GREAT APRS SETUPS FOR THE TM-D710 MOBILE 29 Jun 10
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WB4APR
First REVIEW the Powerpoint:
www.aprs.org/APRS-mobile.pptAnd read
www.aprs.org/D7xx/d700-faq.txt.The above PPT and file tells you how to get the most out of your APRS
radio. Then use the information below for additional settings for the
D710. The biggest difference is that the D710 is easier to configure
the APRS hot buttons to be active, and the larger display to show
the FREQUENCY of other D710 and FTM-350 mobiles.
In the D710 USE STATUS 5! This is the only STATUS that will
automatically insert your band B voice Frequency in your APRS
packets. This is very important for maintainting commmunicatinos
with others around you! I suggest: "[frequency] & V-Alert..."
so others can also see you are monitoring Voice Alert also.
NORMAL APRS OPERATIONS: (Same as D700)
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BAND-B: Use this band for your voice operations. Use it on 2m, 440
or even receiving on 1296 FM and many other commercial bands.
CALL CHANNEL: Save 146.52 MHz voice simplex in side-A CALL CHANNEL.
This is important for making QUICK Voice Alert QSO's...
BAND-A: Set for APRS on 144.39, 1200 baud, TNC on band A. Set path
to WIDE1-1,WIDE2-1 in most areas, never more hops without serious
thought. Set CTCSS to 100 Hz for Voice Alert with volume up. Save
in memory 0 or wherever. Be sure to set Band A squelch way up so
that the BUSY indication goes out between packets or your rig will
never transmit APRS. The tightness has no affect on APRS, but if
it opens and BUSY shows, the radio will never transmit packet.
On the D710, to get the APRS hot-keys on the display, just cycle
the KEY button until the APRS functions are displayed. Keep
them on top most of the time for normal operation.
SET D710 MENU: AUX-AUTO_PM_STORE OFF Without this, you can not
save your favorite configurations in any of the PM's and have any
hope that they will remain uncorrupted during operation. The default
is ON, which means that everytime you use the radio, it will auto-
matically save (overwrite) your favorite settings with whatever
you were last doing with the radio. This is bad. Leave it OFF.
That way once you have the radio configured and saved in a PM, then
you can always go back to that by selecting that PM.
So, now SAVE your APRS configureation in a PM. while the band A
channel is the one with 144.39 and CTCSS 100 for voice alert.
MEMORIES: Store this APRS/Voice Alert channel with CTCSS 100 in
memory, say memory 1 and name it "APRS VA". Now turn CTCSS OFF
with no Tones and label this "APRS raw". Save this in say memory 2.
Now turn CTCSS ON again, and program it with a private PL tone.
Save this as "APRSmute". Save this in channel 3 for example. With
these 3 channels then you can easily configure APRS on the fly:
Ch-1 144.39 CTCSS 100 "APRS VA " - for normal operations
Ch-2 144.39 no tones "APRS raw" - for troubleshooting the channel
Ch-3 144.39 CTCSS xxx "APRSmute" - for completely QUIET operation
The real purpose of channel 3 is if you go to a club meeting or
hamfest and there are so many voice alert operators that the noise
is bothering you. DO NOT TURN DOWN SIDE A VOLUME! Instead, set
channel 3 and you will not hear anything. The reason for this is
that if you ever turn the volume down, you will forget and it
might be weeks or months before you realize it and in the mean
time you missed all those fun Voice Alert calls.
If you want, you can also use channel 3 for private calls from
trusted agents who know your private CTCSS, but then you lose out
on all the Voice Alert activity.
You can also set in a few digital channels for local DX clusters if
you like using your D7 or D700 for monitoring them. Then you can
QSY at any time to a DXcluster frequency and receive DX spots too.
VOICE ALERT: This was why you left band A volume up but set CTCSS 100
to mute the speaker. This way, you dont hear any packets, but
ANYONE can call you with VOICE on 144.39 to alert you by using PL 100.
This allows anyone, anywhere, anytime (they are in simplex range of you)
to call you by voice with PL100, because they KNOW you are listening
on the APRS channel with CTCSS 100!
PROXIMITY RADAR: A corrolary advantage of the Voice Alert Setting is
that the speaker is 100% muted for all packets... EXCEPT simplex range
packets from another Voice Alert D700 that is very close to you. His
once a minute packets will act like a radar-ping, alerting you to his
presence and the fact that he is also monitroing voice alert for a
simplex QSO.
You may go weeks without hearing anyone (simplex packet range is only 5
miles or so), but it is fun when someone comes in range. APRS is about
*facilitating-communications*. With Voice Alert, you will never "pass-
in-the-night" without knowing that someone is nearby, in simplex range
of you that can ALWAYS be contacted with a voice call... Its like a
free radar for other mobile APRS operators that are in simplex range
AND listening.
DIGIPEATING: We do not want most mobiles to digipeat most of the time.
But we do want to be able to use them when needed. This involves what
we call TEMPn-N digipeating. See the special web page all about D700
digipeater settings:
http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/aprs/d700digi.txtBut basically it means:
1) Set UIDIGI to nothing! (we do NOT want you to be a generic digi!)
