Settings

Settings keeps your account, operating preferences, external connections, plan, radio, and help in one place.

Accessing Settings

1. Open Settings from the sidebar.
2. Your avatar, callsign, and name appear at the top. Tap this profile row to open Account. If you're on the Pro plan, a Hamtrax Pro badge appears beside them. The permanent Get Started checklist sits below your profile summary, above the subpage rows.
3. Choose a row: Account, Preferences, Integrations, Plans, Remote Control, or Help.
4. From any subpage, tap the Settings › page name ribbon at the top to return to the main Settings page.

To open Account directly, open the avatar menu at the top right and tap your profile row. The separate Showcase menu item still opens your showcase.

Get Started Checklist

The main Settings page keeps your Get Started checklist above the subpage list. Its task list starts closed for every account, with the completion count and percentage bar visible.

While tasks remain, Next step beneath the bar names the first unfinished task. Tap that row to open its instructions. Once all six tasks are done, the compact Next step row disappears.

Expand Get Started to see Setup and Contacts beneath the progress bar, the same two task groups shown in the floating onboarding banner. Setup holds account creation, your radio profile, and QRZ connection; Contacts holds importing, logging a hunted POTA contact, and sharing a contact map. The groups sit beside each other on wider screens and stack on a phone. The first unfinished task appears above them with a short explanation and does not repeat in its group.

Progress updates as soon as you import contacts, log a native hunted POTA contact, create a radio profile, connect QRZ, or tap Share on a contact map. A successful Connect logbook updates both checklist surfaces immediately; no contact import is required, and an existing connection counts when the checklist loads, as does answering No subscription, or not sure, which marks the QRZ task Not applicable. Import contacts is a separate milestone that requires a user-initiated import to add at least one new contact. Tap any task row for the same exact steps and direct action button; tasks can be completed in any order, and completed tasks stay marked in their group.

Hamtrax waits until your account preferences, logbook, and QRZ connection status are ready before showing this card. If the final task finishes while its task list is expanded, the completion celebration finishes before the task list collapses. Reduce Motion resolves the final transition immediately. The checklist remains available here after completion and even if you permanently hide the floating banner.

Account

The Account page contains profile identity, your plan, security settings, and account actions.

Profile Identity

Setting	Description
Photo	Upload or remove a profile photo. Uploads accept JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF, HEIC, or HEIF and are automatically resized, so there's no fixed file-size limit.
Callsign	Your amateur radio callsign. Looked up through Hamtrax's callsign lookup as you type.
Username	A unique @username shown on your showcase.

See Changing Your Profile for exactly what happens across the app when you edit each of these fields.

Plan

A summary of your current subscription plan. Founders see their founder number and lifetime status. Paid subscribers see their plan tier and renewal date. Free users see a prompt to view available plans.

Security

For email/password accounts, you can change your password or change your email. OAuth users (Google, Apple) see a notice that credentials are managed by their provider.

Changing your password here requires your current one. If you can't sign in at all, use Forgot password? on the sign-in screen instead — see I Can't Sign In.

Account Actions

Sign out is grouped under This device, and Delete account under Account deletion, with each explanation above its action.

Action	Description
Sign out	Sign out of your account on this device.
Delete account	Permanently delete your authentication profile and server-stored integration credentials. Before removing sign-in access, Hamtrax closes unfinished Stripe Checkout Sessions, immediately cancels every recurring or trialing Stripe subscription linked to the account, and confirms billing has stopped; if Stripe cannot confirm that, the account is not deleted. Cancellation does not automatically issue a refund or prorated credit. App Store subscriptions must still be canceled separately in Apple Subscriptions. Hamtrax removes the email address from the retained profile and stops automated activity and product emails. Contact logs and other logbook data are preserved and become inaccessible through that account.

Preferences

The Preferences page contains Language, Appearance, Station, Map, Hunting, Logbook, My Activations, and Notifications. Inside Notifications, the Push notifications announcement toggle appears only in the iOS app; the email switches appear on every platform. The upcoming iOS update adds the separate Nearby POTA parks setting. Background nearby-park alerts are not available on Android.

Language

Choose the language Hamtrax displays in — English, Spanish, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, German, French, or Korean. Selection is saved to your account so it persists across devices.

Appearance

Choose Automatic, Light, or Dark; Automatic is the default. Automatic follows your device's light or dark setting and switches when your device does; Light and Dark keep their look whatever your device is set to. The sun/moon button at the bottom of the signed-in sidebar, beside the Settings gear and the bug button, switches between Light and Dark in one tap. The public header and mobile navigation menu have the same control.

Unlike Language, your choice is saved on this device rather than to your account, so each phone, computer, or browser keeps its own. The hamtrax.com pages you see before signing in share that choice with the signed-in app. With no saved choice, both follow your device setting. Shared QSL cards and contact-map images always keep the dark look.

Appearance is coming to the iOS and Android apps in a later update; until then they stay dark and show neither control. Hamtrax also stays dark, with neither control, on iOS 16.1 or earlier and in similarly old browsers.

note

Where these docs name a color, they describe Dark. In Light, white text and icons turn near-black, and accent colors deepen — gold and yellow become bronze.

Station

The Station section includes band plan and location settings.

Band Plan

Your regulatory agency and license class determine frequency allocations and mode suggestions throughout the app, including the Band Plan tool, whose top card opens this subsection. They also drive the band-plan warning triangles on Hunt spots.

The subsection is headed Band plan, and the summary row beneath that heading carries the value alone — your current agency and applicable license class, for example FCC – United States · Amateur Extra. Select the row, which carries a chevron on its right, to open an editor containing only these two dropdowns. The available license classes follow the agency you select. Each choice saves automatically; Done, the close button, Escape, or tapping outside closes the editor without undoing changes.

Agency	Region
FCC -- United States	IARU Region 2
ISED / RAC -- Canada	IARU Region 2
IARU Region 1 -- Europe & Africa	IARU Region 1
ACMA -- Australia	IARU Region 3

Hamtrax auto-detects these from your callsign — whether you provide it at signup or add it later in Settings → Account — but you can change them anytime. If you have no callsign on file, no band plan is set until you pick one here. If the selected plan has no license classes to choose from, the license dropdown shows Not applicable and is disabled.

Directly beneath that summary row, in the same subsection, sits the switch for the warnings your band plan drives:

Setting

Description

Warn when outside

On by default. The Band plan heading supplies the rest of the name — the switch warns you when a spot is outside that plan. Flags any spot whose frequency falls outside your band plan with an orange warning triangle on the spot row, in the activation detail modal, in the DX country detail view beside the station's frequency and mode, and in the map popup. Turn it off to hide those triangles on spots — the small triangle printed beside the switch's own name is a sample of the marker, not a warning, so it stays either way. Warnings appear only when you have a band plan on file — the row above is where you set one. The switch saves automatically.

Location

Hamtrax uses your location to find nearby parks, stations, and repeaters. The Location row leads with the resolved place, with the country beneath it when available. The method label — Method: Callsign Location, Method: Device location, or Method: Manual entry — follows, then the grid square and coordinates when available. Select the row, which carries a chevron on its right, to open My Location, the same picker used by the Hunt panel's My Location pill.

Choose one of the three source cards:

Mode	How It Works
Use callsign location	Location is derived from Hamtrax's callsign lookup. Some registrations carry no position a map can use — a PO box, a military APO/FPO address, an incomplete record — and for those this mode is unavailable and the picker tells you to use Device or Manual instead.
Use device GPS	Uses your device's GPS for real-time location. Requires location permission. The selected card shows permission status and the last location update when available.
Enter location manually	You set coordinates, a grid square, or search for a place — cities as well as parks and landmarks. Optionally set an expiration (1, 4, 8, or 24 hours) or choose "Never Revert" to keep the manual location indefinitely.

