so ive been trying to get my APRS setup working for a couple days now and im about ready to throw the whole thing out the window. running a TM-D710G with an external GPS plugged into the data port, 144.390 is set, baud rate is 1200, and i can hear other packets coming through just fine on the radio - it decodes them on screen, shows callsigns, everything looks normal. but when i key up and it beacons i get nothing on aprs.fi, not even after like 20 minutes of waiting.

i did a radio check on the air and my signal is getting out fine, so its not an RF problem as far as i can tell. the SSID is set to -9 for mobile use even though im testing it stationary in the driveway. is there something with the smart beaconing settings that would cause it to not beacon when stationary? i read something about that somewhere but i cant remember where. or is this maybe a digipeater coverage issue in my area - im in kind of a rural spot, maybe 15 miles from the nearest I-gate i think.

also not sure if this matters but i had the radio set to internal GPS for a bit before i switched to external, wondering if maybe some setting got stuck somewhere. any ideas appreciated

yeah smart beaconing will absolutely kill your beacon rate when you're sitting still - that's actually the whole point of it, it backs way off when it doesn't detect movement. if you're testing stationary just disable smart beaconing temporarily and set a fixed rate like every 1 or 2 minutes so you can at least confirm the rest of the chain is working. once you know packets are hitting an igate you can fiddle with the smart beacon settings.

15 miles from an igate is pretty rough depending on terrain. you can check if your packets are actually hitting any digipeaters by watching aprs.fi and filtering by your callsign-SSID - if a digi is hearing you it'll still show even if the path is incomplete. also make sure your PATH is set to WIDE1-1,WIDE2-1 and not something weird the radio defaulted to. ive seen those Kenwoods come out of a menu reset with a path that doesn't work right for some reason.

the stationary smart beacon thing is definitely it, had the exact same issue when i first set mine up and spent like an hour confused before someone told me. also worth checking - is your GPS actually locked? the D710G wont beacon if it doesnt have a valid GPS fix in some configurations, i think there's a setting for that. the GPS icon on the display should be solid not blinking when it has a lock.