so ive been messing with APRS for about two months now and i cannot figure out why my packets arent getting picked up by the local digi. im running a TM-D710G into a Raspberry Pi with direwolf, pretty standard setup. i can see my own packets in direwolf's output so the audio path from the radio seems fine, and i can hear other stations being decoded just fine too. my path is set to WIDE1-1,WIDE2-1 which should be totally normal.

checked aprs.fi and my station just doesnt show up. well it showed up once like three weeks ago and then nothing. the nearest digi is maybe 12 miles away, 50w into a vertical so i wouldnt think RF is the issue but who knows. anyone run into something like this before or have ideas what to check next

first thing id check is your audio levels out of the radio into direwolf. too hot and the decoder will work fine receiving but your transmitted audio will be distorted and the digi wont decode it cleanly even if it hears you. there's a really easy way to test this — beacon a few times and see if you can get someone nearby to tell you what your signal sounds like, or use a websdr if theres one close enough. direwolf has a calibration mode too that helps dial in the levels.

also double check your TX delay setting. some radios need a bit more preamble before the data starts, especially the kenwood rigs in my experience. try bumping TXDELAY up to like 350ms if its set lower than that and see if it makes a difference. the TNC-X guys used to recommend something like that and it fixed a lot of intermittent issues on similar setups.

yeah what he said about audio levels, that bites people all the time. also just wanna mention — aprs.fi has like a 20-30 minute delay sometimes, or it used to anyway. so dont panic if you dont see yourself immediately. but if its been weeks then thats definitely a real problem not a website lag thing.

is your ptt actually keying? sounds dumb but direwolf can decode all day without ever transmitting if something in the serial/gpio setup isnt right. worth confirming the radio is actually keying when direwolf thinks its transmitting