Built by people who go where the signal doesn't.
Signum started on our own trips: on the water, on the trail, on the sled, a long way past the last bar.
We're out there too
We fish, backpack, overland, ride snowmobiles, hunt and paddle. The best days usually happen where a phone says No Service: a high lake at first light, a two-track that doesn't show up on the map, a bowl of fresh snow over the ridge.
And on almost every one of those days, the group spreads out. Someone stops to fish the next hole. A sled takes the other fork. A hiker drops back to fix a strap. Nobody's in trouble. You just don't know where they are, and there's no way to ask.
Why we built Signum
We went looking for the tool we wanted, and kept running into the same walls:
- No towers, no app. Most group apps stop working the moment the signal does.
- One brand only. The group systems built into machines only talk to the same brand. Real groups don't ride matching gear.
- Another bill. Satellite gadgets work, but each person needs the device and a monthly plan.
- Built for radio hobbyists. The open radio apps are powerful, and they expect you to know a lot about radios.
So we built the thing we wanted on our own trips: your whole group on one map, messages that move without towers, and a way back to the truck or camp, on any machine, using open radios you own.
What we hold ourselves to
- Honest about what it knows. Every position shows how old it is. Old is never shown as live.
- No range promises. Terrain and radios decide how far it reaches, and we say so.
- Not an emergency service. Help alerts go to your group, and we're clear about that.
- No account needed for the core group features, and your trips stay on your phone.
- Open radios, any brand. You're not locked into our hardware or anyone else's.
Why "Signum"
sig·num (Latin) a sign, a signal, a mark. Also the standard carried at the front of a group.
Long before radios, a group in rough country stayed together by keeping one thing in sight: the standard. It said here we are, this way, regroup here. If you got separated, you looked for it.
That's the job we want Signum to do. It's the signal that carries your message when there's no service. It's the mark on the map where camp is, where the truck is, where your buddy was last seen. And it's the point the group follows back together at the end of the day.
Where we are now
We're a small team. The Signum app is in field testing on Android, and we use it on our own trips. We're also building the Signum Puck, a radio made for the app. We'd rather tell you what it can't do yet than promise what it can't.