digipeater question

[Shannon N5OOO]

As i stated before i am very new to APRS.  I saw the video that Craig did with sending a txt msg and really wanted to do that.  I got all the hardware and setup it up.  I am able to send txt msg to my cell successfully but i when i reply to those text from my cell i never get them back on my webchat.  I mentioned this in another post and asked if setting up another digipi as a digipeater would fix this and i believe it was Craig that replied back stating that yes if got another digipi setup as a digipeater that would allow that to happen.  Well i have 2 digipi now setup at my QTH.  1 of them on my ht that i have set up as APRS TNC/igate with APRS Webchat enabled and the other is an HT on my home antenna (about 30ft) setup as just a APRS Digipeater.  Both APRS signals show up on APRS.fi (see pic).  I am still able to send webchat txt to my cell but when i reply back i never get the msg back to my webchat.  Am i missing something?  Would appreciate any advice.  I want to setup the digipeater and leave it up on my area so that maybe other could use....if it works that way.

Thanks again.

Shannon 

N5OOO

[Shannon N5OOO]

[Scott]

I don't know if this is the issue but the SMS service requires you to sign your phone up on their website

Scott Stys
scott...@gmail.com

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[Uhlir, Shannon]

I did not know that.   I watched the video again and that was not mentioned.   Do you happen to know where that info might be to register?  I can currently send txt with the SMS name...wonder if there is more involved to receive txt back.   

Shannon

Thank you

 

Shannon Uhlir

shanno...@ttuhsc.edu

Server Administrator III – Managed Care

 

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From: Scott <scott...@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, November 24, 2025 6:07:58 PM
To: Shannon N5OOO <firet...@gmail.com>
Cc: DigiPi <dig...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [DigiPi] Re: digipeater question

 

[Craig]

Also, make sure you [send beacon] in the WebChat interface so the system knows
where you are, and what towers to reply through.

Send a message to WXBOT and see if it replies - it's a good full-duplex test, and
it will know your position.   You can also send a message to FIND and it will report
your last beacon position.

Once you're on the map, you can receive aprs messages (from the internet/sms).

-craig
KM6LYW

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/digipi/CH8PR12MB97448C8FA9FB834AD1F0C49A92D1A%40CH8PR12MB9744.namprd12.prod.outlook.com.

[TinTalon]

I appreciate the response.  Does the photo i posted not show that i send postion, which is why the icons showed up on the map on aprs.fi?   Im not sure i am understandingwhat you are asking me to do, am I sending a txt from my phone to "WXbot" and "Find"?  Am I sending from Webchat?  If webchat, would it be in the format of using SMS , Wide 1-1, and then @wxbot or @find ?  Do you just @ either of those with no msg after the "@find"?  Somebody mentioned that maybe I needed to register my phone number with SMS, is that a thing?  Does it cost?   Both of my digipi (reg digipi and my digipeater) can send aprs location packet info and both so up on the map at the same time with different icons.   And I can send txt msg from both to my cell and I recieved them.  But when replying back to the number they came from i get nothing.   Like webchat is there a format I need to follow when replying from my phone?  Or am I just suppose to just type back like any other regular txt msg?  

Thank you

 

Shannon

[Craig]

Hi TinTalon,

If the "laptop" with your callsign shows up on aprs.fi, your APRS position/beacon was heard.
That's sufficient.   WXBOT and FIND are virtual callsigns you can talk to on the APRS WebChat
interface, just to see if you're transmitting and receiving APRS messages.

Cell phones need only "reply" and you should get the reply on RF if you sent a beacon
recently (within 24 hours), and you're on the map at aprs.fi.

You need to register target phones with the SMS callsign online, if you haven't already.

  https://aprs.wiki/

There is no fee, put please support Michael Phelps in this endeavor if you can.




-craig
KM6LYW

[TinTalon]

Thank you.  This makes more since now.  I just opted in for SMS. 

 

On my digipeater digipi, do i only need to turn on digipeater option? Will it send its position location automatically every so often?  Or do have to enable webchat and do it manually?  Is there a way to have the Pi boot up automatically into digipeater mode?  I want this to recover automatically in case of power outage.  

Shannon 

[Craig]

WebChat needs either the "APRS TNC/igate" or the "APRS Digipeater" or the "APRS Tracker".  If you
don't start one, WebChat will start "APRS TNC/igate" automatically.

If you choose to run a digipeater full time, you can select it as the default service on the Initialize page
and it will start at boot, or after a power failure.  You can tweak this after the fact by editing
/etc/systemd/system/digipi-boot.service.

