Kenwood TH-D72A/E- Manuals

CONTENTS II TH-D72A/E 6.1.8 APRS Lock ...................................... 50 6.2 Base Station (Weather Station) ........51 6.2.1 Using Meteorological Equipment ..... 51 6.2.1.1 Davis Instruments Corp. Inc. ..................51 6.2.1.2 Peet Bros. Company...............................52 7 APRS NET...

TH-D72A/E CONTENTS I 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 c...

II CONTENTS TH-D72A/E 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 ev...

TH-D72A/E CONTENTS 1 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 interfa...

1 DEVELOPMENT CONCEPT 2 CONTENTS TH-D72A/E 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...

1 DEVELOPMENT CONCEPT TH-D72A/E CONTENTS 3 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; ho...

4 CONTENTS TH-D72A/E 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. Besid...

2 HOW YOU ENJOY APRS WITH TH-D72A/E (WRITTEN BY BOB BRUNINGA, WB4APR) TH-D72A/E CONTENTS 5 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 ...

2 HOW YOU ENJOY APRS WITH TH-D72A/E (WRITTEN BY BOB BRUNINGA, WB4APR) 6 CONTENTS TH-D72A/E 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 ...

2 HOW YOU ENJOY APRS WITH TH-D72A/E (WRITTEN BY BOB BRUNINGA, WB4APR) TH-D72A/E CONTENTS 7 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 poin...

2 HOW YOU ENJOY APRS WITH TH-D72A/E (WRITTEN BY BOB BRUNINGA, WB4APR) 8 CONTENTS TH-D72A/E 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...

2 HOW YOU ENJOY APRS WITH TH-D72A/E (WRITTEN BY BOB BRUNINGA, WB4APR) TH-D72A/E CONTENTS 9 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 every...

2 HOW YOU ENJOY APRS WITH TH-D72A/E (WRITTEN BY BOB BRUNINGA, WB4APR) TH-D72A/E CONTENTS 11 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 fir...

2 HOW YOU ENJOY APRS WITH TH-D72A/E (WRITTEN BY BOB BRUNINGA, WB4APR) 12 CONTENTS TH-D72A/E 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...

2 HOW YOU ENJOY APRS WITH TH-D72A/E (WRITTEN BY BOB BRUNINGA, WB4APR) TH-D72A/E CONTENTS 13 Contribution by Kenwood to APRS Kenwood has developed its series of radios, TH-D7A/E, TM-D700A/E, TM-D710A/E, and now the new TH-D72A/E to best support the original objectives of APRS. The display of APRS inf...

TH-D72A/E CONTENTS 15 3 PREPARATIONS FOR OPERATING APRS Following need to be configured before start operating TH-D72A/E with APRS. APRS data will be stamped with date and time. Therefore, the built-in clock must be set.Since the time acquired via the GPS receiver is UTC, Time Zone must be configure...

3 PREPARATIONS FOR OPERATING APRS TH-D72A/E CONTENTS 17 Follow the explanations below to configure each item listed in the previous section. To enter the time in your local zone, select Menu 196 (Auxiliary-Time Zone).Example: Set to -05:00 for Atlanta. Figure 3-1 Menu 196 (Auxiliary – Time Zone) Pre...

3 PREPARATIONS FOR OPERATING APRS TH-D72A/E CONTENTS 21 To enter a position comment, select Menu 390 (APRS - StatusText).Select the text number. Pressing the [MHz] key displays [ ] as a mark representing the status text is in use. Figure 3-14 Menu 390 (StatusText – Number) Configure the frequency ho...

3 PREPARATIONS FOR OPERATING APRS 22 CONTENTS TH-D72A/E To configure the packetpath, select Menu 3H0 (APRS - PacketPath).Configure the packet path type. Figure 3-19 Menu 3H0 (PacketPath – Type) Set WIDE1-1. Figure 3-20 Menu 3H1 (PacketPath – WIDE1-1) Set the number of packet hops. Figure 3-21 Menu 3...

3 PREPARATIONS FOR OPERATING APRS TH-D72A/E CONTENTS 23 Example: 144.390 MHz, the APRS operation frequency is configured for operation frequency for the data band. Figure 3-24 Frequency Press the [TNC] key to place a transceiver in APRS mode. After the message “Opening TNC” appears for three seconds...

