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VX-8R APRS Setup

omnidia

Member
Aug 11, 2011
5
0
11
Hello to all. New to this forum, and sort of new to APRS. I have a Yaesu VX-8R, love it, and can't get APRS to work. Help! I have followed the setup, and hear the incoming stations. However, nothing is logged as stations heard or messages. I thought it might be the filters, so I turned them all off. Same result. I DO beacon OK, but no stations get logged. The APRS DID work when I first bought the rig, and I recall there was some sort of option that had to be exactly right.

Ideas?

David
VE3NLZ
 

A couple of things to check first, although I suspect you're going to have to give us some more details on your settings:

- Make sure the TNC is set to 1200
- The TNC only works on VFO B, so make sure that's the band that you're setting the frequency (144.390 Mhz usually) to for APRS
- Filters - you mentioned that you cleared them, but check again.
 
I'm grateful for the advice.

B band 144.390. Confirmed.

1 APRS AF Dual Off
2 APRS Destination Fixed
3 Message filters all "off"
4 TNC Modem is 1200
5 APRS Msg Flash Off
6 APRS Msg Test Test
7 APRS mute off
8 Ringer off
9 Ringer Off
10 APRS Unit set in metric
11 APRS Tx delay 300ms
12 Beacon Interval 15 Sec. Short for testing
13 Beacon Stats Text Test
14 Beacon TX Auto
15 Digi Path Wide1 -1
16 GPS Datum WGS -84
17 GPS Tine set Auto
18 GPS unit set to Metric
19 MSG Group G1 ALL
20 My Callsign VE3NLZ-7
21 My Position Fixed from memory due to indoors. I have the GPS unit
22 My symbol \1
23 Position Comment In Service
24 Time Zone GMT-5

'73
David
 
VE3NLZ-7 [track] [info] FN03MU
[T3UR3W via VA3DRS*,WIDE2-1,qAR,VA3BAL-4]

2011-08-13 07:51:04 AM MST -0700
0.0 MPH 253° SW alt 419.9ft
test_ (In Service)

Looks like you figured it out?
 
Plus and Minus

Actually, I've expanded my quest for answers! I was at a Canadian equipment dealer located in Whitby, Ontario, and they let me try a demo VX-8R to see if that worked. The result speaks (PUN?) for itself. I have made the link to a digipeater as evidenced by your last message. Further experimenting with my rig suggests that there might be an issue with the GPS receiver. It reads, but I find that applying slight pressure seems to affect performance. That was the only thing I did not include while trying the demo rig.

There are locations where I seem to get the right display, but the fundamental concern remains, that it is busted somewhere. I've been trying to link today from downtown Toronto, with no success. Normally this should be busy.

'73, and many thanks for the input. More is welcome!

David
 
If the GPS is somehow faulty and not able to get the current position to the radio, it's not going to beacon. To test this, go to the area where your beacon isn't working and punch in your coordinates manually, then force it to beacon by hitting the little internet symbol. Keep in mind that you can only use that internet symbol while on either the GPS or APRS screens.
 
Narrowing things down...

Hi

The manual beacon, as well as the automatic beacon, appear to be working, albeit with less success than I anticipated in a large metropolitan area. Check aprs.fi for VE3NLZ. However, the received section does not display any stations, nor messages. I suppose this is the modem, which likely needs to be looked at by Yeasu. Drat.

Thoughts?

'73
David
:mad:
 
It sure sounds to me like something is wrong with it. Do you have any other local ham buddies with APRS that you can get in range of to do some tests?
 
Thanks for all of the advice. I sent the radio back for a warranty repair, and will post the outcome when I get it back.

Love the Ham community - thanks again.

'73
David
 

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