TechHead Apps
VHF Emergency Call 1.3
As a sailor you know that radio traffic -mainly in emergency - is very important and has to comply to astrict form to make messages compact, yet understandable. Thisensures that the most information is transferred to coastal radiostations with the least time and effort. This application helpsmariners or their co-boaters to compose various standardized VHFmessages, including distress, MOB etc. based on user input. Aftersupplying the necessary information the application generates thecorresponding text to be transmitted to CRS.Features include:• Composing of distress, MOB, distress relay, distress ACK,urgency, safety and cancel alert messages• Use of built-in GPS• Save name of ship, call sign, MMSI and name of skipper inpreferences for auto-fill• Text to speech, to help those who have problems speaking out awritten English text. Please make sure that your TTS service is setup correctly in order to pronounce English text.
IALA Lights 1.2
A mariner should know all recommendations ofthe IALA lighting and buoyage system. Have you ever had problemsidentifying lighthouse beams at night or imagining how anabbreviation used on maps would look like in real life? If yes,this utility is what you need.The utility has two major working modes. In one you set theparameters of the light source and the application tells you thecorresponding abbreviation. In the other mode you can enter theabbreviation from the navigational chart and the application showsyou how it would look like at night.Selectable characteristics include:• Fixed• Occulting• Group occulting• Composite group occulting• Isophase• Flashing• Group flashing• Composite group flashing• Long flashing• Quick, very quick, ultra quick• Group quick, group very quick• Group quick + long, group very quick + long• Interrupted quick, interrupted very quick, interrupted ultraquick• Morse• Fix + flashing• AlternatingScreen controls for selecting the number of flashes in groups,composite groups or the characters for a Morse code are enabled ordisabled depending on the selected phase characteristic.When the selected light phase belongs to a cardinal or lateralbuoy then the light-house tower is replaced by the correspondingcardinal or lateral buoy on the drawing.When entering an abbreviation from the chart the height of thelight-house or the range of visibility are optional and may beomitted.Please make sure you check out our short screen-castpresentation for a quick introduction.
International Code of Signals 1.0
Understanding and constructing maritimeflagsignals can be crucial in situations when all yourelectronicsfails or you or the signaling station have languageproblems. Thisapplication contains the full International Code ofSignalsdatabase and knows the proper signaling technique, includingtheusage of substitute and code flags. It has two main functions:• interpret flag signals or• show which flags should be hoisted for a given message.In interpretation mode, flags are entered by selecting themfroma list of flags on the right hand side of the screen.Selectedflags are then inserted into the list of hoisted flags inthemiddle of the screen. This list can be edited, new elements canbeinserted or existing ones can be removed from it. As you entertheflags a rough syntactical analysis runs on them and formalproblemsare reported.When a message contains numerous additional information(e.g.coordinates, numbers, names of places) the complete message issentin chunks, so called hoists. At the end of each hoist you havetocheck the completeness of the chunk. At the end, the wholemessagecan be interpreted with all its additional information.In send mode you can view and search the generic and medicalpartof the complete ICS in two independent lists. Both listsarestructured the same way as the original ICS book, youcanopen/close chapters, sections, scroll them and read eachmessage.The most powerful part is that you can search both listsfor anyterm. After the search, only those messages (and theirsection andchapter descriptors) remain in the list which werematching thesearch criteria. Tapping on a message element willselect it forsending. After entering values for additionalinformation you canlet the application generate the flags in chunksof hoists.The usage of the application is very easy and self-intuitive.Thesearch is very robust and works as a full-text search, huntingformatches in any part of the ICS database.Currently only the English ICS is supported. If you findanymistakes in the database or want your localized versionincluded,please pick up contact with the author.
Magnetic Bearing 1.0
As a sailor you know how essential it istoregularly check the position of your ship during the voyage.Anycoastal feature that can be seen by the navigator, can be usedforthis purpose. The Cross Bearing Fix is probably the most commonforposition finding. To achieve it, bearing sights on at least2-3fixed objects should be taken over the widest arc and overtheshortest period of time.Normally you use a compass to take the bearings, butnowadays'sgadgets, just like your mobile phone can also be used forthispurpose as it contains a magnetometer. This utility allows youtotake as many bearing as you wish by sighting the coastalfeaturewith the built-in camera and taking a picture of it. Alongwith thepicture the magnetic bearing and the time stamp is savedfor laterreference when you are doing your chart-work.Features include:• List of bearings with time stamp and picture• Continuous camera view for coastal feature identification• Continuous read-out of magnetic bearing, roll and pitchforcorrect camera handling• Automatic zoom-in for better coastal feature identification• Calibration, in case of local magnetic interference
SkipperDroid 1.2
If you have a WiFi bridge on your boatorsailing ship, this utility will be your best friend very soon.Itconnects your WiFi capable phone to the bridge and listensforstandard NMEA sentences of the following types:• GPS positions,• waypoints,• wind direction and speed,• course and speed over ground,• depth,• water and air temperatures.It then displays the readouts of the above mentioned devices.Bytapping the unit field you can change the currently usedunit.Tapping the screen toggles the day-time (white on black)andnight-time (red on black) views. With the long-tap over agivengauge line the context menu appears where you can reset thevalue(and the stored min/max) of the gauge or bring up thesettingsdialog. In the dialog you can set parameters for announcingthereadout or set alarm values.This is of great help for example when you are anchoring andhaveto look after a lot of things and you still want to haveacontinuous readout of the depth gauge. In this case you cansetupan announcement for a time interval or depth change. You canalsoset an alarm for any gauge for any value. Your phone will alertyoue.g. when the wind speed grows above a certain value or whenyourvessel reaches a pre-defined speed over ground.
