APRS School and Set Up Meeting

[DaveK]

For those who will be running APRS to the meeting, post up the call sign, with your SSID, that you will be using. I have the following.

Ollie K6JYB
Larry W6LPB-9
Hector KE6VRL-12
Tom KI6FHA
Fetus KG6QPH-9
Dave K6DTK

[OLLIE]

I will be dropping my wife and kids off at my in-laws in Buena Park then heading down to the meeting.

[Fetus]

KG6QPH-9

[Fetus]

At the moment, I'm trying to figure out how to setup a group with all of our callsigns on my TM-D710.

Then to turn on the filtering to just get position reports from the group while I'm enroute.

And will someone start beaconing the meet & greet location when they get there?

James

[DaveK]

James:

I can't help you with the features or programming of the 710, but if you are using UI View or AGW, we can help you to create a group to track.

Once we get to the restaurant, we can send messages to all of those who can receive them. You should be able to see us all together on your screen.

[Fetus]

It was nice meeting you all today; Dave, Hector, Larry, Tom, and Ollie. Thanks for your help.

I have been hunting around the Yahoo TM-D710 group. It seems to be a common problem getting the D710 and UI View to work together. There are a lot of variables that need to be just right. The TM-D710 Yahoo group has three .CMD files for the TM-D710 to work with UI-View. I'm going to try them now.

Apparently the CMD file will actually change the menu settings in your radio. So it is recommended that you take note of your menu settings first, then run the CMD file, then see what has changed in your radio menu settings.

I found a tip to make sure that the GPS Baud rate setting is set to 4800 and not 9600 when you edit the CMD file.

A quick Google search when I got home for D710 and UI-View didn't really reveal much useful information.

If you guys have the September 2008 Issue of QST, there is a 4 page article by Bob Bruniga with some tips for using APRS. However, I didn't see anything for UI-View and the D710. If you don't have it, PM me and I can email you a crappy PDF scan of the article.

[cruiserlarry]

James, it was nice to finally meet you, too.

APRS is a wonderful tool for hams, but regardless of what radio, TNC, or software you have, there is always a lot of "tweeking" required to get everything up and running properly. I was using an FT-857D with a Kantronics KPC-3 TNC and a CF-29 Toughbook with UI-View 32 software, and it took a couple of weeks (and a few e-mails to our resident radio tech wiz, Hector ) to get that set-up dialed in.

Then I had to get the bug to upgrade to the Kenwood TM-D710A, eliminate the Kantronics KPC-3, use my new CF-30 toughbook, and viola !!! - headaches !!!

Well, thank to my previous lessons from Hector, a lot of trial and error, and persistence, the new set up seems to be working correctly... but as we've seem today, two vehicles with virtually the same equipment still require different "tweeks", and even then all is not done...

So, keep trying, don't expect much from the net, and keep Hector's e-mail address handy

[hmfigueroa]

wow,

Thanks guys,

I appreciate the compliments. I hope everything works out with the necessary tweaks.

What a day!

[Fetus]

At least I feel better that I'm not the only one who has problems with UI View and the D710.

I used a different CMD file from the Yahoo D710 Group and got it to show my GPS signal. Though the PMAPs I created won't stay put and will blank out if I'm tracking myself. I also got a beacon out but I haven't got one to hit a DIGI or IGATE. I'll probably talk Ollie through to my current stage and see if he can get any farther.

Hector or Larry;

What is the UNPROTO supposed to be set to in Station Setup in Ui View?

And is the APRS path (Wide 1-1, Wide 2-1) already set in the D710 menu settings?

I'd stay up all night trying to fix it but my kids are running the SEB Mud Run tomorrow a.m. at Pitchess.

[DaveK]

James:

It was great to meet you. These meetings make it possible to get the experience and solutions of others who are having the same problems.
Of course having Hector available, never hurts either.

Thanks Hector, Ollie, Tom and Larry for making this a success. Looks like our next session will be on mobile/portable HF antennas.