A few months ago, long-time SWLing Post contributor, Cap Tux, designed a simple shortwave schedule application for his Android phone. Though he never intended to make the app public, he shared it with me to test on my Moto G5 Plus.
Cap has recently decided that if others in the SWLing Post community would like to Beta test his app, they’re welcome to do so. He notes:
The app was created initially to meet my own requirements as at the time I was travelling a lot for my job and other apps I tried didn’t meet the requirements e.g. Broadcast stations only, filter by Station, Freq, Time, Language and more recently ‘Target Area’ which was added to the app very recently as I was initially using the AOKI list but found that EIBI was updated more frequently and tended to be more accurate.
I do miss some of the features and simplicity of the AOKI list as programming some of the code to respond to the amount of info in the EIBI list was challenging and there is still more that can be done. There is a bug on Android v4.4 (not my bug but the frameworks bug) which I have fixed in v1.1.10 which I can send through later.
I wrote this app as I needed a phone app for my portable radios (PL-660/PL-365) so I could search for shortwave stations using any combination of Station, Frequency, Language, Time (Specific, Real-time incl. day or Any!) or Target Area. The search can even take account of the day of broadcast so if it’s a Friday and the broadcast is only a Saturday, then it won’t show it.
Shortwave List Features:
- Search the list using any combination of Station, Frequency, Time, Language, Time or Target Area
- Only broadcast stations are included in the list
- Scrollable list of stations based on search criteria
- Get Station, Frequency, Times, Language, Target, Days on-air, Transmitter location and the Broadcasters country of origin of the selected broadcast by a tap on a station
- Powerful search features with a simple interface
- Search for specific broadcast times with any combination of Station, Frequency or Language, Target area with future or past times being searchable, although this lists all stations irrespective of the day (as you may want to know a time for a broadcast tomorrow, or yesterday)
- Search for stations in real-time with any combination of Station, Frequency, Language or Target Area, so the app only lists broadcast stations on-air now (also takes the day into account, so, for example, a station listed as only on-air on a Friday will not show if today is a Saturday)
- Search for stations transmitting at any time with any combination of Station, Frequency Language or Target Area
Future features in active development:
- Update shortwave list from the internet
A few examples of use:
- You hear a station in an unknown language, Select ‘ON AIR’ and enter the ‘Freq’, ‘SEARCH’ and the app will list the possible stations
- You hear a station in English, select ‘ON AIR’ the ‘Language ‘ set to ‘English’ and enter the ‘Freq’, ‘SEARCH’ and the app will list the possible stations on that frequency right now
- Want to know when a station is transmitting at a specific time? select the specific time by selecting the UTC time, set the Hour/Minute and enter the station name in the ‘Station’ box and ‘SEARCH’
- You are listening to a SDR recording from last week and trying to identify a station, enter the ‘Freq’ and the specific UTC time (or ‘Language’ if known), ‘SEARCH’ and the app will list the possible stations
- Want to tune into broadcasts right now in your language? no problem, just select ‘ON-AIR’ and select your ‘Language’ and ‘SEARCH’
- List all broadcasts from a specific station, just enter the ‘Station’ name and click ‘SEARCH’
- List all broadcasts on right now by selecting ‘ON-AIR’ and ‘SEARCH’
Phones that have been tested and will work (You will need Android v5.0.1 or above):
- Samsung Galaxy S4/S7 (I think all the S series from S4 above should be fine as all have a good screen resolution)
- Samsung Galaxy J3
- Google Nexus 4
- Moto G5 Plus
It should be noted that due to the number of low resolution display phones out there some will not be able to operate the app correctly at present due to the current layout of the components and recommend you use a phone with a decent screen resolution around 1080×1920. I plan to address the screen res issue soon.
What I need from Beta-testers who want to file bug reports:
Phone Make/Model:
Android version:
Shortwave List version in use:
Ease of use:
Speed/Performance:
What would you change/remove/add:
Any screen issues, layout problems or difficulty using a feature:
Thank you, Cap!
Readers, please keep in mind that this application is not in the Google Play store because it’s in Beta. You’ll need to download the application to your phone, temporarily allow “Unknown Sources” (here’s a short tutorial), then install the app. It’s very important to only temporarily allow “Unknown Sources”–once this app is installed, please reinstate this security measure.
Please note: If you’re not comfortable downloading and installing an app that is not in the Google Play store, please simply wait for this app to hit the Google Play market possibly at some point in the future.
Click the following link to download the application file to install:
http://www.filedropper.com/shortwavelist-v119-no-permissions
This app requires no permissions. The trade-off is that updates to the schedules cannot be initiated without re-installing an updated app with new schedules embedded.
