Features

Everything in the shack,
working together.

ShackOS is organised into four areas — Operate, Conditions, Activity and Station — all running on one customisable dashboard. Here is what each one does today, and what is still being built.

The dashboard

One screen, arranged your way.

Twenty cards to choose from. Show the ones you use, hide the rest, and drag and resize them into a layout that suits your desk. Phones get a stacked layout of their own.

  • Cards for solar conditions and forecast, band conditions, callsign lookup, QSO map and statistics, DX cluster, DXCC, WAS and grid progress, recent QSOs, a scratch pad, POTA spots and awards, your Rolodex, a quick logger, and Elmer.
  • Nine themes from Shack Dark to two high-contrast themes, plus units (km or miles) and time (local or UTC, 12- or 24-hour) to taste. Logs and exports always stay in UTC.
  • A setup wizard walks you through your station, radio, antenna and accessibility preferences on first sign-in.
The ShackOS dashboard in edit mode, with a card being dragged to a new position.

Operate

A logbook that knows the rest of your station.

Log contacts by hand, import years of history, and keep it in step with QRZ.

  • ADIF import and export. Bring your log from any other program; duplicates are skipped, not stacked. Names and grids can be filled in automatically from Callook.
  • QRZ logbook sync, both ways, including several QRZ logbooks routed by tag, and an optional live sync that sends new and edited contacts automatically.
  • Signal reports that match the mode: 59 for phone, 599 for CW and RTTY, and a blank dB field for FT8, FT4 and the other WSJT-style modes rather than a made-up value.
  • Awards from your log: DXCC, Worked All States and grid squares, plus a world map of every contact.
  • Callsign lookup from QRZ (with your subscription), HamQTH or Callook, and one click to log the station you looked up.
The ShackOS logbook: a filterable table of contacts with band, mode, signal reports and a world map of contacts above it.

Conditions

What the bands are doing, for your station.

A propagation forecast computed for your grid square and your antenna, checked against what is actually being heard.

  • Thirteen bands, 160m to 70cm, each rated in plain words with the reason behind it. Sporadic-E, tropospheric ducting and geomagnetic storms are accounted for.
  • Read it through your mode: CW, SSB, FT8, FT4, FM and more, because a band that is marginal on SSB can be wide open on FT8.
  • Forecasts ahead: +1, +6, +24 and +72 hours, with a confidence score.
  • Live signal map of who is hearing whom, from PSK Reporter, on a flat map or a 3D globe, filtered by band, mode and time.
  • Solar data from NOAA SWPC and HamQSL, always shown with its age.
The ShackOS band conditions card: thirteen bands from 160m to 70cm, each with a condition word such as Good or Fair and a bar.

Activity

Parks and the people you work.

Everything for Parks on the Air in one place, for hunters and activators alike.

  • Hunt: live POTA spots in a table or on a map, and one tap to log a contact.
  • Activate: pick your park, log fast with the keyboard, spot yourself on POTA, and export a log in the format POTA accepts.
  • Works without signal. Contacts logged in the field are kept on your device and synced when you are back in coverage.
  • Park boundaries on the map, and notes from other operators about parking, cell coverage and noise.
  • Plan and learn: schedule activations, and read step-by-step guides if you have never activated before.
  • Rolodex: the operators you work most, with your notes and the last time you worked them. Ctrl+K (Cmd+K on a Mac) opens it from anywhere.
The ShackOS POTA activation screen on a phone: the park reference at the top, a fast logging form and the list of contacts made so far.

Station

Your gear, where the rest of the app can use it.

The equipment you record feeds the forecast and Elmer, so their advice fits what you actually own.

  • Radios, antennas and accessories, with radios paired to antennas.
  • Antenna-aware forecast: the type, height and direction of your antenna change the predicted conditions.
  • Reference library: a band guide filtered by license class, Morse practice at 5 to 30 WPM, Q-codes, phonetics and a curated list of study and operating resources.
The ShackOS equipment page listing a transceiver and two antennas with their bands, height and notes.

Across all of it

Elmer, if you want him.

An optional AI assistant that reads the same data the dashboard shows — your log, your equipment, the conditions and your grid square — so his answers are about your station.

  • Ask why a band is open, what to try tonight, or what a term in your log means.
  • He is built to say when he does not know rather than guess.
  • If you never open him, nothing about you is sent to the AI service.
  • More about Elmer and your privacy

Early access and in development

Honest about what is not finished.

These are built or being built, but are not yet open to every account.

Early access

AllStarLink node control

Listen, talk, connect and disconnect your AllStar node from a browser, with an audit log of every command. A small agent on your node connects out to ShackOS; nothing is opened inbound. Enabled per account — ask us if you run a node.

In testing

Radio control from the browser

CAT control for Icom, Yaesu, Kenwood and Elecraft radios from Chrome or Edge on a computer: tune to a spot with one click and fill in the log from the radio. Off-air transcription is being tested alongside it.

Planned

On the list

LoTW and eQSL confirmation tracking, DX alerts, and more award families. We would rather say “not yet” than promise a date.

See it with your own station.

Free while in beta. Sign up with your callsign to request access.

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