This doesn't turn your phone into a ham transceiver at all.
It turns your phone into a transceiver controller.
Given that a cell phone is a transceiver, this headline is rather disappointing clickbait.
I don't see it as clickbait since the realities of the Android ecosystem is a shared context.
Most people know that just about every Android phone has a restricted hardware design, not an expandable one.
So, "turn your phone into X" is bound to automatically evoke images of another device that plugs into the phone via common connectors like USB or the audio jack and an app on the phone to control that device. That's what the phrase means to most people in the context of Android.
"Turn your phone into a ham radio transceiver controller" is neither needed nor entirely accurate, because then people will assume it can control _any_ ham radio transceiver.
The article is chiefly about a radio circuit you can "build", plus some controller software that happens to run on an Android phone. Meanwhile
the headline is 100% focused on describing something that your phone can be made to do (which you have admitted that it can't).
The two don't add up, and your apologetic analysis doesn't convince me otherwise. It's still clickbait. An Android cell phone has radio guts, and that headline is just gutless.
VHF is effectively line-of-sight, and no antenna size can change that (although it does improve efficiency for both sending and receiving), so for two handheld radios, you are limited to about 10 km.
The only thing that really helps extend the range is elevating the antenna, and repeaters allow you to do that even between two mobile stations.
I used to use SDR for DAB radio in the nexus 7 in the dash of my BMW E46. It didn’t work very well but was closer to being some kind of radio receiver (not trans at least)
How does the FCC enforce this sort of thing? Are they listening in to certain frequencies nationally with the ability to triangulate a handheld down to actually identifying someone?
Wow, you mail them the complaint? No reason to worry about accidentally hitting the talk button I guess. Probably nothing happening unless you spam the frequency for weeks I'd guess.
We need a compact short wave transceiver device actually.
And I know, I know, Baofengs are notorious for going over the allowed noise limits… but still…
Most people know that just about every Android phone has a restricted hardware design, not an expandable one.
So, "turn your phone into X" is bound to automatically evoke images of another device that plugs into the phone via common connectors like USB or the audio jack and an app on the phone to control that device. That's what the phrase means to most people in the context of Android.
"Turn your phone into a ham radio transceiver controller" is neither needed nor entirely accurate, because then people will assume it can control _any_ ham radio transceiver.
The two don't add up, and your apologetic analysis doesn't convince me otherwise. It's still clickbait. An Android cell phone has radio guts, and that headline is just gutless.
How far can such a device reach in a typical urban environment with the longer antenna?
The only thing that really helps extend the range is elevating the antenna, and repeaters allow you to do that even between two mobile stations.
So maybe the 1w is also a regulatory issue.
https://www.fcc.gov/reports-research/guides/fcc-enforcement-...