Amateur radio apps for iOS
Effective: August 2, 2026
QRV is an app for licensed amateur radio operators that tells you when another operator you could actually contact is within radio range.
Your exact location never leaves your device — only a coarse grid square does, only while you choose to be on the air, and it expires on its own. There are no accounts, no analytics, no ads, and no tracking. Anything you publish (profile, notes, messages) is visible to other operators, the same way a transmission would be.
QRV uses your location for one purpose: working out which operators and repeaters are within radio range of you.
When you advertise yourself, QRV publishes to a shared network hosted on Apple’s CloudKit (iCloud) service: your callsign and profile as you entered them, your rounded grid position, what you’re monitoring, an optional note, and an expiry time. This is visible to other QRV users — that is the point of the app. Signing into iCloud on your device is required to publish; Apple does not reveal your iCloud identity to us or to other users. Within the network you are identified by your callsign and a random ID the app generates on first run.
Messages you send through QRV are relayed through the same shared Apple CloudKit database. Treat them like radio traffic, not like sealed mail: they are stored on the network, they are readable by the recipient and in principle by other signed-in users of the network, and they should never contain anything you wouldn’t say on the air. (Amateur radio traffic is legally open; QRV’s chat carries the same expectation.) The app says this in every conversation, above the message box, as well as here.
Retention. A message you send is removed from the network by your own device about 30 days after you sent it. Until then it stays there — the network has no way for us to expire it sooner on your behalf. The copy in your own message history stays on your device until you delete the app, and the recipient’s copy is on their device under their control.
If you report another operator’s content, the report — your operator ID, the operator and content you reported, the reason, and anything you wrote — is stored where the developer can review it. Reports are reviewed within 24 hours; content that breaks the rules is removed, and repeat offenders lose access to the network. Reports are not visible to other users.
Blocking is immediate and local: the operator disappears from your app at once, whether or not you have a connection. You can undo it any time in Profile → Blocked.
Blocks and unblocks are also counted, because one complaint is a complaint but twenty separate operators blocking the same callsign is a pattern — and it usually shows up long before anyone files a report. What is recorded is about the person you blocked: their callsign and ID, whether the block currently stands, how many times you’ve blocked them, and when. Your own callsign and profile are never written into that record. Unblocks are counted too, so that a block you lift after a minute isn’t held against anyone.
Two honest caveats. Apple’s CloudKit stamps every record with the account that created it, so the developer — who is the only person who can read these — can in principle work out which operator a count came from. We don’t do that, but we can’t claim to be unable to. And no other user can read them: block records are readable only by their creator and the developer, so nobody can find out who blocked them.
These counts are used for moderation only. They are not advertising, not analytics about how you use the app, and they are never shared or sold.
Profile, settings, friends, blocked operators, message history, and alert history are stored on your device. Deleting the app deletes them. Content you published to the network (a still-active presence, sent messages) is removed when it expires, as described above, or on request — contact us below.
One thing worth knowing: your callsign and profile also go into a public operator directory when you first advertise yourself, so other operators can find and message you when you’re not on the air. That entry does not expire on its own.
Profile → Delete my account removes your directory entry, every position you’ve published, and the messages you’ve sent, then resets the app on your device. Two things survive, and we’d rather say so than imply otherwise: messages you already sent are on the recipient’s device and stay under their control, and any report another operator filed about your conduct is kept, so that deleting an account can’t erase a complaint. If anything goes wrong mid-deletion, nothing is removed from your device — try again when you’re back online, or email us.
QRV downloads a worldwide amateur repeater directory from hearham.com. This request carries no user data (standard server logs — IP address — apply, per hearham’s own policy). The directory is cached on-device.
If you also use our companion app QSY, the two apps share data (your route and repeater directory) locally on your device through an Apple App Group container. Nothing about that sharing touches a network.
Callsigns are public identifiers regulated by national authorities, and amateur radio is a public activity — transmissions, including position reports, are inherently open. QRV’s design still treats your location as private by default: coarse, expiring, and opt-in at every step.
Questions, or removal requests: liter-retort.2w@icloud.com
Changes to this policy will be noted in the App Store release notes.