Ultraportable FT8 with an iPhone, Elecraft KX2... and only one cable!

Excellent! Thank you for sharing this, Mark. I love how simple all of this is. You did a brilliant job of explaining it, too. Cheers & 72, Thomas (K4SWL)

You made this look so simple. After watching this video, I'm been searching for an Android option. Thanks for the rabbit hole!! Alice says, "Hi"

Great video and well-explained. Thank you Mark (and for all the times you have hunted me in POTA too!). 73

Thank you so much. Just got this going with the cables you show and the KX3! Made my first QSO. 73 de Jon K7CO

That’s pure genius! I have been waiting for an app like this for iOS. Thanks for sharing!

Mark, one other setting that you may want to call out is the MON level that you get to when you tap the AF Gain/Mon knob. Mine was set for 3 for some reason and turning it down to zero prevented the transmit signal from feeding back. Also, for older iPhones, you can get a lightning adapter with audio in and out but make sure it's line in and not mic in. Conrad, N2YCH

Fantastic! Thank you so much for this overview! Now I don’t have to use my IC-705 just to get FT8!

Great overview! As for the splitter, I like to think about it in terms of what the phone is doing. When transmitting, the phone is sending out audio, so the audio plug goes to the which would go to the mic jack on the kx2. When the phone is listening it is receiving audio, so its microphone plug needs to hear that from earbud jack of the kx2. Did I just make that more complicated?

Very cool. I had wondered about this kind of setup using the Elecraft K4D. I just ordered the exact cables set up, and we will find out. Theoretically it should work on multiple different rigs. Thank you for posting this. 73

Instead of the USB-C to TRRS adapter, I used the Apple "Lightning to 3.5mm Headphone Jack" adapter and I was able to make this work with my iPhone 12. I just made a 20m FT8 QSO with the suggested settings. I am still trying to figure out the optimal Mic Gain setting on the rig but this works fine on an older iPhone with a lightning connector instead of USB-C. So far I am not having any luck getting this to work on my iPad Air, with USB-C. The only difference is that I am using the recommended USB-C to TRRS adaptor. I am seeing signals on the waterfall and decoding them but I am not triggering the VOX, so more experimentation needed. I guess the first step will be to verify that the USB-C to TRRS adaptor is ok since that is the only difference in cabling as compared to my iPhone setup, which is working. - Michael VE3WMB

I'm using these cables now to run ft8 on my iPhone connected to my TX500! Thank you! de NT3S

Wow. This should work well for my KX3. Thanks for showing this!

Very, very cool... Thanks

Thanks for the video...

Pretty slick. Barry, KU3X

I really appreciate this! Ordering cables right now! N8VSB

On the earbuds you use with the KX2 does the same splitter need to be used with them? I see the earbuds only come with one plug. Can you eliminate the extension cable?

Does this work with an older iPhone that has a lightning port?

Mark, is it possible to do this with an I-14 and a lightning to TRRS? Thanks, de Roger W8RLP

Will this setup work with an Android phone running ft8cn? FT8 cable complexity with digirig was one of the reasons i had delayed ordering a KX2.