APRS+SA, APRSPLUS, APRS+
Help Document


Last Major Update 02/18/03
Last Edited 02/18/03
APRServe sites list updated 02/04/03
Links repaired and updated 02/16/03

trans1x1 gif

            AN APRS+SA, APRSPLUS, APRS+ HELP DOCUMENT
                        Compiled by WA4HEI

This file is a compilation of APRS+SA related information that I
extracted from the following sources: messages to the APRSPLUS
reflector, a file called CurrentVersion.txt that is included in
the current version of APRSPLUSxxxxx.zip, and some of my own
experience and knowledge using Automatic Position Reporting System,
A.P.R.S., software and some associated hardware. Some of the
information is edited by me to make it more comprehensible, to me.
Some of the information means nothing to me, but may, later.

The original messages concern the development and use of APRS+SA and
APRS related software developed by Brent Hildebrand, Bob Bruninga,
and others. The relevance, value and accuracy of this information is
for you to determine. No warranty, by anyone, is given or implied
with any of the APRS+SA and APRS related information contained herein.

The information contained in this document file may not apply to
the particular version of APRS+SA you are using.

APRS+SA, APRSPLUS, and APRS+ should be considered the same program, in
this document, unless the reader has some reason to believe otherwise
from the context of the particular subject text.

If you do not know how to use the find and search functions of your
browser and file viewer, you may be overwhelmed by this expanding mass
of APRS+SA related techno-poop. Relevant information to the topic of
interest may be found in more than one place.

The content may be changed, as I am moved, to reflect changes in the
software, applications and my understanding of any and all topics
covered.

Do not e-mail me questions about content. Chances are, I know less
than you.

Do E-MAIL me , WITH DETAILS,
if you KNOW the correct theory, procedure,
application, jargon, etc., of that which I have written, incorrectly.

The information presented has no specific order. I have tried to group
information relative to a general or specific subject, as perceived at
the time of addition/ editing. Relative to any particular subject, I
have made an attempt to present the most current and/ or relevant
information first.

BOUQUETS AND BRICKBATS

I will accept any and all deserved praise, DETAILED and CONSTRUCTIVE
suggestions, and voluntary cash contributions to cover my various
costs of producing and maintaining this budding tome.

If you wanna throw "bricks" at something that's "free"; don't.


COPYRIGHT

All rights to original content are reserved to manistique.org.


LINKS

Links to this site are encouraged and appreciated.


DISCLAIMERS... Please, read them.

You have the responsibility to read and use this information at your
own risk, as a socially responsible individual, within the generally
accepted boundaries of civilized human behavior.

Disclaimers, elaborated:

By reading or using, in any fashion, the contents of this file, the
reader acknowledges the following, and will testify to such, as may
be necessary:

I, the author of this information file, make no claim to any qualified
expertise or knowledge relative to any and all subjects covered.

I, the author of this information file, do not know that all the
information included, is true or correct.

I, the author of this information file, do not know if some
information content will be used, by others, in a harmful manner.

I, the author of this information file, have no knowledge of a
reader's intentions, or the suitability of the information contained,
relative to a reader's intentions, and I have no knowledge of the
effects of a reader's intentions.

The reader understands that if, as a consequence of reading, revealing
or using any of the information found in this file, the reader causes,
in any direct or indirect fashion, any public or private damage,
injury, pain, or suffering, of any sort, it is all the consequence of
reader's conscious and voluntary action.

The reader knows that no influence was exerted by the various authors
of the following information to encourage the reader to commit, in any
fashion, any action that is illegal, socially or personally
unacceptable, or detrimental to the health, property and well being of
everyone, including the reader.



                          APRS+SA TOPICS

           As Compiled, Edited and Embellished by WA4HEI

CREDITS

Most of the credit for the content of this document goes to APRS+SA
author KH2Z, Brent Hildebrand, and various users of the APRS+SA
software that donated a piece of their lives to document some facet of the
program. Their knowledge, shared via the magic of the Internet, made it
possible for WA4HEI to create this document to help current and
future users to derive greater use of, and enjoyment from, APRS+SA.


SOURCES OF
SOFTWARE

APRS+SA software
ftp://ftp.tapr.org/aprssig/
winstuff/aprsplus/

APRS+SA home page
http://www.tapr.org/~kh2z/aprsplus/

SV2AGW Packet Engine software
http://www.elcom.gr/sv2agw/


SOURCES OF HELP

APRS+SA documentation source
http://www.qsl.net/
ve5dgd/aprs/html/Site_Welcome.html

APRS+SA documentation and links
http://members.ao
l.com/wa8lmf2/APRSplusInstructions.pdf

APRS+SA and AGWPE documentation and setup information
http://www.qsl.net/soundcardpacket/


APRSPLUS REFLECTOR - AKA: NEWSGROUP or SIG

For help, information, etc., subscribe, unsubscribe; send a message

TO:  majordomo@k8sn.org

leave the subject blank

in the message body, put:  help


APRS+SA Yahoo discussion group with posts archives
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/apr
splus/



APRS PROTOCOL SPECIFICATIONS

http://www.tapr.org/tapr/html/Faprsw
g.html



WARNING! WARNING! 

APRSplus works ONLY with the "classic" Delorme Street Atlas Versions 4
through 9 and some versions of MapNGo. The files written by APRS+SA can
be read by the DeLorme Topo products, but it is not automatic.

It WILL NOT work with ANY of the products based on the new user interface
used by Street Atlas Road Warrior, Street Atlas "Deluxe", Street Atlas
2002, TopoUSA or 3-D TopoQuads.

"SA-2003 is a follow on to the products, SA-Road Warrior Edition, updated
to SA-Deluxe. APRS+SA has not been compatible with these products over
the years; these program are very different from SA the standard edition.
APRS+SA has not lost compatibility, it never had it. SA-2003, SA-RWE, SA-
D, are different programs from what APRS+SA was designed to work with,
namely, SA, the standard edition. SA9 is still an active product for
DeLorme. They may very well discontinue it in the future, and that would
be too bad, as I find its speed, simplicity, and functionality a pleasure
compared to the SA-Deluxe series. When SA9 is discontinued, there is no
doubt that it, and APRS+SA, will loose value over time. How fast of
course, depends on how dynamic the part of the country is, that you are
most interested in watching.    Author, KH2Z, Brent Hildebrand "

Used compatible versions of Street Atlas should be available for many
years to come. For my purposes, within my remaining lifetime, in my
neighbourhood, viewed with my "crystal ball", I would have no qualms about
starting off with APRS+SA, today. I am comfortable with the sure knowledge
that nothing lasts forever and anything I purchase today is likely to be
obsolete tomorrow.  WA4HEI
 
 

NOTE WELL!

Many of APRSPLUS features require case sensitive commands or dialog in
specific syntax. If a particular feature "doesn't work", check the
"dialog" or "command" case and syntax, before you report a bug to the
author.

A text file, CurrentVersion.txt, in the APRS+SA distribution files,
provides brief information concerning features, revisions, additions,
bug fixes, etc.



APRSPLUS SETUP - QUICK START INSTRUCTIONS

Running APRS+SA for the first time:
The minimal settings required for initial configure APRS+SA on a Single
Port TNC

1) Unzip the APRS+SA file to its own directory
2) Run Setup.exe
3) Start APRS+SA by executing APRSPLUS.EXE - you will get a notification
   that you are running an unregistered copy of APRS+SA.
4) Click the Setup menu, select Main.
5) Enter your Callsign
6) Enter you Latitude - use decimal degrees for quick start
7) Enter your Longitude - use decimal degrees for quick start
   Put a negative sign (-) in front of the longitude value.
8) Select a TNC Configuration File
9) Check your Unproto path via, default is WIDE,WIDE.  Some parts of the
   country use WIDE2-2.
10) Configure Port 1, the TNC port.
   a) Set Baud Rate.
   b) Click the Port, and select the appropriate Com Port to Open the
      serial port.

You should see configuration data on the TNC page of the main program
window.

You can close the Setup window and reopen it at any time, if you wish.

At this point, if your station is on an active RF network, and radio and
TNC are on, you should begin to see data coming in on the TNC.

Start Street Atlas. Then from the APRS+SA main window, press the keys,
Ctrl-2. This will draw the position of all known station.

If you are using Icons - you can not pan or zoom the map from within SA.
Also, Icons are geared to just a single copy of SA. You will need 2 serial
ports, one for SA and one for APRS+SA is you want to run the programs
independently.

You can run 2 instances of SA, and preserve one instance for normal SA
function. It would require an additional serial port for GPS input.
To preserve an Instance of SA, check the "Preserve One Instance of SA"
option on the Program tab of Setup. There is a "Flash" button so you
can easily identify which instance is being preserved. If you have this
option checked and only one instance of SA is running, then APRS+SA will
not generate any maps.



UPDATE INSTALLATION

The aprs+sa updates are released betas, but not a full release. They
should be considered experimental; so beware.

Each update usually is announced on the APRSPLUS
reflector with
appropriate caveats. They all lead up to an official release version.

Here is how you do the updates in general (not the full release update,
but all the 200Q, R, S,T,U,V stuff:)

Close APRS+SA

The example is based on updating to 200v

1. Download the file GPS200V.zip
2. Extract the *.w3 and *.apl files to your main aprs+sa directory
   (Don't worry, they don't overwrite anything)
3. Extract zones.txt and codes.txt to your aprs+sa\nws directory
4. Point your file manager (like Windows Explorer or Power Desk) to your
   main aprs+sa directory.
5. Double click on the program "setup.exe" in
   that directory.
6. It executes and when successful will show a little
   box saying 200V installed.

Restart the program, and you will see 200V as the version when you do the
"about" command.


Special Notes on how to go backward in revisions:

a. In your main aprs+sa directory there will be a pair of files that make
   up the "update". Example: GPS200V.w3 and GPS200V.apl. Your prior version
   is still in this same directory, assuming you have neither deleted nor
   moved it. So you might see files like GPS199.w3 and GPS 199.apl.

b. How to go back from 200V to 199:

 1. Move GPS200V.w3 and GPS200V.apl to a temporary directory, or simply
    delete them.
 2. GPS199.w3 and GPS199.apl should still be in your main directory. If
    not, put them there.
 3. Re-run "setup.exe" as noted above and it will "install" 199 for ya.

The install program always installs the latest version of code it finds.
So if you have gps197, gps198, gps 199, gps200s and gps200v all in the
main aprs+sa directory, and you then execute "setup.exe" from that
directory, it will install ONLY gps200v...

It could be prudent to keep several versions of older "uninstalled" code
in the main directory, as well as the updated code that you are actually
using.

How do you tell the difference between an update and a "patch"?

An update will have extracted file names like this: GPS200x.w3 and *.apl.
A patch will be a file that looks like this: NWS.P199

Patches are loaded automatically if they reside in the main aprs+sa
directory. Updates have to be "installed" using the "setup.exe" program.
Patches auto load at program start, or can be patched in live with the File
> Load Patches command from the main menu. Patches are not "installed".
They are loaded each time the program is run. Updates are "installed"
permanently and are only affected if you re-run "setup.exe" with a
different *.apl and *.w3 in place.

To list patched internal functions: File > List Loaded Patched Functions.
Patched functions will appear in the status bar.

Suggestion:

Download ALL versions to a directory named "aprs+sa patches". Then
extract from this directory to the main aprs+sa directory. This way you
have a repository of every update, patch or whatever you may want to go
back to, or simply refer to.



CONFIGURATION SETUP.REG FILES AND *.REG

You can have multiple Setup files, but only the most recently used
configuration is automatically loaded. After exiting the program, if you
restart APRS+, it restarts with the configuration file that was in use,
when last exited. Once started, you can change the configuration to any
.reg file you may have saved, by Setup > Internet > File > Open >
the .reg
file of choice. The ability to save configuration data is available
to registered users, only, as Setup > Internet > File > Save or Save As
>
the .reg file of choice.



COMMAND LINE SWITCHES

APRS+SA has no command line switches.



MEMORY ISSUES

All APRS program have to deal with memory. Any version that connects to
the Internet has to deal with the 3-4 packets per second, and all the data
they contain.

The first and primary memory setting in APRS+SA, is the "Work Space Size"
at the top of the Program tab of Setup. If some operation exceeds the
memory requirement as set my the Work Space Size, you will get a "WS FULL"
error announcement.