Your grid square is calculated automatically from your coordinates, or you can enter it manually in Manual mode.

Manual grid entry accepts 4-, 6-, or 8-character Maidenhead locators. From the third through sixth character, Hamtrax offers up to five likely six-character matches and narrows the list as you type. Suggestions are optional: any valid locator can still be entered.

Choices save automatically. Done, the close button, Escape, or tapping outside closes the picker without undoing changes. In Manual mode, Clear override removes the saved manual location early.

Your chosen method never changes by itself. If your selected method doesn't have data yet — say GPS permission is still pending, or your callsign is still resolving — Hamtrax uses the best available source and explains it in the picker. Settings also keeps the fallback or unavailable-source warning below the summary, so you can see it without opening the picker.

info

Callsign-based location is a good default if you operate from a fixed station. Switch to Device mode for portable or mobile operations.

Map

The Map section holds two subsections. The first controls interactive-map city names, marker size, and how Hunting maps keep their lists in sync. The second, Filters, holds the band and mode each Hunt panel opens on.

Major City Names

Major city names is on by default. Hamtrax starts with cities above 10 million people at world zoom, then lowers the population threshold through 5 million, 2 million, 1 million, and 250,000 as you zoom in. A small dot anchors each displayed name at the city's coordinates; MapLibre hides the name and dot together when they would overlap another label.

The preference applies to interactive Hunt, Activate, Logbook, park, and signal report maps. The public Profile World Coverage visualization stays unchanged. On maps that crossfade to detailed OpenStreetMap tiles, turning the preference off hides only Hamtrax's overview names and coordinate dots; place names baked into those detailed tiles remain visible. Signal report maps keep the Hamtrax labels at focused zooms because they do not use that raster layer.

Marker Sizes

Map marker size sets Small, Medium, or Large for map markers across Hamtrax, including parks, live stations, contacts, your location, grouped pins, signal-report receiver dots, and World Coverage entity dots. Medium is the default. Each option shows a size preview, and your choice saves automatically across your account.

Hunting Map Hover

Auto-scroll activator list is on by default. On wide screens, hovering over a marker on any Hunting map scrolls the list on the left to the matching item. Turn this setting off to keep the list in place while you explore the map; the matching marker and list item still highlight each other.

Filters

Parks on the Air, DX Chasing, and Repeaters each keep their own band/mode pair here. The band-plan warning switch, Warn when outside, is not in Filters: it sits with the band plan it depends on, under Station → Band plan.

Setting	Description
Mode	The mode that program's Hunt panel mode filter starts on each time you open it. Unset — so every mode shows — for Parks on the Air and DX Chasing, on new and existing accounts; the Repeaters row arrives pre-set instead (below). Pick SSB, CW, FT8, FT4, FM, RTTY, PSK, AM, JT65, or SSTV and the panel opens filtered to it. Change it under Filters in the Hunt panel itself and that change holds while you stay in the tab; your default returns the next time you open it.
Band	The band that program's Hunt panel band filter starts on each time you open it. Unset — so every band shows — for Parks on the Air and DX Chasing, on new and existing accounts. Pick any band the hunt filter offers (160m, 80m, 60m, 40m, 30m, 20m, 17m, 15m, 12m, 10m, 6m, 2m, or 70cm) and the panel opens filtered to it, with the same override behavior as Mode.

Filters shows one summary row per hunt program — Parks on the Air, DX Chasing, and Repeaters each keep their own Mode/Band pair, and any future program gets its own row. A row names only what you actually pinned: Mode: FM on its own, Band: 2m on its own, and Mode: FM · Band: 2m when both are set. A program with neither set reads No default filters, in the quietest supporting type. Select a program's row, each of which carries a chevron on its right, to open only that program's Mode and Band dropdowns, where No default is the option that clears either half again. Changes save automatically; Done, the close button, Escape, or tapping outside closes the editor without undoing them.

The bands you chase countries on aren't usually the bands you hunt parks on, so switching hunt tabs swaps in that program's saved pair. A default you saved before DX Chasing existed carries over as your Parks on the Air pair; DX Chasing starts clean.

Repeaters starts with saved defaults: Hamtrax ships it set to 2m and FM — the band and mode nearly all repeater work happens on — so its row arrives reading Mode: FM · Band: 2m. Change it or clear it in its editor exactly like the others — your choice saves automatically, and clearing it stays cleared rather than snapping back to 2m/FM. The Repeaters hunt surface lists the repeaters near you rather than a live spot feed, so it carries no filter bar of its own; the pair you choose here is that program's stored default.

Neither default changes what Clear does in the Hunt panel — it removes the current band and mode filters rather than falling back to or changing your saved default. The separate Last Spotted window stays as set.

Hunting

Setting	Description
Respot activators on contact	On by default. For Parks on the Air, posts a confirming hunter spot to POTA.app after you save a hunting contact with that activator. Turn it off to log without sending that automatic spot. Your choice saves automatically to your account and can be changed offline; sending a spot still needs internet.

The on-demand POTA spotting action sends a spot on demand whether this setting is on or off. Activation self-spots and courtesy Park-to-Park spots keep their own controls. The spot visibility window stays in the hunting panel's Last Spotted filter.

Logbook

How new contacts start, and how dates and times read in your logbook.

Setting	Description
Show my local time	Off by default. Contacts are logged and organized in UTC — the ham radio standard — so contact rows display the UTC day and 24-hour time (e.g. 02:22z, the z being ham shorthand for Zulu/UTC) their folders are keyed by, and a row can never look like it landed in the wrong month. Hover over a row's time to see it in your local timezone. Turn this on to read contact rows in your local timezone on a 12-hour clock instead, with the UTC value moving to the hover tooltip. Exports always window on UTC days, matching the labels. Display-only: stored dates, folder names, ADIF/CSV export values, and the auto-organization guardrails stay UTC either way. Saved to your account, so it follows you across devices.
Pre-fill perfect signal reports	On by default. Every contact you log by hand starts at its mode's perfect report — 59 (phone) / 599 (CW and other RST modes) — in the full QSO form, the quick-add card on any folder, the live activation Add Contact panel, and the one-tap hunting contact action in the list, map popup, or detail modal. Turn it off and reports start unset instead: POTA doesn't require signal reports, so a contact saves with none unless you set one while logging or by editing the contact later. A report you clear or leave blank stays blank. Unset reports show as dim dashes instead of digits, and exports simply omit the report fields. The WSJT-X digital family (FT8, FT4, JS8, JT65, JT9, MSK144, Q65, FST4) sits outside the switch on all of those surfaces: those modes log a dB signal-to-noise report like -15, and since no dB value is perfect there is nothing to pre-fill, so they start unset whether this is on or off — a one-tap FT8 hunt save therefore stores no report. Two more things are deliberately outside it: imports keep whatever report the file carries — and still fall back to 59/599 for a record that has none, because a missing report there is a gap rather than a choice, though a dB-mode record with no report stays unset for the same reason as above — and editing an existing contact always shows the report that contact actually holds.

My Activations

These two settings belong to the live activation Add Contact panel — the one you log from while an activation is running. They don't change the full QSO form, the quick-add cards in your Logbook, hunt logging, or import defaults.

