according to the FT5DE APRS manual the preset P3 should be WIDE1-1,WIDE2-1 which is absolutely fine. My recommended WIDE1-1,WIDE2-2 adds an addtional hop which may be advantageous in poorly covered regions with RF-digis, only.
Either there is still some configuration issue of the FT5 or your region has really such a bad APRS coverage. In the first case working through the manual should help. In the second case consider setting up a RX-only IGate to improve APRS coverage.
Hi Michael,
I have set a custom connect path as you suggested with wide 1-1 and wide 2-2, connected to a 3 element yagi and sent a couple of beacons. Still no receive here. It looks like the local igate is off the air! There has been no traffic showing on aprs.fi for some time. I am heading over to the other side of the County tomorrow so will try and connect whilst over there, looks like there are several active stations on that side of the mountains. Hopefully the issue is down to lack of gateways here and not my configuration. Report back tomorrow.
Thanks again
73
Tim
Just noticed that the Yaesu FT3DE is back in stock at WIMO:
It’s more expensive than the Anytone, but at €329 it’s not bad for an entry level APRS radio from a good manufacturer. In fact, it’s cheaper than the latest PICO APRS.