4 GPS TH-D72A/E CONTENTS 25 The latitude and longitude information required by the GPS receiver does not allow for accurate representation of the unevenness of the Earth’s surface. For use with GPS, the current standard that defines the precise shape of the Earth is called WGS-84. By using this stan...

4 GPS 26 CONTENTS TH-D72A/E Figure 4-2 Connection Example of GPS Receiver The GPS18xPC is a GPS module receiver. And it interfaces via a 9-pin D-Sub RS-232C serial port. Refer to the wiring example using commonly-available DB-9 connector (male), and a cable with 3-conductor plug (Kenwood service par...

4 GPS TH-D72A/E CONTENTS 27 For APRS, always configure the WGS-84 Geodetic Survey System for your GPS receiver. The GPS unit is mounted on the upper surface of the body. The GPS unit incorporates SiRFstar III™ chipset that is highly accepted in the market. Figure 4-4 Internal GPS Unit During the GPS...

4 GPS 28 CONTENTS TH-D72A/E Figure 4-5 GPS Satellite Information Display To display the position information display, $GPGSV or $GPGSA should be selected in Menu 211 (GPS – Setup – Sentence). While the internal GPS unit is active, the transceiver’s built-in clock is automatically configured with the...

4 GPS TH-D72A/E CONTENTS 29 “Time, Altitude, Travel direction, speed” display Figure 4-7 North Up Figure 4-8 Heading Up “Target point distance, Travel direction” display Figure 4-9 North Up Figure 4-10 Heading Up “Station List menu (4 th page)” Figure 4-11 North Up Figure 4-12 Heading Up

4 GPS TH-D72A/E CONTENTS 31 If the reception is inferior (such as while you are in a building), the GPS unit continues searching for a satellite resulting the battery longevity. To prevent unnecessary battery consumption, this function will turn the GPS power source Off for the programmed duration o...

4 GPS 32 CONTENTS TH-D72A/E The GPS unit has two operation modes: Normal and GPS Only modes. In the Normal mode, you can use the functions of the transceiver and of the internal GPS unit at the same time. In the GPS Only mode, you cannot use it as a normal transceiver. Operating in the GPS Only mode...

4 GPS 34 CONTENTS TH-D72A/E Figure 4-24 During the Use combined with SmartBeaconing To delete the log data, select Menu 220 (GPS - Track Log - Clear All Data). Select “Yes” to delete the log data. Figure 4-25 Log Data Deletion Screen Memory usage for logging can be viewed in the Log Memory screen. T...

4 GPS 36 CONTENTS TH-D72A/E The distance from the current location to the Target Point can be confirmed in the Target Point screen. Target Point display is the third page from the Latitude Longitude display reached by repeatedly pressing the [OK] key. However, if no GPS data is positioned by GPS, “F...

TH-D72A/E CONTENTS 37 5 APRS SOFTWARE FOR YOUR PC UI-View32 is APRS client software designed to allow a PC to display APRS stations on a map and to use various APRS functions such as Internet gateway access. It allows you to display on a map on your PC the APRS stations received by a TH-D72A/E and, ...

5 APRS SOFTWARE FOR YOUR PC TH-D72A/E CONTENTS 39 Figure 5-4 KISS Setup Window 6. Click the “OK” button in the Comms Setup window to close the Comms Setup window. UI-View32 sends a command to TH-D72A/E’s built-in TNC that is changed to the KISS mode.During the process, “STA” and “CON” on the TH-D72A...

5 APRS SOFTWARE FOR YOUR PC 40 CONTENTS TH-D72A/E The APRS program currently runs on a number of platforms. These programs are constantly being updated and can be downloaded from the Internet. Most programs are shareware and the latest versions are available at the TAPR (Tucson Amateur Packet Radio)...

TH-D72A/E CONTENTS 41 6 OPERATIONAL EXAMPLES OF APRS While monitoring APRS stations from around the world that may appear on your map, you can easily send messages to them. An interest is now growing in APRS QSOs where one station may call CQ looking for responses in the conventional style of a ham ...

6 OPERATIONAL EXAMPLES OF APRS 42 CONTENTS TH-D72A/E Characters can be entered using the encoder or 10-key numeric keypad as you would when texting from a cell phone.Further details of important functions follow. If the position beacon for a mobile station is configured to be transmitted at a fixed ...

