GREAT APRS SETUPS FOR THE TM-D700 MOBILE                        6 June 05
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                                                                   WB4APR
Revised 10 May 2007 and 3 Jan 2008

Here are several suggestions and tips for getting the optimum use out of 
your Kenwood D-700 mobile (or D7 HT) for not only normal terrestrial APRS 
operations and satellites, but also voice and traffic reporting as well.

NORMAL APRS OPERATIONS:
-----------------------

BAND-B:  Use this band for your voice operations.  Use it on 2m, 440
or even receiving on 1296 FM and many other commercial bands.

BAND-A:  Set for APRS on 144.39, 1200 baud, TNC on band A.  Set path to 
WIDE1-1,WIDE2-1 in most areas, or WIDE1-1,WIDE2-2 if you are in very 
rural areas far from big APRS cities or western mountains.  Set CTCSS 
to 100 Hz for Voice Alert with volume up.  Be sure to set Band A 
squelch so that BUSY indication goes out between packets or your rig
will not transmit APRS.  

MEMORIES:  Store this APRS/Voice Alert channel with CTCSS 100 in 
memory.  Store another one without the CTCSS for when you leave the 
car operating but are not present.  This will open the speaker as
a reminder that you are not running Voice Alert when you return.
You can also set in a few digital channels for local DX clusters if
you like using your D7 or D700 for monitoring them.  Then you can 
QSY at any time to a DXcluster frequency and receive DX spots too.

APRS BUTTONS:  Change the MENU-RADIO-DISPLAY-KEYFUNCTION to MODE3.  This
puts the front panel buttons into APRS function so you can quickly hit
the LIST or MSG or BCON buttons.

VOICE ALERT:  This simply means that you do not turn the audio down on 
144.39, but instead leave it at high volume and then simply set CTCSS 
tone 100 to mute the speaker.  This way, you dont hear any packets, but 
ANYONE can call you with VOICE on 144.39 to alert you by using PL 100.
This allows anyone, anywhere, anytime (they are in simplex range of you)
to call you by voice with PL100, because they KNOW you are listening
on the APRS channel with CTCSS 100!

PROXIMITY RADAR:  A corrolary advantage of the Voice Alert Setting is 
that the speaker is 100% muted for all packets... EXCEPT simplex range
packets from another Voice Alert D700 that is very close to you.  His
once a minute packets will act like a radar-ping, alerting you to his
presence and the fact that he is also monitroing voice alert for a
simplex QSO.
  
You may go weeks without hearing anyone (simplex packet range is only 5
miles or so), but it is fun when someone comes in range.  APRS is about
*facilitating-communications*.  With Voice Alert, you will never "pass-
in-the-night" without knowing that someone is nearby, in simplex range 
of you that can ALWAYS be contacted with a voice call...  Its like a 
free radar for other mobile APRS operators that are in simplex range 
AND listening.

DIGIPEATING:  We do not want most mobiles to digipeat most of the time.
But we do want to be able to use them when needed.  This involves what
we call TEMPn-N digipeating.  See the special web page all about D700 
digipeater settings:

http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/aprs/d700digi.txt


KEYBOARD TEXT MESSAGING:
------------------------

John Hansen has built an external interface box that allows the use of any
PS-2 style keyboard as a message text entry device for the D700.  It just
plugs into the D700 mic jack and lets you send messages at normal typing
speed.  See his web page:       http://www.coastalchip.com/Kenkey.htm


TRAFFIC REPORTING:
------------------

See also: http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/d700-objects.txt

This feature allows you to place TRAFFIC objects on the APRS system
to alert other drivers of traffic porblems, slowdowns and or other
incidents with only two button presses.  THis works by changing
your MYCALL temporarily to TRAFFC (or other OBJECT name) and then
sending a few packets to put it on the map.  You put this cofig-
uration in one of the radio's Program Memories (PM5) as follows:

MYCALL:      TRAFFC-4    <choose random SSID or match your last letter
XMIT:        MANUAL      <to only report the object ONCE or so
STATUS TXT:  BACKUP/SLOWDOWN/INCIDENT(APR)   <your SUFFIX on the end)
PATH:        WIDE2-2     <keep the OBJECT local
ICON:        STAR        <big & eye catching. (use Triangle on D7).
BAND-B:      146.52      <to hear other locals in the same mess
Voice Alert: OFF         <in otherwords, do NOT set CTCSS 100
 
By setting XMIT to Manual, you wont keep transmitting TRAFFC objects
if you forget to switch back to your other PM...  But you do need to
push BCON a few times until you are sure that your packet got 
digipeated a few times so that others can see it.

