Questions, answered.

Convenience and good karma. The Play Store build updates itself automatically in the background, installs in one tap with no "allow unknown sources" steps, and is Play Protect verified — which makes it the easy choice for a phone you don't want to fuss with. The purchase also directly funds continued development. The app itself is identical to the free GitHub build.

The Play Store listing is currently on an internal test track, so you may need to be added to the tester list before Google will let you install it. If the link doesn't work for you yet, download the free APK from the GitHub Releases page instead — it's exactly the same application.

Download the latest .apk from GitHub Releases, tap it, and approve the one-time "install from this source" prompt Android shows. Then open FT8AF and grant the USB and microphone permissions. Full step-by-step instructions are on the Download page.

Over 75 rig models across Icom, Yaesu, Kenwood, Xiegu, Elecraft, FlexRadio, Lab599 and more — picked from a list in Settings along with control mode and audio device (see the full list of supported radios). Popular rigs like the Icom IC-7300 and Yaesu FT-891 are well supported, and recent additions include the Yaesu FT-710, Kenwood TS-440, and Lab599 Discovery TX-500. FT8AF also adds ALC auto-leveling and an SWR-triggered TX halt to protect your radio. If your rig isn't listed, open an issue and let us know.

A single USB connection from your phone to the rig's USB port handles both CAT control and audio on most modern radios. Newer phones connect with a USB-C cable directly; older phones need a USB-OTG adapter. Your device must support USB host (OTG) mode.

Yes. FT8AF can decode from the phone's microphone, so you can hold it up to a speaker or just explore the interface and watch the waterfall before wiring up CAT control. It's a good way to learn the layout first.

All the standard FT8 sub-bands from 160m through 6m are built in, with one tap to switch. The waterfall covers the full audio passband so you can see and work everything in the segment at once.

Yes. FT8AF started as FT8-only and now decodes and transmits FT8, FT4 and the experimental FT2 mode, each with the correct slot timing and band plan — switchable in a tap. There's also Fox & Hound (DXpedition) operating for chasing rare stations in a pileup.

Yes — there's a dedicated POTA activation mode. It keeps a live contact list with hunter callsigns and grids, shows an activation map, detects park-to-park (P2P) contacts, supports multi-park (two-fer) activations, resumes if you close the app, and uploads your log straight to POTA when you're done.

There is. A dedicated map tab plots the stations you're hearing and draws the great-circle path to whoever you're working, with the distance, DX location, and US state borders. Pick your units — miles or kilometers — in Settings.

When a QSO completes, FT8AF can auto-upload to Cloudlog / Wavelog and the QRZ logbook, and it spots every decode you hear to PSKReporter so your station shows up on the propagation maps. You can also export ADIF. Each service is configured once in Settings and then runs in the background.

FT8AF is a fork of the excellent FT8CN that brings it forward: a full Jetpack Compose / Material 3 dark UI, an active QSO monitor with caller queue and smart hunting, FT4 and FT2 modes alongside FT8, a world map with QSO paths, POTA activation mode, auto-logging to Cloudlog, QRZ, Wavelog and PSKReporter, multi-language support (the original was Chinese-only), plus dozens of bug fixes across multiple "bug bash" passes. The core decoding heritage is FT8CN's — we modernized and expanded the experience around it. See how FT8AF compares to WSJT-X, JTDX and FT8CN →

FT8AF ships in 16 languages: English (the default), Greek, Spanish, Japanese, French, Russian, Chinese, Italian, Polish, Korean, Dutch, Czech, Turkish, Indonesian, Ukrainian, and Arabic (right-to-left). The app auto-detects your Android device locale and switches automatically. All translations are community-contributed — if you'd like to add or improve a language, pull requests are welcome on GitHub.

It's built by Patrick Burns (K1AF) and Reid (N0RC) — much of it, famously, vibe-coded on I-70 on the way to Hamvention. Huge credit goes to BG7YOZ, the original author of FT8CN, and N0BOY, who hosts the original repository. None of this exists without them.

Please do. The code lives on GitHub — open an issue for bugs or feature ideas, send a pull request, or just star the repo to follow along. Field reports from real on-the-air use are especially welcome.

That's the plan. Development is active and ongoing. The fastest way to get new builds automatically is the Google Play version; otherwise watch the Releases page or the repo. Want a nudge when something ships? Join the update list on the home page.