so ive been running my TM-D710G with the built in TNC for a few months now and i set the beacon rate to every 30 seconds because i wanted good position resolution when i was mobile. started getting some passive aggressive comments on the local APRS frequency about flooding the channel and now im second guessing myself.

the thing is im actually moving most of the time when i key it up, driving between job sites, so it feels like 30 seconds actually makes sense from a tracking perspective. but i also know the digipeaters in my area are pretty active and i dont want to be that guy clogging up 144.390.

whats a reasonable rate for mobile use? i thought the whole point of SmartBeaconing was to handle this dynamically but i havent fully configured it yet. does anyone actually use SmartBeaconing and does it work well in practice or is it more trouble than its worth to tune properly

SmartBeaconing is absolutely worth setting up, i was in the same boat a while back and once i got the corner pegging and speed thresholds dialed in it made a huge difference. basically it speeds up beaconing when youre turning or accelerating and slows way down when youre parked or on a straight highway. 30 seconds flat rate is definitely on the aggressive side for a congested area, youre essentially transmitting twice as often as most of the guidance recommends for mobile ops.

the way i have mine set now, low speed threshold around 5 mph with a slow rate of like 1800 seconds, high speed threshold at 60 mph with a fast rate of 90 seconds, and corner pegging set to 28 degrees. works pretty well. you still get good tracks on aprs.fi without hammering the digis. took me an afternoon of tweaking to get it feeling right but it was worth it.

yeah 30 sec is a lot, especially if there are other mobiles on the same digis. the channel isnt infinite. i usually just run 120 seconds when im mobile and honestly the track on aprs.fi still looks fine, you can clearly see my route. the people complaining on frequency are probably right even if the delivery was annoying lol