Clarification on my use of term "audio interface". All the Mobilinkds are modems in that they modulate and demodulate signals for transmission over another medium. They are not audio interfaces.
I was just about to comment that I really appreciate that you used the phrase "basically a glorified audio interface." I've always laughed at the double-speak that has occurred in the Ham community for things that have "plain speak" names. Now... that is not to say that the "plain speak" term came first. Usually the Amateur Radio term came first... because... well... a bunch of amateurs came up the thing before it became a commercial product. Yes... a TNC is basically just a fancy audio interface. Is it a modem? Yes... and is a modem basically just an audio interface? Yes. Just like a modem is also basically a telegraph key... sped up really fast.
Hmm... I suppose it depends what is actually making the signals for the clicks and whistles and what is conveying them between electrical and sound mediums. 🤔
With a near-total lack of technical skills, and the help of this video, I was able to successfully send and receive emails over 2m from my dining room table via a local repeater. Thanks, Josh!
Can you do a video on mesh ham like AREDN? Turning wifi router to ham frequencies and using them to make mesh wifi? I love your explanations and would love to learn more about the power of digital like AREDN
I own a similar Kenwood T-F7, and I would like to ask you: Is it possible, through technical modification or technical programming, to be able to transmit on the HF frequency?!
Another comment here, if you want to save money and are NOT an iPhone user, go with the Mobilinkd version 2 model with an Android device. That's what I did personally to save quite a few bucks.
The Mobilinkd is what got me into APRS. Even though I am an iPhone user, I opted for the Mobilinkd version 2.2 as it's half the price. I simply picked up an inexpensive Android phone to use as my "radio" phone in the field. I primarily use this setup to spot myself for SOTA activations using APRS2SOTA. My only complaint is the button. It gets bumped too easily in the field and turns itself on and off. I wish they would update the device with a mechanical slider switch.
Great video! The Mobilinkd is great for enabling high end features on radios that otherwise lack these features. I have two of the version 2 models. What laptop is that, Josh? 73 de KT1RUN.
for all us linux geeks yes there are winlink packages but did not check id there are arm pkgs so us pi users experiment my goal is to be able to thow a SBC and a radio in my truck and go this will help
A couple of years ago I used a (then $40) Baofeng UV-5R+ as an APRS digipeater - with a simple TNC, an ancient PC running XP (also serving as an iGate) and an outside antenna - 24/7 for about 6 months. Then I decided that there was no shortage of digipeaters in the area and that I was just adding to congestion - so took it off the air. It worked well. The 6-year-old Baofeng is still hanging in as a back-up HT.
Sweet! Bout time some higher tech is creeping into the hobby. Can't wait to see what the next round of HTs and mobile rigs will bring. OLED? more sensible menu navigation? I was looking at my flat, A4 paper sized TV antenna and wondered: what happens if I used it as an antenna like your lawn chair dipole? What happens if you put 5, 10, ..., 50, 100, or 200W through it? I set to searching and it seems nobody has videos of what happens if an antenna is overloaded. All we hear is, "don't do it!" Ok, but what happens? Is it like putting a mylar snack bag in the microwave?
I really like the mobilnkd. I have several for go kits. Really easy to send text using APRSdroid. No ground loop issues and less "spaghetti" using bluetooth. In addition to Winlink, also use it with Andflmsg on Android. For example, can have radio in pack and cell phone (in airplane mode for battery savings) in chest pocket so easy to text other aprs users and home using smsgte when hiking, or to a go kit with radio in nearby room and laptop/tablet at a table to tx/rx messages for special events and ARES. I have had problems with some radios that can't switch fast enough between tx/rx. The Kenwood THF6A is the perfect radio, but as you said, hard to find.
I love the mobilinkd 3! Easy to set up... I’m running one with an old Motorola maxtrac 300 @ about 20 watts on a 5/8 jpole. I had to build the interface to go to the 16 pin connector on the back of the maxtrac. These old public safety radios work well for things like this and they were built like tanks
I love your channel. I grew up spending year, after year at the Dayton Hamvention. My grandfather was the General Chairman several times, and I volunteered there for years. Anyway, as I said, I love your channel, and what you do. Please create an alternate channel on Rumble. RU-vid can no longer be trusted due to their biased censorship. Thank you.
Using Rumble more and more. Good alternative in some areas. Would love to see ham vids there! RU-vid is abusive to many, due to their political prejudice and intolerance of diverse views, and needs to be powered down.
I'm a new ham in rural Michigan just getting familiar with packet radio. Bought a KPC3Plus USB port TNC and cables to connect to Yaseu FT-60 HT and FT-2980 base station. Works well w/ both units BUT portability is problematic. I may buy the Mobillinkds to go mobile w/ the HT. Seems like an effective, simple solution. Great video, thanks
I use the Byonics TinyTrak 4 with an old Icom T7H. What I don't like about this set up is all of the wires. The trade off with the Mobilinkd TNC is recharging the batteries in all of the devices.
