[Xastir] D700A + GPS + Xastir

[Tom Russo]

On Sat, May 08, 2004 at 10:19:26PM -0700, a Mr. Richard Feyler of Fort Lee, New Jersey <jeepin95 at comcast.net> writes 'Dear Rosanne Rosannadanna':
> I've tried getting this to work but I have had no success. I've got Xastir
> setup with a Serial TNC interface, and my D700A is setup in packet mode.
> Xastir grabs all of the stations the 700 hears, and looking at the incoming
> data I can see what appears to be the GPS data, but how do I get Xastir to
> use it for my station location?
> 
> I tried adding a second interface under Xastir, and just using the same
> serial port but I get a hard fail, which I expected.

Is the Xastir interface you chose set to "Serial TNC" or "Serial TNC with
GPS on AUX port?"  It needs to be the latter.  The D700 is sending the
GPS data to Xastir, but unless you use the "with GPS on AUX port" option 
then Xastir isn't actually listening for those GPS sentences, even though
they're there in the "View Incoming Packet Data" window.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: JD Erskine [mailto:VA7OTC at rac.ca] 
> Sent: Monday, May 03, 2004 01:39
> To: Josh Keller
> Cc: xastir at xastir.org
> Subject: Re: [Xastir] D700A + GPS + Xastir
> 
> Hi Josh,
> 
> At 23:13 5/2/04 -0700, Josh Keller wrote:
> >Is there a way to connect a GPS to the D700A, then connect the D700A to
> >Xastir and have Xastir grab the GPS coordinates? 
> 
> Yup, did this with my D7 and some APRS clients and just reading the manuals
> for a D700 and the help files for some APRS clients again.
> 
> Putting the D700 in Packet mode vice APRS is what you want. The GPS NMEA
> sentence is then passed to the serial port of the radio and to your
> computer/APRS client (XASTIR). Check the initialisation file. In this case
> the internal Tasco TNC is being used however none of the D700 APRS 'smarts'
> (same with D7). One may, to totally make one wonder why they bought a D700,
> bypass the internal TNC and use an external one :{P
> 
> >I've tried adding an
> >interface with the Serial TNCw/ GPS on HSP cable option but that doesn't
> >seem to work. I'd like to be able to do this so when we setup our SAR base
> >Xastir automatically updates my station location and transmits our actual
> >base position.
> 
> Don't bother in this case. You'll transmit the position of your site/GPS
> receiver which is passed to Xastir, out from Xastir, via the D700's TNC and
> RF deck to the network.
> With this rig you don't require an HSP.
> 
> If the radio is mounted in a mobile or portable (real/historical
> definition), then with a connected GPS rx your position enroute or upon set
> up would be transmitted very quickly. As soon as you get the computer set
> up and Xastir running you can have the initialisation file reconfigure the
> radio to Packet mode and carry on. Should you wish.
> 
> >On a side note, what type of antenna would you suggest for our base
> station,
> >which will be used 99% of the time strictly for RX. Right now I've built
> >myself a groundplane out of welding rods which seems to work good.but is
> >there anything better that can be home built or purchased relatively cheap?
> >
> >
> >Thanks,
> >
> >Josh 
> 
> If you're in mountains you may not wish too much gain if it negatively
> affects your radiation pattern and coverage. Ground plane is good, J pole
> or other half wave is good though vertically narrower 'beamwidth'.
> LOS/terrain/team info required.
> 
> Cheers, JD - coming back to life and playing with stuff.
> 
> 
> John D. Erskine
> 
> mailto:sailargh at victoria.tc.ca  or  mailto:VA7OTC at rac.ca  same box
> Victoria Nautical Song Circle   http://victoria.tc.ca/Culture/Vnsc/
> Island Thyme Morris http://www.islandnet.com/~jcarver/is_thyme.html
> Tallships Victoria   23-27 June 2005   http://tallshipsvictoria.ca/
> 
> 
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-- 
Tom Russo    KM5VY     SAR502  DM64ux         http://www.swcp.com/~russo/
Tijeras, NM  QRPL#1592 K2#398  SOC#236 AHTB#1 http://www.qsl.net/~km5vy/
 "What if the hokey pokey really is what it's all about?"