Setting	Description
Auto-detect Park to Park	On by default. While you're activating, fills the Their park field automatically when exactly one recent activity program and reference match the station you're logging -- and logging that contact posts a courtesy P2P spot for them on POTA.app. If several identities match, the field stays blank for you to choose. Turning it off stops only the automatic fill and its courtesy spot: Their park stays right there in the Add Contact card, and a park you type in yourself is never spotted for the other station. See Park-to-Park.
Callsign number row	On by default. In the live activation Add Contact panel on a touchscreen, a 0–9 key row floats directly above the on-screen keyboard so digits go in without switching to the number layout. Turn it off to use the keyboard's own number layer instead. The row does not appear in sign-up, Settings, the Logbook, Hunt, or other callsign fields — which is why it sits here rather than with the logbook-wide settings.

note

There is no auto-close toggle. Idle activations always close after 24 hours without a new contact — it isn't optional, because an open activation is what hunted contacts file into, so a session left open for weeks would keep claiming contacts you made from home. See Idle activations close themselves.

Notifications

One place for everything Hamtrax sends you.

Push notifications — iOS app only. Receive Hamtrax announcements on this device.

Nearby POTA parks

iOS update availability

These instructions cover an upcoming iOS update. The nearby-park setting has not yet been released through the App Store and is not available on Android.

Nearby POTA parks starts off. Turn it on to receive a lock-screen alert when your phone is within 1 mile (1.6 km) of a POTA park's mapped location. This uses your phone's physical location, independently of the callsign or manual location chosen under Station. A mapped park point can differ from the park's entrance or boundary.

1. Turn on Nearby POTA parks under Settings → Preferences → Notifications.
2. Read the location explanation and tap Continue.
3. Allow notifications, including lock-screen alerts, and grant Precise location with Always on iOS. If Hamtrax directs you to Open phone settings, make those changes, return to Hamtrax, and tap Continue again.

There is one total nearby-park alert per rolling seven days for your account, across all parks and devices. Only the phone that detects the nearby park receives it. Turning the setting off and on, changing parks, or reinstalling does not reset that wait. An interrupted delivery can also leave the wait in place to prevent duplicate alerts.

Tap an alert to open Park Explorer with that park's detail view already open. No activation starts automatically.

Internet access is required. Location accuracy, notification and lock-screen settings, Focus modes, and Background App Refresh can delay or prevent delivery. Force-quitting the app can stop background checks until you open it again. An alert is therefore not guaranteed at the exact moment you cross the one-mile distance.

Turn Nearby POTA parks off here to stop monitoring on this device. The preference syncs with your account, and the server checks it before sending an alert to any device. The iOS announcement switch and email switches remain separate. See Location Data for what the proximity check sends and keeps.

Email notifications

Optional emails have their own switches on every platform. Park emails contains Nearby activations and Parks near me; Hamtrax emails contains Product announcements and Review requests:

Email	What it is
Nearby activations	Someone is activating a park near your callsign location. Its Hunt in Hamtrax button opens Hunt on that park.
Parks near me	A one-time email listing the three closest active POTA parks, using your saved Location settings when the email is prepared.
Product announcements	New Hamtrax features and releases.
Review requests	The occasional ask to review Hamtrax on the App Store.

Changes save to your account immediately and follow you across devices.

Nearby activations is sent only Monday through Friday, between 6:00 and 8:00 PM in your callsign location's time zone — never on weekends. It goes out when someone is on the air activating a POTA park within 50 miles of your callsign location during that window, at most once every seven days, beginning 48 hours after you create your account.

Parks near me becomes due 24 hours after your account has a valid email address and callsign. It resolves your location from the latest settings saved to your account: your selected Manual location until it expires, or your selected Device location's last saved reading, with Callsign location as the fallback. Preparing the email does not request a new GPS reading. If no location can be resolved, the email waits for a later check.

Automatic Parks near me emails are currently paused.

Account and security emails — a welcome email when you create your account, password resets, and notices about your account such as a Pro grant — are always sent and have no switch.

Unsubscribing from the email itself

Each optional email in the table above carries an Unsubscribe or change which emails you get link in its footer, and Gmail and Yahoo show their own one-click unsubscribe control at the top of the message. Both work without signing in.

The link opens a Hamtrax page listing the same four emails with checkboxes. Untick what you don't want and choose Save preferences, or choose Turn off all Hamtrax emails to silence all four at once. These are the same settings shown here in Settings, so a change made either way shows up in both.

The page never shows your email address or callsign, and the link doesn't expire — one from an old archived message still works. Your mail provider's one-click control silences only the type of email you used it from, leaving the others on.

App Store review prompt

In the iOS and Android apps, Hamtrax occasionally asks Enjoying Hamtrax? after a good session — once you have two real hunted contacts behind you, or right after finishing an activation of ten or more. Yes, loving it opens the App Store or Google Play review sheet; Not really opens the in-app feedback form instead. The prompt appears at most once a week, waits 90 days after you answer either way, and stops on its own if you close it three times in a row. Don't ask me again, inside the prompt itself, turns it off permanently — that opt-out is separate from the Review requests email switch under Notifications. The web app never shows the prompt.

Integrations

The Integrations page sits between Preferences and Plans on the Settings index. It owns QRZ, LoTW, and POTA connections, POTA spot comments, and the offline POTA database. Each connection has a concise status row that opens its setup and management page. Public POTA spots, the park database, and spot comments remain available without connecting a POTA account. Connecting POTA enables automatic incoming contact sync and activation-log uploads, with separate controls for each. File-only services stay in the import/export guides instead of appearing as connected.

Service	What linking does
Logbook of The World	Connects your ARRL LoTW account once for manual confirmation sync from any device signed in to the same Hamtrax account. Your login is validated before Hamtrax stores it encrypted on its server. Sync marks exact matching contacts, and unmatched confirmations stay on the syncing device for later retries. Submitting contacts still requires ADIF plus TQSL.
Parks on the Air	Imports your hunter and activation contact history automatically, checks for new contacts daily, and can submit completed activation folders. Hamtrax keeps the session renewed. See POTA connection for the separate sync and upload controls.
QRZ Logbook	Connects up to five logbooks, one per callsign, for incoming contacts and safe outgoing creates. Automatically sync with QRZ starts On when adding a logbook and can be turned Off before connecting. Sync now checks both directions once, including eligible existing contacts. Edits and uncertain matches wait for review.

Each connector row displays its current setup or connection state and opens that connector's page.

From Import Contacts → Import from connection, Open QRZ sync opens the QRZ Logbook page. While no logbook is connected, that card shows Connect instead; it and the Get Started checklist's Connect QRZ button open Which QRZ plan do you have? directly, and Back from there returns to the QRZ Logbook page first. LoTW's Connect or Manage opens its dedicated page. Opening any of these pages does not start a transfer.

The QRZ page always shows a Logbooks section with a count, such as 2 / 5. Each connected logbook is a row showing its name, its callsign when the name differs, and one status, such as Automatic sync on, the number of issues to review, or Revalidation required; select it to open that logbook's own page. The last row, Add logbook, opens Which QRZ plan do you have? and is unavailable once five are connected. XML Logbook Data or higher opens Add a QRZ logbook, the one place every logbook connects; No subscription, or not sure opens Import a file instead, which points you to a file from the app you logged with. Back from either answer's page returns to the question. With nothing connected, the section reads 0 / 5 and holds only Add logbook. Hamtrax connects one logbook per callsign and refuses a second logbook for an already connected callsign. Each contact syncs only with the logbook whose callsign matches the contact's station callsign.