Digipeater will send its own beacon every 20 minutes as [yourcall-2].

WebChat can also send beacons manually as [yourcall].


I'm not sure if this helps, but that's a pile of related facts.

let me know, thanks,
-craig
KM6LYW

[Shannon N5OOO]

Craig,

      Ok..after some googling i think i understand a little more.  In the "to Callsign" i put WXBOT then chose Wide 1-1 and in the message box i put my zip code.  I then hit send and i see that i sent a msg but i never get back a response.  I have done this with my regular DigiPi and my DigiPeater and never get back anything.  Also i have Opted into APRS with my cell number but still never get back a response from cell phone when i reply.  Any other ideas for me to try?  LOL...i dont know why but i thought this would be a quick setup.  

Thanks

Shannon

[Shannon N5OOO]

I am using 2 baofeng UV-5R mini radios.  1 as my ht with digipi (for mobile) and the other for my QTH connected to my dual band antenna which is about 30ft with LMR-400 from DXE.  

[Craig]

Okay, transmitting is working great, but there's no guarantee there's a digipeater near by that's
willing or able to send you something over RF from SMS or WXBOT.

Your beacon is working, so the information service is requesting local digi's to send you
packets over RF.

Is your antenna high and outside?  Baofeng?  it's possibly the worst receiver in the lineup,
so you have to give it some help.

Check this out,

https://aprs.fi/?c=message&call=N5OOO

I can see you sending your zip code over Rf, and WXBOT is trying to reply, but you
don't hear it on RF where you are I suspect.


anyhow, that's my observation here.

cool,
-craig
KM6LYW

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/digipi/abae6065-8b20-45de-89dc-cac861ae664cn%40googlegroups.com.

[Shannon N5OOO]

[Craig]

Yah, you're not receiving at all (path from internet to RF doesn't exist there).

This is the digi that hears you, but he doesn't even try to send your messages over RF,

   https://aprs.fi/?c=raw&call=KG5BQX-10

We might even contact KG5BQX and ask why he's not gating message-type packets to RF,

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[TinTalon]

Does this mean that this is all a no go for me here?  I dont have any other radios to use for this and no money to spend after buying the 2 baofeng uv5r mini radios (I chose these because they are suppose to be pretty good for cheap...not like the other baofengs) plus buying the 2 Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W's, the 2 AIOC boards.  I just thought that after watching from your video and you using a baofeng regular UV5R (the bad dirty ones) that they new clean versions would be ok.  I also kind of thought that when I first started asking questions about starting this i mentioned that there was probably not any others in my area to pass along packets and asked if me setting up a second digipi in Digipeater mode would fix thst and allows others to use it.  I guess I understand the RF side and there not being anything close enough to me but with sending to SMS and it able to send the txt out and I get them that that process would work in reverse.   

So im guessing APRS packet stuff...other than sending beacons is a no go for me with what I have?

Shannon

[TinTalon]

Why does this require KG5BQX?  That is what i was trying to avoid and was trying to up something that others could use in my area.  I understand the more you get the broader RF signals and distance we can go but I have pretty great fast internet and wanted to be that point that can gate message-type packets to others. 

Thanks.  Sorry if im not getting this...its a lot to take in...digital is fun but I clearly dont know much about it and we have no clubs and I know no one here that even remotely would know this stuff to even ask.  

Shannon 

On Tue, Nov 25, 2025, 3:21 PM Craig <km6...@gmail.com> wrote:

[TinTalon]

I went into the digipi.boot.service file.  Is there more to do other than uncommit the following line?  #ExecStart=systemctl start digipeater 

I did that.  Saved and rebooted but the digipeater service did not start automatically. 

Shannon 

[Craig]

Hi Sannon, a couple things,

tune to 144.39 and just listen to the radio for a while, do you hear any packets?

Second, you need to comment out the last ExecStart, and uncomment the digipeater, two lines below:

[Service]
Type=simple
#Wait for boot process to complete, not just start
ExecStartPre=sleep 10
ExecStart=systemctl start digipeater
#ExecStart=systemctl start tracker
#ExecStart=systemctl start node
#ExecStart=systemctl start winlinkrms
#ExecStart=systemctl start tnc
#ExecStart=systemctl start tnc300b
#ExecStart=systemctl start wsjtx
#ExecStart=systemctl start js8call
#ExecStart=systemctl start fldigi
#ExecStart=systemctl start sstv
#ExecStart=/home/pi/online.sh
Restart=no

[Craig]

I think you're doing great!