Voice Alert is OFF, so that you will HEAR packets and be reminded that
you are in PM5!  Not only is  Band B programmed with 146.52 for ease 
of communicating direct with others in the same traffic mess, but you
can also then use this PM5 as a quick QSY for "52" at any time.  Thus 
you get triple use out of this Program Memory PM5:

1) One button traffic reporting (push BCON button to actually XMIT it)
2) Quick QSY for 146.52 operations
3) Quick ctcss disable on 144.39 if I want to listen to APRS channel
4) Possible temporary DIM setting while you get out of the car


SATELLITE TRACKING:
-------------------

SATELITE TRACKING:  If someone in your area is running an APRSdata
server, on your front panel, you will see an alert for any FM
satellites that come into view.  These alerts are transmitted on
144.39 to all Kenwood Mobiles.  They are also captured into your
station list as satellite objects showing you the Frequency,
Doppler Azimuth and distance to the bird.  If your radio has been
on for at least 10 minutes, it will also capture a schedule of all
satellite passes for the next 80 minutes into your DX LIST.

For more info see http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/satinfo.html .

PCSAT:  PCsat acts just like a WIDE digi by responding to packets 
transmitted via APRSAT, or ARISS or W3ADO-1.  When it is fully 
operational it also supports WIDEn-N as well.  Thus the only
thing you need to do is QSY from 144.39 to 145.825 during a pass
and change your path to one of those aliases.  This is easy to do 
with just a single memory channel on Band A.  Passes are every 100 
minutes and every day you will get 2 or 3, then none for 5 hours 
10 minutes and then 2 or 3 more in the USA.

ISS:   ISS with the new Kenwood on board (2004) uses similar path
aliases of ARISS, WIDE, APRSAT also and requires Transmitting on 
145.99 and receiveing on 145.80.  These can be entered into an A 
channel memory as a split.   But you still will have to enter the 
APRS menu to change the path each time.  If you plan on doing this
often, it is easier to put this configuration into a separate Program 
Memory (PM).  Also, it is a good idea to add the wildcard "*" to your 
MSG GROUPS in this PM so that you can see some of the messages 
between other users.

SUNSAT, SAPPHIRE, ANDE, RAFT:  These sateliltes also supported APRS
digipeating but are all now inoperative or have de-orbited.

GO-32:  This satellite needs a separate PM because it needs to have
Transmit Data on Band A 145.93 and RX data on Band B on 435.225 +/-
10 KHz fof DOppler and APRS baud rate set to 9600.  It also needs to 
have its own VIA PATH of VIA 4XTECH.  Also, it is a good idea to add 
the wildcard "*" to your MSG GROUPS so that you can see some of the 
messages from GO-32 or other users.  See the GO-32 web page:
http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/go32-ops.html

AO-51, ECHO:  This FM voice satellite also has a 9600 baud digi-
peater like GO-32 in addition to its more common use as an FM voice
repeater satellite.  It uses the same Band configuration 
as the GO-32 settings so just program a memory channel on band A for
transmit on 145.975 and band-B for receive on 435.150 +/- 10 KHz of
Doppler using the same PM as for GO32.  Do NOT beacon any packet via 
teh voice repeater of AO-51, only via its digital channel.

AO-27:  This FM *voice* satellite is only on during the day but it
is the same as AO-51 though a little weaker on the downlink.  Put
the band-A uplink in a memory channel as 145.85 and the downlink
in band-B on 436.800 +/- 10 KHz of Doppler again, using the same PM 
as for UO-22.  Do not use any packet via AO-27, it is for voice only.

UHF DOWNLINKS:  The frequencies for all the satellites with downlinks
on UHF are listed above as the center frequency.  You will have to tune
10 KHz higher at the start of the pass.  This will shift down by 5 KHz
4 times during the pass, so if you use memories, you will have to 
program in several in sesquence to follow the doppler.

In summary I would do it this way:

PM-off - Normal operations with 144.39 in a memory on band A for
         terrestrial operations with CTCSS 100.  Then change channel 
         memory to 145.825 to operate PCSAT (No CTCSS).  Band B is 
         available for all other mobile operations.  Also operate
         Sapphire by only changing your channel freqeuncy and path.

PM1    - ISS operations with 145.800/145.990 in a memory on Band A
         for ISS split APRS digipeater operations.  You can still use
         Band B for all normal mobile operations.

PM2    - Satellite operations with band-A memories holding the
         uplinks for UO-22 (packet), UO-14, and AO-27 and Sapphire.  
         Band-B memories hold the downlinks.  Actually, each satelite 
         will probably need 5 memories (+10, +5, +0, -5 and -10 KHz).

PM3, PM4,Available for your other applications.

PM5    - Available for 52 and APRS object reporting...

Just some thoughts...
de WB4APR, Bob