PacComm Settings for New n-N Compatibility                    02 Apr 2005
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This is the FINAL revision.  Sorry for the changes, but this better tunes
the settings for your particular area and needs.

The presence of many old PacComm Tiny-2 Trace-only digis has held back 
WIDEn-N routing in all the early APRS areas because these old 1996 to 
1998 digis still exist.  Few were installed after that because WIDEn-N 
came out in 1998 and they cannot do WIDEn-N.

But now with the New n-N Paradigm, we do have a way to accomodate them 
so that we can finally move on to the very efficient WIDEn-N system and 
abandon the multiple-dupe generating old RELAY and WIDE type paths.  Of 
course the ideal solution is to put new UIDIGI-ROMS into these old TNC's, 
or upgrade the TNC's to KPC-3+'s.  But in the mean time here is how to 
make these TNC's locally compatible with the New n-N Paradigm.  Basically 
you have only 4 aliases.  These used to be RELAY, WIDE, TRACE and SS for 
your state.  Since all of these are obsolete, now you simply choose the 
four combinations of WIDEn-N that need to be supported:

   Set your four aliases for WIDE1-1,WIDE2-2,WIDE2-1,WIDE3-3


NOTE:  These digis will not support SSn-N digipeating.

USERS IN THE AREA OF A PACCOMM DIGI:  All fixed stations in range of 
this digi need to set their outgoing path of WIDE1-1,WIDEn-N where N is 
the common value in the region minus one.  If this is a 3-3 area, then 
use WIDE1-1,WIDE2-2.  If it is a 2 hop area, then use WIDE1-1,WIDE2-1.

SETUP:

FIRST:  RESET the TNC to factory defaults to get rid of any hacks and tweaks
that you may have developed over the years.  And install your MYCALL.

SECOND: Set HID OFF    - These packets are of no value to APRS, just QRM

THIRD:  Set up the four Aliases for the New n-N Paradigm noted above.

FOURTH:  Set up the Digipeater's POSITION ID and Transmission rate.  We
can get two paths and 2 rates using the UNPROTO and LPATH commands.  Set
one to every 13 minutes *direct* and one every 31 minutes via two hops.

 BEACON EVERY 78    <== a local  beacon every 12 minutes
 UNPROTO APNPxx     <== via direct
 LOC E 186                   <== a one-hop beacon every 31 minutes
 LPATH   APNPxx VIA WIDE2-2  <== via adjacent dig's

Notice:  The UNPROTO and LPATH should use the TOCALL of APNPxx where 
APN identifies it as digipeater firmware.   The "P" identifies it as 
PacComm ROM and "xx" identifies the ROM version.

FIFTH:  Setting your POSITION TEXT:  Your Position packet should tell
users what they need to know about this digipeater.  It goes into the 
BText and LText and should be 100% identical to keep APRS logging software 
from seeing constant changes and logging everyone of them all day long. 

BT !DDMM.hhNPDDDMM.hhW#PHGphgd/11,22,21,33 new digi in kalamazoo, etc
LT !DDMM.hhNPDDDMM.hhW#PHGphgd/11,22,21,33 new digi in kalamazoo, etc

a) After the LAT/LONG# Always include the PHGXXXX  (See DIGIS.TXT)
b) next, a list of the aliases, such as "11,22,21,33" etc
c) The overlay character between the LAT/LONG should now be a "P"
d) There is no need for altitude /A=001377 since this is all included
   in a proper PHG statement.  If you insist, then put it at the end
   so it doesnt take up space on the front panel of the kenwoods.

SIXTH:  Set the TXD to 15 or so to shorten the TX delay by 50% from the 
300ms default, adn by all means adjust your Transmit audio level well
below the maximum where distortion messes up your signal.


CONCLUSION:

That's all there is to it.  Please don't diddle with any other 
parameters.  The defaults for those are the correct settings.  If you
dink with them you can only make performance worse.

de WB4APR, bob