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[KE7FD]

I am planning on driving halfway across country in a couple of months. I'd like to use my Opentracker USB for this trip, and have recently dug it out to program its configuration. When I looked at the path setting, I wondered if in recent history, changes have been made for preferred path settings. I believe mine is set to Wide 1-1 but I then wondered if that was the best setting since many of the stretches of I-70 are without any digipeater or Igate coverage. I plan on using a very decent gain mobile vertical antenna and possibly an amplifier. My question is, what should the preferred path setting be in the configuration?

[WW1SS]

I use my APRS app on my I Phone.

[NA4IT]

Recommended path for a mobile is Wide 1-1, Wide 2-2. Just make sure your beacon isn't too often. There is a thing known as "Smart Beaconing" which used the speed of the vehicle to determine the beacon rate. Your device has that function.

[KE7FD]

Recommended path for a mobile is Wide 1-1, Wide 2-2. Just make sure your beacon isn't too often. There is a thing known as "Smart Beaconing" which used the speed of the vehicle to determine the beacon rate. Your device has that function.

Yes, I've got Smart Beaconing enabled as well as 255 seconds (max setting) for what I call the "keep alive" setting. With regard to the wide 1-1 or the wide 2-2, is there an advantage of one over the other when in very poor coverage segments of the freeway?

[WD9EWK]

Yes, I've got Smart Beaconing enabled as well as 255 seconds (max setting) for what I call the "keep alive" setting. With regard to the wide 1-1 or the wide 2-2, is there an advantage of one over the other when in very poor coverage segments of the freeway?

It's not an "either/or" thing - the path should be "WIDE1-1,WIDE2-2". This sets your APRS packets to make a maximum of 3 hops. This is recommended for much of the western US, where there may not be as many APRS gateways as in other places with higher population density. I use this when I drive around the southwestern USA, and on other trips to the east coast.

If there is poor coverage on your route, the path really doesn't matter. No digipeaters, no digipeated packets. This might be a situation where an APRS app on a mobile phone has an advantage... as long as you have coverage from the mobile network for data. There are places here in Arizona where the mountaintop APRS digipeaters work better than my mobile phone, and those mountaintop digipeaters do a good job of ensuring the APRS gateways receive my packets.

Good luck, and 73!

[KE7FD]

Thanks Patrick. Since you put it that way, I'm sure the Opentracker software will allow that. I'll test things out before the trip.

Born in AZ, lived in Scottsdale, grew up in Prescott. Stay cool! Thanks for your help.
Glen

[K6EEN]

I use my APRS app on my I Phone.

This.  If you have a GPS-enabled SmartPhone, the data coverage is pretty good along the U.S. interstate system.  So download an APRS app for iPhone or Android, and set your phone up as KE7FD-5 (or whatever SSID) and have the phone broadcast your position via APRS-IS, in addition to what your radio can do as KE7FD-9 via the 2 meter digipeter network.