Privacy Policy

1. Information Stored on Your Device

The following is stored only on your device, in the app's own private storage. None of it is sent to Unixeer, which operates no servers.

• Callsign — fills your outgoing messages, your log entries and the Support form.
• Maidenhead grid locator — if you enter it; used in your transmissions and to show distance and bearing to the stations you decode.
• Email address — if you enter it; used only to pre-fill the Support form.
• Your QSO log — the contacts you log, kept in a file on your device and exported as ADIF only when you share it.
• App preferences — which modes are switched on, each mode's own settings, the operating mode (Manual, Auto Hunt, Auto CQ), theme, font size and waterfall palette.
• Rig-control settings — if you use them: your radio model, its network address and port or Bluetooth device, and the optional rigctld password. The app also keeps a small safety record while it has keyed your transmitter, so that it can release the radio even after an unexpected shutdown.

2. Microphone & Decoding Audio

Ham Signaling uses your device microphone to hear the receive audio from your radio — the digital-mode tones — and decode them into text and data.

• Audio is processed on the fly, in memory, on your device. It is never recorded, stored or sent anywhere.
• Keep decoding in background (Settings → Your Details, on by default) lets the app keep listening after you switch away. While it does, Android shows a persistent notification and iPhone and iPad show the system microphone indicator. Turn it off and the app stops listening the moment you leave it.
• Without microphone access the app cannot decode. It can still send a WSPR beacon, and everything else in the app keeps working.

3. Transmitting Over the Air

When you transmit, the app generates the digital-mode tones and plays them to your radio through the speaker or an audio cable. Your radio is keyed by its own VOX, by your hand — or, only if you choose CAT keying in Settings, by the app over a Hamlib rigctld connection. Your callsign, grid and message then go out on the air.

• Amateur radio transmissions are public — anyone may receive and decode them, and your callsign identifies you.
• Every mode here — FT8, FT4, JS8, WSPR, PSK31, PSK63, PSK125, RTTY, Hellschreiber, Olivia, Contestia, APRS, AX.25 packet and Messaging — is an open, published protocol with no encryption.
• The WSPR beacon transmits only. Stations that hear it may upload their own reports to wsprnet.org; that is their doing, not the app's.

4. Rig Control (Optional, Off by Default)

If you switch it on, Ham Signaling connects to your own radio to read its dial frequency and mode — over your local network (Hamlib rigctld, Icom WLAN, Kenwood KNS, Elecraft K4, TCI, or a serial-over-TCP bridge), over Bluetooth (the IC-705's own Bluetooth LE, a Bluetooth LE serial adapter, or on Android a classic Bluetooth serial adapter), or on Android over a USB cable.

• That traffic goes only to the radio or rigctld address you enter. It never leaves your local network and never reaches Unixeer.
• The app never changes your frequency, mode or split. The only thing it can write is PTT, and only when you have chosen CAT keying.
• Bluetooth is used only to talk to the radio you pick; the app does not use Bluetooth to work out where you are.
• Your phone asks your permission before the app can use Bluetooth, and on iPhone and iPad before it can reach devices on your local network.

5. Sharing and Saving

• ADIF export — your log leaves the device only when you share it, and only to the app or place you pick in the share sheet.
• Save Image — when you choose it, a picture of the decode list or waterfall is added to your photo library. The app asks only for permission to add photos; it never reads your library.
• Support emails — the Support page opens your own mail app with your callsign, email and the app version filled in. Nothing is sent until you press Send there.

6. Licensing & Responsible Operation

A valid amateur radio licence is required to transmit. You are solely responsible for operating within your licence class, privileges and local regulations, and for the content of your transmissions. The automatic FT8/FT4 modes transmit only while you have chosen one and the console is open; you remain the control operator.

7. What We Do NOT Collect

• No Unixeer account, sign-up or login.
• No analytics and no crash reporting sent to us.
• No advertising, no tracking, no device identifiers (no IDFA, no advertising ID).
• No location — your grid locator is whatever you type.
• We never receive your callsign, grid, email, log or audio.

8. Children's Privacy

Ham Signaling is intended for licensed amateur radio operators and shortwave listeners. The app shows no advertising, has no in-app purchases, and sends no personal data to Unixeer. Transmitting requires a valid licence.

9. Data Retention & Deletion

Everything Ham Signaling holds is on your device. To delete it all, clear the app's data or uninstall the app — that removes your callsign, grid, email, preferences, rig settings and log. There is no Unixeer account or server data to request deletion of.

10. Network Activity & Third-Party Software

Ham Signaling works fully offline and makes no internet connections of its own. Its only network traffic is the optional rig control described above, to a device on your own local network. It opens your mail app when you send a support request and your browser if you tap a web link. It is built with open-source Flutter packages and three open-source signal engines — ft8_lib, fate and KISS FFT — whose licences are reproduced in the app under About → Licences & Notices. It contains no advertising, analytics or tracking SDKs.

11. Changes to This Policy

If the app changes what it does with your information, this policy will be updated first. The current version always appears at this address.

12. Contact

Questions about privacy? Email unixeer@gmail.com. We typically reply within a few days.