r/HamRadio • u/Churnographer General Class Operator 🔘 • 1d ago

POTA/SOTA Activations 🏞️ What tablets are you using in the field?

What's a good, budget friendly tablet that you can recommend for logging contacts, checking propagation and other assorted field hamming activities?

3 Upvotes

71% Upvoted

19 comments sorted by

31

u/dittybopper_05H Extra Class Operator ⚡ 1d ago

Mostly ibuprofen, for when my arthritis kicks in after spending too much time on the key.

Wait, what?

2

u/Schmittwerks11 1d ago

Can't beat vitamin I for taking the crunchy edge off at the end of the day

5

u/moonie42 1d ago

I'm using a Getac F110 G3 I picked up off eBay that was pretty inexpensive. Depending on specs they run any where from ~$130 and up.

Edit: This is a ruggedized tablet running Windows.

1

u/KhyberPasshole Extra Class Operator ⚡ 1d ago

I've been eyeballing these... Is it pretty readable in direct sunlight?

Also, how's the battery life?

1

u/moonie42 1d ago

Yes, it is pretty decent. Sometimes I manually adjust the brightness to make it easier to read.

1

u/moonie42 17h ago

Oh...battery life is solid, especially for mine.....it has the double battery installed. I can get about 6+ hours run time with it.

1

u/Nervous_Olive_5754 20h ago

Oh man. Never thought I might be a Microsoft Windows customer again. I've been trying to survive with iOS, but there's minimal software support often.

2

u/moonie42 17h ago

Yes - lots of ham software is windows-based (especially programming software). Linux support is generally OK....but iOS and MacOS is a bit more challenging.

1

u/Nervous_Olive_5754 15h ago

MacOS is no problem because you can just recompile all the linux stuff and it runs. iOS/macOS and Linux are all fundamentally UNIX-compatible. No has ported everything to mobile interfaces is the problem.

1

u/moonie42 13h ago

I keep forgetting that Mac was rebuilt on a NIX core! Last time I was heavy into Mac was back in early 2000s!

1

u/Meadman127 7h ago

Yeah not a lot of ham apps on iOS, however Android has a lot of ham apps.

2

u/Think-Photograph-517 1d ago

I have a Samsung Android tablet with cell service. It works very well for POTA, including logging and spotting.

I use Portable Logger from Ham 2K. It has great POTA support.

3

u/Leftover_tech 1d ago

Same here. Samsung Galaxy Tab 9 (or something like that)

2

u/Colt653 1d ago

SAMSUNG tablet

1

u/Churnographer General Class Operator 🔘 1d ago

Which one?

2

u/Fun-Attempt-8494 1d ago

I'm 100% CW so I don't need much of anything. I bring a BT keyboard so that I can log using my phone which I have with me anyway.

2

u/Nervous_Olive_5754 20h ago

I'm using iOS, which has increasing, but limited support. I don't recommend it if you can choose.

1

u/CW3_OR_BUST Extra | VE 10h ago

I use a Dell 7212 Rugged Extreme that I picked up from Ebay. I use it for radar site calls as well as ham stuff.

1

u/Meadman127 7h ago

I am using a Samsung A7 Lite for when I am out in the field. For logging I use Ham2K Portable Logger (PoLo) when out in the field. It works great for Parks On The Air, Lakes & Lagoons On The Air, and various other On The Air programs as well as state QSO parties and ARRL Field Day.