Questions worth
answering up front.

A web app that brings an amateur radio operator’s everyday tools onto one dashboard: a logbook, callsign lookups, a propagation forecast for your own station, a live signal map, the DX cluster, POTA, and your equipment. It runs in your browser; there is nothing to install.

Licensed amateur radio operators, from the week you get your callsign onwards. It is designed to be approachable for new operators, quick for experienced ones, and usable with a screen reader or keyboard alone.

Yes. Your account is your callsign, so you need one that has been issued to you. Listening needs no license; transmitting does, and ShackOS never transmits on its own.

The privilege checks currently assume the US FCC classes: Technician, General and Amateur Extra. Everything else works for operators anywhere; only the privilege checking is US-specific, and it says so.

Sign up with your callsign and email address, confirm your email, and the setup wizard asks for your grid square, radio and antenna. The antenna matters most: it is what makes the forecast yours rather than generic. New accounts may be reviewed before they open.

Yes. Import an ADIF file from any logging program, or pull your QRZ logbook directly. Duplicates are skipped rather than stacked.

For many operators, yes: ADIF import and export, QRZ logbook sync, award tracking and fast field logging for POTA. It does not yet track LoTW or eQSL confirmations, and it does not take a live feed from WSJT-X.

POTA logging does: contacts made in the field are kept on your device and synced when you are back in coverage, and a running activation survives closing the app. The rest of ShackOS needs a connection.

Radio control (CAT) is in testing and not yet open to everyone. It will work from Chrome or Edge on a computer, because other browsers do not offer the serial access it needs.

AllStar node control is in early access, enabled per account. If you run a node and want to try it, get in touch.

Any current version of Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari on Windows, Mac, Linux, ChromeOS, iPhone or Android. Add it to your home screen and it opens like an app, with a layout sized for your phone.

No. Elmer is optional, and everything else in ShackOS works without him. He waits behind one button, and if you never open him, nothing about you is sent to the AI service.

No. Elmer runs on Anthropic’s Claude through Anthropic’s commercial API, under terms that do not allow them to train on what we send. ShackOS does not train AI on your data either. Details are on the Elmer page and in the Privacy Policy.

When you open him: your callsign, license class, grid square and local time, your equipment, a summary of your log and your eight most recent contacts, the current conditions, and the conversation. Never your name, email address or password, unless you type them into a message.

Yes. He is built to say “I don’t know” rather than guess, but he is an AI and can still make mistakes. Check anything that matters, especially frequencies and band privileges, before you act on it.

No to both. There are no advertising or third-party analytics trackers in ShackOS.

In Settings. It deletes your account, log, equipment, settings and Elmer history straight away. The Privacy Policy lists the few records kept afterwards and for how long. Export your log as ADIF first if you want to keep it.

Nothing during the beta: every feature, no credit card. If paid plans arrive, you will hear well before anything changes.

Chris Hawk, W7CWH, in Phoenix, Arizona. ShackOS is an independent project and is not affiliated with QRZ.com, POTA, SOTA, PSK Reporter or any of the other services it works with.

ShackOS used to be called ElmerShack, at elmershack.app. It is the same system with the same accounts; only the name and address changed. Elmer kept his name: he is who you ask, ShackOS is what you run.

Signed in, use the Help page. Otherwise, use the contact form.