To control data in the Work Space, APRS+SA provide the "Data" page of
Setup to allow you some control over how data is retained. The left
column of the Data page is the number of Hours you want to retain data.
If you set Messages to 24 hours, and set the check box next to it, and
check the "Enable Automatic Data Deletion" at the top of the column, you
will only retain messages that are 24 hours old or less.

The right column of the Data page has several options. The first is the
total number of Position reports, Posits, to retain at anyone time.
Default is 4000. A ballpark estimate of this setting is to take the Work
Space Size and divide by 2000. If the Work Space is set to 10Mb, the
default, this yields a number of 5000. Setting it to 4000 gives you a
margin to work with.

The next setting is the number of Posits to retain for stations you are
not actively tracking, default 10. With 10, you get a feel if a station
is moving or not and a sense of their direction of travel.

All calculations and data manipulation takes place in the APRS+SA Work
Space. APRS+SA does use memory beyond the Work Space for all the display
objects. If these displays become large, you may exceed the amount of
physical memory, and begin causing data to be swapped to disk in virtual
memory. This can cause overall slow performance of the program and the
computer.

I kept data on line for more then a year, saving only 1 Posit for
untracked stations. I had over 9600 stations and objects! Some data was
almost a year old when I cleared the list.


Another Approach

First:

With "APRS+SA set for 25000000 workspace size. I have NEVER gotten an
"Out of Memory" or "Out of Workspace" warning."

Second:

Look at Setup > Data   there a quite a few changes to make here in order
to maximize memory efficiency:

1. Enable auto data deletion
2. Put a check in every box and think about just how long the data in
   each category is of any real use.

Positions: reduce from 12 to 6 hours or less.
Bulletins: reduce to a couple or 3 hours, or less
Traffic: reduce to less hours...who cares who sent what to whom more than
an hour ago?
Status: reduce to less hrs unless you have a special need Weather:
If you log RF to disk  then this can be reduced dramatically.
(Store weather trends, RF only)
Objects: same as status
Telemetry: 1 hr unless you use it
Inbox: Leave it at 24 unless you are certain you will check all messages
to you within 24 hours.
Igate: If an Igate is unknown for 3 hours, its not much use anyway.

Now...here is where you can REALLY SAVE MEMORY and INCREASE PROGRAM SPEED:

Delete Data By Range....check this: and set to 750 miles or 500 miles.

Click on the "Do It" button.

Go the main program, click on Commands, drop down to Range Filter
and set it for a limit that reflects your actual use and needs. I have
mine set to 200 miles.

Go back to Setup > Main and make sure the checkbox for Range Filter is
checked. The value in the box should be whatever you set your Range Filter
to in the last step (Commands > Range Filter)

You will still see all the national NWS warnings, they don't get filtered.
You will still be able to message everyone on the internet.



LOW MEMORY MESSAGES

Before asking about low memory messages, consider the following:

What is generating the message? In other words, is the message a
APRS+SA message or a Windows message? If the message is a Windows
message, is it low memory or low resources?  Windows Me is based on Win
98, which was based on Win 95. They all may have a resource restriction
which might prevent APRS+SA and SA from being run on the same computer with
any other applications running. You might post the exact wording of the
warning, its source, and what you have running on your computer at the time.

Check WxData subdirectory of your APRS+SA directory.  There is were the
WX data it stored.  What is the size of your data file?

> 9,303 KB

That would be more then 129000 weather data points!  IF you have the ram,
put your workspace size up to 50000000. You don't need to reboot your
computer, just restart the program.



TRANSFERRING OLD FILES TO A NEW VERSION

To anyone installing the latest beta, you should do it as a clean
installation.  Do not copy over an old version. There are a list of
files you MAY want to copy over from an old installation. They are:

APRSPLUS.DAT, APRSPLUS.REG, SETUP.REG, *.REG (different user setup
files), TACTICAL.TXT, and PATHS.CSV. and any *.MOP files you might have.

You might save, to a "safe" directory, the following from your previous
version, in addition to those above:

APRSPLUS.INI, SETTINGS.INI, SMARTVALUES.DAT, MESSAGE.TXT, PATHS.PATH,
AUTOANSWER.TXT.

NB! Any use of old files is subject to possible problems that may result
from changes in file format as the program evolves.



DEAD TNC?

Several manual command sequences may be of use to a TNC user with a
TNC that appears "frozen", i.e.. refuses to respond to commands.

NOTE: No <Enter> key strokes are used in the escape keystroke sequences

Switch from Converse mode to Command mode
<Ctrl>C

Switch from "other user modes" to Command mode
<Ctrl>C
X

Switch from host mode to native mode
<ALT>192 (use numeric keypad, not the keyboard)
Q
<ALT>192 (use numeric keypad, not the keyboard)

Switch from KISS mode to native mode

<ALT>192 (use numeric keypad, not the keyboard)
<ALT>255                 "
<ALT>192                 "

Rephrased:

To exit KISS from keyboard commands:

1. Press and HOLD ALT key, then type the numbers 192 from the numerical
keypad (not the keyboard); then release the ALT Key.

2. Next, Press and HOLD ALT key type the numbers 255 from the keypad.
Release ALT key.

3. Press and HOLD ALT key and enter the numbers 192 from the keypad.
Release Alt key.

You should then be out of KISS mode.



RESTORE.TNC, THE TNC RESTORE FILE

RESTORE.TNC is the file in which the configuration parameters for a
tnc used with APRS+ is restored to a user's preferred configuration,
automatically, upon quitting APRS+.

Create or edit the RESTORE.TNC file. This file is sent to the TNC when
APRS+SA closes the TNC serial port.



HOVER TEXT

Expanded "hover" text. Move cursor over callsign on many tabs will show
most recent position in Lat/Long, Grid Square, and UTM.  And show age of
position. This is now available on Position and Position 2 tabs.



LEFT AND RIGHT CLICK ACTION AND CONTEXT MENUS

There are a zillion options and features of the program that may be
accessed with a single or double, left or right mouse button click. Those
features are available for individual data lines, pages, titles, dialog
boxes, etc. If you do not look for them, you may never know about them.



TOOLTIPS

Tooltips and hover text are likely to be found anywhere, as the program
evolves. Some of the places tooltips may be found are: data lines for
Status, Weather, Traffic, Inbox, Object, Telemetry, and IGate tabs
showing range, bearing and time since last position report



ESCAPE

All windows except the Main APRS window will now close by pressing the
ESC key.



EDITING PROGRAM FILES

Several dialog boxes are associated with program configuration files,
such as the "Posit Text" or "Status Text" boxes of the Setup  > Main
page. The easiest way to start and edit  these files, is to simply
left double-click on the labels, where is says, "Posit Text" or "Status Text".
The files will be opened, or created, and you can enter new lines of text
you want to have in the dropdowns.  This also applies to the "Auto-Answer"
label on the Messages tab, and to the "Message Text" label on the Message
entry window.   Also the "Servers" label on the Internet tab of Setup.



FILE COMMENT LINES

Many program files can have comment lines added, preceded by a semi-colon
";". Such lines are ignored by the program.



DRAG AND DROP

Support for drag and drop has been added to several controls.  Most Lists
can act as sources for drag data.



SAVING WINDOWS SETTINGS

To save some to the setting for various windows to allow viewing the full
text of of a  window or column,  such as Station Call Sign,  and Time Last
Heard, etc..

Go to Setup/Program
Make a check mark beside "Reload Windows Positions at Startup"



UNPROTO PATHS

Commands menu, select Unproto Paths or Control+Shift+U

A slot has been added to the Unproto path window to support paths
manually entered in the Unproto Via slot on the Main Setup window.
This path will be used if no default path has been set. Default path
is set with the Set buttons on the Unproto path window, or with the
Via dropdown on the Main page of Setup.



ALTERNATE UNPROTO PATHS

Alternate paths can now be chosen.  A paths window allows you to setup
alternate paths for messages, bulletins and objects.  To activate the Digi
Paths window, choose the Unproto Paths under the Shortcuts menu or press
Ctrl-Shift-U.  There are 12 user programmable paths.  For each path ID,
you can set the path and the port that the path should take as defined by
you.  You can also setup paths for dual port TNCs by separating each path
with a "/" symbol, such as ECHO/WIDE,WIDE with port 2 as the default KAM
HF port, for example.

To use an alternate path for an outgoing message, enter the callsign
followed by the a "/" and the path "id".  For example, to send a message
to KH2Z via Wide,Wide using one of the default paths, enter KH2Z/WW.
Valid port values for Port 1 of the TNC are 1, A, and V.  Valid Port 2
values are 2, B, H.  This works on a Kantronics KPC-9612 and no other TNC
has been tested. To enter an alternate path for an Object, enter the
object name with /ID after it.  This implies that you should not use a "/"
for object names in APRSa4.  For bulletins, enter the /ID after or in
place of the group call in the Bulletin entry window.



COORDINATES CAPTURE

Main > Latitude Longitude > Capture

This works like the Create Object form Map technique. To capture your
coordinates from SA, have SA visible on the screen but with the focus on
the Setup Window.  Move the cursor over SA to the point where your current
location is, DO NOT CLICK on that location.  Press Alt-M to capture the
coordinates and make them your current location.  Note, coordinates must
be displayed in the status bar of SA for this to work.


RF GATE UNPROTO PATHS

Rf Gate operators should set a vhf and hf Unproto path, for rf packets
gated from the tnc vhf radio port to the tnc hf radio port.

Paths for dual port TNCs should contain the paths for both ports, in
whatever format the particular tnc was designed to support.

Kantronics' KAM Example:

GATE,WIDE/RELAY,WIDE-2.

Here KAM tnc port 1's path is GATE,WIDE,
and  KAM tnc port 2's path is RELAY,WIDE-2.

KAM tnc Unproto Path port of 0 equals both port 1 and port 2.

Presuming you have checked the DUAL PORT TNC option on the SETUP, MAIN
screen, then reports will be sent to the ports indicated depending on the
path you have selected. I.e., If you do COMMANDS, UNPROTO PATHS you can
set paths and select which one will actually be sent. The PORT 0 sends
to both VHF and HF sides, PORT 1 send to HF only, PORT2 sends to VHF only.
In other words, you can have paths set for both HF and VHF, but the PORT
setting determines which one will actually be sent.

For Dual-Port TNCs, the port assigned to the Path ID in the
Commands > Unproto Path list will be the IGate outbound port for
internet data also. This can be used to ensure that the IGate does not
transmit to HF. Also, the IGate Local List will be determined by the
outbound port as well (for Dual Port TNCs).

Running APRS+SA Kantronics KamPlus version 8.2, set the commands of :

NUMNODES 1
INIT term
MYG gate
KNXC on
MAXUSERS 2
UIGATE ON/OFF

And in the APRS+SA software "setup"  on the "Main" tab selected the "Dual
Port Selected"

You can now enter data for a dual port TNC in the Setup window.  You can
enter the data for each TNC port separated by a "/" symbol.  For example
in the  TO field can be APRS/SPCL and the Path field can be
RELAY,WIDE/ECHO,GATE.  If no "/" is entered, then the same data in the
field is set for both ports.



CHANNEL FILLER UNPROTO PATH

Channel Filler

If your RF network is quiet, you can use the Channel Filler function which
will gate random packets from the Internet to RF at the specified rate of
1 each X seconds; where X is a number greater than or equal to 30. If the
RF side become active, the Channel Filler will back off automatically. The
idea is to add some fill to the an RF network will little activity.

Setup > Internet > Channel Filler has a dialog box for a filler path ID
number that matches the number of the particular path desired in the
Unproto path list, under Commands>Unproto Paths. If there is no match,
the default path ID number is used.



SUGGESTED TRACKER PATHS

Various digi sysops and home station operators have crippled the APRS
rf network, in their neighborhoods, by configuring their equipment in
a manner hostile to itinerant travellers; by creating a local network
that ignores, among other things, the generic RELAY digi alias. The
following suggestions are probably as good as any, for those passing
through foreign territory that wish to make the best of generic paths,
without creating undue QRM by playing DXer.

In urban areas, it should not be necessary to use more than 2 digi hops,
as in RELAY,WIDE or WIDE,WIDE, depending on the prevalence of stations
and digis configured to support RELAY. It is difficult, obviously, for
the casual APRS traveller to determine what paths are supported and what
is not. You must choose to either support local anarchism or not.

