Just a thought, as performance was not what you expected - maybe the roof rack is not acting as a classical ground plane, producing an odd polar diagram, or higher angle radiation than optimum…?
I’m not sure how you could easily check that but maybe try a different mounting point…?
Apologies if that makes no sense!
Maybe so. The magmount is on a steel plate attached to the aluminium rack via bolts.
The car is mainly aluminium panels, I could try a body mount antenna by removing one aerial whip…
What profile/settings are you using for the smart beaconing? The firmware has different profiles - for walking, cycling and driving.
The default walking profile didn’t seem to work for me while walking and I was only getting 1 or 2 positions picked up over a 3 hour walk/activation.
I changed the settings to match those in APRSDroid and it works a lot better now. I think it is sending more beacons, so there’s more chance of it getting picked up.
Off the top of my head, when driving i think its around every 15 or 30mins? On short walk (<60mins) I can get a few beacons picked up by my iGate.
The smart beaconing is what ever the default is in code
If you are moving it should be sending positions frequently - usually something like once a minute. The default smart beaconing works just fine for me (walking, cycling and driving).
Looking at your data I think your tracker is not get GPS fixes reliably.
I agree with Richard - I’ve seen the same in the past with my T-Beam on its original sat antenna.
I used to leave the unit stationary pointing at the sky for 15 minutes (until it had acquired half a dozen sats) before I set off moving, but since I’ve fitted a larger sat antenna its much better.
What data are you looking at Richard?
Which larger sat antenna did you fit ?
According to my Purchase History, It was described as:
GPS antenna 28db high gain Active builtin ceramic Drone aerial antenna Size: 18*18mm
probably just like this one.
If the tracker can see enough satellites to get an accurate location fix, pressing one of the buttons forces the tracker to transmit a location beacon immediately. The digirepeater I have hidden up in the Peak District @ 622m has a very wide coverage over Merseyside, Manchester and South Lancashire:
but it didn’t get a single ping from you John:
If you take it outside, wait a couple of minutes until it gets a GPS lock, then press the button to force a location ping. If it doesn’t have a GPS lock it won’t trasmit a location ping so it must be an issue with the GPS antenna (or the uBlox GPS chipset). If it does transmit when you press the button, but it is doesn’t get picked up elsewhere, I’d take a look at antenna again,
Dave
Thanks Dave for confirming. I believe I have the right version of the OLED: “VCC GND SCL SDA”. I have another T-Beam so I was able to compare the OLED before buying and also position the OLED in the correct holes on the board too. So it’s almost certainly my soldering that is the problem…(or the OLED is duff). Quite frustrated when I powered the board up and nothing happened! The board has accepted the tracker firmware without issue.
I find there is a temptation to fiddle and I find that just makes a bad job even worse. I’m going to try and remove it, clean up and try again when I’m in a better mood 
Yes this is what I did for my T-Beam. It made a big difference to the puny one that comes with it. I’m more and more coming round to the Heltec Wireles Tracker board (which I also have) as that comes with a large GPS module as standard, has an IPEX mounted antenna and is much smaller…
@GW4BML Ben have you secreted a digipeater on Arenig Fawr or were just passing through with one? It was there earlier and sent a couple of positions but has disappeared now…
It was me, not Ben - testing a digirepeater for him…It may or may not be going up there, I cannot confirm or deny it 
Dave
Well it worked amazingly well!
EDIT and now I feel rather foolish after Dave explained the kit was on his bench
@m0jks Very strange indeed.
I was hoping with the external aerial I would have a better chance of being picked up.
@g6gvi - thanks for the info.
Another batch of trackers being assembled. These will be available shortly at cost to UK activators.
Prices for this batch work out to £55 each. This includes:
I will supply them fully assembled and programmed with your callsign and ready to use.
DM me if you want one [UK Activators only].
Hi James @M7SDO, hope all is well. Yes, I have a digipeater to install on Arenig Fawr, thanks to Dave @M0JKS 
it won’t be secretly installed, I have had permission from the land owner, it has it’s perks being a farmer, hahaa. I just need to find a nice high location, but well hidden from the general public. I will be climbing up it soon to do some research - once functional, I will share on here.
73, Ben
GW4BML