6 OPERATIONAL EXAMPLES OF APRS TH-D72A/E CONTENTS 43 Refer to the diagram below to understand what occurs when both Decay Algorithm and Proportional Pathing are used at the same time. Figure 6-3 Switching between Decay Algorithm and Proportional Pathing (when Stopped = 1 (knot); Moving = 3 (knots)) ...

6 OPERATIONAL EXAMPLES OF APRS 44 CONTENTS TH-D72A/E Table 6-2 Configuration Example Table 6-3 Variable Rate Beaconing Example: (with LOW SPEED = 5, HIGH SPEED = 70, SLOW RATE = 30 min, FAST RATE = 120 sec) Figure 6-4 Speed vs TX Interval Time Note: The unit of Speed can be configured by using Menu ...

6 OPERATIONAL EXAMPLES OF APRS TH-D72A/E CONTENTS 45 By changing the value of TURN SLOPE, you can adjust how Corner Pegging responds as the mobile station executes curves. When the value of TURN SLOPE is increased, a large heading angle change is necessary to cause a position beacon transmission, es...

6 OPERATIONAL EXAMPLES OF APRS TH-D72A/E CONTENTS 47 The QSY function uses AFRS (Automatic Frequency Reporting System) to report a frequency on which voice communications can be established. A station using the QSY function embeds the frequency information of your voice band in a position beacon tra...

6 OPERATIONAL EXAMPLES OF APRS 48 CONTENTS TH-D72A/E Configuration Example (Insert one space after the frequency before entering Wide/ Narrow, Tone/CTCSS/ DCS and Shift/ Offset.)• “446.100 MHz”: Voice frequency configured for 446.100 MHz, Wide-band FM, Tone frequency = None, Simplex • “446.100 MHz T...

6 OPERATIONAL EXAMPLES OF APRS TH-D72A/E CONTENTS 49 The TH-D72A/E receives QSY information not only from another TH-D72A/E, but also location information from other software as well as QSY information and repeater frequency object information embedded in status text. You can confirm the QSY informa...

6 OPERATIONAL EXAMPLES OF APRS 52 CONTENTS TH-D72A/E The weather station, ULTIMETER 2100 ( http://www.peetbros.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=2 ) can also be used with TH-D72A/E.To communicate with Vantage Pro2, configure the TH-D72A/E communication baud rate (Menu 330) to 2400 bps as well. Note:  Becau...

TH-D72A/E CONTENTS 53 7 APRS NETWORKS In the beginning, APRS networks consisted only of general packet transmissions through digital repeaters. To expand network coverage much further, HF gateway stations that were interfaced with the VHF stations were added. This arrangement evolved still further w...

7 APRS NETWORKS TH-D72A/E CONTENTS 55 With TH-D72A/E it is possible to transmit email by using the Message function. First, press the [MSG] key to show the Message List on the screen. Next, press [MENU] to show the Message List Menu on the screen. And press “NEW” to create a message on the screen.En...

7 APRS NETWORKS 56 CONTENTS TH-D72A/E Figure 7-4 Transmission Flow for Email Note:  You cannot send email from a personal computer to a mobile station.  Just like other APRS packets, the content of the email you sent can be monitored by other stations  2-byte codes cannot be sent.  In case the E...

7 APRS NETWORKS TH-D72A/E CONTENTS 59 Although UITRACE using the normal APRS network path of WIDEn-N can be a problem if mobiles activate their digipeater at the wrong time, it is also so powerful, that it is a shame not to be able to use it easily if required. For this reason, all APRS mobiles are ...

7 APRS NETWORKS 60 CONTENTS TH-D72A/E Example 2: This is a general recommendation for permanent digipeaters installed at a high location. • Digipeat Digipeat(MyCall): On • UIdigipeat UIdigi: OnAliases: SAR(other local paths can be defined here) Note: SAR stands for “Search and Rescue”. • UIflood UIf...

8 MCP-4A MEMORY CONTROL PROGRAM (FOR USE WITH TH-D72A/E) TH-D72A/E CONTENTS 65 1. Check that the specifications for your computer meet the following that are necessary to use MCP-4A. Table 8-1 MCP-4A Computer Specifications Table Note:  If using Windows XP, it is necessary to install the “Microsoft...

8 MCP-4A MEMORY CONTROL PROGRAM (FOR USE WITH TH-D72A/E) 66 CONTENTS TH-D72A/E 4. Click “Start” > “Program” > “KENWOOD” > “MCP-4A” to start MCP-4A. Figure 8-2 MCP-4A Splash Window 5. Select the communication port.Specify in the COM Port frame the communication port (COM Port) that will be u...