Josh, Byonics is probably the oldest and most experienced of "plug in" APRS add-ons for radios, as well as all-in-one inexpensive APRS transmitters. Cheaper and simpler, no man in the middle cell phone needed. You really should do a follow up on their line.
@@toddbaker8159 Nope. The TinyTrak4 conttoller is spec'd for 6-15vdc. Other pieces of equipment will vary, but this is all you need to send gps data into a transceiver.
Even better, somebody passed a Kenwood TH-D7A on to me. It has a built-in TNC. It can do APRS, but it needs an external GPS receiver. The radio usually stays home, so I can play with packet data with it.
Josh, great video. In the past I didn't subscribe because your vids were unbearably long. I actually avoided your vids because of that. Shorter, more informative vids like this one make me want to reach my cursor up there to the subscribe button... 😁. Thanks for this vid; I think I'll invest in the Mobilinkd device.
As a side note, even if you sprung for a FT3DR, the Mobilinkd still comes in handy if you want to send packets to the radio from another device because the TNC in the FT3DR (and other Yaesu radios like the FTM-400) only outputs to an external device for monitoring, and will not accept incoming packets for transmission. Also, other packet modes like Winlink can be used with those APRS only radios.
Came back to refamiliarize because I found a TNC2 on QRZ for $50. Comes with a Kenwood cable which I think will work with my 'feng. If not I'll be ordering a cable for my FT-65 anyway. Thanks for the breakdown.
I have several of the builders version "Nucleo TNC" which is essentially a version minus the battery and bluethooth. I use it with a Pi zero running PAT for winlink and YAAC for APRS in my mobiles. I interface with it via Tablet VNC. I use this TNC to take the encode/decode off the pi otherwise the pi would have to process that via direwolf. As an added bonus the tnc kit costs $30 and I just make my own. For man mobile I would opt for the TNC3 due to portability.
That's what I've been doing as I'm working on a shoestring budget, but dang, I like the idea of WinLink so I could send better email than the emails I can send on APRS
@@natep121 I have a cord that goes from the baofeng 2 pin into a 3.5mm aux cord end. I plug that directly into my phone, and the 2 pin end into my baofeng. I run APRSDROID ($5.99) This cheap set up works well for APRS here, then again here there are a lot of digipesters and igates. It's a btech branded cord, roughly $25. So all together around $70 for radio, cord, and app. Plus phone, but I already had the phone and radio
I was able to get APRSDroid on an old Android cell phone and a Baofeng though my daily Android as a hotspot thanks to your previous video on APRS. It works very well when I am driving and my family can keep track of my location giving them piece of mind when I am away from home.
Hi Josh, thanks for the great video. I want to bond all my equipment and watched your video on doing this, but the size wire that you said is very large. I can't find any terminals that are not the size of a house. So is it right that you said stranded 6. I can't even find any small rolls of the stuff. Will have to buy it by the foot. So can you plz let me know. Also I was wondering if I can use stranded 8? It will fit it the grounding bus and can find terminals for that size.
Bill-N6EF-I used to use a TinyTrak4 for APRS with a spare mobile 2 meter rig or my old Kenwood TR-2400 HT. I don't know if the TinyTrak4 is still around or not. It required an external GPS which I had in my car at the time. I don't do APRS anymore but that's how I did it a few years ago.
Does the TNC3 allow you transmit on a radio with No gps built in. Like a uv5R? I know you can receive even without the tnc3 and just the cable to iPhone/ipad
I have that Kenwood TH-F6A HT. It's fantastic. I was lucky enough to snag the AA battery pack for it a few months ago. Great radio for emergencies. I'll definitely check out the Mobilinkd.
If you're just going to do APRS, I'd get version 2. It's significantly cheaper and quite sufficient for APRS, except that it won't work with an iPhone (so just get an old Android phone/tablet from a friend, if you don't already have one lying around) and it's designed more for HTs, so it might have trouble with some mobile/base units (I couldn't get the TNC2 to work with my Yaesu FT-857d, but it worked fine with my Yaesu VX-6R). So, the TNC2 is going to be a usable solution for APRS for most people. I just got the TNC3, because I want to use it for Winlink (and to have the option to use it with my FT-857d). I've been able to get a message out using a TNC2, but it takes 4-5 tries, most of the time (the longer the message, the greater the likelihood of failure), so getting the TNC3 was worth the extra cost to make Winlink more reliable.
Can this setup and device also be used with your phone to send/receive APRS12 messages for Email-2? Trying to avoid buying an expensive Kenwood that can do this natively. KG7OGF
A great Wireless option would be to use the IC-705 Bluetooth to connect to the modem and use the WiFi (from the 705) to connect to a laptop or tablet. That would be cool!!!
