Community & Activity | Carrier Wave Manual

Carrier Wave’s community features let you connect with friends, join clubs, and track achievements.

Community Account

Community features are opt-in and require registration with the activities server.

Initial Registration

During onboarding, you can choose to enable community features. This registers your callsignA unique identifier assigned to a licensed amateur radio operator (e.g., W1AW, K6TEST). with the activities server and creates a community account.

Existing users see a one-time prompt when visiting the Activity tab. You can accept or decline community features.

Enabling Later

If you skipped community setup:

Go to Settings -> Activities
Toggle Enable community features on

The app automatically registers your account using your station callsignA unique identifier assigned to a licensed amateur radio operator (e.g., W1AW, K6TEST). from Logger settings.

Privacy Controls

The Enable community features toggle in Settings -> Activities controls your discoverability:

On - Your callsignA unique identifier assigned to a licensed amateur radio operator (e.g., W1AW, K6TEST). appears in friend search and you can participate in clubs
Off - You remain hidden from search but retain your local data

Account Deletion

To permanently delete your community account:

Go to Settings -> Activities
Scroll to Delete Community Account
Confirm deletion

This removes all your community data from the server, including friends and activity history. The deletion cascades to all related records. This action cannot be undone.

Community Features Onboarding

When you first enable community features, a guided onboarding flow walks you through:

Account creation - Registers your callsign with the activities server
Friend discovery - Suggests friends based on your QSO history
Club detection - Automatically identifies clubs you belong to via Polo notes
Privacy settings - Confirms your visibility preferences

This onboarding ensures you’re set up to get the most from community features immediately.

Friends

Connect with other Carrier Wave users to see their activity in your feed.

Friends List

The Friends list shows:

Accepted friends - People you’re connected with, sorted by callsignA unique identifier assigned to a licensed amateur radio operator (e.g., W1AW, K6TEST).
Pending requests - Incoming friend requests you can accept or decline
Sent requests - Outgoing requests awaiting acceptance
Suggestions - Recommended friends based on shared contacts

Access the list from the Activity tab toolbar (person icon with badge showing pending count).

Sending Friend Requests

By callsign search:

Tap the Friends icon in the Activity tab toolbar
Tap the + button
Enter the callsignA unique identifier assigned to a licensed amateur radio operator (e.g., W1AW, K6TEST). to search
Tap Send Request

By invite link:

Open Friends list
Tap the menu button (three dots)
Select Invite Friend
Share the link via iOS share sheet or copy to clipboard
The recipient taps the link and sends a request

Invite links expire after 7 days.

Accepting and Declining Requests

Incoming requests appear in the Friends list with Accept and Decline buttons. The pending count badge appears on the Activity tab icon and the Friends toolbar button.

A banner card also appears in the Activity feed linking to the Friends list when you have pending requests.

Friend Profiles

Tap any callsignA unique identifier assigned to a licensed amateur radio operator (e.g., W1AW, K6TEST). in the Activity feed to view a friend’s profile. Profiles show:

Recent activity from that user
Total activities count
Activities this week
Friendship start date (when you became friends)
Recordings shared - Audio clips the friend has shared publicly
QSO timeline - A visual timeline of when you’ve worked each other, showing band, mode, and date for each contact

Removing Friends

Swipe left on a friend in the Friends list and tap Delete, or use the Edit button.

Friend Suggestions

Carrier Wave suggests friends using a multi-factor algorithm:

Suggestion Algorithm

Friends are suggested based on:

Shared QSOs - Callsigns with 3+ QSOs in your log who are also Carrier Wave users (primary signal)
Club overlap - Other members of clubs you belong to
Frequency of contact - Stations you work regularly are ranked higher
Recency - Recent contacts are weighted more heavily than older ones
Mutual friends - Users who are friends with your existing friends

Managing Suggestions

Suggestions appear in a dedicated section of the Friends list:

Add sends a friend request
Dismiss hides the suggestion permanently

The app validates suggestions against the server in batches for efficiency.

Clubs

Clubs are groups based on Ham2K Polo notes lists. You’re automatically a member of clubs that include your callsignA unique identifier assigned to a licensed amateur radio operator (e.g., W1AW, K6TEST). .

