[aprssig] How to set Voice Alert

[Robert Bruninga]

How to set Voice Alert:

I met a person at Dayton that never heard anyone on voice alert
in years, but come to find out he was not set up right.  Here is
the whole idea:

Voice Alert is very simple on the D7, D700, and D710.  It simply
means:

1) Have APRS in Band A
2) Tune to 144.39 (in America)
3) Turn the volume up high
4) Set CTCSS 100.
5a) Save this as your main APRS channel
5b) Save an a 2nd channel the same, but with NO TONE and NO
CTCSS.  
5c) Save a third channel with a PRIVATE CTCSS (not 100).

This way you have THREE modes of APRS operation controlled by
the TUNE knob:
5a) Voice alert normally (unless too many locals cause too much
noise)
5b) Wide open for listning to the channel for troubleshooting
5c) For ALWAYS QUIET.  5c) Can also be used by trusted agents to
still call you.

The power of having all three is that this eliminates any need
to EVER turn down the volume on APRS band A which makes you miss
calls unknowingly.  And a voice alert station with the volume
down is worse than no voice alert at all because he is calling
CQ and not responsive.

FINALLY.  Do NOT turn on VOICE ALERT in the D710 menu.  Doing
this LOCKS band A into Voice alert ALWAYS and makes it
impossible to monitor the channel or to turn it off without
going back to the menu.  This was a bad design.  So never use
it.  Instead, program the 3 memory channels above and you get
full flexibility and function.

Notice for those few individuals that complain about too many
Voice Alert stations in their area, that they can use the 5C
option to form small sub-groups of Voice Alert and ignore all
others.  But this is not good for travelers, and too easy to
forget to change back to CTCSS100 for traveling.

Remember, Non-APRS mobiles can easily monitor voice alert when
mobile.  Just include 144.39 CTCSS100 in their memories even if
they do not have Voice Alert.  Scan it and 52 while mobile...
And enjoy making contacts with real live humans on the open
road.

Bob, Wb4APR