so ive been messing with APRS for a few weeks now and i cant figure out why my packets arent getting digipeated. im running a TM-D710G with the internal TNC, path set to WIDE1-1,WIDE2-1 which should be pretty standard. i can hear other stations getting picked up on 144.390 no problem, and i see my own packets on the radio display so i know its transmitting something. but when i check aprs.fi nothing shows up, or sometimes it shows up once every like 45 minutes which makes no sense.

i did notice the squelch might be opening on noise occasionally but i dont think thats the issue. my antenna is a decent mag mount on the roof of the car, nothing fancy but it worked fine for regular 2m stuff. is there a known issue with the D710 TNC timing or something? ive read conflicting things about the audio levels needing adjustment but i cant find where that setting even is on this radio.

also worth mentioning i moved to a new area last month and there arent as many digipeaters here as my old QTH, could that just be it? feels like there should be at least one close enough to hit though.

the digipeater coverage thing is almost definitely your problem if you moved somewhere rural or even suburban — a lot of areas have terrible APRS infrastructure and people just dont realize it til they check the RF coverage map on aprs.fi. go to aprs.fi, hit the coverage layer, and zoom into your area. if you're in a gap between digis you might just not have coverage at all no matter how good your setup is.

that said, the audio level stuff on the D710 is worth checking too. from memory i think its buried in the TNC menu somewhere, theres a deviation or audio input level setting and if its too high your packets come out splattered and nobody decodes them right. there used to be a thread on the tapr mailing list about this specific radio having hot audio from the internal TNC. might be worth searching for that.

the squelch noise triggering thing can actually kill you for APRS because if the radio is trying to decode noise as a packet it wont transmit when it needs to. set squelch a little tighter than you normally would for voice.

yeah i had almost the exact same thing happen when i first set mine up. turned out the path was fine but i was in kind of a dead zone between two digis and neither one was hearing me reliably. ended up finding a local club that runs their own digi on a hilltop and once i knew where it was i could just position myself to hit it. aprs.fi has that rf path analysis thing if you click on a digipeater it can show you its approximate footprint.

also make sure you're not accidentally on a slightly wrong frequency — 144.390 is standard in north america but i once had my radio drifted just enough that packets werent decoding. probably not your issue with a D710 but worth a sanity check.