Questions,answered.

A pocket-sized radio receiver that shows you the wireless activity around you — and identifies it. It covers 5 MHz to 1.7 GHz with a software-defined radio, and picks up 2.4 GHz drone Remote ID through its Wi-Fi chip.

Think spectrum analyser, scanner and SDR in one, with smart identification and decoding that tells you what you’re looking at.

Aircraft announcing their position (ADS-B at 1090 MHz), boats on marine VHF and AIS, FM radio, airband voice, amateur repeaters, car key fobs, doorbells, weather stations and tyre sensors on the licence-free bands, and drones broadcasting Remote ID. Where you are and what’s nearby will shape what shows up — that’s the fun part.

No. LittleSpec is receive-only by design — there is no transmit path on the board. It cannot interfere with anything it listens to, and there is nothing to misuse.

Yes. Physical controls and onboard processing mean you can scan and listen standalone. The app adds the big screen: live spectrum, identification, maps and alerts.

It depends on the signal. Aircraft at altitude can be heard from well over 100 km with a clear sky; a key fob is a few tens of metres. The internal antenna is tuned for 1090 MHz aircraft tracking, though it also hears strong nearby signals like FM radio. The included wideband extendable antenna covers the rest, and its SMA connector accepts larger antennas for more reach.

LittleSpec only receives, so in the UK and most countries no licence is needed to own or use it. Receiving broadcast radio, aircraft ADS-B, marine AIS, amateur bands and licence-free device bands is generally fine.

What you may legally listen to does vary by country — some restrict listening to certain voice services, for example. Please check the rules where you live.

No. It hears what is being broadcast openly into the air around you — the same signals any radio in range receives. It does not decrypt anything, and it does not intercept mobile phone traffic.

You pay £280 per unit at checkout, which secures your place in the first production batch at early-adopter pricing. Payment is handled by Stripe — card, Apple Pay or Google Pay. Units ship in order-date order.

The first batch is expected to ship in November 2026. We are in the firmware-and-app stage now, with pilot units before the batch. If the date moves we’ll tell you straight away, and you can cancel for a full refund. The about page shows where we are.

Yes — any time before your unit is dispatched, for any reason, for a full refund to your original payment method. Reply to your receipt or any email from us.

£280 is early-adopter pricing for first-batch pre-orders. The general-release price will be higher.

Yes. LittleSpec ships from the UK to the UK, Ireland, the EU, Switzerland, Norway, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Singapore. Any shipping charge is shown at checkout; import duties or taxes on arrival are the buyer’s responsibility.

iPhone at launch. An Android app follows after launch. The device itself works standalone in the meantime.

No. LittleSpec talks to your phone directly over Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and identification runs locally. Internet is only used for optional extras like map tiles.

Every identification comes with a confidence level and the reasoning behind it — frequency, bandwidth, modulation and timing. Structured signals like ADS-B, AIS and Remote ID are decoded outright; for everything else we tell you how sure we are.

Carefully Coded, a small studio in the United Kingdom. LittleSpec is a trading name of Carefully Coded. See what else we make at carefully.codes.

Follow along and message us on Instagram at @littlespec.rf, or reply to any email from us.