N1KCG wrote... > Use a Nuvi 350, OT2m, and a Kenwood TM-V71. It works and gives me > waypoints of nearby stations, plus puts out beacons of my location, > but also noted it is not super reliable. All in my Toyota Avalon while > driving to work, and home. Set my beacon interval to 15 seconds, and > my power medium. Seems to work to get some location beacons out. > Tried SmartBeaconing, but that resulted in less packets transmitted, > and a poor breadcrumb trail plotting on aprs.fi .
You need to find and fix the underlying problem. Beaconing every 15 seconds is just QRM, whether you are being decoded or not. Shortening your beacon will improve success rates. Switch to compressed beacons and if you really need to tell the world that you are in a black Avalon Cruiser, just send it every 10 beacons. Your problem isn't that "SmartBeaconing sends less packets". That is a good thing as it makes sure you beacon one or more times when you change course, more often when travelling faster, and less often when travelling more slowly. Again, you need to fix the problem instead of beaconing more often to compensate for it. > One trick I found was to make sure your gps (nuvi 350) has a lock on > the location. My beacons do not seem to start until a few minutes > after the gps is locked. If you have the time, turn it on before you start moving, but I find that the Nuvi is quite quick to get a lock. > Have to experiment more. Also need to experiment with digipeating > while mobile, as did not realize I could have more problems. Need to > turn digipeating off while mobile. Most of the time, the digi function should be disabled while mobile. Most of the time, you are being digi'd first by KB1AEV-15. Are you just always near that digi, or is it the only one that can decode your tones? What is your deviation? Even if you don't have a meter, it should be fairly easy to get it in the ballpark by ear. http://aprs.fi/?c=raw&call=N1KCG-9&limit=1000 Are you using a path of WIDE2-1? Give WIDE1-1,WIDE2-1 a try... in conjunction with SmartBeaconing using reasonable (not abusive) settings. How are you connecting to the TM-V71? are you transmitting pre-emphasized audio? What is your transmit delay? Are there a reasonable number of well placed digis near where you usually travel? Is the frequency quite or very busy? 73 es cul - Keith VE7GDH -- "I may be lost, but I know exactly where I am!"