Each logbook connects once. Hamtrax validates the API key before encrypting it for server-side storage; the stored key is never sent back to the app. The connection works across devices signed in to the same Hamtrax account, with no vault passphrase or unlock step. On a logbook's page, Replace API key validates a replacement before changing the connection and accepts only a key for that same logbook, while Disconnect removes only that logbook's stored key and returns you to the list. When validation is needed, both its row and its page read Revalidation required, and the Automatically sync with QRZ card shows the key field and Validate API key. An older connection can reuse its existing valid key. See QRZ API-key revalidation for the recovery steps.

Each logbook's page, titled with that logbook's name, shows its connection status above the sync and review controls. The summary of Callsign, Contacts on QRZ, and Confirmed on QRZ sits beside the sync card on tablet and desktop, and below it on a phone. For a connection ready to sync, Replace API key and Disconnect follow the cards, with the security explanation last. QRZ confirms contacts by matching the other station's log or receiving confirmation from LoTW. These are QRZ totals, not your Hamtrax contact totals or sync progress.

Automatically sync with QRZ belongs to each logbook. On Add a QRZ logbook, the key field comes first, then the switch and its explanation, then Connect logbook. The switch starts On; turn it Off before connecting if you want to save the connection without transferring contacts. Connecting with it On starts checking eligible existing contacts and future changes. You can change it afterward on the logbook's page without changing your other logbooks. Previous Auto-Push New Contacts consent does not enable this expanded sync. Sync now requests one check even while automatic sync is Off; it does not turn the switch On.

Each logbook's page also shows its progress, the last completed check, Review issues, and Excluded contacts. Review preserves both versions until you choose. Deleting in Hamtrax leaves QRZ intact and prevents automatic re-import into any logbook, including one you connect later; Restore into Hamtrax is an explicit choice that still has to pass the normal folder rules. Read QRZ sync rules for matching, edits, offline work, and retries, or Import from QRZ for API-key and file-export instructions.

LoTW Confirmation Sync

1. Open Logbook of The World and enter your LoTW Username and LoTW Password.
2. Select Connect LoTW. Hamtrax checks the login with LoTW before saving it encrypted on its server and showing Connected with your account summary.
3. Select Sync Confirmations whenever you want to update matching contacts in Hamtrax. Connecting does not start a sync, and there is no automatic sync.

You can use the saved connection from any device signed in to the same Hamtrax account. There is no separate vault, passphrase, or unlock step. Hamtrax's server can decrypt the saved login to request a confirmation report from LoTW; the saved password is never sent back to the app. The last-sync time and result describe syncs performed on the current device.

Open Manage connection to change the username or password with Update login, or choose Disconnect to remove the saved login. Updating checks the replacement with LoTW before changing the existing connection. Confirmation matching and unmatched-result retries are described in Sync confirmations from LoTW. This page does not upload contacts to LoTW.

If you used the old LoTW vault

Enter your LoTW username and password once to create the new connection. You do not need the old vault passphrase. Hamtrax removes this device's old encrypted credential copy only after the server connection is confirmed; it keeps the local confirmation-retry storage. The first sync after reconnecting reads your confirmation history again.

POTA Connection

Open Settings → Integrations → POTA. Automatically sync POTA contacts appears there even before you connect, and starts On. Its help reads Import your POTA contacts when you connect, then check for new contacts every day. Leave it on and a successful connection starts importing your available hunter and activation history immediately, without another confirmation or Import Review. Existing connected accounts also receive the daily background sync. You can close the app while it runs.

Turn it Off before connecting if you do not want automatic imports. This one setting follows your Hamtrax account across devices and reconnections, stops further automatic POTA imports, including the recent public starter import, and keeps contacts already saved. Changes made offline reach the server when the device reconnects. Turning it back on while connected starts a sync. Under the switch, the status shows whether the sync is waiting, running, up to date, or paused, together with imported, existing, and skipped counts and the last successful sync. Temporary failures retry automatically; an expired connection asks you to reconnect. A failed sync does not mean your POTA connection failed. See Automatic POTA contact sync for filing and duplicate handling.

Show new park badges appears while POTA is connected and Automatically sync POTA contacts is On. It starts Off. Turn it on to show New park for live activators at parks you haven't hunted, across the Hunt list, map popups, and activation-detail park headers.

Badges use your current connection's complete POTA hunter history together with hunting contacts in your Hamtrax logbook. Logging a hunt removes that park's badge; deleting an imported contact doesn't erase its POTA history. When you connect or reconnect, badges wait until your full hunter history has synced. Later syncs keep using the last complete history while refreshing. Badges hide while automatic sync is off or the connection is unavailable, expired, or disconnected.

Above the sync control on tablet and phone, or beside it on a wide screen, the connection setup reads We'll need to get an authorization code for your POTA account. and clarifies with Your account type will determine how you can get the code. Select Let’s find my code to open a focused chooser with Step 1 above the title How did you create your POTA account? Email and password and Amazon, Facebook, or Google appear together, side by side on tablet and desktop and stacked on a phone. I don't know sits below them under Need help?. Selecting an answer opens its Step 2 page. Back returns from Step 2 to the Step 1 chooser, then from Step 1 to the POTA connection page; connecting brings you straight back to the connection page, where the connected status appears.

The I don't know page — subtitled Find out how you sign in to pota.app — walks three steps one at a time rather than listing them. Each step opens with its position, such as 1 / 3. Previous and the primary Next step button sit in a bar pinned to the bottom of the screen on a phone, or just beneath the step on a larger screen. Those two controls are the only way to move. The first two steps are open pota.app in a web browser, then sign out if you're signed in. The last step holds Start signing in again. You'll see this page: together with a picture of POTA's sign-in panel — the Amazon, Facebook, and Google buttons on the left, the email and password form on the right. The page offers no answers of its own: recognize the side you use, then take Back to the Step 1 chooser and select that row.

The Email and password page shows Step 2 above its main title, Sign in with your pota.app account, and holds the sign-in form. A collapsed Will my info be safe? accordion beneath Sign in contains Use the email and password you sign in to pota.app with. The password goes only to POTA's sign-in service; Hamtrax keeps an encrypted session that it renews automatically, so contact sync and uploads keep working without reconnecting. Enter the POTA email and POTA password you use at pota.app, then select Sign in; the button reads Signing in to POTA… while it works. The sign-in itself runs in your own browser, straight to AWS Cognito — the sign-in service POTA uses — so your password never reaches Hamtrax and is never stored. POTA hands back a session, Hamtrax encrypts it for server-side storage, and the stored credential is never returned to the app.

Once POTA confirms the account, the page shows Connected, your POTA display name, Verified callsigns with the callsigns registered to that account, and the line Stays connected. Hamtrax renews the POTA session automatically. There is no expiry date to watch: Hamtrax refreshes the session for you when syncing contacts, uploading, or checking the connection. The setup explanation and Let’s find my code button disappear while you're signed in — to use a different POTA account, disconnect first. The automatic-sync switch remains available. POTA decides how long the connection itself lasts and doesn't publish that limit; if it ever ends, Hamtrax shows the session as expired and you sign in again.

If POTA rejects what you entered, a red message panel above the form reads POTA didn't accept that email and password. Check them and try again. An account POTA guards with a step Hamtrax can't complete — a second factor, or a password change POTA is forcing — uses that same panel to say This POTA account needs an extra sign-in step Hamtrax can't complete. Sign in at pota.app and use the Connect Hamtrax bookmark instead. If POTA's sign-in service can't be reached at all, the panel says POTA's sign-in service couldn't be reached. Try again shortly. A failed sign-in stays on this page and never appears as a toast.