For what it’s worth, I really like this app! Very simple, effective and works offline.
Here are a few screenshots–I love how he’s kept the interface clean and simple:
Thanks again, Cap, for opening Beta testing to our community.
Please submit your feedback on Cap’s Twitter account: @swbcdx
Looking for shortwave schedule software like this that will run on a Kindle HD8.
Will this work some how?
Shortwave List v1.1.12:
http://www.filedropper.com/shortwavelist-v1112-no-perm
– Station details on-screen time extended
– Centred message boxes
– Minor layout tweaks
Fingers crossed that I haven’t screwed up anything that was good before.
Cap is off to a GREAT start with Station List.
I send him a screen capture of a minor text overlap problem due to my phone’s high resolution of 2960 X 1440. In an hour or so he had a “test fix” out to me to review.
This author deserves our support, as there are very few apps like this for Android. The one I’ve use previously, Shortwave Schedules, is rather clunky and laborious to pick stations from an extremely long scrolling list.
My apologies– I need to get the name right. The app is “Shortwave list”.
Thanks Guy.
I have a stations list good to go to test as well, just need to iron out these layout issues first.
Calling it a night here, I am more productive at the weekends!
Is there any way to pull data from both sources and combine them, possibly identifying via an icon in the list which of the two sources that particular item came from? There would be a lot of duplication but at least that way, nothing is missed. Or have the option to choose between one source and another perhaps?
Yeah, I actually had it this way at the start (select AOKI/EIBI list), a lot more work for me though.
Having developed database application in the past (not smart phone apps), I would suggest you do what makes it easier on *you* each time the schedules need to be updated. 🙂
I can tell that some websites in the past made the schedule data-massage do difficult, the developer avoided doing it when the new schedules were published. It was just too time-consuming.
Do whatever it takes to make it easier on you, Cap! You’ve designed a great app.
Indeed, this is what concerns me, although I am devising ways to make the tidy up much quicker!
I should mention some basics of the app that may not be immediately obvious:
– Tap the Station and Freq labels clears the text in the corresponding text boxes
– Tap the Time label does the same as a tap on ANYTIME/ONAIR
– Tap the actual UTC time to enter a specific time so you can search for Stations/Freq/Languages/Target area using a given time
– You can search any combination of Station, Freq, Time, Language or Target Area, all searches are returned matching all the characters entered, for example if ‘VOI’ is entered in the Station box it will return any station name with VOI in the title e.g. Voice of Nigeria, Voice of Vietnam.
Thinking of making the Station label bring up a station list you can select from rather than entering manually, although you lose the clear option, what do folk think?
I still like the AOKI list as the Days on Air is way more populated than EIBI but AOKI does miss the odd broadcast, what do folk think? Stick with EIBI or go with AOKI?
Wow thank you Cap! I have a few Android devices but alas they are digital satellite receivers rather than a phone or tablet app – my phone and portable devices are iOS. But anyway, hopefully my comment will still be useful.
One thing I have really thought would be cool (and may be a feature you might see as worthy as including) was the ability to know what stations will be opening at the top of the hour. Let me explain… The resources I use (On my iPhone and iPads I use SWBC Sked from BlackCat Systems and Shortwave Info and Shortwave Schedules on my laptop) do a fantastic job of identifying a signal on a frequency at a given time.
However, I often would like to know 15 minutes or so before the top of the hour that a station is about to come on air. Having a feature that allows you to see the stations that are about to come to air in the next 30 minutes or 15 minutes would be useful. That way you can make a cup of tea (or grab a beer) get set-up and see the signal come-up on frequency, hear the interval signal and then listen to the whole program rather than stumbling onto it mid program.
Cheers,
Mark
Great minds think alike! Mark, I had put in this same feature request many moons ago at shortwaveschedule.com. It would be mighty handy indeed.
Should be fairly easy to implement, I will add it to the todo list.
At the moment you can enter in say a time of 2200 with a tap on the current UTC Time to fast forward so to speak to a specific time, that will list all the upcoming Stations at 2200UTC. Not exactly what you mean as it’s not automatic but a workaround. This feature is particularly useful if you are listening to an old SDR recording and need to ident a freq at a specific time.
Downloaded easy enough; seems to work as advertised. I’d like it if the information about a station stayed on the screen a bit longer when pressed.
This is totally possible, added to the todo list!
Thanks!
It’s a great app!
Thanks Bill, any screen layout issues?
None that I’ve noticed. Obviously on my Samsung tablet I can see a lot more than on my phone but it looks good to me.