[aprssig] Some Quick Impressions of the Dayton Hamvention 2007 -- APRS -- Kenwood TM-D710

[Mark Earle]

I wish Kenwood saw this product important enough, to talk to a panel of 
amateurs with APRS interest. I've heard no stories of Shin or anyone 
else listening to input from other than WB4APR. Bob is a great guy, but 
there are other things we as the APRS community need fixed. A few off hand:
	KISS mode
	Smart Beaconing (not Proportional pathing)
	A way to NOT lose the display when using the tnc with external devices
	Access to the display by external devices without trouble
	A small (optional) PDA-like qwerty keyboard, wirelessly, for config and 
text input to the radio

I can think of many more gripes about the current product - and am not 
buying either the old or new until a lot of reviews are out so I can 
learn what is fixed and what remains broken.


Mark Cheavens wrote:
> I will go one step closer. I own a D7 and would buy a replacement for it 
> as well as a D710, ONLY if they have smart beaconing.
> 
> I do not own a D700 because it will NOT do smart beaconing. I would 
> gladly send Kenwood the money for one IF it did!
> 
> As far as a D7 replacement it should also have a built in GPS and better 
> batter life (Smart beaconing would help).
> 
> Too bad the Garmin Rino's won't do HAM frequencies and AFSK data!
> 
> Mark Cheavens
> KC5EVE
> 
> 
> At 05:08 PM 5/22/2007, you wrote:
>> Bob Burns W9RXR wrote:
>>
>> > At 01:37 AM 5/21/2007, Stephen H. Smith wrote:
>> > >I was finally told that the D710 probably won't be available until
>> > >early fall. [snip]
>> > Both the U.S. rep and "Shin" said that the D710 firmware was still in
>> > development and that few details were still being worked out. I asked
>> > about Smart Beaconing, but was told that the D710 would have
>> > "something better". I was also told that "Shin" had spent a lot of
>> > time with Bob Bruninga at the TAPR conference discussing APRS
>> > features for this radio. Bob may or may not be able to confirm what
>> > they discussed.
>>
>> It seems several people asked Kenwood about SmartBeaconing for the 
>> D710, because several such tales were told over at the HamHUD booth.
>>
>> My guess is that "something better" means WB4APR's "PROPORTIONAL 
>> PATHING" (PP). While PP may help QRM issues as well as SmartBeaconing, 
>> it certainly does not produce any improvement in the appearance of a 
>> map track over fixed-timed posits, because the positions are in fact 
>> still being sent at fixed intervals. In contrast, SmartBeaconing 
>> includes both corner-pegging and speed-variable beaconing, which not 
>> only improve the QRM situation, but also produce useful map tracks, 
>> and allow dead reckoning to truly work.  SmartBeaconing has been 
>> adopted and refined by many APRS software and devices, including 
>> HamHUD (II and V), UIView, APRS+SA, SmartPalm, OpenTracker, TinyTrak, 
>> TNC-X, and APRS Deluxe.  It's well accepted by the APRS community, 
>> which begs the question: why won't Kenwood adopt it?
>>
>> Speculative 73's,
>>
>> Steve KA9MVA
>>
>> "The HamHUD Guy"


-- 
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