I think I understand about nicknames, but I'm having an
issue I haven't figured out yet.
I've been entering the nickname information for an
upcoming bike ride I'm helping support. I got a list of the
tactical call signs and the expected APRS call sign/SSIDs to
be used and I've set up a whole bunch of them ahead of the
event.
I started with no nicknames in the list (except for
"ME"). I know I was doing it right because one station's
label changed when he showed up unexpectedly.
I decided I might as well nickname my own station to its
tactical call sign. I've done that successfully before. This
time, when I tried to do that, it wouldn't "take". It's been
my experience in the past that this can happen because that
nickname label is already assigned. As far as I can tell, it
wasn't. I even searched the .xml file and it only occurred
once in the nickname I'd just set up.
I should explain my circumstances. I have a laptop in my
vehicle that I use for APRS, using the APRSIS 32 program. I
have a D710 running in APRS mode and it feeds the laptop (I
also have an FTM-400 which can also feed the laptop - the D710
is much better at decoding and it has many features the 400
doesn't have - but it doesn't "do" C4FM...). My D710's call
sign/SSID is WB2UTI-9 (actually, so is my 400 but I don't use
them at the same time). The program on the laptop is assigned
WB23UTI-13 - deliberately different from the radios. The
laptop is connected to the internet via a Verizon hotspot and
it has a GPS receiver hooked to it so the map follows me
around. That way, when my radio beacons, I can see whether my
radio's beacon made it to the APRS-IS. It usually does, and
when it does it just shows up as a mobile station labelled
"WB2UTI-9". That's the "station" I was unable to nickname.
When I tried to set up the nickname for my own station
(WB2UTI-9), the label on the screen would not change. When I
clicked on the WB2UTI-9 label, I was not offered the option of
nicknaming the station. When I picked it out of the scrolling
list, I was not offered the option to nickname it.
I went inside the house and turned on my desktop PC,
fired up APRSIS32 and nicknamed my mobile station (WB2UTI) and
it instantly changed on the screen when the mobile radio
beaconed.
Apparently, there's something fishy in the laptop in the
vehicle, but I don't see another occurrence of. the nickname I
used anywhere. I just put 27 nicknames in there. I really
don't want to delete them all (using the "delete all" menu
option) and start over again, but I guess that's one option.
There's likely some obvious error I've made, except it's
not obvious to me yet.
Does anyone have any ideas about this?
Gil Chapin, WB2UTI
