Amateur (Ham) Radio BS and Callsign Thread!

Wife sent this one to me.

 

Ever find out any more about this?

 

I dropped the ball and haven't called them yet. Will do on Monday.

 

Ended up buying a Kenwood 710G. Figured I'd just spend the money in one shot rather than buying something cheaper/simpler and then probably upgrading later.

I just finished installing everything and haven't talked to anyone yet. Sitting in the car playing with APRS settings trying to figure that out.

 

Looks good.

 

For whatever reason I can't seem to get my APRS position to show up online at aprs.fi. I'm within range of several digipeaters and at least one igate and my radio receives beacons from them. I've received beacons from other mobile users that appear online. My radio says it is transmitting when set to beacon and the tax tone is turned on. I'm probably missing something dumb but I've read all the Kenwood stuff and watched a ton of YouTube videos on setting it up with no luck.

 

Silly question, I know, but do you have a GPS plugged in, and if so is it actually working?

 

Clean install!

 

It's the 710G, so built in GPS. It is turned on. Here's a pic of it showing GPS on, BCON on and the radio saying it just transmitted my location.

 

I'm not completely familiar with this radio but I can try to help. if you are using smartbeacon, you may have to be moving for it to work properly. check menu # 612, is there a setting for path? for MY TNC I'm using WIDE1-1
It might be called APRS path, digi path, packet path or just plain path.

What is your callsign, I can try to send you APRS messages

 

KL4NB-9. I've tried it set to two to five hops with no luck. I'll go power the radio up now.

 

I have the same radio and used this guide and works great. Check your settings against this if you haven't.

 

Everything seems to be in order following that guide.

I have an idea after messing with it this morning. Even with squelch maxed out I frequently show "busy" on the APRS frequency and if I turn voice alert off there is static even when no packet transmissions are heard. If what I've read online is correct my radio won't beacon if it thinks the frequency is being used.

 

Sorry, I thought you had a 700.

Looks like you are still not being heard: http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/find.cgi?kl4nb*

 

Yep. I'm headed out of the house for a bit and out of the town so I'll see if anything shows up as I move around. It's been turned on in the driveway for a few hours this morning with no packets making it out. I'm still receiving everything though.

 

Grasping at straws here, but I wonder if your data isn't being passed due to the fact that the APRS servers haven't been updated with your license information. I noticed that your call doesn't come up on QRZ, even though it shows active as of 7/10 in the FCC ULS database.

73 de N5RKE

 

I just sent you an APRS message to see if it gets to you. If so, then my idea has no merit. If not, then maybe your call still needs to propagate through the system.

 

APRS doesn't validate your license, you do not even need to use your call sign is my understanding.

 

To get position reports to show up on FindU or other APRS internet servers? I thought that it did.

A local digipeater may pass your traffic, but I am guessing that it isn't going anywhere once it enters the internet.

 

I'm showing up on APRS.fi now. Didn't change anything, just left the house and drove around a bit. KL4NB-9 as the callsign on aprs. Haven't received the message yet.