[aprssig] Not Receiving Messages from APRS-IS

[Pete Loveall AE5PL Lists]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jeff Kunce
> Sent: Monday, May 19, 2008 10:40 AM
> To: aprssig at lists.tapr.org
> Subject: [aprssig] Not Receiving Messages from APRS-IS
>
> 20080519152102,N0JUH-3>APAGW,KA0GFC-2*,WIDE2-1,qAO,KA0GFC-3::WHO-IS
> :N0JUH{21
>
> And the ack and response from WHO-IS appear on the internet:
> 20080519151156,WHO-IS>APJIQ3,TCPIP*,qAC,jFindU-QZ:>QRZ Lookup Server
> 20080519152102,WHO-IS>APJIQ3,TCPIP*,qAC,jFindU-QZ::N0JUH-3 :ack21
> 20080519152102,WHO-IS>APJIQ3,TCPIP*,qAC,jFindU-QZ::N0JUH-3
> :N0JUH/G/JEFFREY J KUNCE/MO/USA{00

> But I never see this at my station.
>
> Shouldn't the IGATE that relayed my message know where I am and send
> the response back so I can hear it?  How is this supposed to work, and
> what is going wrong?

Yes, it should.  One thing I see when looking at KA0GFC-3 is that the same callsign-SSID is being used for a WinAPRS IGate and a Kantronics KPC-3 digi/node.  This may be causing his WinAPRS some confusion (note to ALL APRS operators: use a UNIQUE callsign-SSID for EACH station).  Second, he may be a receive-only IGate (not having gate-to-RF enabled).  However, from your list, it looks like another IGate saw you as well and should have gated to you if it was set to gate to RF.

Finally, try WHO-15 instead of WHO-IS.  Some older software will not gate to RF callsign-SSIDs that use a character SSID.  This was based on the idea of trying to conform to the AX.25 packet structure on "third-party" networks such as APRS-IS.  This assumption went away with many aprsD installations and the gained flexibility in creating unique callsign-SSID combinations was capitalized on by various software authors for APRS-IS clients.  The only AX.25 "matching" done on APRS-IS anymore is to ensure only alpha numeric for the callsign, only one hyphen followed by one or two alphanumeric characters.  It has been shown that even older Kenwood firmware sees and displays these callsign-SSID combinations properly when received as part of a gated 3rd-party packet.

I know, more information than you wanted but hopefully it is a help to understand what might be occurring.

73,

Pete Loveall AE5PL
pete at ae5pl dot net