode.

Paired with the program on a computer, the iPhone becomes a remote: the tuning knob, the mode and the band under a finger, decodes with country flags, the map with the colours of stations not yet worked, the waterfall, and making contacts by FT8 and by voice through the transceiver that stays at home. At home the link runs over the local network, on the road through shackdeck.com. Pairing is a single step: the program opens its Remote tab with a QR code, and the phone scans it.

Update 1.0.1 fixed three things from the first reviews: menus no longer close under the finger while picking a mode or a receiver, the map shows the night side of the Earth and the terminator line, and for stations without a locator the ray on the map is drawn from their country.

The Android app appeared on October 20 as a beta and is downloaded from the program’s website, bypassing the store. The iPhone version matches its features. The desktop program remains the core: without it the phone only listens.

Source: ShackDeck (официально)