[Xastir] Built on Linux-PPC, but can't transmit my position

[Curt Mills, WE7U]

On Tue, 4 Mar 2003, Jeff Laughlin wrote:

> Everything has been going pretty smoothly, it's talking to the serial ports
> and my GPS unit and my TH-D7a. The problem I'm having is that it will NOT
> transmit my position! I can create an object on the map and it transmits
> the OBJECT'S position, so I KNOW it's able to talk to the TNC. But I set
> the beacon interval to 30 seconds and it never transmits. I click "Transmit
> Now!" and it doesn't. BTW I DID check "Allow Transmit" :)
>
> To debug the problem I ran a null-modem cable over to my other box and
> sniffed XASTIR's serial output. It appears to correctly initialize the TNC,
> and again if I create an object or send a message, it gets sent to the TNC
> correctly. But my own station position reports never get sent to the TNC.
>
> I'm not an XASTIR newb, I've been playing around with it for years. But
> this is the first time I've ever used it for TRANSMITTING. What am I doing
> wrong?

I assume you're using a serial-port TNC interface (KISS or non?).
What sort of TNC?  TH-D7A?  Did you change to the proper TNC setup
file for whatever TNC you're using?

How do you know it's not transmitting your position?  Are you not
seeing a physical transmit, or are you just not seeing your position
on findu?  It sounds like you're not seeing a physical transmit.  If
you just cranked the transmit rate up, you might want to restart in
order to make the new rate kick in.  I'm not sure whether we change
it immediately or when the next transmit is scheduled to occur.
It's also possible that Xastir will refuse to retransmit your
position if the timer hasn't run out.  I haven't looked at that
stuff recently enough to remember.

Is it possible that you have "Interfaces->Disable Transmit: My
Position" turned on?

Is it possible that you have "Send compressed posits" turned on?  If
so, a lot of APRS clients and findu won't decode it.  It's in the
spec, but very few programs implement it.

I've also had trouble with my home SuSE 7.3 system transmitting with
AX.25 interfaces.  I switched to a serial KISS interface and it's
working fine.  That system was working fine with an earlier Linux,
so I suspect that the problem might go away when I upgrade again.

-- 
Curt Mills, WE7U                    hacker_NO_SPAM_ at tc.fluke.com
Senior Methods Engineer/SysAdmin
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