Selecting Amazon, Facebook, or Google opens a page with Step 2 above its main title, Copying your POTA session code. Under Showing steps for, a dropdown chooses which steps you see; Hamtrax pre-selects the setup it detects — the Hamtrax app, iPhone or iPad, Android, or the browser on your computer, with Opera taking the Chrome, Edge, or Brave steps — and you can correct it at any time. The choices are Chrome, Edge, or Brave on a computer; Firefox on a computer; Safari on a Mac; Safari on iPhone or iPad; Chrome on Android; Hamtrax app on iPhone or iPad; Hamtrax app on Android.

The chosen setup's steps then come one at a time, moved by the same Previous and Next step controls. On a phone or in the Hamtrax app, a successful Copy bookmark link changes the button to Copied for one second and then advances automatically; changing Showing steps for starts the new setup at its first step. The iPhone and iPad path also shows a small annotated Safari thumbnail beneath each unfamiliar bookmark action; select it to open the screenshot full-screen. Each setup's steps end with the bookmark copying your POTA session out of a signed-in pota.app:

• Chrome, Edge, or Brave on a computer — press Ctrl+Shift+B (⌘+Shift+B on a Mac) if no bookmarks bar is showing; drag the Connect Hamtrax link out of its step onto that bar; open pota.app, sign in, and click Connect Hamtrax on the bar.
• Firefox on a computer — right-click the Connect Hamtrax link and choose Bookmark Link; open pota.app, sign in, then open the Bookmarks menu and click Connect Hamtrax.
• Safari on a Mac — control-click the Connect Hamtrax link and choose Add Link to Bookmarks; open pota.app, sign in, then open the Bookmarks menu and click Connect Hamtrax.
• Safari on iPhone or iPad — press Copy bookmark link; in Safari, open pota.app and sign in; tap the three dots at the bottom right, then Add to Bookmarks; open the three-dot menu again and tap Bookmarks; press and hold the saved POTA bookmark until its menu appears, then tap Edit; clear its current pota.app address, paste the copied link in its place, name it Connect Hamtrax, and tap Save; return to pota.app, open Bookmarks, and tap Connect Hamtrax.
• Chrome on Android — press Copy bookmark link; in Chrome, open pota.app and sign in; tap the three dots, then the star, to bookmark the page; tap the three dots, then Bookmarks, then the three dots next to the new bookmark, then Edit, replace the address with the copied link, name it Connect Hamtrax, and go back; back on pota.app, tap the address bar, type Connect Hamtrax, and pick it from the list.
• Hamtrax app on iPhone or iPad and Hamtrax app on Android — the matching Safari or Chrome steps above, introduced by The Hamtrax app can't run bookmarks, so do these steps once in Safari (or Chrome), then come back here and paste. Any computer works too, and the connection then works on every device.

On a computer, the step that hands you the Connect Hamtrax link carries one last resort beneath it: No bookmarks at all? On pota.app, open the browser console, run copy(document.cookie), and paste that instead.

Selecting the bookmark while signed in at pota.app copies your POTA session and confirms Copied. Paste it into Hamtrax under POTA session. If you weren't signed in, it says Sign in at pota.app first, then click Connect Hamtrax again. instead; if your browser blocks the clipboard, it shows the session in a prompt for you to copy by hand. The separate Copy bookmark link action confirms in place with Copied and advances after one second; if that copy is blocked, Could not copy the bookmark link asks you to press and hold the Connect Hamtrax link and choose Copy Link instead.

Every setup closes on a final step, reached with Next step: Back in Hamtrax, paste it into POTA session and press Connect POTA., and with it the POTA session field (Paste what Connect Hamtrax copied), Connect POTA — labelled Refresh POTA session once a pasted connection exists — and the closing line Once connected, contact sync and uploads work across your devices, and Hamtrax keeps the session renewed. The field is part of that last step rather than sitting below the instructions, so Previous steps back to them if you need to re-read one.

What the bookmark copies includes the part POTA uses to renew a session, so a connection made this way keeps itself alive exactly like signing in: the page shows Stays connected. Hamtrax renews the POTA session automatically. with no expiry date, and the setup explanation and Let’s find my code button disappear. Even a copy whose session has already gone stale connects, because Hamtrax renews it on the spot. POTA decides how long the underlying connection lasts; when it ends, the page shows the session as expired — select the bookmark again and paste the fresh copy.

The field shows what you paste as plain text, so you can see at a glance whether the copy came across whole. Because it stays readable on screen, treat it like a password: connect somewhere private, and never share it in screenshots, messages, or support reports.

Pasting a bare POTA session token still works, but it carries nothing to renew and lasts only a day: that connection shows Session expires with the date instead of the renewing line, and it leaves the setup prompt and Let’s find my code available so you can open Step 1 and switch to Email and password at any time.

A paste Hamtrax can't use produces an error beside the field — That doesn't look like a POTA session. On pota.app, click the Connect Hamtrax bookmark and paste what it copies., This POTA session has expired. Sign in at pota.app, click the Connect Hamtrax bookmark again, and paste the fresh copy., or POTA rejected this session. Sign in at pota.app again, click the Connect Hamtrax bookmark, and paste the fresh copy. Your entry stays in the field after a failed attempt, still readable, so you can check it rather than retyping blind. If Hamtrax cannot confirm the connection or the check is temporarily unavailable, try the check again later; that message does not establish that the paste is bad. Internet-connection advice appears only when the device reports that it is offline. Connection errors do not call for changes to your activation log.

The POTA session field clears only after a successful connection, and refreshing an existing session also shows a success notification. Disconnect POTA appears only while the connection is active. It asks you to confirm or cancel before removing the stored session and its refresh token, stopping authenticated contact sync, and cancelling pending uploads that have not started sending; your saved contacts stay in the logbook, while submission receipts remain to prevent duplicate uploads. An expired session has no disconnect: connecting again replaces it.

The Finish page's Upload to POTA on Finish option is separate from incoming contact sync: it starts off and remembers your choice for the connected POTA account. You can also upload a completed activation from its folder. Read Uploading an activation to POTA for review, status, and duplicate protections.

POTA Spot Comments

Under Settings → Integrations → POTA → Default spot comments, each comment type has its own row summarizing what that comment sends — its link, then each element it adds, then your own text. Each row carries a chevron on its right; select the row for the comment you want to change:

Setting	Used for
Hunt spot comment	On-demand POTA spots and automatic spots after saving a hunting contact when Respot activators on contact is on.
Activation spot comment	Automatic Spot on start and manual Spot Yourself spots during your activation.

The editor opens one full-width, multi-line Your comment box for the selected type — the same long-form field the Logbook uses for folder notes — and beneath it a row of pills that chooses what Hamtrax puts ahead of your text. The box previews the comment as you build it, showing a small tag for each part in the order it is sent — your link first, then each element you have switched on — with your own words typed underneath. The link tag shows the address it resolves to, so you can see which one the recycle pill has selected. A spot comment is always sent as one line, so a line break you type or paste becomes a space. The pills decide everything else.

Press and hold the eye button in the bottom-right corner of the box and the box itself becomes the finished comment — the tags turn into the real link, equipment, and your words, exactly as POTA will receive them, built from the equipment you have selected right now. Release to go back to editing. Unselected elements and empty values are omitted, including their labels. An activation with only a radio power value sends, for example, Radio: 5W. Because no activation is running while you are in Settings, the preview leaves out the power an activation spot would add after the radio.

