New Kenwood TM-D710G Doesn't Transmit Location

[ChadHahn]

I installed my new radio this weekend and it receives APRS packets with no problem. I talked to someone this morning on simplex who was about 10 miles away so my antenna seems to be working.

The GPS icon is flashing and I have the beacon turned on. I've gone through all the settings in the APRS menu and everything should be correct but my location isn't being shown on APRS.fi. I also tried to send a message through SMSGTE and the message never left the queue. I've sent messages with my Baofeng and they've gone through so I think I didn't make errors doing that that.

Any suggestions as to what I can do to transmit on APRS?

 

[sonoronos]

Can you hear your radio transmit a beacon?

What's your beacon method setting?

 

[DaveInDenver]

Is the TNC the same? I presume you're using the internal TNC on the Kenwood and something else with the Baofeng. I wonder if it's a matter of the Kenwood TNC logic is trapped in receive.

Is the squelch wide open or have you set the radio to squelch after a packet receive is complete? The DCD (data carrier detect) implementation of many TNCs isn't robust such that incomplete packets can cause issues such as this, especially if there's no squelch to reset the logic.

A well designed TNC will run with squelch open, which is the correct approach to data radio. The Kenwood TM-D7x0 is by all accounts a good radio but I've never heard whether DCD works right or not. Electronics don't get headaches listening to white noise so there's no reason to introduce timing issues or not take advantage of DSP by squelching between packets.

 

[ChadHahn]

I'm using the Kenwood's internal TNC. I have the squelch turned off I also have the volume turned down to zero. Should I have the squelch turned up just a bit?

 

[ChadHahn]

Can you hear your radio transmit a beacon?

What's your beacon method setting?

I don't know. I guess I could put it on PTT and see.

I have it on Smart Beaconing but also had it on auto yesterday.

 

[DaveInDenver]

I'm using the Kenwood's internal TNC. I have the squelch turned off I also have the volume turned down to zero. Should I have the squelch turned up just a bit?

The volume shouldn't matter, I assume Kenwood takes the audio directly from the discriminator ahead of any audio filtering and the speaker & amp.

Try turning the squelch up like you would do normally using the mic. I suspect when you do the TNC starts sending packets. The radio is contending with two aspects, one on the data side it needs to know it's OK to send a packet which is implicit in the receive decoding. Turning up the squelch might kick the TNC into knowing it's OK to TX data.

It also needs to know it's OK for the side you've designated to be for data to take control of the transmitter from the other side of the radio (presumably the one you use for voice). Which it can only do if it knows you're not currently talking with the PTT depressed.

So I suspect the internal logic is locking the data side out of transmitting, whether it's squelch or perhaps in the setup.

 

[ChadHahn]

I'll try that. Thanks.

 

[ChadHahn]

I adjusted my squelch a little bit and almost immediately it showed that my message, which was in queue, was trying to send. I don't think it was doing anything because I'm in a carport but when I go out this afternoon, we'll see how it goes.

Another question. It seems to take a long time for the GPS to start flashing. If I had my home location programmed into the unit, would it grab the signal quicker?

 

[DaveInDenver]

Unlikely that setting a home location on a GPS receiver is going to decrease time to first fix.

Leave it on for at least 15 minutes with good view of the sky, that should get a complete almanac of satellites and decrease the time to a fix in the future. Then make sure to turn it on a lot when you're at home. Moving large distances between power ups also confuses them, like coming from Japan to the U.S.

 

[ChadHahn]

I've only had the radio hooked up for a couple days but each time I turn it on, it seems to take minutes to get the signal. I hooked it up the 4th and drove around. Yesterday, the 5th, it seemed to take about 10 minutes before I got a lock. It seemed to lock quicker when I turned off the beacon. Though now that I say that it might have had something to do with the fact that my beacons were going out.

 

[CMARJEEP]

The squelch on the 710 on the APRS side should be turned all the way up (all the way to the right).

The GPS on mine takes at least a few minutes to get a location, sometimes 10 minutes.

 

[dreadlocks]

Mine gets a GPS lock PDQ, if I turn it on in my driveway I'm sending my first packet out before I left the neighborhood.

 

[ChadHahn]

I was able to send a message to my self from my radio to my cellphone so I guess the signal is getting out now. I still can't see myself on aprs.fi

 

[dreadlocks]

If your using SMSGTE your getting igated, you should be appearing on aprsfi or aprsdirect if you have beacons enabled..

 

[DaveInDenver]

I was able to send a message to my self from my radio to my cellphone so I guess the signal is getting out now. I still can't see myself on aprs.fi

Do you not see the SMSGTE messages on aprs.fi? The site shows more than just posit beacons, e.g. raw packets, messages, weather, telemetry, bulletins, etc. When you search aprs.fi make sure to wildcard your call sign (W0XYZ*).