[aprssig] Help setting up Kenwood D700A

[Andy Gonzales]

Vic,

APRS point has to be on the low side of the scale regarding utility and documentation. The best thing about it is that you get MapPoint for free and I use that all the time for a lot of deifferent things. I started with WinAPRS with a D7, moved over to APRSppoint with the D7 because I wanted better maps, but quickly moved to UIVIEW which is the gold standard.  A lot of features but the documentation is so good it even nags you to read it.  The author is now SK but there is a group that still supports it.  For the naps, you need to get PMap Server.  I am not saying that it will be real simple to install but its a beaut. Now I have a D700 and its great -- except my TNC board cracked at the GPS jack.  But Kenwood is making a rush fix.

I also had problems seeing myself.  You know that you don't actually see your RF coming back to you as a position report.  For he radio only you get "MY POSITION" on the screen with an optional beep.  What you see in the software is basically a copy of the packet going out.  APRSpoint was very hit and miss.  I also had problems with objects and findu.  If you try sending your position manually (F6) you should see the "ON AIR" mesage on the radio.

Your 1-9-5 and -6 settings are correct.  I have sent you some files privately that may help.
7  3

Andy
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Vic Fraenckel 
  To: APRS Sig 
  Sent: Sunday, September 11, 2005 1:10 PM
  Subject: [aprssig] Help setting up Kenwood D700A


  I am not the brightest bulb in the chandelier! 

  I have been struggling for two days to get my 700A on the air. I have it interfaced to a laptop running APRSPoint. I am receiving packets from other stations and see them plotted on my map, but I am unable to see my own packets. I have a GPS attached to the radio and 'believed' I had things setup properly on my radio. Not seeing my position show up on the map is discouraging. It leads me to believe I do not have forgotten something. Where have I gone wrong? Perhaps something is not set right in AP? Maybe I am not supposed to see myself! From the map display there appears to be a digipeater locally. I even went to findu to see if my station was there with no luck. One area I may have overlooked and just found in the User Manual is menu item 1-9-5 and 1-9-6. Do these have any effect on my problem? If so, I expect I should set 1-9-5 to 9600 and 1-9-6 to 1200. Right? 

  If someone could guide me in the radio set up - sort of step by step I would be grateful. I must have missed something. What are the minimal things that should be attended to as far as the radio's menus are concerned?

  I have the radio setup in TNC PKT mode, NMEA, 1200B packet transfer rate. My GPS is a Garmin GPS35 and I have verified that it is transmitting NMEA 4800B. In the vain hope that I wired the GPS => radio plug backwards I have even tried interposing a null modem between the GPS and the connector to the radio. I wired a DB9 on the free end of the plug as my GPS has a DB9 on the output. Neither direction worked. BTW: the pigtail is wired to the DB9 so that the GPS Data appears on the plugs tip without the null modem and on the ring with the null modem. The manual is somewhat vague sayig that the tip (white) goest to DATA IN on the gps and the ring (red) goes to DATA OUT on the gps. I am not clear as to which device is the DTE and which is the DCE. If OUT means to the radio in this context, I have the DB9 wired incorrectly. However the null modem corrects this for testing purposes. I WILL rewire this so as to not have to use the null modem.

  Any enlightenment will be appreciated.

  Vic
  ________________________________________________________

  Victor Fraenckel - The Windman         
  victorf ATSIGN windreader DOT com
  KC2GUI                                                  



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