KG5BQX is a digipeater in your area.  Unfortunately he seems one direction, or you can't hear him for some reason.

I think you building a digipeater is a great idea in that part of texas.  it will work well with KG5BQX

again, can you "hear" packets on your 'feng?   also turn the squelch off (zero)


You've got a lot of fun learning to do - great stuff!

-craig
KM6LYW

[TinTalon]

I assume by packets you mean a modem like sound?  

Does this SMS aprs only work if there is something special in my area?  I guess im asking,  if I have a digipeater setup and connected to the internet and a radio connected to my external antenna, why would this not work and transmit the messages to my mobile if within rf range?   Is there a part of this puzzle I don't understand am I relying on somebody else or some other Hardware to make this part of this work?

[Craig]

For a self-contained setup, you need two separate radios/digipi's, one
APRS Digipeater, the other APRS TNC/igate and WebChat.

[TinTalon]

That is what i have. 

[TinTalon]

I have my radio set to 144.390 and I can hear digital traffic.  I think its my digipeater...but I can hear it. 

Shannon 

On Tue, Nov 25, 2025, 4:54 PM Craig <km6...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Craig]

great - your digipeater should transmit a beacon 8 seconds after it
starts (probably a minute after boot).

On the TNC/WebChat radio, you should see your digipeater's beacon in
PktLog,  that's the next test,
to confirm you can hear your digipeater.

[TinTalon]

Ok. I restarted everything to start fresh.  Looking at the pklog on my APRS TNC/igate is see this. 

Shannon 

[Craig]

That log shows your digipi APRS TNC/igate connecting to the aprs information service via
the internet and sending a position beacon (no RF here).

looks good,
-craig
KM6LYW

[TinTalon]

Craig,

     So i hooked up everything today and have run the digipi and the digipeater for 8 plus hours.  I wanted to post a pic of the Digipi pktlog and the digipeater pktlog for you to look at.  Are things ok?  What are you looking at?  i see things like  [ig] and [0H], [0L], [0.4 and [0.3]  I dont know what these mean but i am assuming that are what kind of packets or something like that.  Also on my Digipi i have notice it does not automatically send a APRS position.  If i key "send position" manually from the webchat form them my N5OOO laptop icon shows up on APRS.Fi but after a while it disappears and will not come back on its own...even waiting for an hour.  I have to manually send position...maybe that is normal...im not sure.  the DigiPeater seems to send out a position ever 20 mins like you said and i can see other callsigns on the screen of the digipeater.   What are my next steps?  i want to be able to me a digipeater for my area that passes data packets like SMS msg and what not for anyone in my area.

Thank you

Shannon 

[Craig]

I think you're done!

All of your observations and assertions/assumptions are correct here.

You don't need to understand everything in PktLog (direwolf.log), but you can
certainly read the direwolf manual to learn  more - it's epic and interesting.

ig is a request from the internet to transmit something, which Digipeater will do, but TNC will not
[0L] is a transmitted packet
[0.3] is a packet received (radio.channel)

Digipeater has automated RF beacons, APRS TNC/igate beacons to internet, not RF.

Great work!

thanks for hosting the Digi there in Texas!

-craig
KM6LYW

[Shannon N5OOO]

Thank you for your help.  I do i get my setup to be able to receive SMS msgs and send back to callsign for myself and others?  I can still send SMS to phone number and receive them but when i reply i still do not get a response in my webchat.  That is my end goal i would like to get setup.

Thank you

Shannon 

[Craig]

Hi Shannon,

First, Click PktLog and make sure your digipeater is connected to aprsis.  It should display "Now connected to...." something
after a couple minutes.   This will only work if the digipeater is on your home wifi/internet (not a hotspot).

Secondly, after you send a reply on your phone, and assuming your target radio sent a beacon within
the last 24 hours that made it to aprs.fi (laptop symbol), watch for an [ig>tx] line in the PktLog on the
Digipeater that displays that reply.  The Digipeater should digipeat that line.


Anyhow, that's what I'd do,

-craig
KM6LYW

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[Shannon N5OOO]

Good morning and Happy Thanksgiving.  I restarted my digipeater about an hour ago.  Here is the pktlog.  I dont see  "Now connected to apris".  I can see a line that says "Now connected to IGate server noam.aprs2.net"  I only have the option APRS Digipeater turned on.  Am i missing something?  Here is my packet log after about 1 hour of running.