Pill	What it adds
hamtrax.com / My showcase	The required opening link, which defaults to hamtrax.com for both comment types. Its recycle icon swaps between the bare hamtrax.com and your hamtrax.com/{shortcode} showcase link. The pill stays on hamtrax.com and cannot be swapped until your account has a short link. An explicitly saved My showcase selection stays selected.
Radio	Radio: followed by your current radio's manufacturer and model — plus the power you are running, on an activation.
Antenna	Antenna: followed by your current antenna.

A selected pill is filled and carries an ✕ to remove it; an unselected one is outlined with a ＋ to add it. The link is followed by |, and everything after it is separated by a single space, so a full comment reads hamtrax.com | Radio: IC-705 10W Antenna: River Coil CQ.

Hamtrax limits the complete sent comment to 60 characters, including the link and separators, keeping the link intact when trailing text needs shortening. The counter beside Your comment tells you what is left for your own words. Radio and Antenna each reserve 19 characters, including the label and its following space, whether or not your current equipment fills them. Without either equipment pill selected, your text can use 46 characters with hamtrax.com, or 42 with a three-character showcase link. Selecting both leaves 6 or 2 characters, respectively. Adding a pill trims text that no longer fits, rather than letting it disappear at spot time.

After their labels, radio names and power have 12 characters and antenna names have 10. Names that do not fit drop leading words first to retain the model and power — Icom IC-705 at 10W becomes Radio: IC-705 10W, and Chelegance MC-750 becomes Antenna: MC-750.

Comments saved before the pills existed keep their text and equipment behavior: a default you had left blank arrives with Radio and Antenna already selected, while a default you had typed arrives with your text and both equipment pills off. Both now use hamtrax.com unless you have explicitly saved a My showcase selection.

These settings change the comment, not when a spot is sent. Closing an activation and courtesy park-to-park spots keep their own QRT and P2P messages on the bare hamtrax.com link, within the same total limit.

Choose Save to save the selected default with your account preferences and close the editor. Cancel, the close button, Escape, or tapping outside the editor discards unsaved edits. Saved defaults follow you across devices. An offline edit stays on this device until it can sync; sending a POTA spot still needs a live connection.

POTA Park Database

This section also hosts the POTA Park Database card, which manages the park catalog stored on your device for instant, offline park lookups. The Hamtrax cloud copy checks POTA about hourly, and a new account opened online starts with the current list. The card shows how many parks this device has stored, with the latest available date to the right of its freshness status. Expand Versions below Drop & refresh to see the installed dataset date under Your version. When a newer dataset exists, the card also shows how many more parks it contains than your local copy.

Auto-update parks database is on by default. When a signed-in device detects that its local copy is stale while online, it quietly downloads and imports the newer dataset. The preference follows your Hamtrax account, but every device keeps and refreshes its own offline database. Turning it off stops future automatic download attempts; it does not remove parks already stored or cancel a refresh already underway. When automatic updates are off or a refresh cannot complete, the next eligible signed-in, online app open retains the update reminder and its Settings shortcut, shown at most once a week. Drop & refresh remains available regardless of the auto-update setting to pull the latest dataset to the current device immediately.

Plans

The Plans page puts Pro first, with the Lifetime offer directly beneath it when available. Free sits beside them on wider screens and after them on phones. Each card carries its own status, so once Pro is yours the Pro card holds a badge reading Current plan, Trial, For Life, or Action needed, and a panel inside it naming the plan you are on, your renewal or cancellation date, and the billing management action for the store where you subscribed. On the web those actions — Manage subscription, View receipts & billing, and Switch to Free — open Stripe's billing portal, which opens outside Hamtrax.

• On the web, Upgrade to Pro and Get Lifetime open a Secure checkout panel inside Hamtrax, so you pay without leaving the page: your card details go straight to Stripe, and Hamtrax never sees them. The panel reads Payment received. Activating Pro… once checkout completes and then closes itself, and a Welcome to Hamtrax Pro! message follows. The Android app opens Stripe's own checkout page in its in-app browser instead: close that browser when you finish, and the same welcome message follows once you are back in Hamtrax. The iOS app buys through Apple. If the panel can't load, Hamtrax opens Stripe's checkout page instead.
• Leaving checkout without paying charges nothing: close the panel, or back out of Stripe's page, and you stay on Free with no further message. Select the button again whenever you are ready. If Hamtrax can't confirm a purchase within about a minute, it says Still confirming your plan and asks you to refresh if your plan doesn't update shortly; a completed purchase unlocks Pro as soon as Stripe confirms it. If the Android app still shows Free after you pay, close Hamtrax completely and open it again.
• On web and Android, regular Pro Monthly Checkout starts a 61-day trial and automatically becomes paid unless canceled before the displayed trial end date. Pro Annual and Lifetime are charged at Checkout; promotional offers can have different terms.
• A Hamtrax account can have only one pending Checkout or live Stripe subscription. Hamtrax reuses that account's billing profile and refuses a second purchase while Checkout or recurring billing is already active—even from another device. A subscription scheduled to cancel stays live until its displayed end date.
• A plan labeled Trial becomes paid on the date shown unless you open Manage subscription and cancel it before then.
• Lifetime cannot be purchased while a monthly or annual plan can still bill. The Lifetime card's button reads Cancel subscription first and opens your billing portal (or iOS Settings → Subscriptions) instead of starting a purchase. Once the current period ends, return to the Plans page to buy Lifetime.
• The Lifetime card is an offer only, so it disappears once you own Lifetime. The Pro card carries that status instead: a For Life badge, a note that every Pro feature is yours forever with no renewals, and View receipts & billing.
• If a conflicting legacy Checkout nevertheless completes, Hamtrax cancels the extra recurring subscription and initiates a full refund of anything paid through that rejected Checkout. Stripe and your financial institution control when the credit appears.
• Delete account immediately cancels and confirms Stripe recurring billing before sign-in access is removed. Apple subscriptions and trials remain Apple-managed and must be canceled in Apple Subscriptions.

Remote Control

Settings → Remote Control connects Hamtrax to a supported rig for live readings and one-tap tuning, with a waterfall on supporting radios. Use the native iOS app; the web app offers app-store links.

Android radio control temporarily unavailable

Remote Control is temporarily unavailable in the upcoming Android app update, including live radio readings, tuning, and the waterfall. Android users can still save and select radio and antenna profiles and log contacts normally. The connection instructions below apply to iOS; Android-specific guidance describes planned support when radio control returns.

Connect your radio

1. Tap Add a connection, then choose your radio under Select your radio — see Supported radios.
2. Under Choose connection type, pick how it connects: Direct Wi-Fi, Local network, or Ethernet cable, according to the radio.
3. Follow the guide one step at a time. Under your radio and method, such as Icom IC-7300MK2 · Local network, one progress bar runs Radio, iPhone or Android, then Connect, filling as you go. Each step's headline says what to do, with the details and the radio menu or phone Settings path beneath it. Previous and Next step sit in a bar pinned to the bottom of the screen. The last iPhone step is Allow Local Network access: tap Next step, then tap Allow when iOS asks whether Hamtrax can find devices on your local network. On Android, Allow connection notifications asks for a notification with a Disconnect action; you can connect even if you decline.
4. With Local network, record Radio IP in the guide's radio-address step. The X6100 guide can suggest an address for you. Hamtrax saves the number on this device and carries it into Connect, so you enter it once.
5. The final step, Connect, is headed Connect to the radio and leads with your phone's network status, such as On the radio's network. Under Radio address, a recorded valid IP or an address known by the connection method appears as text with Change. A missing, invalid, or conflicting address stays editable, with the radio menu path above Radio IP. Under Radio login, the guide shows the radio's login menu above Network username and Network password: Network User1 for Icom, or WFSERVER for the X6100. Enter that radio login, which is separate from your Wi-Fi password and Hamtrax account, then tap Connect in the bottom bar.

