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TH-D72A/E
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About Copyright Copyright of this Manual and Software All copyrights and other intellectual property rights for this in-depth manual and relevant technical documents as well as the software described in this in-depth manual and relevant technical documents, and help texts and manuals attached to the software are owned by Kenwood Corporation. A right to use the software described in this in-depth manual and relevant technical documents, and help texts and manuals attached to the software is gr
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About Registered Trademark ® •Windows and Windows logo are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries. ® •Windows Vista and .NET Framework are trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries. • Kenwood Corporation is a licensee of and entitled to use the APRS trademark and protocols from APRS Engineering, LLC. ® •APRS (Automatic Packet Reporting System) is a registered trademark of WB4APR (Bob
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CONTENTS 4.3 Internal GPS .................................... 27 1 DEVELOPMENT CONCEPT ............ 1 4.3.1 GPS Satellite Information Display.....27 1.1 GPS Unit ............................................1 4.3.2 Automatic Adjustment of the Built-in Clock.....................................28 1.2 Evolving Development........................2 4.3.3 North Up and Heading Up ................28 1.3 Other New Functions..........................3 4.3.4 NMEA Sentence Output ...................30 4.3
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CONTENTS 6.1.8 APRS Lock ...................................... 50 8.5.3 Changing the Font Sizes ................. 74 8.5.4 Setting your Callsign........................ 74 6.2 Base Station (Weather Station)........51 8.5.5 Exporting .hmk Files ........................ 74 6.2.1 Using Meteorological Equipment..... 51 8.5.6 Configuring RSS .............................. 74 6.2.1.1 Davis Instruments Corp. Inc. ..................51 8.5.7 Changing the Power-on Bitmap 6.2.1.2 Peet Bros. Company......
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PROLOGUE Amateurs Building the New Global Communications Network Hams have enjoyed using FM transceivers for years for SSTV, ATV, packet, satellite, EME, GPS and other communications modes. A fundamental reason for this has been that FM transceivers are easy to use. Recently, personal computers and the Internet have combined to offer global communications opportunities. Yet, with their long history of communicating using various methods, nobody is better prepared than hams to embrace and
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New Technology Expands Amateur Radio Versatility Use of HF transceiver to call CQ and contact to hams around the world via ionosphere will never lose its appeal. But there is elegance in being able to communicate with only an FM transceiver and by adopting the latest technology. The global network consisting of thousands or even millions of stations will only get more interesting as it evolves with new ideas as a result of those like you becoming involved. Isn’t it exciting just to think a
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1 DEVELOPMENT CONCEPT Following is the designing and development concept for TH-D72A/E. • A genuine tool for communications via voice and data that is based on the TH-D7A/E. • An out-of-the-box transceiver with an internal GPS unit (turn-key solution) • Equipped with a USB interface • Emphasis on ease of operation (with multifunction keys; keys may not be minimized.) • Full-size dot matrix LCD display that enhances visibility for the user • User-updateable firmware • Large-capacity lithium ion b
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1 DEVELOPMENT CONCEPT 1.2 Evolving Development Next, we turned our sights to applied functions of GPS. Incorporating an internal GPS unit to support the collected positional information in APRS applications is our minimum standard, and it is also very important to provide customers with applied functions to enhance the convenience of the product. Following are some examples of applied functions available with the internal GPS unit. • GPS Logger Function: It features the GPS logger function to
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1 DEVELOPMENT CONCEPT 1.3 Other New Functions In addition to the functions related to the internal GPS unit, the transceiver has more new features. Following are some major functions worth to be presented. • USB interface: RS-232C has been the most common interface to connect a transceiver and a PC; however, in recent years only few PCs are equipped with an RS-232C connector. TH-D72A/E is equipped with a Mini-B USB connector. The USB connector allows you to directly connect to a computer b