RELAY,WIDE2-2	(should covers all local stuff)
RELAY,WIDE,WIDE  (covers areas where WIDEn-n is not supported)
WIDE3-3		(covers areas where there are no RELAY stations)
WIDE,WIDE	(covers all the rest)



PHG DISPLAY SETTINGS

To show the circle for Power-Height-Gain if a station transmits it.

Under Commands > Map Options (or cntrl-shift-M). The resulting free
floating window has several tabs: the two last ones (Circles which
determines the color and type of line and fill, and APRS which determines
if range circles will be drawn around stations based on PHG values).



SELECTING YOUR PHGD CODE VALUES

Setup > Profile > PHGD box    e.g.:  6,2,9,1

   PHG Code:    0   1   2   3    4    5    6     7     8     9  Units

      Power:    0   1   4   9   16   25   36    49    64    81  Watts
     Height:   10  20  40  80  160  320  640  1280  2560  5120  feet
       Gain:    0   1   2   3    4    5    6     7     8     9  dB
Directivity:  omni 45  90 135  180  225  270   315   360 empty  degrees

PHG0000 is not a valid string because the lowest increment of power is "1".
A power of zero  in fact is not transmitting anything, so no one will ever
see it.



SETUP LISTS

This series of lists allows considerable user selection of what received
data is processed to create the desired display or processed data file.
Consider the page as a data filter controlled by the presence or absence
of specific entries in the lists, or the check boxes. If nothing is
entered into the list boxes, APRS+SA will process all incoming data from
the TNC and TCP/IP sources.

All but the "Icon" list on the Lists page of Setup, and the Tracking list
of the Track page, have menus activated by right clicking on the list. You
can save the list to a text  file, sort the list, delete items from the
list and load a text file. The default name of the files are
TrackList.txt, KeepRecent.txt, Ignore.txt, etc., for the appropriate list.

Except for the "Gate Object By Icon" list, a callsign or "wild card"
must be entered in the list by using the appropriate dialog box above each
list. No spaces are allowed.

If nothing is entered into the list boxes, APRS+SA will process all
incoming data from the TNC and TCP/IP sources.

Keep All Tracking Data:
Callsigns in the list will always have there position data saved, not just
their most recent.  Also, there is a checkbox to ONLY track stations in
this list. If you check this box, and have the list empty, then only the
most recent position of all stations will be saved.

Ignore All BUT This List:
Ignore All Packets:
Passes or ignores packets from the sources listed, depending on the
check box. If all left blank, all data is processed. Wild cards are
accepted. eg all variations of WA4s would be entered as WA4*

Group Callsigns:
Allow for Group messages.  Any message to a group callsign, will be
decoded into your Inbox, and any announcements you have enabled for
message to you or your group will be played.  Using a group callsign will
allow all those in your group to receive the message just as if it were
directed to an individual.
Right click on list window,  "Open File" to edit.
Use upper dialog box to enter new group call; left double click to erase.

Unproto To Field:
These are the unproto to callsigns that when enabled, only packets to
these calls will be decoded.  This allows for setting up a "private"
network with special unproto to callsigns.  The program will only decode
the Unproto to calls you specify.  And "private" is relative, nothing is
really private, you just do see the data on your decoded screens.

Mic-E packets are always decoded because they violate the Unproto To
field, always.

Custom Map List:
Enter the names of custom maps to process received data in the manner
determined by custom map scripts.

Keep Latest Positions data to follow
APRS+SA HTML Document - Setup Lists

Gate Object by Icon:
Select the icon you want gated by clicking the "Icon" button above the box.

Gate by Callsign:
Position gating list. Stations whose callsign appear in the list
will have their position gated to RF if heard via the Internet.
Enter a callsign to enable internet to rf gating of data from
that callsign.



EVENT LOG

The Event Log is activate by checking the appropriate box on the Program
tab of the Setup window. A number of events are now logged to a separate
window. Events include things such as Proximity alarms, Tracking update
events, incoming messages, transmitted text via the RF port, ranging
requests, APRServe connect/disconnect times, and other data. These events
are color coded. Alerts in red, incoming messages in brown, etc.  The
font is user selectable. The Event Log is saved on program exit in the
file called EventLog.RTF. The Event Log is in Rich Text Format. Files
can be read by programs such as Microsoft Word or WordPad with color and
font preserved. The Event log can be made the top most window making it
always visible. It can also be made small without a title bar so as to
take up minimal space. See the Log menu.



DEFAULT INTERNET PATH

The Internet path is always used for an Internet or localhost connection.

The default Internet path of "APS207 via TCPIP" cannot be changed.
The specific number depends on program version number. i.e.IE 207, in
this current example. If a user prefers to use the grid square option
to display his position, the default APS207 would be replaced with a 6
character grid square designator. eg. "EN65UX via TCPIP".



IGATE

An IGate such as APRS+SA connects to a server and sends data that it sees
on RF to the server.  It also gates to RF from the Internet messages for
stations it has seen on RF.



IGATE INBOUND PATHS; RF TO INTERNET

All local rf packets, being transferred by an IGate, to the internet TCP
data stream, use the non changeable, default internet path, represented
at the top of the  Unproto list with the ID of I.



IGATE OUTBOUND PATHS: INTERNET TO RF

All packets being transmitted from an IGate, to rf, use the rf Unproto
path set by the user from the Commands > Unproto List.

For Dual-Port TNCs, the port assigned to the Path ID in the
Commands > Unproto Path list will now be the IGate outbound port for
internet data also. This can be used to ensure that the IGate does not
transmit to HF. Also, the IGate Local List will be determined by the
outbound port as well (for Dual Port TNCs).



IGATE FILTERS

Setup > Internet > selectable Hops and Time filters affect only internet
to rf data flow.

Setup > Lists > Gate by Callsign to gate (pass) packets from a given
callsign, enter that callsign into list. This function transmits stations
in the list, that are not local.You can use wildcards also, such as
VA3DRV*. Enable list with check box.

Setup > Lists > Gate Object by Icon list, to gate objects by icon.

Setup > Lists > Ignore List, to ignore calls and objects with or
                without wildcards. eg. WA4HEI*

Setup > Settings > IGate > TypeReject key. This allows IGate operator
to
exclude certain types of packets from being send into the APRS/IS. I would
caution against using this option as I'm in general opposed to doing any
filtering of the APRS/IS data except for duplicates. This should be used
for very special cases. BH



IGATE THIRD-PARTY TRAFFIC

The "}" type, 3rd party packets are automatically excluded from the
Internet feed. 3rd party packets received via the APRS Internet System
are ignored.

Settings, IGate section, TypeReject key.  This allows IGate operator
to exclude certain types of packets from being send into the APRS/IS.
I would caution against using this option as I'm in general opposed to
doing any filtering of the APRS/IS data except for duplicates.  This
should be used for very special cases.

APRS provides a mechanism for formatting packets that are to be transported
through third-party (i.e. non AX.25) networks, such as the Internet, an
Ethernet LAN or a direct wire connection.

In both cases, the "unused" digipeater callsigns (ie those digipeater
callsigns after the asterisk) in the original Source Path Header are stripped
out. The asterisk itself is also stripped out of the Source Path Header.
Then two additional callsigns are inserted:

1) The Third-Party Network Identifier (e.g. TCPIP). This is a dummy
   "callsign" that identifies the nature of the third-party network.
2) The callsign of the receiving gateway station, followed by an asterisk.

Third-party packets are those packets generated by an IGate to RF. After a
packet emerges from a third-party network, the receiving gateway station
modifies it (by inserting a } Third-Party Data Type Identifier and
modifying the Source Path Header) before transmitting it on the local APRS
network.



IGATE POSITION DECODING AND DISPLAY PLOTTING FILTER

If monitoring RF and the Internet at the same time, the internet side can
cause the RF side to be dropped if you have the Data tab of Setup to limit
the number of active position reports. There is a Key in the Internet
section of Settings called InternetPositionCallsigns. You can enter the
callsign(s) of the stations you want to monitor from the internet side.
Those not in the list are not retained. And Empty key, is the same as "*",
or all stations. This key can be used to greatly restrict what stations
are decoded.

Want to just map the stations you receive by rf but send all local
rf stations to the internet server?

You can stop decoding POSITION data from the Internet by assigning a value
to InternetPositionCallsigns in the Internet section of Settings. Assign
something like ZZZ would cause the program to stop decoding position
packets if the callsign was not an exact match to ZZZ.



IGATE PAGE COLUMNS

3 columns:

Totals, since last cleared:

Number of Messages (MSG),  Local stations (LOC) and Fill
packet (FILL) transmitted by the IGate.

To clear, see Setup > Settings > IGate



IGATE CONFIGURATION AND INTERNET APRS SERVERS

To choose the APRS servers of choice, Do the following:

Click on Setup
Click on Internet
Double Click on Server

This will display a list of all APRS servers that APRS+SA will cycle thru.
Remove all but the one you are wanting or you can place a ";" before those
you do not wish to use. Then save and close the file.

Now APRS+SA will only use the one server you have assigned or those without
a leading ";".

And for a bit of magic put a "*" in front of a server if you don't want
it to cycle to the next in the list when there's a disconnection...



To activate the basic IGate function of APRS+ requires little more than
establishing the internet connection: Setup > Internet > Connect, after
an active APRS server is entered in the Server dialog box.

The gating of rf to internet occurs automatically, as does the display
of internet traffic on the various pages of APRS+. Numerous filters
are available to limit the data displayed. The use of some are detailed
elsewhere in this document.

To stream data to and from the internet:

There are two different functions here. 

To act as a normal Igate, feeding every thing your TNC hears off-the-air into
the APRS Internet system; i.e. to existing servers, ensure that you have a
APRSserve.txt file in the DATA subdirectory of your main APRSplus program
directory.  This file should contain a list of the APRS servers you wish to
connect to. If you don't have a current list, you can download this file at
my website:

http://members.aol.com/wa8lmf/aprs/  

Establish an Internet connection, either dialup or always-on such as a cable
modem or DSL.

Then pull down Setup, Internet.  Check the box "Gate TNC Datastream to
Internet".
Pull down the list and select a server (the choices offered will be from the
list mentioned above). 
Click the button "Connect"   That's it. 

Be forewarned that INCOMING data from the Internet will FLOOD into your
program FAR FAR faster that it does off the air. Packets for 10-15 stations a
second will pour into your Positions tab.  If you have "Track All Mobiles"
checked in the Track tab, the map will go insane, trying to update several
times a second! 

If you actually want to become a server in your own right, either to
distribute data from your TNC to other machines on your own LAN, or to the
public over the Internet:

On the same Internet setup tab,  click the button "Open" in the box
"APRS+WebServer".   You will see an address appear in the box labeled "URL".
You can now start a web browser on your own machine and enter
"localhost:14501" (or whatever number you enter into the "Port" box), or
enter the string in the "URL" box into either your own browser or the browser
of a nearby machine on your own LAN. 

You should get a text-based summary of the stations APRSplus has heard. 
(This data is actually a slightly different presentation of the data in the
"Positions" page of the APRSplus program itself.  If the machine has current
access to the Internet, clicking a callsign will produce a display similar to
findu.com by fetching maps from the Mapblast website.

Specific internet APRS data, such as first party messages, position,
status, objects, bulletins, etc. may be "gated" to rf, depending on
program filtering. The wholesale gating of the entire APRS Internet stream
to RF would completely monopolize a 1200 baud channel -- your transmitter
would never unkey!

Again, on the Internet setup screen:

Check "Gate messages from Internet to RF".
Optionally, you can check the boxes for "Heard in the last n hours" .
(This prevents the useless transmission of messages over RF bound for
stations you hear days ago and reduces on-air congestion.) 
The check box for digipeater hops will prevent the useless gating-to-RF
of messages for stations so far away that the likelyhood of actually
delivering them is nearly zero. 

The choice of server and port can make a difference in the amount of data
sent to your client, BUT there is no way the client can control the amount
and type of server data sent to it. Relative to any particular server, you
ask for data, you get all the data that particular server is configured to
pass.

Many servers now offer a filtered port (14580 on aprswest.net,
aprseast.net, aprsca.net, ahubswe.net, and second.aprs.net).  This port
will normally not send anything to your IGate other than messages
addressed specifically to your IGate.  You can specify filters to have
more data passed to your IGate, such as a range or area filter (see
http://www.aprs-is.net/javaprssrvr/javaprsfilter.htm for more
information on filter specifications).  For a RF to Internet only
connection, this filter port with no filter set will work well.