Already configured the radio? Skip to connect, a link in the bottom bar, jumps straight to the Connect step; if iOS hasn't asked for Local Network access yet, it asks when you tap Connect. With a complete saved login, the guide opens on the Connect step, and Previous walks back through the steps. Back returns from setup to the method choices and then to Remote Control.

While Hamtrax connects, the step shows Connecting…, then Checking that the radio answers…, with only Cancel in the bottom bar. If another session is still holding the radio, a Radio busy note appears beneath while Hamtrax retries. The result turns green only after a confirmed frequency read-back, then returns to Remote Control with the model, connection method, frequency, and mode. While connected, your radio's setup page leads with that reading in place of a headline, adding the name configured on the radio, and Disconnect takes the bottom bar. Readings follow front-panel changes within about a second, including with CI-V Transceive off. Auto-connect on app open appears after connection; waterfall preferences also appear when the radio supports them.

A failed connection stays on the Connect step, and what failed becomes the headline, beside a red alert mark. Next comes the one fix to try first, usually a setup step's title and where to find it, then a ✓ row for each check that already passed: Network access works, Radio answered, or Login accepted. Recheck these settings folds away the explanation and any other steps worth checking. The bottom bar's Connect becomes Retry, and editing a field clears the previous result.

Diagnostic log sits at the foot of the Connect step, including while connected. From Remote Control, tap your radio's row to reach it. Expand it to Copy, Clear, or Report feedback. Report feedback opens Before you share your log, where you can review the exact attachment with radio credentials, IP addresses, and session IDs removed. Continue to feedback opens the editable feedback form; it does not send the report.

Result	What to check
Not on the radio's network	Nothing was sent: no connection on your phone reaches Radio IP. The fix leads with joining the radio's network, or for Ethernet cable, your phone's Ethernet settings; Recheck these settings holds the other steps that could cause it.
Local Network access is off	iOS blocked Hamtrax from reaching devices on your network. The fix shows where to turn on Local Network access for Hamtrax in iOS Settings; then tap Retry.
Radio not responding	Hamtrax sent to Radio IP, but nothing answered. The fix leads with your method's likeliest cause, such as joining the radio's Wi-Fi or checking the radio's IP; Recheck these settings holds the radio's network settings and the other steps. On iPhone Wi-Fi, it ends with Turn off Limit IP Address Tracking. Avoid guest Wi-Fi.
Login not accepted	The radio answered, but not to that login. The fix points to the radio's login menu: enter its Network User1 or WFSERVER username and password, not the Wi-Fi password.
Radio busy	Another app such as wfview or RS-BA1 may hold the radio: close it, or wait. Hamtrax retries while the previous session releases, for up to about a minute.
No reply after login	The radio accepted the login but didn't answer its first command. Follow the guide's fix and model-specific rechecks. For the X6100, check that WFSERVER is running and the radio has supported firmware; a radio in standby needs turning on.
Connection lost	Restore power or the cable/Wi-Fi link, then reconnect.

If the radio identifies itself as a different supported model, an orange warning offers Switch to …, carrying the saved address and login to that model. An unrecognized model shows its model ID and a warning that tuning uses the selected radio's supported ranges.

Returning to your radio

After a successful connection, Remote Control remembers the radio and method on this device; before your first connection, it shows only Add a connection. Its card holds one row — for the radio that is connecting, connected, or just failed, otherwise the remembered one — showing the model, its status (Connected, Connecting…, Not connected, or Connection error), then the method and saved IP. Tap the row to open that radio's setup page. Connect connects the radio in the row with its saved setup, so after a failure it retries that radio; Disconnect takes its place while connecting or connected. Once connected, the card adds the live frequency, mode, and transmit state, and the Auto-connect on app open switch. After a failure, the card shows only the reason. Tap the row and connect from its Connect step to see the fix and any settings to recheck. Browsing another radio or a failed attempt does not replace the remembered radio.

Add a connection, below the card, opens Select your radio to set up another radio or method. Opening another radio's setup never disconnects the live one; disconnect it before connecting another.

Auto-connect on app open is on by default. It connects to that last successful radio when an eligible phone interface can reach its saved address. For a radio with several saved methods, it prefers the last successful method when available, otherwise another saved method on the current network. For Ethernet cable, only the phone's Ethernet connection counts. A manual Disconnect is respected until the next app launch or network rejoin.

The navbar radio icon is yellow while connecting and green when connected; expand it to see the model and live frequency. It becomes a pulsing red tower while the radio itself is transmitting. An unexpected loss turns it red with Radio lost · tap to reconnect. Tapping retries the saved connection; a manual disconnect hides the icon.

Once connected, POTA Hunting, DX Chasing, and Repeaters offer a tune button whenever the radio can tune the station. See Tuning your radio to a station.

Supported radios

Radio	Connection methods	Tune coverage
Icom IC-705	Direct Wi-Fi or Local network	0.030 MHz to below 200 MHz, and 400–470 MHz. No 222, 902, or 1296 MHz. Supports D-STAR, but no C4FM or DMR.
Icom IC-7300MK2	Local network or Ethernet cable	0.030–74.8 MHz. No 2 m, 70 cm, D-STAR, C4FM, or DMR.
Xiegu X6100	Local network	0.5–30 MHz and 50–54 MHz. SSB, CW, AM, FM, and SSB data modes; no 2 m, 70 cm, RTTY, D-STAR, C4FM, or DMR.

Select your radio in the iOS app lists these models. Planned Android support uses the same catalog. The web app lists them under Supported radios, before the app-store links. Tune coverage is where the tune button can send the connected radio; a station outside it shows no button.

• Direct Wi-Fi — your phone joins the IC-705's own Wi-Fi. Open Hamtrax and sign in before joining it, because the radio's Wi-Fi has no internet. On Android, choose to stay connected or use the network anyway if warned it has no internet. Radio IP starts filled in with the radio's usual address; tap Change only if the guide shows a different one.
• Local network — connect the radio and phone to the same home router. The IC-705 and X6100 use the router's 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi. The IC-7300MK2 uses an Ethernet cable while the phone uses that router's Wi-Fi.
• Ethernet cable — connect your phone directly to the IC-7300MK2 with a USB-C Ethernet adapter and cable. Use the guide's numbers when filling in the radio and phone settings; each gets its own address on the same subnet. Android Ethernet settings depend on the phone: Hamtrax cannot assign the phone's address, and the method cannot connect without a usable Ethernet address. An adapter with a charging port can also charge the phone.

The X6100 on APP V1.1.8 needs an address entered on the radio. In its Local network guide, paste your router's address and tap Suggest an address. On iPhone, touch and hold the Router value in Wi-Fi settings and choose Copy. Hamtrax reads your phone's address and subnet itself, checks a small number of addresses on that Wi-Fi network, and carries a suggested one into Radio IP for the next step. You can enter an address yourself instead. A suggestion means no device replied; it does not reserve the address, so an offline device or the router may use it later. Keep this address stable (optional) explains the optional router reservation to help prevent future conflicts.

