Yaesu: FTM-400 APRS, Voice Alert and DW

[kidney514]

Hi!
Here is what I'm trying to achieve.... I want to have my B band send APRS beacon with the CTCSS tone and also monitor the frequency 144,52 to see if anyone is doing voice in simplex on that channel..

So far I have set the APRS frequency to my HOME memory and the frequency to memory 499. So the I to memory 499 and then hit DW button, dual watch works great, but beacons stop transmitting NO more aprs beacon are sent!

Anyone tried that or know how to do it?

 

[KE5MC]

With any of the mobiles I have used and the 400 is one of them I always leave the APRS to function "Stand-alone" on the B band. For the 400 there is a APRS BAND SELECT with several choice. It is now set to B-FIX which I expect might be the default. The other choice might get you what you want. The issue with DW is it brute forces the radio to peek at the other channel for activity. You would think DW would hold off if APRS is actively receiving or transmitting, but I don't believe it does. Besides if you are in a high activity APRS area you will find your radio will hold off to transmit your beacon if busy with receiving one beacon after another. In other words, depending on APRS area activity, you will think you selected beacon rate is longer than it should be. Its really being delayed by receiving beacons until the channel is clear for the preset time. I'm not sure that Yaesu has provided in the software for APRS to work other than stand-alone. It doesn't seem that your attempt and others have had better luck including those using a Kenwood 710.

If I want to use APRS it will be on B and no other activity for that band. I'll setup A for the repeaters I want to scan and I will include simplex in that list of channels to scan. Never really liked DW as it will briefly drop out the audio if I'm in a QSO with another. Not sure if there is a blip in my transmit audio.

Good Luck.