Is Smartlink with IPad reliable ?

Ed Stallman · October 2020

Hi , thinking about an I-Pad to use with Smartlink, something Fairley big , 9 to 10 inches but I'm not wanting to spend $500 or more for I-Pad and App If not very reliable . I see on e-bay and Amazion , the I-Pad is around $400 . I would like to use while my wife is driving, so should I look for Cellular and wifi ? Or is tethering from my Verizon phone satisfactory ? What will works best ? I know my phone shows 4g but not sure if that's a fast enough speed for smartlink ? Maybe I should forget trying to us the radio while moving down the Interstate and think more about using the radio when at the motel of camp grounds .

Well as you can see , I don't know much . If you think of something I should know . Please fill me in.

Thanks Ed N5DG

Ed Stallman · October 2020

Well my Mother did tell me , if you don't have anything good to say , say nothing at all.

I'm no longer looking for an I-Pad

Ed N5DG

ka9ees · November 2020

@Ed Stallman

I bought an iPad a couple weeks ago. Mine is a 10.2” 8th generation. I use it remote mobile while my wife is driving. I also use it at home running my 6400M from the couch. It has 128GB of storage and I love it! Mine is tethered to my AT&T phone when mobile. Also I had to set the network at home to manual port forwarding and a fixed IP address. Otherwise I couldn’t connect to the rig outside my local area network. I have used a Maestro and a Windows laptop on my LAN and noticed a long delay when transmitting with both, But when using the iPad at home I get none! Go figure. I think the iPad is the best investment I’ve made since I got the 6400M.

73,

Ed KA9EES

Fithian IL

Ed Stallman · November 2020

Ed , thank you very much for ur feedback. Wife wants to do some camping this fall and I'm not sure if State Parks and other camp grounds have WiFi . So tether from Cell may be my only chaise. Did you consider an Ipad that you can add a data plan to ? I'll start looking at Amazon and E-Bay again

Thanks Ed N5DG

Christopher Platt · November 2020

I run my 6600 from a PC via the mobile network (max 12 Mbps). It works fine, if it gets jittery I put it in low bandwidth mode and slow down the waterfall etc.

I have a Ipad Min 4 with LTE and that works fine too (although I prefer the HP Pvalillion 10th Gen I5 notebook)

John KB4DU · November 2020

Ed I use an iPad with 10 inch screen both at home and remote. The main caution is that using any WiFi connection will not be as reliable as a wired connection due to the nature of WiFi. I haven’t used any cell connection with the flex. Christmas time may bring reduced price on iPads.

David Decoons, wo2x · November 2020

I use a two year old iPad 9.6 inch with SmartSDR for IOS and it works fine either on cellular or tethered to my Samsung Galaxy S9 on Verizon. Also works tethered to my iPhone XS.

I used it extensively with Bose QC 20 earbuds when I was in the hospital 6 times over the last 16 months.

I also have almost everything in the shack remoted through Node Red.

Below are two pictures. First is operating with iPad in split screen mode with Node Red and SmartSDR for IOS. Second is Node Red on iPad.

Dave wo2x

Is Smartlink with IPad reliable ?

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