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I am a new user who has set up an I-Gate and digipeater at my QTH in the rural Sonoran desert of Arizona. I managed to get everything up and running using my surplus Yaesu FT2900 as a dedicated radio, an always on computer, and a new Kantronics KPC3+ TNC. It took some trial and error and several reads of the help file, but all seems to be working. The station is designated W6SDM-2.

One thing I haven't been able to do is get the "I" I-Gate symbol working. It's nowhere to be found. I have looked at every symbol in the station setup page but haven't found it.

What am I missing?

Thanks,

Steve
W6SDM

Steve W6SDM wrote...

I am a new user who has set up an I-Gate and digipeater at
my QTH in the rural Sonoran desert of Arizona... W6SDM-2.
One thing I haven't been able to do is get the "I" I-Gate
symbol working.

In the station setup, select No. Diamond (numbered diamond)
and enter an I (India) for the overlay character.

For the digipeater, have you edited uiview32.ini the
[DIGI_OPTIONS] section to change UIFLOOD to the two letter
abbreviation for Arizona, and to change UITRACE to WIDE?
This will allow you to do "state flooding" for AZn-N and
have a traceable WIDEn-N. Be sure to have your callsign
(same as station setup) in the aliases and sub-aliases,
and enable alias substitution.

--
73 Keith VE7GDH
"I may be lost, but I know exactly where I am!"

Thanks, I got the symbol displaying correctly.?
It took me a while to find UIView32.ini - I have Windows 8.1 set up to display the file name without the extension in file explorer.?

I did have UI flood set up in my KPC3+ as AZ.? In the UIView32.ini file the value was 30.? I changed it to AZ.
UITRACE was set to TRACE.? I changed that to WIDE3,3.
Does that sound correct?? Thanks for your help.
73,
Steve

Steve W6SDM wrote...

I got the symbol displaying correctly. It took me a while
to find UIView32.ini - I have Windows 8.1 set up to display
the file name without the extension in file explorer.

Yeah, I do find it a bit annoying when an operating system
hides something useful like file extensions.

I did have UI flood set up in my KPC3+ as AZ. In the
UIView32.ini file the value was 30. I changed it to AZ.
UITRACE was set to TRACE. I changed that to WIDE3,3.
Does that sound correct?

UIFLOOD should be AZ. UITRACE should be just WIDE.

Is UI-View running the digipeater? Presumably you have
the KPC3+ in KISS mode so it can run the show.

--
73 Keith VE7GDH
"I may be lost, but I know exactly where I am!"

Yes, I do have KISS mode set. I changed UITRACE to just WIDE. Still learning how everything works. So KISS turns control of digipeating over to the KPC3+ versus UIView32 doing the work?

Steve W6SDM wrote...

Yes, I do have KISS mode set. I changed UITRACE to just
WIDE. Still learning how everything works. So KISS turns
control of digipeating over to the KPC3+ versus UI-View32
doing the work?

It must be in KISS mode (unless you are using BPQ32) for
UI-View to run the digipeater. Even without running as a
digipeater, KISS mode would be the preferred way to
operate. However, the KPC-3+ is otherwise a nice TNC,
but it does start introducing delays in data it spits
out the serial port after running in KISS mode for a while.
You could use the Schedule Editor to restart UI-View in
the early hours of the morning to automate restarting it.

--
73 Keith VE7GDH
"I may be lost, but I know exactly where I am!"

On 7/25/2015 2:58 PM, Keith VE7GDH ve7gdh@... [ui-view] wrote:

However, the KPC-3+ is otherwise a nice TNC, but it does start introducing delays in data it spits out the serial port after running in KISS mode for a while. You could use the Schedule Editor to restart UI-View in the early hours of the morning to automate restarting it.

For details, see

Lynn (D) - KJ4ERJ - Author of APRSISCE for Windows Mobile and Win32

Lynn KJ4ERJ wrote…

For details, see

Thanks for posting the link. There's some good info there. However as I mentioned, UI-View makes it easy to automatically restart the TNC every day using the Schedule Editor. It's a non-issue then.

--
73 Keith VE7GDH
"I may be lost, but I know exactly where I am!"

On 7/25/2015 12:02 AM, w6sdm@... [ui-view] wrote:

Yes, I do have KISS mode set. I changed UITRACE to just WIDE. Still learning
how everything works. So KISS turns control of digipeating over to the KPC3+
versus UIView32 doing the work?

