OK, there are several settings you have to make before APRS-IS forwarding will occur.
1. Have you created a port of type APRS-IS, and entered your station callsign-SSID and your passcode?
2. Have you set the above port to Transmit Enabled (i.e., the port is allowed to send traffic to the APRS-IS backbone)?
3. (this shouldn't be an issue, but check it anyway) On the File->Configure->Expert Mode dialog's Transmit tab, is the Allow RF->IS checkbox checked?
4. Do you have a working Internet connection, such that the IP button on your map toolbar is showing black with occasional green or red flickers? If you don't have the button, you don't have an APRS-IS port to forward the packets. If the button is orange or gray, then there is something wrong with your connection (such as port blocking by your Internet Service Provider or firewall [including Windows Firewall on a Microsoft Windows PC]).
5. Is your beacon configured and enabled? If you don't send your own position to the APRS-IS, it may not accept your packets.
6. Is your enabled beacon selected on the APRS-IS port? Different ports are allowed to send different beacon messages (for example, if you had set up a cross-band digipeater), so ensure that at least one of your beacon definitions is enabled, correct, and selected on the APRS-IS port.
If all of the above are OK, then you should be forwarding.
Now, if the packets are showing up on aprs.fi, but not with your callsign-SSID in the 3rd-party header, then that is typical. YAAC is not the fastest I-gate application out there (it is optimized for responsively displaying data to you over being an efficient I-gate or digipeater), so if some other nearby I-gate gets the RF packets to the APRS-IS backbone before you do, your duplicate packets will be dropped. Check the location of the I-gate whose callsign-SSID is showing up in the packets. The only way you can ensure your station is working as an I-gate is to have it receive RF packets that no other I-gate could receive (such as from a low-power HT next to your I-gate) and verify those packets get through.
It's been said many times before, but I'm going to say it again. The APRS-IS backbone _CANNOT_ be used for propagation analysis, due to its duplicate packet dropping. You will never see all of the receiving I-gates for any given RF packet, just the first one.
Hope this helps.
Andrew, KA2DDO
author of YAAC
