The following apps are great for your current smartphone or to add to your T-hunting arsenal and perfect for getting some use out of an unused smartphone that’s no longer being used in service.

I have found two Apps for smartphones that have shown to me, to be very handy when T-Hunting.

The first one is available from Google play store by the name of “DIOPTRA” ( If you have an Apple device, the name of the app is “THEODOLITE”). It’s used as a accessory tool for realtors and folks doing types of land view record keeping, it also makes a very accurate tool for antenna alignment purposes, determining the actual location of repeater sites, etc.

This app uses data taken from the phone’s GPS module and places this information on a screen of the phone’s camera. The handy part of this app is that the info is in real time and changes as the camera is pointed in different directions.

By making a bracket to hold my phone on the mast of my T-Hunt antenna, as the antenna is rotated to acquire the signal from the hidden transmitter, I was given a real time bearing in degrees, also a heading N-NW and my actual location by Latitude and Longitude as well as mean elevation, and UTC time. It even shows you if your camera is level or not.

The information that is on screen is a little difficult to read with the background image changing constantly, however …a piece of black electrical tape covering the camera lense of your phone, now produces a black screen with white lettering of the information that’s displayed in real time. Tapping the shutter button saves a photo of this data screen at different locations along your T-hunting route.

**NOTE- the information displayed is for your current location, makes it easy to plot your bearings on a map as you go.

Having the bearing in degrees and map heading was what sold this app as a T-Hunting tool to me, plus it was a nifty way to document our Field Day 2016 location.

 

 

The second app to catch my attention as a useful T-hunting tool is available from the Google Play store by the name of “GPS Logger Pro“.

I’m sure Apple users will have an app similar available.

** Make sure to read the last paragraph about why we should standardize on using GPS Logger (or a similar app) for T-Hunting **

GPS Logger Lite is a free app, GPS Logger Pro has no advertising and costs $2.99 when I downloaded it.

This app uses the data from your smartphone’s GPS section to document a start time for your journey ( T-Hunt starting point) as well as create a map of the route you travel to your destination (location of the hidden transmitter), with all the information of the route you took, elapsed time, mileage traveled, average speed, even elevation gain or losses. The resolution is very good, better then the GPS unit in my vehicle.

Upon looking at the map when we were at the finish point of the T-Hunt, I saw where it showed me circling around the gas pumps at a gas station so I could get on the other side of the pump. This will be handy to show the exact route a hunter takes to get all those ‘Direct bearings’ ( How many times have you driven in a circle in a large parking lot of a shopping center, trying to narrow down that direct bearings from reflections). 

I have been using both these apps for quite a while now and they are without any wierd anomolies and function as stated.

Here are a few screen shots. . . . 

The resolution is much better as you are driving along your route, than the expanded view of the second photo. I wanted to show the start and finish point of a hunt we used this app on.

If all the T-hunters use GPS Logger ( the app is free) and hits the start button at the start of the hunt, it provides a hastle free record that can be used at the finish to determine who had the best mileage as well as elapsed time, just remember to hit the unlock button and stop when you arrive at the finish point/ transmitter. This app works great on foot also. And the nifty map it creates of your route may provide a few laughs as well. Earl