Each radio and method keeps its own saved address and login in the phone's secure local storage. The app supplies the model-specific radio menus and platform-specific phone settings; follow that guide rather than applying another radio's instructions.

The X6100 uses its built-in WFSERVER, which requires APP 1.1.7 (August 25, 2023) and BASE 1.1.6 (March 7, 2023) or later. Start that server on the radio and enter its username and password in Hamtrax, keeping its CTRL port at 50001. If WFSERVER is missing from the radio's menu, check the firmware versions. Hamtrax provides frequency, mode, and transmit-state readings and one-tap tuning on this model; its waterfall is unavailable.

The Connect step leads with your phone's network status, with its Phone Wi-Fi IP or Phone Ethernet IP as a small detail. Use it to check your phone's connection. If it says Not the radio's network or Not on Wi-Fi or Ethernet, tap Previous to return to the phone steps. If it says Enter the radio's IP, fill in Radio IP using the guide. On the radio's network means you can try Connect, which checks whether the radio answers.

With Ethernet cable, the status can instead say why your phone has no Ethernet IP:

• No Ethernet adapter — nothing is plugged into your phone.
• No Ethernet link — the adapter is plugged in, but the cable or the radio's LAN port has no link, so the radio's LINK/ACT light is dark.
• No Ethernet IP address — the cable is linked, but the phone has no usable IPv4 address. Tap Previous to recheck the addresses and your phone's Ethernet settings. On iPhone, iOS also drops an address another device already uses.

Radio IP must differ from your phone's own IP shown above it. If they match, a warning beneath Radio IP says which number to use, and Connect stays disabled until you change it.

Waterfall

Connections that provide genuine RF-scope samples can show a spectrum and waterfall docked across the bottom of the app. The Waterfall card appears on Remote Control after a supporting radio connects. Turn on Show waterfall, optionally turn on Show filter bandwidth, choose a half-span of ±2.5, ±5, ±10, ±20, ±40, or ±80 kHz, and choose a Frequency step of 1, 10, or 100 Hz, or 1 or 10 kHz. Show waterfall and Show filter bandwidth are off by default; span defaults to ±10 kHz and frequency step to 100 Hz. The same waterfall on/off control appears when you expand the green connected-radio icon in the navbar. When an enabled connection is confirmed again—even to the same radio and method—the dock reacquires its live spectrum session without requiring an app restart.

A small tab with a chevron sticks up from the waterfall's top-right corner. Tap it to collapse the waterfall to a thin strip at the bottom of the screen, giving that space back to the page. Tap it again to bring the waterfall back. A collapsed waterfall keeps running: the radio stays connected and nothing resets. The collapse isn't saved; it lasts until you close the app. Turning off Show waterfall also clears it, so the waterfall comes back expanded when you turn it on again.

The Controls button at the dock's bottom left opens the Waterfall window, which dims and blurs the screen behind it, the waterfall included. Changes save automatically, and Done closes the window. Its settings come in three groups:

• Frequency span, Show filter bandwidth, and Frequency step
• a continuous Sensitivity slider and a continuous color-track Noise Floor (Visual Only) slider
• optional Logarithmic colors with a continuous Log anchor, and a centered two-ended Color range slider

Move Noise Floor right to hide waterfall colors weaker than the selected threshold; the leftmost Show all position is the default. It affects only the colored waterfall history—not the live green spectrum trace, receiver audio, radio RF gain, or scope settings.

Logarithmic colors is off by default. When enabled, it compresses weaker colors and gives the strongest signals more color separation. The Log anchor is expressed directly as “signal percentage → middle color”: its 75% default means a 75%-strength relative sample reaches the middle palette color, leaving half of the color variation for the strongest quarter of the normalized range. Moving it toward Balanced approaches a linear scale; moving it toward Strongest signals reserves progressively more of the palette for only the strongest samples. The Color range track reads Weak signals to Strong signals; moving either endpoint mirrors the other, with a narrower range making their colors more similar and a wider range increasing their difference. Sensitivity, noise-floor, log, log-anchor, and color-range changes immediately recolor the retained raw history instead of emptying the waterfall and waiting for it to refill.

The carrier and compact confirmed frequency stay fixed at the center, with the radio's confirmed mode shown beneath it — a mode Hamtrax can't name, such as the IC-705's broadcast WFM, shows none. Tap the scope to tune there, or drag horizontally to move the complete spectrum and its history beneath the center marker; the preview and final target snap to the nearest selected frequency step, and Hamtrax sends one tune command when you release. Left and right chevrons beside the confirmed frequency tune exactly one selected step per press. Changing frequency or span also reprojects the retained raw history into the new view, cropping or blanking only the RF region that cannot overlap.

Waterfall on/off, filter shading, span, sensitivity, noise floor, logarithmic-color choice, log anchor, color range, and frequency step are stored on this device for each radio, so an IC-705 keeps the same waterfall on its own hotspot and on your home router. Waterfall controls appear only when the live connection provides RF-scope samples. Show filter bandwidth is available only when the radio can confirm its receive passband; it shades SSB and AM with centered PBT, and clears the shade for shifted PBT or unsupported modes instead of guessing. Levels are relative, not calibrated dBm.

Until the first valid sweep arrives, the dock says Waiting for spectrum data… and leaves history blank instead of inventing rows. If RF frames arrive before the separate confirmed dial readback, their own RF bounds can already draw the scope while the header says Waiting for confirmed radio frequency…; tuning controls appear when that confirmed frequency arrives. If the trace is active but the colored history looks empty, move Noise Floor (Visual Only) toward Show all to restore weaker colors. If the spectrum-data message persists, sensitivity and noise floor are not the issue; tap your radio's row on Remote Control, open Diagnostic log at the foot of its Connect step, and include its scope lines when submitting feedback.

The radio connection can stay active while the phone is locked or another app is open. The waterfall pauses and restores its borrowed scope settings while backgrounded, then reacquires them on return.

On iOS, Hamtrax uses the radio's receive audio silently to maintain that background connection; there is nothing to configure. If a phone call, Siri, or an audio-channel failure interrupts it, Hamtrax allows about 20 seconds before closing cleanly so the radio frees its connection slot. Returning to the app reconnects that interrupted session. A deliberate Disconnect does not trigger this recovery.

On Android, a connection notification provides Disconnect while Hamtrax keeps the radio session active without silent playback. Dismissing that notification alone leaves the session connected. If notifications are off, disconnect inside Hamtrax or through Android's Active apps. A phone call or another app playing audio does not by itself disconnect the radio. Battery restrictions or deep sleep can still interrupt the network connection; returning to Hamtrax recovers a lost session unless you deliberately disconnected.

On a normal waterfall stop, background transition, or disconnect while CI-V is still reachable, Hamtrax restores only scope values that still match what it applied, preserving any front-panel change you made. If Wi-Fi or radio power disappears first, it does not guess at a delayed restoration on a later connection.

Help

The Help page gives you quick access to documentation and support:

Card	Description
Open docs	Jump to this documentation site.
Submit feedback	Open the in-app feedback form to report a bug or request a feature, attaching screenshots if they help. In the iOS and Android apps, answering Not really to the Enjoying Hamtrax? prompt opens the same form.

Related Pages

• Changing Your Profile -- what changes when you edit your photo, callsign, or username
• Your Showcase -- your public operator profile
• Solar Dashboard -- see current propagation conditions
• Band Plan -- uses your agency and license class preferences