oh, boy, got a thd72a. however, this is my first kenwood radio and i got it to turn on and figured out how to put it on a local repeater. that works.
next i thought i would give the aprs a try. i have never used aprs before. i put my callsign in. but have no idea what to do next. the manual isn't really any help as i don't know what values need to go into the aprs fields or where to program in the aprs frequency. which i don't have either.
i may have bit off more than i can chew with all the features of this radio. also, how do you set the time/date. looks like there is a place for it at the bottom of the screen but can't figure out what to punch to get it to do something.
73...bruce
Hi Bruce,
You need to spend some time with the manuals (both the printed and cd-rom versions). This is an extremely complex radio system do not be fooled by it's size.
Date/Time is set automatically when you turn on the internal GPS (page GPS-2 cd-rom). You have to set the time zone manually via menu 196.
Page 33 of the printed manual tells you how to input text/data to the menu options.
It's likely that most of the APRS defaults will work, but spend some time with the manuals and the APRS web-sites to figure out what options are needed/required in your particular area. Contacting a local APRS Elmer would be helpful as well.
Have fun! 73,
Jeff Moore -- KE7ACY CN94
----- Original Message ----- From: "Bruce" kk5do@arrl.net
oh, boy, got a thd72a. however, this is my first kenwood radio and i got it to turn on and figured out how to put it on a local repeater. that works.
next i thought i would give the aprs a try. i have never used aprs before. i put my callsign in. but have no idea what to do next. the manual isn't really any help as i don't know what values need to go into the aprs fields or where to program in the aprs frequency. which i don't have either.
i may have bit off more than i can chew with all the features of this radio. also, how do you set the time/date. looks like there is a place for it at the bottom of the screen but can't figure out what to punch to get it to do something.
73...bruce
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oh, boy, got a thd72a.... I thought I would give the aprs a try. I put my callsign in. but have no idea what to do next.
There are only a few more things you need to do to start viewing Ham radio around you:
1) Set Band A to 144.39 (in N.America) 2) Push the TNC key to turn on the TNC 3) Be sure you can hear packets (may need a good location or antennna)
Then leave the radio on for 10 minutes. If your list does not begin to fill with everything going on around you in ham radio then wait 30 minutes and you should at least see what is going on in your region. (those are standard APRS refresh times). If APRS is working in your area as an information resource, then you should be able to see what is going on.
Press the LIST button and you will see callsigns and local objects and frequencies. The list is 100 deep, but it is also 9 pages wide. Use the LEFT-RIGHT buttons on the joystick to navigagte the WIDTH of these pages, and use the UP/DN joystick buttons to go though the depth of the list.
Oh, to make the list more visible, press and hold the LIST key. This will display 5 lines per screen, instead of 3.
The STATION LIST is the left column of the columns below. If it is in 3-station mode it only shows calls. But if it is in 5 line mode, it also shows the station TYPE. But HOLDING the list key another second will add DATE heard. Here are all the other 9 pages (COLUMNS) of info per station:
STN | TYPE |1st20|2nd20|ICON & |PWR/HGT|GAIN|LAT |PATH LIST|COMMNT|TEXT |TEXT |DIR/DST|CSE/SPD|DIR |LONG|LAST
Hopefully, the default settings will set you up to basically begin receiving data out of the box.
Oh, inorder for the radio to display the DIRECTION and DISTANCE to every item in the list, the radio has to know where it is. Either turn on the internal GPS with the [F] GPS key or enter a position by pressing the POS key.
Now to TRANSMIT your APRS information, there are more decisions to make. TO me, the most important is to have the radio automatically insert your Band-B Voice frequency in your beacon, so people can see wat repeater or channel you are on. This is the APRS menu QSY(FREQ) setting. Set QSY-in-status to ON.
You can set your beacon to AUTO if you are actually outdoors doing something, or just leave it on MANUAL since most of the time an HT in a pocket is not in an ideal antenna location to actually get out. When the HT is in the hand and can see the sky, then each press of the BCON button will transmit. If the local APRS digipeater hears you, the raido willl flash that info and also show you the digipeater that relayed you.
But the fun is SEEING what else is going on. Us the list key and joystick for that. Oh, also, when on the LIST, you can press the MENU key and SORT the list by TIME, by CALL or by DISTANCE. These are very powerful!
Bob, WB4APR
participants (3)
-
Bob Bruninga -
Bruce -
Jeff Moore