APRS - "tail" after data packet is transmitted

[secretspy711]

Been playing around with APRSdroid on an old smartphone (Nexus6) connected to a Baofeng BF-F8HP handheld radio using a Btech APRS K1 cable.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LMIBAZW

I've got it working fairly well. Using an external antenna mounted to my jeep's roof rack I am able to hit digipeaters and igates pretty consistently around town, and also receive packets.

I have a 2nd identical radio that I sometimes use to listen for packets. Every time one of my packets is transmitted, there is a ~2 second "tail" at the end of the transmission before the transmitting radio un-keys. None of the other packets I receive from other stations have this tail. I've tried playing with the VOX settings on the radio and it doesn't seem to change the behavior. Is this just something inherent to the cheap Baofeng radio? Is there a setting that I'm missing? Would using a Mobilinkd TNC2 fix this?

 

[nd5y]

Are you using a PTT circuit or VOX to key the Baofeng?

 

[secretspy711]

I'm using VOX. I'm not aware of a way to activate PTT from aprsdroid unless I use a Mobilinkd TNC2 or something similar. I'd just like to know that this would solve it before buying one, because other than the "tail" after the packet, it seems to be working well.

 

[nd5y]

That's what happens when you use VOX on a radio that doesn't have adjustable VOX delay time.
There is no way to avoid it except by using hardware PTT.

Baofeng radios are no good for something like that because of the non-adjustable VOX delay and the long tx-rx turnaround time even when using PTT.