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2 HOW YOU ENJOY APRS WITH TH-D72A/E (WRITTEN BY BOB BRUNINGA, WB4APR) APRS Overview The TH-D72A/E APRS Handy Transceiver brings so many new capabilities and enhancements to the portable and mobile operator, that it is hard to fully grasp the power that this brings to APRS. Besides the built-in GPS, and significant enhancement of the capabilities and depth and breadth of APRS, the new radio continues the evolution of the fundamental principles of APRS as a common information resource channe
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2 HOW YOU ENJOY APRS WITH TH-D72A/E (WRITTEN BY BOB BRUNINGA, WB4APR) Packet Network Growth Beginning in 1983, we added VHF, HF and a phone line to the Vic-20 as well as a BBS message store and forward capability and began expanding to the Commodore 64. It was linked with other systems on 145.01 and had the first dual-port HF link onto the 10.149 MHz HF packet frequency we still use today for APRS. It was an exciting time, but packet radio was being used more and more for connected point-t
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2 HOW YOU ENJOY APRS WITH TH-D72A/E (WRITTEN BY BOB BRUNINGA, WB4APR) APRS-IS In 1997, K4HG and the Mac/WinAPRS Sproul brothers tied APRS to the Internet and the APRS-IS system as shown above was born. While this was a huge success that enabled instantaneous global APRS texting connectivity beyond our wildest dreams, it also further enhanced the map view experience of casual APRS viewers. Looking at an APRS map was colorful but it did not obviously convey the human contact and connectivity
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2 HOW YOU ENJOY APRS WITH TH-D72A/E (WRITTEN BY BOB BRUNINGA, WB4APR) Texting But still most non APRS ham radio operators just did not find any advantages beyond the maps. My frustration with the growing lack of live human content in APRS continued to fester to the breaking point at a 2006 ARRL Special Meeting at Dayton on the lack of youth in ham radio. The gathered fathers of ARRL lamented: “Ham radio was missing the youth. They were “too busy texting on their cell phones” and ham radio
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2 HOW YOU ENJOY APRS WITH TH-D72A/E (WRITTEN BY BOB BRUNINGA, WB4APR) Facebook on APRS Purely as an aside, you can think back to the Kenwood VC-H1 handheld SSTV device as an attempt (before its time) to add the visual aspect of social networking to ham radio and APRS. This was a fantastic idea. And it was fully integrated into all Kenwood APRS radios at the time, adding real-time video to APRS digital and texting connectivity. You could think of the combination as real-time “Facebook” on
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2 HOW YOU ENJOY APRS WITH TH-D72A/E (WRITTEN BY BOB BRUNINGA, WB4APR) These views show the screens for a station with frequency included in his position packet. This is the 11th station in the list and it is beaconing its operating frequency as well as a short note telling everyone he is also listening on Voice Alert in simplex range. The “MENU” button on this display will bring up a number of additional actions. One is the TUNE function shown in the middle display above. When TUNE is se
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2 HOW YOU ENJOY APRS WITH TH-D72A/E (WRITTEN BY BOB BRUNINGA, WB4APR) Although the information appears a bit cryptic, the fact that all voice repeater objects use this same standard format makes it easy for the operator to understand the meaning. In this case, the local recommended voice repeater in this area is the 147.105 (Maryland) repeater with a Tone of 107.2 Hz. The range is 25 miles and the weekly net time is Tuesday evenings at 8 p.m. The final 8 characters rd (for backwards compa
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2 HOW YOU ENJOY APRS WITH TH-D72A/E (WRITTEN BY BOB BRUNINGA, WB4APR) Hamfests Another very typical object that everyone loves to see is the HAMFEST object. This bright red APRS symbol stands out smartly on any APRS display including the AvMap GPS display as shown above. At first glance, this object tells you the most important information: Where it is, and when. The HFEST-DDn standardized object name includes the DATE in the DD digits. Only the day is shown (here it is on the 26th), but
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2 HOW YOU ENJOY APRS WITH TH-D72A/E (WRITTEN BY BOB BRUNINGA, WB4APR) Digipeater Path Information Another new information feature of TH-D72A/E is the digipeater path display shown here. This display shows the First and Last digipeaters used. Most APRS areas encourage the use of only 2 hops or less. This means, in most cases, the full path is visible. In this image the WB3V-6 packet was First heard by the N3KTX-1 digipeater and then it was delivered to my radio by the Last hop on the K
