The instructions here well help you set your radio settings to what we feel are the "Best Settings", based off conversations, our experiences, and recommendations from Bob Bruninga's Fixing the APRS Network page.

Voice Alert:  The theory is, when you hear packet tones from your data band, that transmitting station is likely within simplex ("voice") range.  To improve the likelihood of this, MOBILE stations should;

• encode their Tone Code with 100 Hz
• decode tone code 100 Hz as well, on their packet channel.
• set the squelch as high as you can on your data band, if your TNC gets it's RX audio from the radio front-end.
  (If your TNC gets RX audio from after the squelch gate, do not use this step).

These steps are easy to do with the TH-D72A radio, and we've included them in the Best Practice steps below.

Set the volume, so the APRS band is 25% or less, on the A/B audio balance.

• It will allow you to turn op the volume loud enough to debug occasionally
• It will allow you to listen to the other band normally, with a subtle clue for incoming packets.

SET ALL YOUR PACKET CHANNELS INTO MEMORY CHANNELS
  - Set them for "Voice Alert", 100.0 Hz PL encode/decode
Put your radio on the A-band
   (Is that really the better band? Which has better selectivity or general coverage RX?)

• Set the radio into VFO MODE
• Dial in your APRS Frequency
• Make sure the offset it correct (usually simplex)
• [8] "tone" until you see CT    
• [A] "(F)" then [8] "TONE", then dial until you see 100.0 Hz
• [A] "(F)" then the squelch button (the lowest button on the left side of the radio, below the PTT), then turn the dial to set the squelch to the maximum.
• [A] "(F)" then [C] "MR" then dial the channel number where you want to store the frequency
• (Note: A light arrow indicates an empty channel,  and a dark, solid triangle indicates a channel with an existing entry.)
• Then [C] "MR" again, to commit the frequency to the memory channel.

Repeat these steps to add all of your APRS Channels.

BEACONING YOUR QSY INFORMATION
You need to set your QSY beacon settings, AND you need to set your Status Message settings. (The Status Message is disabled by default. QSY Info is ONLY sent when your Status Message is set! You need to enable the status message, add some text, and you can set the status message to transmit with every posit, every other, or clear up to once every 8 posits.)

• MENU 390  APRS -> StatusText -> TX Rate  (set between 1/1 (every posit) to 1/8 (every eighth posit), then navigate-right to accept the setting.
• MENU 391  APRS -> StatusTxext -> Text  
•    Use the Navigate tool to move left-right to the character positions, and up-down to change the characters. We also recommend adding a "space" character at the beginning and the end of the text, since this text may be appended to other data. Finally, use navigate-right to get to the last character position, to save the text to memory.
• MENU 3A0  APRS -> QSY (FREQ) -> QSY in status
•    Use Navigate up-down to select "on", then Navigate-right to accept
• MENU 3A1  APRS -> QSY (FREQ) -> Tone /Narrow
•    Use Navigate up-down to select "on", then Navigate-right to accept
• MENU 3A2  APRS -> QSY (FREQ) -> Shift/Offset
•    Use Navigate up-down to select "on", then Navigate-right to accept

SETTING YOUR APRS LOCK
Put your radio for the A-Band.
Set the radio into MEMORY MODE, and dial up your frequency

• MENU 302  APRS -> Basic Set -> APRS Lock
• Press the navigate-down to cycle through the choices.

  We recommend "On & PTT & TNC" to prevent changing settings accidentally, and prevent you from transmitting voice on the A-Band.

ENABLING THE USB PORT, FOR USE WITH COMPUTERS
MENU 350 APRS -> PC Port ->  Output

•    Use Navigate up-down to select "on", then Navigate-right to accept

  Plug a USB cable into your Radio, and then into your computer. The radio has a USB-Serial bridge chip inside, which is usually recognized by  computers the same was a Serial Port USB dongle would be.
  If you are using a PC, you can find the port by right-clicking on "My Computer", and selecting the Device Manager, and expanding the LPT & Com Ports section.  Select any unknown COM port device, and right-click the line in the device, and select "Properties".  Click on the Settings tab, where you can see the speed settings, and then click on the "Advanced" button to see which COM port is currently assigned (and you can also change it here, if you need to assign it to a lower COM port number, such as 1-4).

MENU 330  APRS -> COM Port -> Baud Rate
   Use Navigate up-down to select the desires speed, then Navigate-right to accept
MENU 331  APRS -> COM Port -> Input
   Use Navigate up-down to select "on", then Navigate-right to accept
MENU 332  APRS -> COM Port -> Output
   Use Navigate up-down to select "on", then Navigate-right to accept