I used my Moibillinkd TNC3 connected to my Yaesu FT-2500M and a Raspberry Pi running Xastir for quite a while before upgrading. Worked awesome! Battery would last about 2 days before having to charge it. I've used it connected to my Yaesu 530 HT also. Great little device!
Thanks for the great videos. After watching I’m interested in using APRS for WinLink etc. and was wondering if you would recommend the TNC3 with any of my existing HTs or spend the extra and get the AnyTone D878UV so I can explore DMR as well. Not sure if it’s as easy to use BT and I’m not sure if I would be regretting not getting it later... thanks again for they great content. Your videos get my wife watching HRCC with me so it’s great to get her to enjoy the hobby with me. 73’s
Because of one of your videos, I bought an HG-UV98 APRS radio . It works great and pairs with my android phone and tablet quite well. How can I run winlink or sms thru this setup. Thx - de N1KRB - BTW, the u98 has gone down in price a bit. Nice unit!
Do I see some empty craft beer bottles to your left behind you? Good video; I have some 35 year old TNC's that have the audio/mic plugs that will connect nicely to some 35 year old hand helds; I will give APRS a try with the ISS. Thanks.
I just got the TNC3 and got a GT-5R to use. I have not set it up yet but will do that soon. Out local ARES uses Winlink and we have weekly Winlink check ins. This is open to anyone that wants to check-in. We will people from many other states check-in each week. In Southeastern Florida, we put people at the shelters and the local EOC-911, center is maned and that is where the internet connection is also. So when we have a storm the EOC can get our Winlink and should be able to get emails out. If anyone will have internet the EOC should. Thank You for the information!
Thank you for the videos, Josh. For APRS, I have been lucky with an "8w" Baofeng, a BTECH APRS-K1 cable and an old android phone running APRSdroid, it's been relatively simple to setup and very reliable.. Your video on the subject helped by the way. As a matter of fact, this has been a much better setup for me than my FT-3DR. This has been true both with stock and improved antennas on both HTs. Go figure.
Updating this for the TNC4 and newer versions of Winlink: Pair the TNC4 with Windows: . Make sure your computer's Bluetooth is turned on . Turn on the TNC4 . Go to Windows Bluetooth settings and click "Add Bluetooth or Other Device" . Select Bluetooth - Mice, keyboards, pens..." . Choose the TNC4 in the list. Setup Winlink: . In the main Winlink window, select the "Packet Winlink" from the pull down list, then click "Open Session". . In the Winlink session that opens, click Settings. . Choose the following: . Packet TNC Type: TNC-X . Serial Port: The lower numbered "Standard Serial over Bluetooth link" port of the two COM ports shown in Device Manager (in Ports (COM & LPT)) . Serial Port Baud: 9600 . Under TNC Parameters, make sure 1200 Baud is selected and leave everything else as is. . Everything else is left at its default value. . Click the Update button. The window will close and reopen. Enter the Winlink station you want to connect to, and click Start.
I really wish it was possible as an additional feature to also program this as a fox transmitter like the byonics PiCon. This would be a great small package to setup a fox hunt. - KD5QZG
I had the first version and tried to run winlink...no love. Great to see that they have worked the bugs out and made a more full featured TNC. Next they need to add BBS.
how does the TNC3 compare to the HG-UV98 for use as a Bluetooth TNC? I ordered an HG-UV98 for less than the cost of the TNC3, but it's still on its way from China.
I used to use the Baofeng cable straight into my old Nexus phone with APRSdroid. It worked pretty well but my new iPhone doesn't have an input, this solves that problem and I might look into picking one up. I also can't help but chuckle every time I see .435 on your Baofeng.
I thought the MobilinkD TNC provided some modulation of APRS and Winlink? Or is that done in the app (phone, laptop) and the TNC is only a BT sound card?
If you have the Mobilinkd connected via Bluetooth to your iPhone can you have any other Bluetooth devices connected? I use APRS via a Quanshang and an old Android phone, but the phone just died. I was looking at gettng the MobilinkD TNC3 but I don't want to only be able to use my phones bluetooth for APRS. I would also like to connect my phone to my car bluetooth.
I just purchased the Mobilinkd TNC4. I am going to investigate using this with an iPad instead of a small laptop. Thanks again for the excellent content.
So you don't even need the Mobilinkd tnc3 unless you want to use Bluetooth. Otherwise you can simply plug the BaoFeng APRS Cable from BaoFeng radio (or others with same Kenwood connector) directly from radio to phone.