However, if you wish to also gate to RF from the Internet, I recommend a
message-only port such as port 1314.  This will allow full messaging to
occur yet you will only receive about 1/10th of the bandwidth.  You can
use a filtered port, as well, but make sure you set your filter so that
messaging will occur properly.  For instance, set the range to an area a
little larger than what your IGate sees.

Filtering only affects data going to your IGate.  All packets from your
IGate will be passed if you are using a registered version of APRS+SA.


APRS data servers interconnect the various APRS clients, providing them with
a constant flow of APRS data, in TCP/IP. An appropriate sever and port
must be chosen and entered into the Setup > Internet > Server dialog box.
Left double click the "Server" dialog box title to edit the file.


NOTE: Any and all servers are liable to be "broken", or inoperative for
      any number of reasons. Keep in mind, this is a hobby, with very
      little cash donated to keep the hardware and services on line.

WA8LMF's APRS server list, APRServe.txt, may be found at:

http://members.aol.com/wa8lmf/aprs/ 
	 
; APRS server sites Updated 04Feb 2003 by  WA8LMF@aol.com
; Comment Lines begin with a ;
;"Dump" refers to cached recent past history.
; This list formatted for direct use with APRSplus.
; Copy/paste this list into the file APRServe.txt located in
;   the APRSplus\data directory
; For use with WinAPRS, delete this comment area,
; then in the remainder, find and replace colons
; and semi-colons with the "TAB" character.
;
; Direct IP addresses subject to change --
;   recommended to use only when DNS (named) access fails.
;
; JAVaprs servers can produce status report
; including currently available ports.
;   Enter http://servername:14501 into your WEB browser
;
; Findu mapping is      http://map.findu.com/callsign
;              or       http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/find.cgi?call=callsign
; Many more findu reporting options available at:
;    http://www.wulfden.org/APRSQuery.shtml   
;
; Fairly comprehensive list of current servers and their capabilities is at:
;      http://www.aprs-is.net/APRSServers.htm
;
;  FIRST.APRS.NET
;128.143.202.191:23 ;First APRS Net - direct IP 
first.aprs.net:23 ;First APRS Net
first.aprs.net:10151 ;Florida server w/cache dump
first.aprs.net:14579 ;Florida server LOCAL ONLY
;  SECOND.APRS.NET (javAPRS Server)
;  HTML Status Port (Enter into Web Browser)
;    http://second.aprs.net:14501
;  134.173.254.38:23 ;Second APRS Net - direct IP
second.aprs.net:23 ;Second APRS Net (SoCal) World Wide Feed
second.aprs.net:1314 ; Messages Only
second.aprs.net:10151 ; World Wide Feed
second.aprs.net:14580 ; USER DEFINED Filter Port
;  THIRD.APRS.NET (javAPRS Server)
;  HTML Status Port (Enter into Web Browser)
;    http://third.aprs.net:14501   
third.aprs.net:10151 ;Third APRS server w/8H dump
third.aprs.net:10152 ;Third APRS server w/o dump
third.aprs.net:14579 :Third Local Data Only
;APRSeast (javAPRS  Server)
;  WEB SITE
;    http://www.na4v.com
;  HTML Status Port (Enter into Web Browser)
;    http://www.aprseast.net:14501   Main Port
;    http://www.aprseast.net:14601   Regional Port
;
;  CWOP/Weather Server (No IGates Please) These ports are not Bidirectional
;  NOTE: REMed out to prevent accidental selection as IGate
;  Delete the semi-colon to activate
;aprseast.net:23 ;APRSWESTX CWOP/WX Primary Server
;aprseast.net:2323 ;Read-Only Data
aprseast.net:10152 ; Full APRS Feed
aprseast.net:10151 ; Full APRS Feed w/ 30 Min Dump
aprseast.net:1313  ;Link Port - Full Feed READ ONLY
aprseast.net:1314  ; Full Feed - Messages Only - Bidirectional
aprseast.net:2023  ; Full Feed - Messages Only - Bidirectional
aprseast.net:14579 ; Eastern USA Regional - Bidirectional
aprseast.net:14580 ; Eastern USA Regional - Messages Only - Bidirectional
;APRSWEST (javAPRS Tier 2 Server) 2/3/03
;  Web Site:
;    http://kb7zva.com  
;  HTML Status Port (Enter into Web Browser)
;    http://aprswest.net:14501 Main Port
;    http://aprswest.net:14601 Regional Port
;    http://aprswest.net:14701 CWOP Port
;  APRSWEST JAVA Display
;    http://java.kb7zva.com
;
;  CWOP/Weather Server (No IGates Please)
;  NOTE: REMed out to prevent accidental selection as IGate
;  Delete the semi-colon to activate
;aprswest.net:23 ;APRSWESTX CWOP/WX Primary Server
;aprswest.net:10153 ;APRSWESTX CWOP/WX - with 30 min. Dump
aprswest.net:10151 ;Full APRS Feed - with 30 min. Dump - Read ONLY
aprswest.net:10152 ;Full APRS Feed - Main Port
aprswest.net:10154 ;USA ONLY Feed - Includes Alaska, Hawaii
aprswest.net:10155 ;UK and Europe plus APRS messages
aprswest.net:14579 ;Western States Regional Port
aprswest.net:14580 ;User Definable Filter Port
;
;APRS California  (javAPRS Server)
;  Website: 
;    www.aprsca.net
;  HTML Status Port (Enter into Web Browser)
;    http://aprswest.net:14501 Main Port
; 
aprsca.net:23 ;CW/APRSWX Users
aprsca.net:1314 ;Messages Only
aprsca.net:2323 ;Read-Only WX Data
aprsca.net:10150 ;SatGate Port (User send data only - no RX stream)
aprsca.net:10151 ;Full Feed w/30m Dump
aprsca.net:10152 ;Full APRS Feed
aprsca.net:10154 ;USA Feed
aprsca.net:14579 ;CA State Feed
aprsca.net:14580 ;User-Definable Filter Port
;East Lansing, MI (Mich State Univ)
elansing.aprs.net:10151 ;Full Internet Feed
elansing.aprs.net:14579 ;Local Only
;Fenton MI  
fenton.miaprs.net:10151 ;Full Internet Feed  
fenton.miaprs.net:10152 ;Full Internet Feed w/o cache dump 
fenton.miaprs.net:10151 ;Local RF Only
65.170.9.12:10151; Full Internet Feed - Direct IP
;Grand Rapids, MI Satgate Running: APRSd 2.1.5b9
igate.miaprs.net:14601 ;status
igate.miaprs.net:14679 ;Grand Rapids, MI Sat Data heard on local
;TNCs, tracking PCSAT and UO22
igate.miaprs.net:10251 ;Worldwide Sat data feed received and
;filtered from first.aprs.net
igate.miaprs.net: ;10252   Same as 10251 without history
aprsdcsp.antelope.net:10151 ;FULL - Rocky Mtn regional server in Casper WY
aprsdcsp.antelope.net:10152 ;FULL w/o cache dump (current only)
aprsdcsp.antelope.net:14579 ;Local
;Tucson, AZ server
packet.kvoa.com:10151 ;Full feed
packet.kvoa.com:14580 ;Local (Tucson) feed
;Northwestern US - Southwestern Canada -- Presumably normal ports
linus.chemeketa.edu:10151 ;Salem, OR  aprsd-CCC
208.194.173.138:10151 ;Redmond, WA  aprsdRDM
the.hams.net:10151 ;Portland4,OR aprsdPDX
calgary.canaprs.net:10151 ;Calgary, Alberta aprsdYYC
206.186.216.155:10151 ;Winnipeg, Manitoba aprsdYWG
jnos.org:10152 ;Redmond, WA aprsdRDM  WW messages and PNW local
jnos.org:14579 ;Redmond, WA aprsdRMD  Local RF
;Northern Europe
ahubswe.net:2023 ;AHubSwe World-wide APRS Feed
ahubswe.net:14579 ;AHubSwe Nordic APRS Feed
;Germany
db0lj.dyndns.org:10153 ;European Traffic
db0lj.dyndns.org:1313 ;German/Local Traffic
; Australia APRS - VKAPRS  (JAVaprs Server)
;  Web Site
;    http://aprs.net.au   
;  HTML Status Port (Enter into Web Browser)
;    http://aprs.net.au:14501   
aprs.net.au:10151 ;1st VK Server - International feed w/ cache dump
aprs.net.au:10152 ;1st VK Server - International feed w/o cache dump
aprs.net.au:10153 ;1st VK Server - VK* & ZL* feed w/o cache dump
;Second Australia APRS (JAVaprs Server)
;  Web Site:
;    http://vk2.aprs.net.au/ 
;  HTML Status Port (Enter into Web Browser)
;    http://second.aprs.net.au:14501
second.aprs.net.au:1314 ;Messaging Only Port
second.aprs.net.au:10151 ;Global APRS Feed w/history dump
second.aprs.net.au:10152 ;Global APRS Feed
second.aprs.net.au:10153 ;VK/ZL only APRS Feed
second.aprs.net.au:10154 ;ZL only APRS Feed
second.aprs.net.au:10155 ;ARISS/PCSAT Feed
second.aprs.net.au:14580 ;User Definable Filter Port
rotate.aprs.net:10151 ;Rotating APRServe w/ dump
rotate.aprs.net:23 ;Rotating APRServe w/o dump (current only)
aprserve.dididahdahdidit.com:10151 ;Random aprsd server w/ cache dump
aprserve.dididahdahdidit.com:10152 ;Random aprsd server w/o cache dump
aprsdmsp.dididahdahdidit.com:10151 ;Andover, MN
aprsdcho.dididahdahdidit.com:10151 ;Charlottesville, VA
aprsdorl.dididahdahdidit.com:10151 ;Orlando, FL
aprsdcle.dididahdahdidit.com:10151 ;Cleveland, OH
aprsdlan.dididahdahdidit.com:10151 ;E Lansing, MI
aprsdmtl.dididahdahdidit.com:10151 ;Montreal, QU
aprsddfw.dididahdahdidit.com:10151 ;Denton, TX
aprsdmia.dididahdahdidit.com:10151 ;Miami, FL (aprserver)
aprsdmsn.dididahdahdidit.com:10151 ;Madison, WI
aprsdsao.dididahdahdidit.com:10151 ;Sao Paulo, Brazil
aprsdtus.dididahdahdidit.com:10151 ;Tucson, AZ
aprsdden.dididahdahdidit.com:10151 ;Denver, CO
aprsdatl.dididahdahdidit.com:14579 ;Atlanta, GA (local only)
aprsdaly.dididahdahdidit.com:14579 ;Albany, NY (local only)
;END List



FINDU

Sample URLs
http://www.findu.com/
http://www.findu.com/cgi.html
http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/find.cgi?k4hg (call of your choice)

As long as APRS data is gated to the internet, via an IGate, and through
an active and properly configured APRS server, FindU will find you.
FindU monitors the APRS traffic flow, continuously updating its data base
to which the various inquiry software refer.



K2HZ APRS WEB SERVER

http://kh2z.lynxstudio.com/

Enjoy, and any feedback will be appreciated. 




GRIDSQUARE IN "TO" POSITION BEACON FORMAT

Setup > Program > Transmit Grid-In-To Format; check box.

On an APRS display, your call will be located at the center of the
6 character gridsquare. The ambiguous location discourages visitors, etc.,
as it makes a precise location less convenient, yet it can be used to
define a general presence. Format is considered by some to be obsolete,
therefore it may not function with all software.



DEAD RECKONING

See the file, DeadReckoning.RTF.

To enable or disable dead reckoning (and other SA map display features):

View > Floating Toolbar > Maps > APRS tab
or
Commands > Map Options > APRS tab
or
Ctrl+Shift+M to open the Map Options window > APRS tab.

Check or uncheck "Dead Reckoning On" box.



Options on the APRS tab of the Map Options (MOP File) include "Enable Dead
Reckoning" and "Zoom Included Dead Reckon". NOTE: A dead reckoned Position
report is based on the last time the station was heard. A dead reckoned
Object position is based on the included timestamp of the Object.

Dead Reckoning

1) What is it?  Given the last known position, course and speed, and how
   long since the position report was receive, the current position is
   estimated using great circle calculations.

2) How is it displayed?  In APRS+SA there are two options for displaying
   dead reckoning.

