When it comes to emergency communications many organizations such as RACES, rely on tried and true systems such as packet radio or APRS. In most cases reliability is centered on the perfect selection of hardware, and often can be several hundreds of dollars. With the flood of cheap Chinese radios and the huge number of preppers, outdoorsmen using GMRS and just the general population that want to experiment without the investment Ribbit or Rattlegram was born.
It works with the cheapest of hardware and is acoustic based using the same noise detection algorithms that smart home devices such as Amazon’s Alexa units uses. Again, acoustically – no harnesses or wires needed. So while the Red Cross, RACES or REACT might have a properly outfitted EmComm unit, the volunteer radio teams supporting a parade, county fair or / race likely does not have the level of equipment. They do however have a cheap $20 spare radio and a phone, enter Rattlegram.
With Rattlegram users can send/recieve APRS-like text messages over their radios. Messages are limited to 170 characters, but the encode and decode time is near instant. Background noise is almost irrelevant, and data correction is excellent. What’s more is the transmissions are short 1-2 bursts, so it is very efficient and light (the compression is amazing)if used on a repeater or even between voice traffic.
Traditionally it was always made available for ios and Android devices. But since it was open source I decided to create a Linux and a Windows version as well. I too am releasing them both under the Apache open source license. I have fully tested and vetted the Linux version, but I do not currently own a Windows PC, so the testing will be up to the public. Anyone can use Rattlegram on their phone and computer (no radio needed) to test messaging using their existing microphone and speakers. Wanna send messages miles over radio, simplex or your local repeater, just hit the PTT while near your speakers, it works great! It was so much fun building it I am considering building a client for the ESP32 next month!
Already too much typing today, so the download links are below, they are both free, no ads, no nagging, no registration, no login – it is just solid fully functional free simple software that works. Enjoy.
Did you enjoy this?
Log in to like this post.
The Windows file downloaded and ran. I had trouble with the linux .deb:
dpkg: error processing archive … dbj-rattlenix.deb (–unpack):
corrupted filesystem tarfile in package archive: unsupported PAX tar header type ‘x’
I greatly appreciate the feedback @K0RVB I run it on Arch but figured I should package it as a deb due to the number of Ubuntu/Mint users. I am actually more surprised the WIndows version wasn’t the one that gave more problems haha!
Since posting the article I have added the ability to change carrier frequency (Great for quiet local testing using ultrasonic high frequencies), added mic spectrum analyzer and waterfall effects. The ability to both post and parse URL’s as clickable links with integrated link shortener and analytics, As well as the ability to both send and receive emojis and one click message replays. Links to both installers have been updated.
I was able to install it on my Debian 13 computer. It may have been something with Debian 12 or just that compute. I look forward to exploring it.