[amsat-bb] Tutorial on Working APRS Contacts on Kenwood TM-D710

[Frank Karnauskas]

Wouldn't it be nice if the TH-D74 allowed the use of a Bluetooth
keyboard!

73,
Frank

FRANK W. KARNAUSKAS, N1UW

-----Original Message-----
From: AMSAT-BB [mailto:amsat-bb-bounces at amsat.org] On Behalf Of
Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) via AMSAT-BB
Sent: Saturday, April 13, 2019 8:30 AM
To: AMSAT
Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Tutorial on Working APRS Contacts on Kenwood
TM-D710

Hi John!

Have you tried editing the status text field on an APRS-ready
HT or mobile radio? Lots of keypresses to make the change. It
would be easier for someone using software like UISS to type
a few characters in that field. For someone with a TH-D72, you
could end up with 20 to almost 40 keypresses to change a call
sign in a status text field. It is similar for those using a
mobile radio like a TM-D710G, where you press buttons on the
microphone's DTMF keypad to make those changes. It is much
easier for the users of the APRS-ready transceivers to pull a
call sign from a listing, and in a few keypresses send a
message to that call sign, instead of editing the status text
to do the same thing.

I know of one west-coast station that uses the status text to
make contacts with other stations. I don't think that station
is using a radio like a TM-D710G to work the passes. For the
rest of us with the APRS-ready transceivers, we use the messages
back and forth. We can see when a station sends a message to
another station, and can quickly make calls with messages
compared to the longer time needed to edit a status text field
to do the same thing.

Unfortunately, the Kenwood and Yaesu APRS-ready transceivers
faithfully implement APRS, where UISS deviates from it slightly
for messaging. UISS allows the user to disable the use of ACK
packets when sending messages. UISS will send an ACK packet, if
an incoming message requests it, but at least those users have
the option of not using ACKs on their own messages to others.
Now if the APRS standard provided a way for ACKs to be optional,
and Kenwood and Yaesu implemented this change (i.e., a menu
option where the ACK requirement for outgoing messages could be
disabled)... I wonder who could propose changes to APRS...  :-)

73!






Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK
http://www.wd9ewk.net/
Twitter: @WD9EWK or http://twitter.com/WD9EWK





On Sat, Apr 13, 2019 at 2:26 PM John Brier via AMSAT-BB
<amsat-bb at amsat.org>
wrote:

> Thanks for explaining Bob. I wasn't clear on just how much "heavier"
APRS
> packets were.
>
> It would definitely take a concerted effort to get people to use
STATUS
> messages more.
>
> 73, John Brier KG4AKV
>
>
>
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