8 MCP-4A MEMORY CONTROL PROGRAM (FOR USE WITH TH-D72A/E) TH-D72A/E CONTENTS 69 This section describes how to read a file. To read a file, select “Open” from the File pulldown menu, select “TH-D72 MCP-4A File (*.mc4)” in the “Files of type” dropdown list, and open the desired file created in TH-D72A/...

8 MCP-4A MEMORY CONTROL PROGRAM (FOR USE WITH TH-D72A/E) 70 CONTENTS TH-D72A/E Only files created for K-type models (USA and Canada) can be imported into MCP-4A. The referenced software can be downloaded from the following Kenwood U.S.A. Corporation web site: http://www.kenwoodusa.com/Support/Amateu...

8 MCP-4A MEMORY CONTROL PROGRAM (FOR USE WITH TH-D72A/E) TH-D72A/E CONTENTS 71 Figure 8-6 GPS Data Reading Screen When the reading is complete, the PGS log data is saved in NMEA file format in the MCP-4A folder. The GPS Logger window shows the saved NMEA files. The file name is the time and date whe...

8 MCP-4A MEMORY CONTROL PROGRAM (FOR USE WITH TH-D72A/E) 72 CONTENTS TH-D72A/E To display the read GPS log data in a map program, convert the date to KML or GPX file format.In the GPS Logger window, select the desired log data and press the “Save” button. “Track” and “Rate of Preservation” appear. C...

8 MCP-4A MEMORY CONTROL PROGRAM (FOR USE WITH TH-D72A/E) TH-D72A/E CONTENTS 73 The following sections provide detailed descriptions of the features referred to in “8.2 Main Functions of MCP-4A”. The configuration screens and writing and reading screens of the configuration data for MCP-4A can be dis...

8 MCP-4A MEMORY CONTROL PROGRAM (FOR USE WITH TH-D72A/E) 74 CONTENTS TH-D72A/E The font sizes used in the various windows can be selected from three choices. In the “Font” of the View pulldown menu, the font size can be selected from “Normal”, “Large” or “Extra Large”. Note:  Use an Operating Syste...

8 MCP-4A MEMORY CONTROL PROGRAM (FOR USE WITH TH-D72A/E) TH-D72A/E CONTENTS 75 MCP-4A allows selection of a bitmap image which appears on the transceiver display when the transceiver’s power is turned on. Different images can be configured for GPS Only mode and for Normal mode.From the Edit pulldown...

76 CONTENTS TH-D72A/E 9 HOW TO UPDATE FIRMWARE This section describes how to update the firmware of the TH-D72A/E transceiver itself and of the TNC. In order to update the equipment, each of the following is required:• Equipment to be updated (TH-D72A/E)• Computer• Communication cable (USB Cable tha...

9 HOW TO UPDATE FIRMWARE TH-D72A/E CONTENTS 77 You can view the firmware version by the procedure below. Use one of the following two ways of verifying. 1. Press 2 [TNC] on TH-D72A/E to display “APRSxx”. 2. Turn the power OFF. 3. Hold #[ENT] down and turn the power ON. 4. Verify the following is dis...

9 HOW TO UPDATE FIRMWARE 78 CONTENTS TH-D72A/E Download the latest version of update software from the Kenwood web site URL shown below:(URL is subject to change.) http://www.kenwood.com/i/products/info/amateur/software_download.html Carefully read the update instructions provided when you download ...

TH-D72A/E CONTENTS 79 10 MISCELLANEOUS TOPICS I find that using the Kenwood TH-D72A/E with built-in GPS is very convenient for travel And also APRS operations are simple without the use of an external GPS device. But at times it is important for me to have a visual display of APRS activity around me...

10 MISCELLANEOUS TOPICS 80 CONTENTS TH-D72A/E Basic Setup Instructions for Kenwood TH-D72A/E Radio has been fully reset. Menu110 Battery Saver OFF 111 APO OFF 194 Date set 195 Time set 196 UTC offset 201 Battery Saver GPS OFF 300 Enter Call sign Push A/B Band Key Set A Band to 144.390F-1 Internal GP...

TH-D72A/E CONTENTS 81 11 APPENDIX Revision History Revision Date Summary of Changes May 15, 2011 Release of the first edition.