so ive been messing with APRS for a few months now and i think i finally have a decent setup going but theres this one thing thats been driving me nuts. my packets are being digipeated fine - i can see them on RF and my TM-D710 is showing the digi hops in the path - but they never seem to make it to APRS-IS through the local igate. or at least they dont show up on aprs.fi which i know isnt always the perfect indicator but still.

im running WIDE1-1,WIDE2-1 in my path which should be pretty standard. the igate about 12 miles away is definitely up because i can see other stations through it no problem. my symbol is set right, beacon rate is every 5 minutes or so. i even tried bumping power up but same deal. is there something with how the TNC decodes my callsign maybe? or could it be a path issue where im hitting the digi but then the second hop just isnt making it to anything with igate capability?

running the radio into a Mobilinkd TNC3 connected to my phone with APRSDroid by the way if that matters. the whole setup was working fine for a couple weeks and then just kind of stopped showing up on the internet side.

few things to check honestly. first, aprs.fi has like a 15-30 minute lag sometimes and also it doesnt always show every packet - just the most recent position per callsign and it can sometimes drop stations that havent moved much due to their filtering. try checking findu.com or use a raw packet search on aprs.fi to see if your packets are actually hitting IS at all.

the path you're using is fine, WIDE1-1,WIDE2-1 is standard. but if the igate is an RF-only receive igate and youre already being digipeated twice before getting to it, the signal might just be weaker by that point. one thing that trips people up with APRSDroid and Mobilinkd is making sure the audio levels are actually calibrated right - the TNC3 has that built-in calibration mode and if your deviation is off it can cause packets that sound okay to you but dont decode consistently at the other end. worth double checking that.

also what changed a couple weeks ago when it stopped working - did you update APRSDroid, move locations, anything like that? because sometimes an app update will silently reset your SSID or path settings.

yeah the findu tip is good. also i'd just throw out there that some igates are set to not gate packets that have already been digipeated more than once - i think its called the 3rd party gate filtering or something like that, i dont remember the exact term. so your packet hits the first digi, then the second one, and by the time it reaches the igate it has two hops already burned and the igate just ignores it. try dropping to just WIDE2-2 and see if the behavior changes, that might get you there in fewer hops depending on your terrain.