Shannon

[Craig]

Happy thanksgiving!

Looking at that log,

your digipeater isn't receiving anything on RF, nor is it being asked by
the information service
to transmit anything on RF.  It is connected to the internet.

It transmitted a beacon twice.

did you attempt to send/receive an SMS during this log period?

[TinTalon]

I hsve done nothing but restart it.  

[TinTalon]

I do have a question based on a recent Google search.  When you setup digipi for the first time it ask you for passwords and there is a link to the right to generate one.  I dod not do this because i already had an aprs.fi account so I typed that into the password space.   I then ran across something in the packet log about checking the server status and when I went there I can see that my call sign was not verified. When I started to look into this I think I wound up on a website called smsgte.org it says that this site is the Gateway intended to allow amateur radio operators to exchange text messages with SMS on cellular phones. I have not been to this web page before and so I chose to create an account but it won't let me verify my email and judging by other parts of the website it's kind of hard to tell but it seems like maybe that isn't completely functional yet and there's also an option to opt in to receive messages with the phone number but again that doesn't appear to be working via the website. Is this possibly why that isn't working for me? Or am I in the wrong place?

Shannon 

On Thu, Nov 27, 2025, 10:30 AM Craig <km6...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Craig]

"Not verified" - that would explain this, wrong aprs passcode.  Please generate the code here:

    https://apps.magicbug.co.uk/passcode/

you can retrofit the code by editing both localize.env and /.config/aprsd/aprsd.conf
then press [save configuration] on the digipi home page.

or, re-initialize.


-craig
KM6LYW

[TinTalon]

Sounds like this would easier to start over and do the initialize again from the beginning.  Where is this passcode being generated at is it something I can grab from aprs.fi or is this something completely different?

[Shannon N5OOO]

I have started over and have setup the DigiPeater again.  Now it is back online and checked into APRS.fi and also the server says i am verified.  So far so good. 

Another question.  I am going to redo my DigiPi for my mobile.  Can i use the same passcode or do i have to generate a new one?  Will the same passcode work for my DigiPi and my DigiPeater?

[Craig]

that aprs passcode is the same for your callsign everywhere on all apps.  it's a one-way hash function, it's
not exactly super secret.

So, you should have rf/sms working both directions now?


-craig
KM6LYW

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[TinTalon]

YAY!! It looks like everything is working now.  Thank you so much for your help.  

I do have just a couple questions.  When I re-setup my digipeater and it checked into aprs.fi the icon was a black diamond with the letter R.  After a few minutes the icon changed to a green star with the number 1 in it.  What does that mean?    Here are some screenshots showing logs from both digipi and digipeater and my webchat as well as the icons.  

Thank you for all your help.  Looks like issue was I did not generate a passcode for aprs because I thought this was just my aprs password.  (Maybe a future note could be added on the initialize screen like "generate a passcode if you dont have one, not the same as as aprs password" or something like "mandatory generate passcode unless you already know yours"...i dont know..just something describes what it is for.  I know there is a lot of info to learn for aprs so I understand you can't list everything.  

Also does sending txt msg via SMS...does that rely on winlink?  When I tried to send sms msg via webchat after I reinstalled no msgs were being sent.  I was just looking at everything when I attempted to goto winlink.org on my PC and the web page would not load.  After a couple tries, winlink.org finally opened.  I tested again but still did not work.  I then logged into my winlink account via my PC, then tested a SMS again and it worked and has worked everytime after that.  I can now reply to the txt msg and able to get the responses in my digipi webchat.    I am so happy this is working now.   I understand the part of the process and can setup a digipi in less than 5 mins from imaging the sdcard to completing the wifi and the initialize process.  This is such a cool project.   I think I want to look at and learn what and how to use Winlink, WSJTX and FLDigi and JS8Call...but not sure those can be performed on my baofengs.  

Hope everyone had a great day 

Shannon 

N5OOO

[TinTalon]

On Thu, Nov 27, 2025, 12:14 PM Craig <km6...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Craig]

Dominating - great work!  thanks for the follow up and the pictures.  Everything appears
to be working perfectly.  Just a bad APRS passcode, and you figured that out on your
own.  I've been there.

thank again,
-craig
KM6LYW

On 11/27/25 10:43 AM, TinTalon wrote:

Forgot the pics

On Thu, Nov 27, 2025, 12:14 PM Craig <km6...@gmail.com> wrote: