[aprssig] APRS Local Info Initative TM-D710A compatibitility

[Ron Stordahl, AE5E]

Richard et al

I have confirmed that the format you list below for frequency objects works correctly with my D710A (USA Model), allowing single button QSY:

;146.85TRF*111111z4804.29N/09606.79Wr146.850MHz TOFF - R45m
 
;444.80TRF*111111z4807.60N/09610.63Wr444.800MHz T156 + R15m

Out of interest I went on APRS.FI and by scrolling around the USA I picked the first 10 VHF objects I found.  Only 2 of them were properly formatted.  The deviation from the standard was remarkable.  Of the 2 that were correctly formatted, only one had the 'shift' indication of - or +.  The other that was 'correctly' formatted would have worked because on 2M the D710A defaults the offset depending upon the frequency.

Of the first 10 UHF repeater objects, only 1 was correctly formatted as it did provide the offset marker (a +).  The rest varied from nonsense to close yet unworkable.  For some reason the D710A requires the offset info for 70 CM, but not for 2 M.


I suspect the reason for so little adherence to the standard is that the example provided in  http://www.aprs.org/localinfo.html  Specifically

	* BTEXT ;FFF.FFxyz*111111zDDMM.hhN/DDDMM.hhWrTnnn RXXm NETxxxxxx MTGxxxxx ......... 

Does not include the needed frequency offset (needed for 70CM repeaters and I believe desirable for 2M repeaters).


Of course some deviated from the above so much I wonder where they got their information!  

While it is true that the number of D710A's as a proportion of the total APRS radios in use is small, it would be desirable to update the doc's so that this information is not so hard to find.

Ron Stordahl, AE5E




>________________________________
> From: "Richard Sharp, KQ4KX" <kq4kx at arrl.net>
>To: 'TAPR APRS Mailing List' <aprssig at tapr.org> 
>Sent: Friday, April 27, 2012 6:23 PM
>Subject: Re: [aprssig] APRS Local Info Initative TM-D710A compatibitility
> 
>
>Ron, try the following…
> 
>;146.85TRF*111111z4804.29N/09606.79Wr146.850MHz TOFF - R45m
> 
>;444.80TRF*111111z4807.60N/09610.63Wr444.800MHz T156 + R15m
> 
>According to pg. 25-26 in the D710’s "getting acquainted with APRS & EchoLink" manual it should be in this format.  If the repeater object is formatted with just a “-“ or “+” it uses the radios default offset setting for that band.  So, the only time specifying the exact offset would be for odd split repeaters.  Note the offset indicator after the TOFF & T156 (the offset should have a space on both sides).   If the repeater is narrowband the 'T' should be lowercase (tOFF or t156).    If the repeater transmits the PL tone it should be C156 (c156 for narrowband).  Since the 2m side of the D710 has auto offset the indicator on the object isn’t actually necessary – unless a user has the auto offset turned off.  I would recommend using the offset indicator for 2m regardless just for consistency.  For the 70cm side though the offset indicator is required.  Having the frequency listed in full at the beginning of the payload will
 enable the frequency display on the D710’s station list on the right side.
> 
>Hope this helps…
> 
>Richard
> 
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