   A.Map Options file. In the Map Options file, APRS tab, there is an
     option to check to enable Dead Reckoning.  Doing so will cause a line
     to be projected from the last known position to the estimated current
     position. Also, checking the Zoom Dead Reckon option will cause the
     estimated position to be included in the map zoom calculation. The
     appearance of the projected line is controlled in the Settings window,
     DeadReckoning section.
     There are 4 file configuration keys:
     [1] LineColor, values 0-4 for Black, Red, Blue, Green and Yellow.
     [2] LineWidth, values 0-4.
     [3] LineStyle, values 0-2 for Solid, Hatched and Highlighted.
     [4] TimeLimit in hours beyond which Dead Reckoning is not calculated.
     You can zoom in and out and pan as desired on the SA map.

   B.Live Update. This method performs live updating of the estimated
     position by drawing a line from the last known position to the current
     estimate. This works similar to the drawing of APRS Icons on the SA
     map. Enable Icons must be selected from the Maps toolbar, Maps Dropdown,
     Views, Enable Icons. A system printer (any printer) must be installed
     on your computer. Live update of the position will be estimated at the
     rate of about once per second while the processor is not busy.  Live
     update is performed on any station(s) that are in the Tracking List.
     The line projected in live update is black, approximately 3 pixels wide
     and is not user configurable at this time. You can not zoom in/out or
     pan and have the projected line be in the correct location.  The SA map
     must have been drawn by APRS+SA.
	
To turn dead reckoning off, see the APRS tab of the Map Option window, and
turn off Dead Reckoning in each MOP file that you have for its respective SA
map on which you wish to disable the dead reckoning info.




GENERAL CLEARING AND DELETING DATA

To clear all, use the Commands > Clear submenu options.
Highlight line with right click. Left click and choose from menu.
Variations of typical Windows mouse and keyboard manipulations.



TIME FILTER

Commands > Time Filter then select the time interval at which old positions
will be removed from the map. The Time Filter will age position reports and
remove them from the map. The Time Filter is non-destructive in that you can
shorten or lengthen the time as desired.



SCROLLING ON/OFF

Commands > Scrolling on/off controls the scrolling of the following pages:
tnc, position, and likely? all dynamic displays.

If you are working on the Positions page and go back to the TNC page,
to find scrolling turned off, you can defeat the scrolling "pause" by
going to Setup > Program and check box for "Turn Pause of after Menu
Action on Position Page".

With scrolling on, a scrolling page will scroll with new data, and with
that action is a degree of screen flicker as all the data scrolls up
a line. The flicker is more often when the data updates more frequently,
depending on the amount of data filtering enabled. The duration of each
flicker event, for each screen update event, is effected by the "speed"
of the computer hardware used and the demands placed upon the video and
CPU circuitry by the particular page scrolling. It takes a lot more
computer resouces to deliver a flicker free Positions page, with all
the icon images, than a flicker free TNC or TCP page.

If you don't like the flicker when data scrolls, turn scrolling off. That
is why you can turn off the scrolling. If you do not want to turn it off,
go to a page that updates at a slower rate, or to a page that does not
update, or to a scrolling page that requires minimal computer resources.
There is more or less flicker depending upon your configuration and data
activity. When the page is not visible, it does not take any CPU cycles.

In the TNC page, APRS+SA stores the last 20,000 bytes received. It
always saves it. By turning scrolling off, you don't loose the data.
Turn scrolling back on, and you will see the last 20,000 bytes received.
If you want to save all the data, save it to disk, file menu, Store TNC
data to disk.

TNC/GPS and TCP tabs. You can scroll back the list and more easily
highlight and clipboard copy data. Note - currently, each tab only has
100 lines of scrollback. If you are fully at the bottom of the list, the
list will scroll with new data. If you are at the top, and there is
already 100 lines, you will loose the top most lines that exceed the 100
lines maximum. The tabs no longer respond to the turning on or off
scrolling.



INTERNET MESSAGE PORT DESIGNATOR

Unless a message line includes the internet port designator appended to
the target call in the "Callsign To" dialog box, EG WA4HEI/I, then it
will be transmitted to rf on the default radio port.



MESSAGES, BULLETINS AND EDITING

The maximum length of a message is 65 characters. APRS+SA will split
a message at a space character, you can just keep typing. The number
of characters is displayed so that you can keep a message short, if
your target station can not display the full length message. You may
choose shorter message lengths to create shorter packet lengths that
decrease the odds of intermittent noise spike corruption of any
individual packet, a common lower hf phenomenon due to various forms of
QRN.

You can enter a message, and choose "Load" instead of "Send". This
enters the message into the queue in the suspended condition. APRSPLUS
will start transmitting the message when it hears the target station.
In this way, you can load a suspended message to a station that is not
on the air, but who can then receive it the next time that station is
on the air and is recognized by your APRSPLUS program.

APRS+SA will transmit an outbound message, then 8 seconds later repeat
it, doubling the interval each time until 20 minutes and it will
timeout.  It will try again, one time each 20 minutes if it hears the
target station again.

Note: If a station, for which a suspended message is queued, returns
to the air with a tnc only, i.e.. a compatible APRS program is not
operating at the target station when it returns "on the air", then,
upon hearing the intended recipient station, the senders APRS+
software will try to deliver the message to a dumb tnc that will not
"ack"nowledge reception. The message originating APRS+ program will
continue the previously described transmit cycle.

Right click to see individual or grouped message line options.
Control+left click or shift+left click allow user to select various
combinations of message lines. Editing and manipulation of message and
bulletin lines is done from the message and bulletin tab pages.

If you double click on a callsign in the Inbox of the Messages page, then
a new message is started to that callsign.  If the callsign is a group
callsign, then the message will be to the group.  If you press the Shift
key when double clicking on a group message, then the message will be
addressed to the originating station.

Stations can be Located and Ranged, or their History reviewed from the
Message page.

Editing existing message and bulletins may be initiated by double left
clicking a queued message or bulletin on the message tab page. The
existing "to call" will be loaded into the message dialog box,
allowing a total rewrite, if desired of that particular message text.

A single right click on a queued message brings up a message line
menu, from which Copy Message may be chosen to load both the "to call"
and the message text, allowing editing of both.

To initiate automatic transmit control of loaded or manually suspended
bulletin(s), you must right click > Resume Transmission. As these
generic messages are targeted to a group of stations, they have no
auto resume transmit option as message lines addressed to specific
stations.

Right click outbound message line and select Queue Time: Shows time of
next transmission, in status bar, for the particular line clicked.

AUTO REPLY

Double clicking on the "Auto Reply" label on the Messages tab will
open the AutoReply.txt file for editing. AutoReply.txt can be used to
store frequently used text messages



STORED AND DELAYED SEND MESSAGE LINES

APRS+SA has the ability to "Load" messages for delayed sending. The
message is stored, and when the target station is next heard, the messages
begin to be transmitted.



QUERIED MESSAGE LINES

You can store messages in APRS+SA that can be pulled from the RF list.
Messages are stored in simple text format, single line, in the APRS+SA
Data directory with a file name similar to this: NAME.MSG. To query this
file, send a directed message with ?NAME? as the query text. These files
can be generated or erased by another program to make the data dynamic.

These message files can also be also be managed by APRS messages, using 3
commands:

STORE:, RECALL:, and DELETE:.

These commands can be shorted to STO:, RCL:, and DEL:, or even shorter,
to S:, R:, and D:.

Example:
STO:name this is the msg text.
This would create a file, NAME.MSG, that would contain:  "this is the msg
text.". The stored message can be queried using ?NAME? or RCL:NAME

The message can be deleted using DEL:NAME.

File names using these three commands should not have any spaces.

APRS+SA does not generate messages based on a station's location. That
would be an interesting project, to have messages for a specific location,
and when a station entered that location, the message then generated to
that station.



MESSAGE LINE "ACK" TIMING

When sending a message, APRS+SA generates one message packet, waits 8
seconds, if no ACK has been received, it sends it again. Waits 16
seconds, if no ACK, it sends it again.  When an ACK is received, APRS+SA
stops sending the message. This is indicated by a "green" message turning
"black". If your friend returns an ACK, your station will not continue
transmitting that message. Now you can also see multiple copies of a
message, depending on what your digipeater path and view of your area
digipeaters looks like. If ACK are not getting back, APRS+SA does not
know that a message is received. As for ACKs, APRS+SA will generate an
ACK for a received message. If APRS+SA see the message again, it will
again send and ACK, then queue up another ACK that will be sent back 15 or
20 seconds later. What you need to ask, is why you are not seeing ACKs
back. APRS+SA will generate 4 packets in the first minute with outgoing
messages. But then the retries drop off considerably.!

Note, recent versions of APRS+SA support Reply/Acks. If you are in an
active 2-way messaging conversation, the number of "ACKs" generated in
significantly increase, but the number of packets is not! This means you
success in getting message through with ACKs is significantly improved.



QUERIES

Send > Send Message > ?QUERY? > Explain: APRSP & APRSS & APRST

Query a stations Position (?APRSP), Status (?APRSS) or Trace the path via
which you were heard (?APRST)



POSITION PAGES

Position tab: A dynamic display (scrolling) list. You can select
stations on the Position page using Shift-Click, Ctrl- Click,
dragging, etc. IF you first turn off scrolling, see Commands >
Scrolling On/Off.

To keep just the most recent position report, right click on your
station Callsign on the Position tab, and select Keep Most Recent.
Or, enter a callsign on the History tab, and delete the individual
position reports.

Position 2 tab: A static display (meaning that the display does not
scroll) of stations showing callsign with Icon, Lat/Long, Speed,
Track, Altitude, Time heard, digi path and the data portion of the
decoded packet. You can sort by any column simply by clicking on the
column header. Do a reverse sort by holding the Shift key while
clicking the column header. Data displayed in the Position2 window, is
determined by a range in miles value. Default is 50 miles. You can set
it to what ever positive value you want, but note that over all system
performance may be affected. The window in this experimental version
is provided with 3 buttons.

1) Map - will generate a map of all highlighted stations in the list.
2) Update - will recalculate the Range and Bearing based on your
   current Lat/Long. This is not automatically recalculated in this
   release.
3) Clear - clears the entire Position 2 list. You can also generate a
   map by double clicking on a station or stations. You can use the
   shift=key or Ctrl-key to highlight multiple stations.

How is ALT set?

If you have a GPS receiver connected, then Altitude is automatically
entered if altitude is available in the data strings. If you are
stationary, enter the altitude in your Posit text. Example if you
altitude is 1234 feet, enter: /A=001235



TRAFFIC PAGE

Double-Clicking on any callsign will activate the "send message to"
window. If a station was heard from the Internet, it will be setup to
send it back to the Internet. To send a message to the Internet, a /I is
appended to the end of the callsign. To send a message to KH2Z via the
Internet, the callsign is entered as KH2Z/I. APRSa4 will automatically
assign the /I to all stations heard via the Internet from the most pages.

Any station can be located from the Traffic page using the Popup menu,
provided a position report has been heard for that station. The traffic
page can be sorted. Click on the column headings to sort a column. This
makes it easy to see what stations are on TCPIP for example. Or who KH2Z
has been talking to. Or who have been talking to KH2Z. Once sorted, it
new messages are appended to the bottom of the list, leaving the list
unchanged otherwise. To get the list back into chronological order, click
the Date/Time column button.



TRAFFIC PAGE FILTERS

You can eliminate a lot of this traffic by adding wildcards to the edit
boxes at the top of the Traffic page. You need to understand what it is
you want to see and what you don't want to see. The four edit boxes do
have tooltips to tell you the meaning of each. The first is the "Allowed
FROM list". Second is the "Prohibited FROM list". Third, "Allowed TO
list", and finally, "Prohibited TO List". To monitor traffic that is only
from U.S. stations, enter: A* K* W* N* To eliminate IGate messages, I
enter  USER* java*  into the Forth list. Using these can make the traffic
you monitor more meaningful to you rather than seeing every message
generated.

The traffic page shows ALL messages. Many of which you may have no
interest. The options at the top of the page allow you to filter out (on
in) messages from and to various callsigns. Enter the callsigns you want;
wildcards are allowed.

More examples:

Prohibited from-

I don't want to see a lot of the traffic directly from the servers, so I
enter: APRSERVE AHUB*

Allowed to List-

Perhaps, you only want to see messages TO a select list of stations, enter
that here. I usually leave it blank.

