so ive been messing with APRS for a few months now, got a Kenwood TM-D710G in the truck and it works fine for seeing other stations and the occasional message, but my own packets dont seem to be making it to aprs.fi half the time. i can see myself occasionally but then ill go dark for like 20-30 minutes even when im driving through an area that definitely has digipeaters — i can see them beaconing on the display.

im running WIDE1-1,WIDE2-1 path which i thought was pretty standard. smartbeaconing is on, set to something like 5mph low speed up to 60mph high speed with corner pegging turned on. the radio is set to 1200 baud which is correct for VHF APRS right. i dont have a TNC issue because i can see other traffic decoding fine on the waterfall when i hook it up to a laptop.

is there some setting on the digi side that would cause it to hear me but not gate? or am i doing something dumb on my end. genuinely stumped here

the path looks fine, WIDE1-1,WIDE2-1 is pretty much the go-to for mobile. one thing to check though — are you sure the digipeaters you're seeing are also iGates? because a digi and an iGate are two different things. a digipeater just rebroadcasts your packet on RF, it doesnt push anything to the internet. you need an iGate in range that's connected to APRS-IS to actually get your position onto aprs.fi.

pull up aprs.fi or findu.com and look at what stations are actually gating traffic in your area. if there's a coverage gap with no iGates, your packets are bouncing around on RF but never touching the internet. happens a lot in rural areas and even some suburban spots where the infrastructure is all older digis with no internet connection anymore.

also worth checking your transmit audio level if you havent already. the D710 has a data output level setting buried in the menus and if its too hot the packets get clipped and nobody can decode them even if they're loud. i fought this for weeks before someone on a local net told me. even though youre seeing other traffic decode fine that just means your receive is good, doesnt say anything about what youre putting out