2) Set DIGIPEATER to ON (so we can at least digi via your callsign
2) Set UIFLOOD to nothing (so it is not used
3) Set UITRACE to TEMP so that your radio always supports TEMPn-N
TRAFFIC REPORTING:
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See also:
http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/d700-objects.txtThis feature allows you to place TRAFFIC objects on the APRS system
to alert other drivers of traffic porblems, slowdowns and or other
incidents with only two button presses. THis works by changing
your MYCALL temporarily to TRAFFC (or other OBJECT name) and then
sending a few packets to put it on the map. You put this cofig-
uration in one of the radio's Program Memories (PM5) as follows:
MYCALL: TRAFFC-4 <use random SSID or match your last letter
XMIT: MANUAL <to only report the object ONCE or so
STATUS TXT: BACKUP/SLOWDOWN/INCIDENT(APR) <your SUFFIX on the end)
PATH: WIDE2-2 <keep the OBJECT local
ICON: STAR <big & eye catching. (use Triangle on D7).
BAND-B: 146.52 <to hear other locals in the same mess
Voice Alert: OFF <in otherwords, do NOT set CTCSS 100
By setting XMIT to Manual, you wont keep transmitting TRAFFC objects
if you forget to switch back to your other PM... But you do need to
push BCON a few times until you are sure that your packet got
digipeated a few times so that others can see it.
Voice Alert is OFF, so that you will HEAR packets and be reminded that
you are in PM5! Not only is Band B programmed with 146.52 for ease
of communicating direct with others in the same traffic mess, but you
can also then use this PM5 as a quick QSY for "52" at any time. Thus
you get triple use out of this Program Memory PM5:
1) One button traffic reporting (push BCON button to actually XMIT it)
2) Quick QSY for 146.52 operations (its also in your band A CALL ch)
3) Quick ctcss disable on 144.39 if I want to listen to APRS channel
4) Possible temporary DIM setting while you get out of the car
SATELLITE TRACKING:
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SATELITE TRACKING: If someone in your area is running an APRSdata
server, on your front panel, you will see an alert for any FM
satellites that come into view. These alerts are transmitted on
144.39 to all Kenwood Mobiles. They are also captured into your
station list as satellite objects showing you the Frequency,
Doppler Azimuth and distance to the bird. If your radio has been
on for at least 10 minutes, it will also capture a schedule of all
satellite passes for the next 80 minutes into your DX LIST.
For more info see
http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/satinfo.html .
ISS: ISS with the new Kenwood on board (2004) uses similar path
aliases of ARISS, WIDE, APRSAT also and requires Transmitting and
receiving on 145.825 MHz. It should also digipeat on WIDEn-N so
that you do not have to change anything from normal operating except
the operating channel to work it. When operating cia the ISS or
any APRS satellite it is a good idea to add the wildcard "*" to your
MSG GROUPS so that you can see all of the messages between other users.
But dont forget to remove the wild card for normal use or your
message list will fill up fast on 144.39.
SUNSAT, SAPPHIRE, ANDE, RAFT: These sateliltes also supported APRS
digipeating but are all now inoperative or have de-orbited.
GO-32: NOT OPERATIONAL AT THIS TIME (June 2010)
This satellite needs a separate PM because it needs to have
Transmit Data on Band A 145.93 and RX data on Band B on 435.225 +/-
10 KHz fof DOppler and APRS baud rate set to 9600. It also needs to
have its own VIA PATH of VIA 4XTECH. Also, it is a good idea to add
the wildcard "*" to your MSG GROUPS so that you can see some of the
messages from GO-32 or other users. See the GO-32 web page:
http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/go32-ops.htmlAO-51, ECHO: This FM voice satellite also has a 9600 baud digi-
peater like GO-32 in addition to its more common use as an FM voice
repeater satellite. It uses the same Band configuration
as the GO-32 settings so just program a memory channel on band A for
transmit on 145.975 and band-B for receive on 435.150 +/- 10 KHz of
Doppler using the same PM as for GO32. Do NOT beacon any packet via
teh voice repeater of AO-51, only via its digital channel.
AO-27: This FM *voice* satellite is only on during the day but it
is the same as AO-51 though a little weaker on the downlink. Put
the band-A uplink in a memory channel as 145.85 and the downlink
in band-B on 436.800 +/- 10 KHz of Doppler again, using the same PM
as for UO-22. Do not use any packet via AO-27, it is for voice only.
UHF DOWNLINKS: The frequencies for all the satellites with downlinks
on UHF are listed above as the center frequency. You will have to tune
10 KHz higher at the start of the pass. This will shift down by 5 KHz
4 times during the pass, so if you use memories, you will have to
program in several in sesquence to follow the doppler.
In summary I would do it this way:
PM-off - Normal operations with 144.39 in a memory on band A for
terrestrial operations with CTCSS 100. Then change channel
memory to 145.825 to operate PCSAT (No CTCSS). Band B is
available for all other mobile operations. Also operate
Sapphire by only changing your channel freqeuncy and path.
PM1 - ISS operations with 145.825 in a memory on Band A. You
can still use Band B for all normal mobile operations.
PM2 - Satellite operations with band-A memories holding the
uplinks for UO-22 (packet), UO-14, and AO-27 and Sapphire.
Band-B memories hold the downlinks. Actually, each satelite
will probably need 5 memories (+10, +5, +0, -5 and -10 KHz).
PM3, PM4,Available for your other applications or object names.
PM5 - Available for 52 and APRS object reporting...
Just some thoughts...
de WB4APR, Bob