Prohibited to List-

Again, lots of messages I don't want to see. I enter:
USER*  java*



REDUCING TCP/IP SERVER TRAFFIC TO APRS+

There are no settings that will tell the APRS server to not send data
to the APRS+ client machine. If you connect to port 1314 on an aprsD
server, you will only receive message packets (and associated position
packets) from the server. The port still sends anything you send it to
the other servers, it just cuts down, tremendously, the amount of traffic
coming to you. This port only passes messages and positions to you, but
will accept all packets from you. When using a slow computer as an IGate,
this port works better by reducing the CPU load. It is port 1314.



RANGE FILTERS

The way I usually set the range filter is from the main  screen of the
program. I select Commands >Range Filter>640 Miles for example.
This way of setting the range filter has always worked for me.

However, I have tried setting it the way you do and that works also.

One thing to remember, 640 Miles from where? From your location. You
must set your location and transmit at least one position report for the
program to know where you are.

Range Filter only affects map drawing, not the position reports it
collects and saves.

The Delete Data By Range on the Data Tab of Setup only deletes all types
of data  periodically when "Enable  Automatic Data Deletion" is checked at
the top left of the window.

I have observed it deletes the data by range about once a minute, or
when you click the Do It  button.

The timed data deletion for specific types of data works fine for me
also.

You may need to run the setup.exe file again or re-install the program to
fix it.



COMPRESSED POSITION DATA

APRS+SA will not transmit compressed, and the author does not intend to add
it. The savings are insignificant. You can limit you packet by minimizing
(read eliminating) the Posit text, and keeping your path to a minimum.



RADIO DIRECTION FINDING SUPPORT

No, APRS+SA does not support DF via a serial port. Perhaps, if such a
unit was donated, it could then be added. Otherwise, the demand for this
feature is very not great. And in my DFing experience, I've beaten the
Doppler units with my 5 element quad and manual bearings on every
occasion. Particularly the multi-transmitter hunts. I've been stopped
by the police more often when using the 5-el quad also!  BH



POSITION AND STATUS BEACON TRANSMIT TIMING

With change in status text of posit text or lat/long, the new
information is transmitted on a reset decaying timing algorithm as are
messages, for fixed stations.

Manually transmitting a position or status beacon resets the timer for
the next timed report, The same position transmit timer is reset when
the software responds to received ?APRS? query packets.



STATUS BEACON SPECIFICATION ANOMALIES

With the StatusTabOther option set to "0", APRS+SA strongly enforces APRS
status packet specifications. With it set to "1", it will put any
non-conforming packet on the status tab IF there is no actual status tab.



SETUP SETTINGS

There are numerous software features that are only accessible by editing
the various configuration entries of Settings.ini. They can be made, "on
the fly", accessed directly by Setup > Settings, left click the + or -
to open and close a particular part of the configuration tree. Double
left click on an individual setting to bring up the editor, and edit
with care.

See the information file Settings.RTF, that should reside in your APRS+
directory. The v207 file is duplicated, below, under the SETTINGS.TXT
topic title.



SETTINGS.TXT

This is the v2.21 09/02/02 Settings.rtf edited to a simple text format.
A text search for a particular keyword may very well point you in the
right direction, if you land within the file's text...


SECTIONS AND KEYS

CONFIG

Setup Menu Tree:  the Setup Menu Tree allows for settings options in
the Settings.ini file and for items that select different features
with in the program. The Tree consists of a number of Sections which
in turn have a number of  Keys.  To Edit a Key, double click on the
Key, and an Edit window will appear with the Key name and current key
value. Edit the value, and click the OK button to enter the new value.
Click the Cancel button to abandon the change made.

Note, some settings are only retained in registered versions between
program sessions.

Sections and Keys
Config
	UTC,  Display Date/Time Heard in UTC or Local time, 0 or 1
	Ambiguity, The number of position ambiguity digits. 0 to 4.
	OverlayChar, Icon Overlay Character, ASCII character
	RemoteExecute, Allows or prevents remote access to the APRS+SA
	calculating engine
	IPAddressIndex, Used to determine Internet IP address from
	computers list of numbers.
 Default 1.
	MessageNumber, the current outgoing message number
	MovingThreshold, the number of position reports to determine is a
	station is moving or not.
 Default 2
	BulletinStatus, determines whether incoming bulletins are displayed
	in the Statusbar, 0 or 1.
	Echo, determines if APRS+SA will reply to Message Echo requests.
	Archive, turns on or off Packet Archiving, 0 or 1.
	PositionTabMax - maximum number of stations to display on the
	Position Tab. Default 100. Use this to decrease CPU utilization on
	screen repaints
	BitMask,  Special feature or diagnostic tool, used as directed by
	the program Author.
	StatusTabOther - display all non-APRS compliant packets on Status
	Tab if no Status Packet has been received for that station.
	StatusTabFromCallsigns, only display status packets from given list.
	It can contain wildcards. Ex: A* K* N* W*
	StatusTabTextSearch, only display status packets with text
	containing the search string
	StatusbarStationCount - turns on/off display of total number of
	stations in 4th pane of Statusbar.  Default 0.  Note, this is set
	to off to decrease CPU utilization
	CompactionInterval, number of seconds between tactical database
	compaction.  range 60-300, default 150.
	StatusbarTncInput, show latest TNC packet in the 6th pane of the
	Statusbar.
	StoreLastPosition, stores last heard position stations, that is
	preserved as files outside of the tactical database.
	MessageLength, maximum length of a message, value 20 to 110
	characters. APRS protocol default is 65.
	EnforceNmeaChecksum, enforces the checksum on NMEA sentences
WX
	File, the fully qualified path and name to weather file written by
	the VWS or WD programs.
	Interval, time in minutes between wx packet transmissions.
	Path, the transmitted path ID as determined in the Unproto Path
	window.
Data
	File, the fully qualified path and name to the Data file to be
	transmitted	Interval, tiem in minutes between transmissions.
	Path, the transmitted path ID as determined in the Unproto Path
	window.
NWS
	CodeFile, name of the NWS Shapefile used for Codes
	ZoneFile, name of the NWS Shapefile used for Zones	
	MarineFile, name of the NWS Shapefile used for Marine warnings
	Shapefiles, turns on or off the use of Shapefiles
	Boxes, uses shapefiles, but draws boxes around the zone or code
	instead of outlines	TTS, use Text-to-Speech to announce incoming
	warnings
	WaveSound, play wave files with same name as warning type.
Example:  FLOOD.WAV for FLOOD warning.
	Morse, use Morse code to announce incoming warnings
	MorseSpeed, sets the speed of the generated morse code, valid
	values (0.02 -  0.12)
	MorsePitch, sets the pitch in Hz for the generated Morse code
	(200-1200)
	MorseVolume, sets the volume of the generated Morse code (0-127)
	Enabled, turns on or off the decoding of NWS warnings.
	OverlayAll, turns on or off the decoding of all NWS warnings, not
	just the currently selected codes and zones
IGate
	MessageCount, the current IGated Message  Count
	FillCount, the current IGated Fill packet Count
	AddUniqueID, Adds a unique ID to the path of all gated packets,
	RF to Internet
	UniqueID, Unique ID to be added to all gated packets, RF to Internet
	TypeReject , disallow specified APRS packet types from being included
	in the data stream to APRS/IS
Internet
	AutoReconnect, turns on or off auto-reconnect to APRS Internet
	Servers
	InternetPositionCallsigns, Monitor positions only for callsigns
	in this list.
	InetTimeOut, time after which connection is closed and connection
	to next Server is initiated
Web Server
	PositionTime, Number of hours back to display position data
	TrafficTime, number of hours back to display traffic data
	HistoryTime, number of hours back to display history data
	WeatherTime, number of hours back to display weather data
	WxTrendTime, number of hours back for WX Trend data
	BulletinTime,  number of hours back to display bulletin data
	ObjectTime,  number of hours back to display object data
	StatusTime,  number of hours back to display status data
	RFOnly, display RF data or all data.
Kiss - kiss mode settings
	TxDelay, TX Delay in milliseconds
	Persistence
	SlotTime
	TxTail
	FullDuplex
	RemoveDuplicatePackets, Removed Dupes before going to the Parser.
	Default =1
Sounds
	Morse, turn on or off Morse Code in messages
	MorseSpeed, sets the speed of the generated morse code, valid
	values (0.02 -  0.12)
	MorsePitch, sets the pitch in Hz for the generated Morse code
	(200-1200)
	MorseVolume, sets the volume of the generated Morse code (0-127)
	DTMF, turn on or off DTMF in messages
	WavOnDigipeat, Name of Wave file to play when one of your packets
	is digipeated
	MorseOnDigipeat, Morse code Text to play when one of your packets
	is digipeated
	EnableSoundOnNewPosit - Turns On/Off sounds on new position report
	WavOnNewPosit, WAV file to played when a new position report is
	received
	MorseOnNewPosit, Morse code to be played when a new position report
	is received
	MorseOnTransmit, Morse code to be played when data is transmitted
	to RF
	WavOnTransmit, WAV file to be played when data is transmitted to RF
	MorseOnCompaction, Morse code to be played when internal database
	is compacted
	WavOnCompaction, WAV file to be played when internal database is
	compacted
	EnableSoundsOnCompaction, disable/enable all sounds on database
	compaction
	MorsePlaySync, Play Morse Code Synchronously, message plays to
	completion before next message is played.
	SoundOnAcks, Plays sounds when a message "ack" is received.
	0=no, 1=yes.
Email - settings for use with APRS+SA eXtensions and sending of Email
	Host, address of Email host
	Return, return email address
	AprsMessageForward,  Forward APRS message to Email,  0=no, 1=yes.
	AprsMessageForwardAddress,  Email address messages are forwarded to.
	AprsMessageForwardGroupMessages, Forward group messages also to
	Email., 0=no, 1=yes
	AprsMessageForwardActiveX,  If APRS+SA eXtensions are installed, use
	them.  0=no, 1=yes.
	Provides second thread of execution for sending Email messages.
GPS - settings for communicating with GPS receiver, $GPWPL NMEA
    sentences for the creation of waypoints.
	SendWPLForTrackedStations, send $GPWPL sentence for new position
	reports from tracked stations.
	SendWPLForAllStations, send $GPWPL sentence for new position
	reports from all stations.
	SendWPLForHistoryStations, send $GPWPL sentence for new position
	reports from stations displayed on History Tab
	WPLNameLength, the length of the waypoint name to send in the $GPWPL
	sentence. Range, 6-10 characters.
	WPLNameFromEnd, select the WPLNameLength of characters from the end
	of the name or front.  This is used for GPS receivers that only
	support 6 characters names. 
DeadReckoning - settings for the display of the projected line estimating
    the location of stations with valid course and speed.
	LineColor - Black, Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow (0-4)
	LineWidth - with of projected line.  (0-4)
	LineStyle - Solid, Hatched, Highlighted (0-2)
	TimeLimit - number of hours since last valid position.  Stations
	older then the TimeLimit are not Dead Reckoned.
Pop3  -  Pop3 server to APRS message gateway
	Server,  server name or IP where you get Email
	User,  user name on Pop3 server
	Pass,  passwork for getting Email off of server.  Note - this is not
	encrypted in the settings file.
	Interval,  time in seconds between server checks.
	Enabled,  turns on checking for Emal or not.  0=no, 1=yes.
	Delimiters.  Characters used in Email subject to define target
	callsign and user ID
	RegisterUsers,  requires that you approve of users of this system.
	DeleteAllMessages.  Deletes all messages on the server, or only
	those that are valid APRS messages messages. 


		

UTC OR LOCAL TIME?

Setup > Settings, open CONFIG and double left click UTC to bring up editor.



MAP CONFIGURATIONS SETTINGS AND INFORMATION

DESCRIPTOR

Includes location data with call, on the SA map.

Maps > Options > APRS; check Include Descriptor. Other options available
include Altitude Risers, leaders, range circles, new map to front, etc.

CUSTOM MAP SCRIPTS

These are scripts that can be created to plot data based on the criteria
you specify. There are a number of functions and criteria you can use
such as Latitude, Longitude, Range to a specific station or Lat/Long,
station Icon, posit text search, and others. These can be combined in
logical expressions, and/or numerical comparisons.

NOTES: Text case is important in function names, and callsign arguments.
       Map Scripts are evaluated RIGHT to LEFT.