NO! Quite the opposite!

KISS mode reduces the TNC to a dumb modem. ALL functions (digipeating,
decoding and assembling of packets,beaconing, etc) are pushed to
application(s) running on the PC such as UIview, AGWpe, etc. The TNC's
command interpreter is disabled and falls out of the picture completely.



Note also that the KPC3 in all versions suffers from a serious bug in KISS
mode. After a random length of time (several hours of continuous operation),
the TNC will start randomly delaying the passing of received packets to the
attached computer, sometimes for several minutes.

If you are running an igate, the result can be the gating of stale packets to
the APRS-IS long AFTER other igates have passed newer packets from the same
station. The effect for mobiles is that the mobile track viewed on the
APRS-IS jumps back and forth (what I call "hyper-jumps) as current position
reports igated by other stations are superseded by long-delayed earlier
packets. The effect is extreme for balloons and aircraft since these
stations are guaranteed to hit several igates at once from altitude.

Kantronics has been stonewalling this issue for years now, denying that there
is a problem. The only work-around is to either power-cycle the TNC, or issue
a reset command every 10 hours or so.

I can't understand why anyone continues to purchase and use this expensive,
archaic and buggy device, when sound card software TNCs like the UZ7HO
SoundModem are FREE, and outperform hardware TNCs. You can buy an entire
Windows tablet PC for less than ONE-THIRD of the cost of a KPC3+, and dedicate
it exclusively to running UIview and the Soundmodem. Total power drain: less
than 5 watts.



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--

Stephen H. Smith wa8lmf (at) aol.com
Skype: WA8LMF
EchoLink: Node # 14400 [Think bottom of the 2-meter band]
Home Page:


Long-Range APRS on 30 Meters HF


High Performance Sound Systems for Soundcard Apps



"APRS 101" Explanation of APRS Path Selection & Digipeating

Thanks, everyone, for the info and the reading material. I had the right concept on KISS mode, I just didn't state it very well. The TNC is passive in KISS mode, so I won't worry about any terminal settings for the KPC3+.

I heard about the delayed packet issue and thought that maybe it had been corrected with version 9.1 of the firmware, which is what I am running. Guess not.

It sounds like a schedule editor is the way to go. An alternative would be to put a vacation timer on the TNC power supply and shut it off at three in the morning each day. That's kind of a pain because I run the TNC and the radio off the same 12-volt supply.

I am running the TNC on a dedicated desktop PC. I am a Flex SDR user and have PCs around the shack for various projects. Actually, some desktops are less expensive than the small netbook computers, especially for refurbished or open box deals.

Anyway, I have my I-Gate/Digi up and running. I have been monitoring my raw packets and haven't seen any duplicates. I got into this whole area of amateur radio because I am an off road enthusiast. I spend a lot of time exploring the Sonoran desert near my property. APRS is one of my safety measures because I go really close to the Mexican border. There is a lot of foot traffic from border crossers and I want to make sure that after several days of walking through the desert, my Jeep doesn't look too tempting. I usually have someone looking out for me on the map when I am off road. I also carry a hand held Microtracker All in One unit.

73,

Steve
W6SDM

So far, I haven't had any delayed packets. That's not to say that I couldn't, so I would like to preempt the problem by programming the schedule editor. Is the schedule editor capable of restarting the TNC or just UIView? Does restarting at intervals UIView preclude the delayed packet problem? I read through the help file but didn't really see anything that would impact the TNC at all.

Steve W6SDM wrote...

--
73 Keith VE7GDH

Steve W6SDM wrote...

Is the schedule editor capable of restarting the TNC or
just UI-View?

Among other things, it is capable of restarting UI-View. This
will take the TNC out of KISS mode, exit the program and then
re-start UI-View again. Go to the Schedule Editor. Click on
NEW, select RESTART from the drop-down selection and then
choose a time... e.g. 01:20 to have it restart at 1:20 am.
Click on YES, and then EXIT.

Another useful function is to have it connect to an APRS
server after UI-View starts. You would choose APRSERVE_CONNECT
from the drop-down selection and enter +1 to have it connect
one minute after UI-View starts. In the APRS Server setup,
you could also tell it to automatically reconnect should it
ever get disconnected.

PS - sorry to everyone for the earlier incomplete reply!

--
73 Keith VE7GDH
"I may be lost, but I know exactly where I am!"