Kenwood TM-D710GA or Yaesu FTM-400DR?

[Ralph Milnes]

I don't remember much recent discussion on the "best" mobile APRS rig. If
I'm mistaken, just let me know.

But I'm about to buy a new APRS rig and wonder if I should go with the
Kenwood TM-710GA or the Yaesu FTM-400DR.

Anyone care to venture an opinion?

And if anyone thinks I should go with an ICOM D-Star/APRS rig, I'd like to
hear about that, but my focus is on APRS and not D-Star.

Ralph NM5RM

[Lynn W. Deffenbaugh (Mr)]

If your focus is on APRS then it's likely that you'd want to integrate a
full function APRS client to your radio's TNC. If that is the case,
then there's only one choice, the Kenwood. Yaesu doesn't support
external access to the TNC.

Yaesu has a menu option that looks promising, but it only provides
output of received APRS packets and that's in a non-standard form. And
the manual section that mentions TNC is simply instructions on how to
hook up your own external TNC to the radio which kind of makes the
internal APRS functions a bit redundant.

Kenwood, on the other hand, provides full access to the internal TNC for
both receive and transmit and even supports KISS mode to let the
software take full control.

I'll let other's compare and contrast the internal APRS functions of the
two radios, if you have no plans to interface beyond them.

Lynn (D) - KJ4ERJ - Author of APRSISCE for Windows Mobile and Win32

Post by Ralph Milnes
I don't remember much recent discussion on the "best" mobile APRS rig.
If I'm mistaken, just let me know.
But I'm about to buy a new APRS rig and wonder if I should go with the
Kenwood TM-710GA or the Yaesu FTM-400DR.
Anyone care to venture an opinion?
And if anyone thinks I should go with an ICOM D-Star/APRS rig, I'd
like to hear about that, but my focus is on APRS and not D-Star.
Ralph NM5RM
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[Keith VE7GDH]

Ralph NM5RM wrote...

Post by Ralph Milnes
But I'm about to buy a new APRS rig and wonder if I should
go with the Kenwood TM-710GA or the Yaesu FTM-400DR.

See Lynn's valid comments if you are want to connect an APRS client to
the TNC, although you could add an external TNC, but the D710 would
avoid that.

However, if the radio will be used "stand-alone" the FTM-400D is a very
nice radio to use, both for voice and for APRS. The touch sensitive
colour screen sets it apart from anything else that is out there, plus
it also does digital C4FM FDMA, with a growing number of DR-1 repeaters
installed around the continent and around the world.

Very likely, D710 users will rave about it, and FTM-400D users will rave
about it too. I'm very happy with both the FTM-400D and the FT1DR. I
find them both very intuitive.

[Javier Henderson]

Post by Keith VE7GDH
Ralph NM5RM wrote...
But I'm about to buy a new APRS rig and wonder if I should

Post by Ralph Milnes
go with the Kenwood TM-710GA or the Yaesu FTM-400DR.

See Lynn's valid comments if you are want to connect an APRS client to the
TNC, although you could add an external TNC, but the D710 would avoid that.
However, if the radio will be used "stand-alone" the FTM-400D is a very
nice radio to use, both for voice and for APRS. The touch sensitive colour
screen sets it apart from anything else that is out there, plus it also
does digital C4FM FDMA, with a growing number of DR-1 repeaters installed
around the continent and around the world.

How many DR-1 repeaters are installed around the continent and around the
world?

73,
-jav k4jh

[Keith VE7GDH]

Jav K4JH wrote...

Post by Javier Henderson
How many DR-1 repeaters are installed around the continent and
around the world?

http://www.repeaterbook.com/repeaters/FeatureSearch.php?type=YSF&state_id=%25&band=%25#sthash.HdGZvzxC.dpbs

http://www.repeaterbook.com/repeaters/map/FeatureMap.php?maptype=feature&state_id=%&type=YSF&system=#sthash.zhJA11Kb.dpbs

I can't give you a definitive answer, but 97 System Fusion repeaters
(Yaeusu's C4FM FDMA) have been added to RepeaterBook. That's not too bad
considering how new the DR-1 repeaters are. Most are in the US but there
are a handful of them in Canada. I wouldn't be surprised if there were a
few that haven't been added to RepeaterBook yet.