Hermes Lite IPhone App

[Gabriel Moyano]

Hello, this is KE2EEQ, a young ham living in New York City. The Hermes Lite is the first HF rig that I obtained. I have wanted to take it portable and do POTA with it, but don't want to lug around a laptop with me. I saw a post from Ron Nicholson here about a IPhone app that allows for operation of the Hermes Lite via an IPhone or IPad. I would love to be a beta tester of the latest version, but Google Groups does not let me respond to you. Posting this might give me that permission, but if not, please email be back directly. 

73, KE2EEQ Gabriel

[Dan Cusick]

Greetings Gabriel,

Its documented in the wiki - https://github.com/softerhardware/Hermes-Lite2/wiki/Updating-Gateware#force-factory-image-boot

73,

Dan

W9IRL

On Wed, Jun 18, 2025 at 4:54 PM Gabriel Moyano <gabriel...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hello, this is KE2EEQ, a young ham living in New York City. The Hermes Lite is the first HF rig that I obtained. I have wanted to take it portable and do POTA with it, but don't want to lug around a laptop with me. I saw a post from Ron Nicholson here about a IPhone app that allows for operation of the Hermes Lite via an IPhone or IPad. I would love to be a beta tester of the latest version, but Google Groups does not let me respond to you. Posting this might give me that permission, but if not, please email be back directly. 

73, KE2EEQ Gabriel

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[Joe KD2NFC]

Hi Dan,

I don’t see anything in that wiki leak that details a iPhone app that connects to the HL2. 

I know I have already tried the rtf_tcp SDR app on my iPhone and that works but you cannot transmit with that app. 

Please guide us Mr. Dan. :)

Joe

KD2NFC

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[Luke Williams]

I believe that Dan replied to the wrong thread. The post Gabriel was referring to was from March 24th:

Web: https://groups.google.com/g/hermes-lite/c/5qY8DM99zJ4/m/FZaYV0WYBAAJ

Text:

Hi All,

My rtl_tcp SDR app, which is available from Apple's iOS App Store, now also supports transmitting CW and SSB when your iPhone or iPad is directly connected to an HL2.  I have a separate iPhone app, HL2_FT8  for FT8, available for very early beta test.

Transmitting from an iOS device requires either: a direct wired connection via a suitable ethernet adapter, an extremely low latency WiFi connection, or the use of hl2_relay or HL2WifiBuffer (both on GitHub) as a buffering relay running on a server (Raspberry Pi, et.al.) colocated with your HL2.  

Transmit from my app has only been very lightly tested, so I'm looking for beta tester who will send me bug reports.  For CW using a straight key, I added support for using KU7Q's CTR2-Midi key adapter with my rtl_tcp SDR app.  The SDR app requires iOS 15.8 or later.  The FT8 app requires iOS 17.6 or later.  To beta test my apps (free), please email me directly, as I need to give Apple a valid email address for you to get your TestFlight invitation.

73,
Ron
N6YWU

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[Gabriel Moyano]

Yes, that’s the post I was referring to.

[ron.ni...@gmail.com]

Reports are that both CW and SSB transmit from an HL2 using my iPhone rtl_tcp SDR app are working reasonably well. 

I've used my iOS app with an HL2 for both CW and SSB contacts, and for both POTA and SOTA lightweight portable ops, no laptop required.

I also have a new app in early beta test that allow both receiving and sending FT8 messages from an iPhone directly connected to an HL2 via an ethernet adapter (however FT8 auto-sequencing and/or logging is currently not supported).  

Look for the rtl_tcp SDR app by HotPaw Productions, versions for both iOS and macOS are in Apple's App store.  My public contact email is listed at the bottom of that web page.  Email me directly for an Apple TestFlight invitation to beta test either of the above. TestFlight usage is time limited by Apple, but incurs no fees or App Store charges.

73, Ron, N6YWU

[Owen Adair]

I've used the rtl_tcp app on the HL2 and it work pretty well, but you would have to use an ethernet adapter on your phone to directly connect to the HL2 and I don't know if that's supported.   I've got one so I'll give it a go today sometime.

Owen

KI4GT

[ron.ni...@gmail.com]

Yes, you can use an Ethernet adapter to connect an iPhone directly to an HL2. I have tested four or five different Ethernet adapters with various iPhone models (using both Lightning and USB-C connectors, depending on the model), and all have worked successfully. To establish a direct connection, connect the Ethernet adapter and cable, then power cycle the HL2. After a brief wait, the HL2 will adopt a self-assigned IP address (RFC 3927 IPv4 Link-Local) of 169.254.19.221, unless you have configured a different default MAC address for the HL2. You can manually enter this IP address into the connection settings or use the Discovery process.

I have successfully used the HL2 with this direct Ethernet connection method on both an iPhone and iPad for POTA and SOTA activations. The rtl_tcp SDR app, available in Apple’s App Store, supports connection to an HL2 and enables both reception (Rx) and transmission (Tx) for CW and SSB modes. Additionally, a separate iOS app for HL2 FT8 Rx/Tx is available through Apple’s TestFlight beta testing program. Please contact me directly for a TestFlight invitation (rhn AT hotpaw DOT com).

73,

Ron

N6YWU