Here is a sample script: Lets say you wanted to show only stations that
were in Iowa. You can create one that looks only at Lat/Long. Here it
is:

(Long > -97) And (Long < -90) And (Lat > 40) And (Lat < 43)

Here, there is a numerical comparison to check to see if Longitude is >
-97,  logically combined with Longitude < -90, then combined with the
Latitude range. Only stations in this range will be plotted. Others will
be excluded. Here the "functions", Long and Lat are the numerical values
of Longitude and Latitude of stations APRS+SA has decoded. The function
And, performs the logical and function. Note, text case is important in
function names, and callsign arguments.

Another numerical function is the RangeTo function. RangeTo takes a right
argument of a station callsign, or a Latitude/Longitude pair.  An And
example might be as follows:

50 > RangeTo 'KH2Z'

This would plot stations less than 50 miles from KH2Z, provided the
location of KH2Z is known. The follow script would plot stations less
than 50 miles from the coordinates of 34,-117. Note the comma, which is
necessary:

50 > RangeTo 34,-117

RangeTo can also have an argument of '' (2 single quotes) which means your
current location:

50 > RangeTo ''

Summary so far, Logical functions:
And
Or
Not
Xor

Numerical functions:
Lat
Long
RangeTo

Another function is the From function. This looks at Position data from
the specified station(s). Several stations can be specified, and
wildcards can be used. Example, this would include positions "less than
from KH2Z-9, and all variants of N9XTN":

> From 'KH2Z-9' 'N9XTN*'

The search function, To, will search the Unproto To for a string match.
The following will search for the unproto To of APS211:

To 'APS211'

Searching for a portion would also work:

To '211'

Or, the following will pick out most APRS+SA stations:

To 'APS'

The Text function will search for text strings in the Posit text of
stations:

Text 'APRS+SA'

Text 'PHG'

The last function I will discuss is the Type function. This one can be
used for a number several types of searches.

The following searches for the digipeaters GATE and ECHO in the path:

Type 'HF'

This one searches for stations that are listed in the IGate tab of
APRS+SA, meaning that they have transmitted an IGate packet and has been
decoded by APRS+SA:

Type 'IGATE'

The TRACKER argument looks for all NMEA string position reports:

Type 'TRACKER'

The IGATED argument looks for the last position as having been transmitted
via an IGate:

Type 'IGATED'

TRACKED will show stations in your tracking list.

A little trickier is the ICON Type argument, It requires a second, left
argument:

'*&%'  Type 'ICON'

Note, if you want to use the digipeater symbol, you need to enter it
twice.  Why?  Because that is the way I programmed it!

'##*&%'  Type 'ICON'

Or for those stations, only, claiming to be digipeaters, enter:

'##'  Type 'Icon'

Or, just:

Type 'DIGI'

So the right arguments to Type are:
'IGATE'
'TRACKER'
'TRACKED'
'IGATED'
'HF'
'ICON'
'DIGI'
'OBJECT'
'Mic-E'
'D7'
'WX'

The only left arguments to Type, exist for the right argument Icon. They
are detailed, above.

In the Custom Map Editor, there are several options. A time filter which
will only look back the number of hours specified. Also, the History
check box will enter the callsigns of stations found into the History tab
of APRS+SA. The Delete Posits button will delete stations that match the
criteria of the script. The Keep Posits that Match does the same thing
when the map is drawn automatically, providing another way to trim the
data you keep stored in the active internal Tactical Database.

To find IGates with in 100 miles of N9XTN, you might use the following Map
Script.

((Type 'IGATE') And 100 > RangeTo 'N9XTN') Or From 'N9XTN'

To find the digipeaters with in 100 miles of N9XTN, try:
(('##' Type 'ICON') And 100 > RangeTo 'N9XTN') Or From 'N9XTN'

Show Quake objects:
('Q' Type 'Icon') And Type 'Object'

Once you have created your script, you can save it to a name you specify.
The new name can have its own MOP file (Map Options). The new map can
have its own overlay file to add drawing objects to the final map.


Here is a custom map script example to show only stations in Iowa (as can
best be defined by simple longitude and latitude boundaries), and
excludes stations that use the Satellite Icon, and ARISS.

NOTES: Text case is important in function names, and callsign arguments.
                  Map Scripts are evaluated RIGHT to LEFT.

So the From 'ARI*" is calculated first, then Or'd with ('S' Type 'Icon'),
not-ed, and then added with the rest of the criteria.  All my code reads
right to left!!

(Long > -97) And (Long < -90) And (Lat > 40) And (Lat < 43) And Not
('S'
Type 'Icon') Or From 'ARI*'

Put this file into your Map subdirectory of APRS+SA. It will now appear
in the Custom map dropdown on the Maps toolbar. No more satellites. Just
Iowa stations.

Brent Hildebrand, KH2Z



STREET ATLAS MAP CAPTURE TO APRS+SA BITMAP WINDOW.

1) Open the APRS+SA Bitmap window
2) Draw a map in SA, do not zoom or pan the map. You can remove the SA
   draw objects if you wish
3) In the APRS+SA bitmap window, right click on the map, and choose
   Paste SA.You will now have a screen capture of SA,that is
   calibrated and on which Icons can be drawn, and objects created.
   NB! You can not resize the bitmap window, or zoom it or out.



VIEW.TXT APPLICATION FOR CUSTOM BIT MAPS

The View.txt data, is used when you do not use map drawing from other
sources. If you have the map being updated by other means, this can
change the magnitude. Icons will be drawn correctly, because the screen
gets calibrated. But if you want to have a static map display, turn off
all other map drawing functions, then use the Views menu to set the SA
screen. Am I making any sense? If you are repainting the screen from
methods other then Views, then you need to adjust your MOP file for
that map. You can often do this easily by redrawing the map, then click
on the Maps button on the Map toolbar. The MapOptions window will open,
set your magnitude on the "Center & Mag" tab, then save the file.

To create a map view that I want to use for a specific map I do the
following:

1. Turn floating toolbar on in APRS+

Not required but makes things a bit easier.

2. Switch to SA8

3. Create a map view that I like. Let's say the western 80% of Iowa.

4. Save the map to a unique file name.. DO NOT! save as any of the
Map7 or Map#...give it a unique name like Iowa.sa8, so you will
recognize a non ambiguous name, easily.

5. Click on Map in the Floating Tool Bar (brings up the mop window)

6. File - Read Map Configuration

7. Select the previously saved UNIQUE! Mapname.SA8, eg. above:Iowa.sa8,
to read configuration from.

8. Make appropriate selections in each of the tabs of the .mop box.

9. File - Save As UNIQUE! Mapname.mop, eg. above: Iowa.mop

10. Switch back to APRS+SA

11. Go to the Maps Tab of the main program. Go to white box with "7 All
Stations" on its left.

12. Type in "Iowa" , no quotes.

13. Now, go to Select maps button and Iowa will MAGICALLY appear in the
map list under Maps!!!

14. Select maps as you will for the big white box to be redrawn at the
specified interval (already knew about that part). The trick is, the newly
NAMED maps won't appear in the Select Map List, UNTIL and UNLESS you have
put their name in one of the 9 white boxes adjacent to the buttons for "1
All Reports" through "9 All Stations"

You can follow the steps listed above and put your NAMED maps in slots
6,7,8 and it works fine. I'm betting it will work anywhere, but with as
much trouble as I've had to this point, I'm not vouching for anything that
I haven't actually done with my own fingers.

Once I am sure that I have explained this properly, I will rewrite this
without all the comments, just a "by the numbers" description so others
can make use of it. I can tell from the responses that I have gotten that
this has been a big problem for a lot of people.

Now I have four maps in my "redraw list" (the big white square under the
Maps Tab of the main program). NWS, IAcent, CentPlains, Iowa. Each has its
own distinctive magnitude and center, as well as Map Features (cities,
rivers, track lines, circles etc)

NWS shows the entire country.
IAcent shows the contiguous counties to my own county.
CentPlains shows about a 7 state area from Iowa to the West and South
(Primary Bad weather track) Iowa shows the western 80% of the state with
county lines and county names.

At last....peace of mind....for a little while.

Thanks for all the help, and any additional feedback you want to provide.
I'll then clean this up and post it so others will not have to go through
what I have. It is a simple process, IF IT IS CLEARLY outlined. Otherwise,
for me, it was like not knowing the secret handshake AND a password.



MAP MAGNIFICATION - .MOP FILES

What ever happens in Street Atlas is not reflected back to APRS+SA.
There is a one way data flow from APRS+ to SA. A ????.MOP file only
controls what is in an SA file for a specific map label of the same
name, chosen by the user.

To change the way maps are displayed, you need to edit the Map Options
(MOP) file.  In v1.99 you can click the Maps button the Map Toolbar.
In all versions, you can use the Commands menu, and select the Map
Features option which has a speed key of Ctrl-Shift-M. From the Map
Options window, go to the Center & Mag tab, and you can adjust the
Minimum and Maximum Magnitude to desired levels. The default name for
the MOP file is MapOptions.MOP.  Every map can have their own MOP file
where the MOP file is named after the map.  NAME.MOP. Thus, different
maps can have different views if desired.

If you find that you cannot change a map display parameter from the
program's user interface, check the setting(s) in the specific .mop file
for the map in question.



MAPS, MOPS and other things.

APRS+SA Maps

1) Map Names: All APRS+SA maps have names. They are followed by either a
+A.SAx or +B.SAx where the x in SAx is the version of SA you are using.
Example, Map2+A.SA8.

2) MOP files: This are Map Options files. All maps use a MOP file. The
MOP file has the same name as the Map you are drawing, ie. it has the
name of any map that is drawn, minus the +A or +B addition. Map2+A.SA8
would use the MOP file Map2.MOP. If there is no defined MOP file, then
the MapOptions.MOP file is used. MapOptions is the default MOP file for
all maps that do not have a MOP file.  When you first install APRS+SA,
there are no defined MOP files, and MapOptions.MOP is used. If you edit
MapOptions.MOP, then these changes apply to all maps.

3) Defining MOP files. View > Floating Toolbar > Maps, or use
the Commands > Map Options, or use the keyboard shortcut of
Ctrl+Shift+M to open the Map Options window. Map all the changes you
desire on the various tabs, and save the file. If you want to make a
specific view for Map2, do File+Save As, and give it the name Map2.
Now, when ever Map2 is drawn, it will use the options contained in
Map2.MOP.

4) A MOP Shortcut: Lets say you want to have a specific view, that has a
fixed center and magnitude. Setup SA (not APRS+SA) to show the view you
want. Save the map from SA and give it a name you will remember.
Example, a view showing the lower 48 states, I might name US48.  Open the
Map Options window, go to the Center & Mag tab.  Then, from the MOP windows
File menu, select the Read Map Configuration, and select then the US48
file you have saved previously. That maps Center Lat/Long and Magnitude
will be read and entered into appropriate slots. Check the Fixed Center
and Fixed Magnitude, and save the MOP file - give it the name you desire
for the map you desire. Remember the naming convention above.

5) Map Overlays:  You can include map drawing objects with your maps.
These can be of any type of drawing object that SA supports.
A) Global - drawn with most maps. The Global overlay is an SA map
with the name GLOBAL.SAx. All drawing objects in GLOBAL.SAx will be
drawn with all maps. B) Specific map overlays: This is a file with
the same name as the map being drawn.  Example. Map2 will use the
file Map2.SAx as an overlay C) Dynamically loaded map overlays.  This
are drawing objects you load from the Main program window's File menu.
Select File+Open Map Overlay File. The file you select will be read,
and its objects included with each new map draw. You can clear these
objects by selecting File+Clear Overlay File. D) DF Objects. You can
generate DF bearing lines (Ctrl-D to activate the DF window). Enter
the DF Fix parameters, and click Map. Click Clear to delete these
objects.

MOP file accepts all combinations and permutations of Lat/Long that
other locations in APRS+SA with Lat/Long accept.


MORE .MOP FILE CONFIGURATION INFORMATION

There is a way to display Power-Height-Gain circles, but this
is not the same as the weather circles. They are completely
different animals. Many parameters can be changed to show
how the map is displayed including the zoom level, track lines
for a moving station, and the detail level of the map.  Many of
the MAP settings that you would select in SA can be controlled
from the MOP files.

