Fault finding question

az_gila said:

Could any of the APRS experts look at my tracks (N12GA) and hazard a guess at what's going on?

I'm out travelling, and the July 1/2 tracks across AZ, NM - a stop at Amarillo - and on to Springfield, MO worked reasonable well.

Then no track from Springfield to Burlington, IA....

Then only one "hit" on the trip from Burlington to Sioux City, IA which was right in the middle of the Des Moines Class C.

No hits from Sioux City to Rapid City, SD.

Then on the next trip from Rapid City to Ft. Collins, CO, again, only one hit, this time on final at 400 ft into KFNL.

Could an expert look at the raw data, and see if anything is obivious? I know my antenna isn't the finest, but it worked initially.

I have a MicroTrak 300 with the Byonics power supply module and a byonics GPS2 reciever. I have an LED on the 12 v supply and that appears OK.

The LEDS on the card indicate good GPS track, and a "blip" every 2 minutes.

I'm guessing a bad antenna wire, but confused I don't get more hits when flying higher.... Perhaps I got my programming screwed up, or it "re-programmed" itself....

gil A - on the road... KE6HAP

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Sam Buchanan said:

Gil, looks like aprs.fi has purged the raw data from your flights except for the last beacon in CO. That beacon looks good. I suspect you have an antenna problem if the config has changed since the tracker last worked properly.

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az_gila said:

I'm just surprised the good hits are low down and not flying high...

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Joe said:

Gil,

That's a pretty good indication of an antenna problem. You're heard only when you're very close to a station and additional altitude will not help. Your last packet (on 2008-07-18 17:31:25) was digipeated by K0UT-5 who was 8 miles SW as you were SW- or S-bound. I experienced the same phenomena once when a push-on coax connection became disconnected and my transmitter radiated a very puny signal.

73,
Joe, K7JD

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