Elmer · optional assistant

Ask about your station.

In ham radio, an “Elmer” is the experienced operator who answers a newcomer’s questions. ShackOS’s Elmer is an AI assistant that already knows your setup — your radios, antennas, grid square, recent contacts and the current band conditions — so you never have to explain your station before you ask.

He is optional. ShackOS works fully without him, and if you never open him, nothing about you is sent to the AI service.

The Elmer panel open beside the ShackOS dashboard, with suggested questions and a reply about which band to try.

Why it is different

The difference is the context.

Ask a general-purpose chatbot “what band should I try?” and it will explain how propagation works. Ask Elmer and you get an answer about tonight, from your location, on the antenna you actually own.

Example

“What band should I try right now?”

He reads the same live forecast the dashboard shows, computed for your grid square and your antenna. A wire at 20 ft and a beam at 60 ft get different answers, because they have different answers.

Example

“I only have a wire in a tree. Is 40m realistic tonight?”

He answers for the antenna on file, at the height you gave it, rather than assuming a full-size dipole in the clear.

Example

“What does the K-index mean for me today?”

He explains the term, then what today’s value does to the bands you actually use. Ask a follow-up and he keeps the thread.

Limits, stated

What he will and won’t do.

The most important thing about an assistant that gives radio advice is knowing when to stop talking.

He will

  • Explain the live band conditions for your station, and why they are what they are
  • Suggest a band and mode to try, with his reasoning
  • Talk through antennas, feedline, band plans, license-exam topics and operating practice
  • Walk you through a website or tool from the Reference page, step by step
  • Tell you when he does not have the information to answer

He won’t

  • Transmit on his own, or key your radio. He can suggest a frequency; you decide whether to go there.
  • Guess a menu path on your particular radio. He is built to say “I don’t know how to do that on your radio” rather than give a confident wrong answer that could put you outside your privileges.
  • Pretend data is current when it is not. If space-weather data is old or your grid square is missing, he is told so, and says so.

Elmer is an AI. Even with those rules he can be wrong, so check anything that matters — especially frequencies, band privileges and anything to do with safety — before you act on it. He is not a substitute for your license privileges, your radio’s manual or a qualified electrician.

Privacy

Exactly what Elmer sees, and where it goes.

Nothing is sent until you open him

Elmer sits behind a single button. Until you open him — his panel, the Elmer card if you choose to add it to your dashboard, or the Help assistant — no information about you is sent to the AI service. You never have to use him.

What is sent when you do

When you open Elmer or ask him something, ShackOS sends the AI service:

  • Your callsign, license class, grid square and local time
  • Your radios, antennas and accessories as you recorded them, including any notes you wrote on them
  • A summary of your log (totals, bands, modes, countries) and your eight most recent contacts
  • Current band and space-weather conditions, and any POTA activation in progress
  • Your recent messages in the conversation
  • If you use AllStar early access, the status of your nodes; if you use radio control (in testing), your radio’s current frequency and mode

ShackOS does not send your name, email address or password (unless you type them into a message yourself). The AI service is Anthropic’s Claude, used through Anthropic’s commercial API.

It is not used to train AI

Under Anthropic’s commercial terms, what ShackOS sends is not used to train their models. Anthropic deletes it within 30 days, unless it is flagged for breaking their usage policy. ShackOS does not train any AI model on your data either.

What ShackOS keeps

  • Your last ten messages with Elmer, so the conversation is there when you come back. Clear chat deletes them.
  • The text of your questions, their topic and any thumbs-up or thumbs-down you give, for twelve months, so we can see where Elmer gets things wrong. These are deleted with your account.

The full detail is in the Privacy Policy.

Try him on your own station.

Elmer is included free during the beta, and entirely optional.

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