Clubs List

The Clubs list (accessed from the Activity tab toolbar, three-person icon) shows:

Club name
Member count

Tap a club to view details.

Club Details

The club detail view shows:

Full member list with callsignA unique identifier assigned to a licensed amateur radio operator (e.g., W1AW, K6TEST). s
Club description (if available)

Club Member Locations on Map

The club detail view includes a map showing the locations of all club members:

Member pins placed at each member’s grid square
Your location highlighted distinctly
Distance from you to each member
Tap a pin to see the member’s callsign and recent activity

Club Statistics Dashboard

Club-level statistics provide aggregate data about your club’s activity:

Total QSOs across all members (this month/year)
Active members who logged QSOs recently
Top operators leaderboard by QSO count
Band distribution showing the club’s collective operating patterns

Membership

Club membership is determined by Polo notes lists configured on the activities server. Contact a club admin to add your callsignA unique identifier assigned to a licensed amateur radio operator (e.g., W1AW, K6TEST). to the list.

Callsign Membership Chips

When you log or hunt a station whose callsign appears in a public membership list, Carrier Wave shows inline membership chips on the callsign card and QSO detail view:

🎹 CWops #1532 — CWops member with member number
🤜 BKG #29 — Brass Knuckles Gang member with member number
🔑 SKCC #6707T — Straight Key Century Club member with number and award level (Centurion / Tribune / Senator)

The data is pulled daily from public lists (CWops, BKG, SKCC) into a local cache. Lookups are offline once cached, so chips appear instantly during contesting without any per-callsign network call. The same chips also drive contest auto-fill — see Contest Support for CWT auto-fill behaviour.

Activity Feed

The Activity feed displays notable achievements from you and your friends.

Feed Content

The feed automatically detects and displays:

New DXCC entities - First contact with a new DXCCDX Century Club - an award for confirming contacts with 100 or more DXCC entities (countries). country
New bands worked - First QSOA contact or conversation between two amateur radio stations. on a band
New modes - First contact on a modeThe type of transmission used (e.g., SSB, CW, FM, FT8).
DX contacts - Contacts over 5,000 km
Logging streaks - 7, 14, 30, 60, 90, 100, 180, or 365 day milestones
POTA activations - Completed activations (10+ QSOs)
Parks worked milestones - Accumulating unique POTAParks on the Air - a program encouraging portable operation from parks and public lands. parks
Friend activities - Notable achievements from accepted friends
Worked Friend events - When you log a QSOA contact or conversation between two amateur radio stations. with an accepted friend

Activity Detection

Detection runs automatically when you:

Log a new QSOA contact or conversation between two amateur radio stations. during a session
Complete a sync that downloads QSOs from QRZ"Who is calling?" - also the name of a popular callsign lookup and logging website. , POTAParks on the Air - a program encouraging portable operation from parks and public lands. , LoFiHam2K LoFi - a cloud logging service for amateur radio operators. , LoTWLogbook of The World - ARRL's system for confirming contacts electronically. , Club Log, or HAMRS

The detector analyzes recent QSOs in the background (capped at the 10,000 most recent for performance) and adds notable events to your feed.

Feed Filters

Use the filter bar to focus the feed:

All - Everything from everyone (you and friends)
Friends - Only activities from accepted friends
Clubs - Only activities from club members

Active filters show as highlighted chips. Tap a chip to toggle the filter.

Feed Refresh

The feed auto-refreshes:

Immediately when the Activity tab appears
Every 60 seconds while the tab is visible
When you tap the refresh button in the toolbar

Share achievements as branded image cards:

Tap the share icon on an activity item (or use the toolbar share button)
Choose Share Summary to generate a custom card
Post the image to social media or save it

Share cards include:

Achievement details
Your callsignA unique identifier assigned to a licensed amateur radio operator (e.g., W1AW, K6TEST).
Carrier Wave branding

Activity Servers

Community features are provided by activity servers. The official server is https://activities.carrierwave.app.

Adding Servers

To add a community-run server:

Go to Settings -> Activities
Scroll to Activity Servers
Tap Add Server
Enter the server URL and display name

Multiple servers can be configured. Challenges from all servers appear in the Activity tab.

Server Status

The Activities settings screen shows:

Server URL
Last successful fetch time
Errors (if any)
Official badge for the Carrier Wave server