Enable your D700 as a Mobile SatGate
I have my PM5 set up as what I call my "Mobile SatGate".
Whenever I park my truck, I put the D700 on PM5 instead of
turning it off in order to assist other users with APRS satellite
operations. In this mode, the D700 receives APRS packets
from ISS and PCSAT and digipeats them to 144.39 where
they can be picked up by terrestrial SatGates for delivery to the
APRS-IS. The terrestrial APRS frequency (144.39 in U.S.A.) is
set on Band A (left side). I have enabled CTCSS with a PL of
67Hz, so it will mute the speaker without having to worry about
touching the volume control. I have set this band to "M"edium
power in order not to run my truck's battery down! I set the
beacon rate to 30 minutes for the same reason. I also set the
Dimmer to the lowest level. Side B (right side) is set to the
ISS downlink 145.80. You can set this with either a memory
channel or with the VFO. Set menu 3-I to A:TX B:RX.
UIDIGI is enabled (menu 3-K) which turns the D700 into a
digipeater. (UIDIGI configuration details below).
When the ISS makes a pass overhead, packets are received on
Band B and digipeated over to Band A. This takes care of ISS,
but how can you get it to simultaneously monitor for PCSAT (NO-44) when
it is on 145.825? The trick is to set the Call channel to
145.825 and then hold down the Call button (top left) to enable Call
scan! The D700 scans between 145.80 and 145.825 and it is
a very fast scan so it catches packets from both satellites!
Another
thing you want to do
is set your Message Groups to "*" (menu 3-P) so that
you receive all messages. When you come back to your vehicle,
you will know that a satellite pass has occured because you will see
all of the messages queued from the pass. You can also check
the station list. If the majority of D700 users did this, it
would
dramatically increase the IGate coverage for APRS satellite users and
could free up dedicated SatGate stations to move their monitoring to
other satellites such as the PCSAT2 9.6k downlink.
By setting this as a separate PM, it takes two button pushes
to put the D700 in this mode without affecting your normal everyday
operating PM. When you want to go back to normal operations
it is just two keypresses - PM OFF. Quick and easy.
So put those idle D700's to work!
UIDIGI configuration details for Mobile SatGate operations:
To enable
the D700 as a mobile SatGate,
enable UIDIGI (menu 3-K). UIDIGI digipeating path (menu 3-L)
is set to "SGATE, WIDE, RELAY". As
long as an APRS satellite user includes SGATE as part of their path after
the satellite digi, then they will take advantage of this type of
setup. By checking stations on FindU, I have found that about
50% of
users do this. I have noticed that some use WIDE and RELAY
after the
satellite part of the path, so that is why I also include them.
The
ideal path for an ISS digi user would be "ARISS,SGATE,WIDE2-2".
This
packet would be digi'd by the ISS, then picked up by a D700 SatGate,
and digi'd onto 144.39 with the remaining path of WIDE2-2 which just
about guarantees delivery to an IGate.