I have wires and plugs I have not extra devices bought just for this purpose So what do I hook up with wires and plugs from my computer to my icom IC7800 the big one
I have the TNC3 and have never been able to get it to work properly, I keep getting a BT socket error, I wanted to use it with an Alinco DJ-175E, but what I have noticed is that it doesn't key up the radio, so I am thinking it may be the cable, which was supplied as an extra by Mobilink. Annoying as I would really find this useful when doing SOTA activations and I need to spot myself to change Band/Freq
The FT991A has a built-in modem. You run an USB cable from your computer to it to do all this. With the USB cable, you also get CAT control. I don't know about the other radios.
Is there a way to do this with a mobile rig? Been poking around the google but haven't found anything. Would be nice to connect a tablet up to my FTM400
You know I'm intrigued by all of these new gadgets that we are in with ham radio but I do get into kind of retro mod kind of thing so I was wondering I like to how do I say think outside of the box is there a way that we could take old phones from the 90s Old brick phones old bag phones because they ran off towers right and convert them into Ham radios??
Save yourself the time, the beofang doesn't work well. And the beofeng cable doesn't do ptt properly (if you are looking to beacon) so you have to use VOX. Skip to a kenwood and get the moblinkd cable from their site and dont look back. In addition the beofang doesn't like to transmit with sql at 0 or while hooked up the charger so for permanent situation, not so great. I got a TH-K20, great for this purpose, and not a bad radio at all.
I was able to PTT beacon APRS on my BTech UV-5X3 using the TNC3 without using the VOX setting by opening the squelch (0) and using the Kenwood/Baofeng cable sent by Mobilinkd, but a better radio would probably work better.
@@rsoul42 i was using a UV5R and the BTech APRS cable (which i think is geared towards aprsdroid and not PTT). I gave up on the UV5R when the 3 issues I had above occured, but couldn't utilize the btech cable for ptt on the kenwood.
It's the KISS the keep it simple system ;) I learned that in the army a guy kept calling it that to be nice and not call people stupid. It's a kiss tnc a keep it simple system tnc 😊
Hello Josh! I watch your channel all the time, as a new ham I have to say it would be great to have your knowledge...wow. This project did not work out as well for me as it did for you. As I am now returning the Mobilinkd for the a hopeful refund I wanted to let you know what happened. Apparently this TNC in its current configuration is prone to rapidly and continually dropping bluetooth connections,. So much so that a software update 2.0 contains a fix for this issue in addition to other issues I had right off the bat. The software update is tedious and a bit on the "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!" side of things. (You are required to download the actual programmer....yea...it's ridiculous) Sadly, the manu. did not choose to update the software before shipping choosing instead to ship as is and let the consumer deal with it..wow. Obviously Josh this is in no way connected to you, I just wanted to post a comment so as to give a heads up to someone else who might want to look a little deeper at this particular TNC before jumping in!...thank you.
Great video and very cool gadget! I have a couple questions. Do the iOS apps require a subscription to be fully functional with this device? Also, Has anyone successfully used this to interface with the Kenwood TM-D710 mobile rig? I'd like to potentially use this device to give my mobile rig a better APRS interface for messaging. using the keypad and dial on the radio to type a message is painfully slow. 73!
@@davidtheriault7652 that’s kind of a bummer to be paying a subscription. To me APRS was the solution for GPS tracking to eliminate reoccurring costs. I don’t think I’ll ever pay a subscription for anything APRS related.
@@davidtheriault7652 The iOS APRS app “pocket packet” just got updated to have compatibility with the Mobilinkd TNC3 Bluetooth device. It is a one time purchase app. No in app purchases or subscriptions necessary.
You have to wonder with the "sound card" build into the IC-9700 and IC-7300 will it be very long before a $12 sound card will be added to a handy talky? I have the mobilink 1(?). It's slick and works well for APRS, problem is there isn't any APRS digipeaters near by. Worked fine with my el-cheapo baofeng, and Yaesu during testing.
Used it several times work good now when I transmit from phone box lights up red but won’t send signal to radio to transmit I bought cable from Mobilink tried another radio same problem squelch is off box is on do you thing my box went bad
I have the Mobilinkd TNC 2 and I think it is excellent. As I recall it was only about $70 when I got it, and combining it with my TH-F6A and my Android tablet I have a fully capable digital station for VHF/UHF. Great piece of gear and highly recommended.
Have you found software that will run on your little computer that will do regular packet. I would like to be able to monitor the frequencies and see all the traffic.
With all these discontinued radios people keep referencing is there no modern radios doing the same features or better? I just ordered the RFINDER B+ to see what's out there but what others out there are as good as these kenwood or yaesu? Money was no object what just the cutting edge of ham in the ht dual or tripple band radios?
I have two TNC3s, bought with the intent of making a pair of APRS-capable radios for family comms. For me neither unit will stay connected via Bluetooth, and sometimes never connect at all. This is even after resetting and updating the firmware. I’d love to be able to make it work, it would be a great solution for a number of use cases.