What are MOP files and why did I mention it. There were several
other posts that contained questions about how the SA settings
got changed or why my map looks different. So I will try to
briefly explain this very nice feature quickly. I learned all about the
MOP files when setting up APRS+SA for the Rocket City Marathon in
Huntsville and we have several maps and zoom levels configured so that we
would get a birds eye view of the whole track, portions of the track, and
zoom to appropriate levels automatically. All we had to do is sit back
and watch the show.

I am not going to go into full detail, but you can play with it yourself.

Click on Commands -> Map Options

This will give you a window with four tabs:

1. Symbols & Text
   Allows you to control Symbol, Text, and Track Lines size and color,
   and set the default color and size properties of the SA draw objects.
   Tthe color will  automatically be selected as the trackers come up on
    screen, giving each one a  different color, especially when tracking
    several in the same area.

2. Center & Mag
    Allows you to control the ZOOM level control of the map

3. Map Features
    Allows you to control map features displayed on SA

4. Circles
    Allows you to control the thickness of the line on a circle.
    You can also specify a fill color if desired.
    This has nothing to do with NWS circles (red or yellow)

5. APRS
    Allows you to control APRS functions on how some things are
    displayed. You can select including range circles, track lines, track
    lines included in the zoom display, and a few others here.

These settings determine what options are used for specific maps.  I
believe the default file will be MapOptions.mop so be careful how and what
you save.

What do I mean by specific maps.  If you display your SA map on the screen
and look in the top left corner of the window on the title bar, you will
see something like MapOption, Map9, Map5, etc followed by some other text
and the SA file extension like .sa8  Mine shows .sa8 because I am using
Street Atlas version 8 and I have APRS+ writing SA8 files on the updates.
The MOP files are located in the DATA directory under the APRS+ main
software directory on your hard drive.

When I look for MOP files in this directory I see the following:

Map5.mop
Map6.mop
Map7.mop
Map8.mop
Map9.mop
Digipeaters.mop
TrackMap.mop
MapOptions.mop

You will not have all these files. Do not worry, because you are going to
create them if you want.

If you go to the "Maps" tab in APRS+ and look at all the maps you can
display, then you can realize how many MOP files you could have to control
how each of these maps will look to suit your own desires. Try clicking
on All Stations which uses Map9 as a default. Now look at the top left
corner of the SA window and see what the title bar shows before the "+"
sign in the text. Mine shows Map9+B.sa8. Do not worry about all of this
except the Map9 at this point. If you create a Map9.mop file, you will
find that you can control how it is displayed. The same is true for the
Digipeaters button on that screen. Yes, if you have a Digipeaters.mop
file you can control how it looks. In mine I have the range circles
activated so I can see where all the digipeaters are located and also see
there range circles to see where we need new digipeaters or where a
digipeater may be off the air.

Does all of this sound good. I hope I can explain it so you can get to
the meaning of it.

How do I create a MOP file?

Click on Commands -> Map Options

Change all the settings you would like to have and then save the file as
the proper mop name. For instance, if I want to create a Map9.mop, I will
click on Commands -> Map Options. Then, I will make my changes and click
on File -> Save As, and then the name of the map I want to affect.  It is
that simple.  A word of caution.  You should turn off all automatic map
updating functions when doing this. If a map gets updated in the process
of you making changed, you will quickly find that your settings are most
likely being changed by some unknown force. This includes turning off
auto map update under the Track tab in APRS+. Also make sure the enable
box is not checked under the Maps tab. This will help make things go
smoother in making a MOP file and saving it before the auto functions in
the software does its thing before you do.

If you do not know what map is created on the Map tab for each button,
then click on the button and look at the title of the SA window. You will
find the name of the map preceding the "+" symbol in that text. All you
need to do is create a MOP file with that name, save it, and the next time
you click on that button the screen will look just like you set it.

It takes a little while to get use to what all those MOP settings can do
for you so you will need to do a little experimenting.

MOP Files, Another View:

Using the auto-update feature with SA9. I have the map zoomed in to a
certain setting. Every time the map updates it goes to a far out zoom setting.
How can I prevent this?

One of the good/bad things about APRS+ is that it seems there's a dozen
ways to control the operation of the program. I think my best advice is
to NOT experiment with setting something you don't understand, because
it may take you days to find it again and unset it! That's probably the
case with your setup. In any case, at the risk of saying something
incorrect, I can offer a few suggestions based on my limited experiences
with APRS+.

If you're manually zoomed in to inspect a certain location,  I don't
think you can preserve that particular view forever without getting into
the map option (MOP) files on the hard drive (see my closing paragraph
below). However, you can control configure APRS+ as to what center and
magnitude it will use to draw the maps.

Under the Map Options (Ctrl-Shift-M), the "Center & Mag" tab, you can
set several things.
1) Check the box for "Fixed map center" and you can make any point
always be the center of the map. Simply enter the lat-long data in the
boxes below. Uncheck this option if you don't want this.
2) Check the "Center Tracks me" box if you want YOUR position (on the
Setup, Main screen) to be the center of the world. Uncheck it if you
don't want this.
2) Check the "Range" box and enter a value to always start with the same
zoom.  Uncheck it if you don't want this.
3) Check the "Fixed Magnitude" box and adjust the number shown just to
the left with the up/down arrows and the DeLorme map will always start
at that magnitude (see the info bar at the bottom of the map for the
zoom magnitude numbers).  Uncheck it if you don't want this.

Under the Track tab (main APRS screen), if you have "ENABLE TRACKING"
checked, then everything on this screen becomes important.
1) Check "Auto Map Update" and every time a tracked station updates, the
map will redraw. This can be annoying if you're trying to manually zoom
in to look at something on a map!
2) Check "Zoom to Most Recent" and the redrawn maps will zoom in to the
position of the most recent updated tracked position. Also annoying, if
you're trying to watch a whole group of tracks.
3) Check "Track Any Moving Station" and you're probably in trouble. You
might find your maps automatically zooming out to track some guy 200
miles away from your area of interest. I find it best to double-click on
the moving stations in the 2nd column that I really want to track to add
them to 3rd column.

Under the Maps tab (main APRS screen), if you have the "Enabled" box
checked, then the maps you have listed in the white box [use the buttons
below the box to add/remove map(s) from this list] just below will be
updated every xx seconds, where xx is the number you have to the left of
the Enabled check box. Again, this can be useful or annoying, depending
on what you want.

Under the "Command" menu, watch out for "experimentally" setting the
Time Filter and the Range Filter--because you can easily forget that
they've been set. There is a little "T=nn R=nn" down at the bottom of
the screen to remind you. But these are useful to not plot week-old
tracks or ignore invalid position reports (e.g., lat/long = 0/0).

I'm sure there's more settings somewhere to confuse you, but these are
the ones I've found. Good luck!



BITMAPS - CUT AND PASTE

I am a very happy APRS+SA user in Canada but I am an unhappy APRS user
in Canada because of the serious lack of maps for Canada.

The only solution for us is this:

www.mapblast.com or www.mapquest.com

Make the bitmap and load them into APRS+SA. I have done maps for our
use here and they work well enough. I cut and paste using Paint Shop
Pro.



TRACKING MAPS

The selective tracking controls ONLY work with Street Atlas. If you are
trying to use the bit map mode activated with the "Bitmap" command on the
top menu bar that uses simple scanned BMP images of maps, it won't work.

Assuming you are using Street Atlas (the ONLY way to really use this
program!):

Do you have the "Track Any Moving Station" check box on the Track panel
checked??  This will cause all mobiles that fall through your mileage range
filter to be tracked. Clear this box to track only the ones listed in the
third ("Tracking List") column. DO check the first three boxes ("Enable
Tracking", "Auto Map Update" , and "Zoom to Most Recent".

Basically the Maps tab allows you to call up several different pre-defined
sets of plotted presentations on top of the Street Atlas background such as
weather only, digipeaters only, etc. You can also have the program present
several different map views automatically in rotation every few seconds.

The Range Filter is a display filter and selects stations that are with in
the set Range. If you map is displaying data outside this range, it
probably has to do with the Track lines; satellites have long track lines.
To not include the track in the map zoom, uncheck the "Zoom Includes
Tracks" on the APRS tab of the Map Options window.

Maps by Icon are just that - maps of stations with the specified Icon.
They do not affect any other maps.

As for the numbered maps, 1-9, these relate to the stations listed:
1) All Reports, means every position report currently loaded, current and
   old positions.
2) Latest Reports, displays only the most recent position.
3) All Tracked - all position reports for stations in the Tracking list.
4) Latest Tracked - Most recent position report for stations in the
   Tracking list.
5 and 6) Station List - Most recent position report for stations specified
   in the Custom Map List on the Lists tab of Setup.
7,8,and 9) Most recent position report for all stations, same as Map2,
   with a different name.

Why have maps which have the same station list, but different names?
Each map can have its own Map Options file, (MOP File) and each MOP file
can have a different definition for how the map is to appear. Different
map centers for example, of different level of detail. Track lines on or
off, different map instance, etc...

You can put the map name into the Map drawing list, the center list on the
Maps page, and have those maps be redrawn at a given interval.  You can
manually redraw the maps by pressing Ctrl+0 to draw the next map in the
list. Map1-9 can be manually triggered using the key combination, Ctrl+9
-> Ctrl+9

It is important to understand that every map generated can have an
associated Map Options file (MOP) and overlays.  MOP files control map
appearance, such as map center, fixed or variable centers, map magnitudes,
display of various features such as inclusion of minor or major roads,
place names, railroads, text size and color, and whether track lines are
on or off. If a map has a MOP file defined it is used, if not, then the
default file MapOptions.MOP is used. Using the numbered maps, 7,8, and 9
for example, the only difference between these would be the MOP file. If
no MOP file is defined, then the default MapOptions.MOP is used, and they
all look the same.

 What is the name of the MOP file?  Every map generated by APRS+SA named as
follows:  MAPNAME+A.SAx or MAPNAME+B.SAx. The associated MOP file will be
MAPNAME.MOP. You create MOP files from the Map Options window opened from
the Menu Command+Map Features or by clicking the Maps button on the Maps
toolbar in v1.99. Set your desired parameters, and execute File+Save and
give the file the name MAPNAME.

Overlays - there are several layers of overlays.
Global - If the file Global.SAx is defined, it is loaded and included with
every map generated Run time globals, and loaded from the File+Open ...
Overlay File.  You can open any number of files to be used as a runtime
global. These overlay objects are deleted from the File+Clear Overlay
file. Additionally, just like each map can have a MOP file, each map can
have an associated Overlay file named MAPNAME.SAx. Also if any DF lines
have been plotted, they are included as an overlay and these are
controlled from the DF window (Ctrl-D)

Note - SAx  applies to the version of Street Atlas you are using. If you
specify SA7, then the file GLOBAL.SA7 is used for the overlay, not
GLOBAL.SA6.



MAINTAINING MAP CONFIGURATIONS, S'MORE

When APRS+ switches from the A map to the B map and back again all map
features settings are lost and a world view is thrown up on the display.
To keep map settings, You will want to setup MapOptions (MOP) files for
each map you want to draw. Click the Maps button on the Map toolbar to
open the MOP window. If no MOP is defined for a specific map, then the
default MOP file, MapOptions.MOP is used.  To make a MOP file that is
specific for the map you want, use the name of the Map without the +A or
+B. The MOP file for NAME+A.SAx would be NAME.MOP. You can set map
centers, zoom, features, etc. via the MOP files.



MAP REFRESH/ AUTO UPDATES

On the MAPS tab (Page) there is a small box to the right of the list of
maps you manually select. Check the box and to the right of the check
box, put in the number of seconds until a map is redrawn. Then below
the box is a set of options and if you wade thru them, you can select a
map to be redrawn. Each map you slect is placed in the large window and
at the time interval you have selected above that window, the maps will
be drawn in sequence.

On the Maps tab;
1.)    Click on the word Enabled until there is a check mark in the small
         box to the left of it.
2.)    In the box to the left of the check mark enter the number of
         seconds you want for the update rate.
         In the large blank box below the word enabled is the list of
          maps that will be drawn at the update rate selected.
3.)    Click on the Select Maps button below the maps list box and scroll
         down to Maps.
         This will open a box with the map numbers to choose from.
4.)    Select one of the maps.
         The map you select should now be listed in the maps list box.
5.)    Repeat step 4 until all the maps you want are listed.



MAP ICONS

1) Click on the Maps drop down on the Maps button on the Maps toolbar.
2) Select Views+Enabled Icons
3) Enable live update if you wish.

With Icons on, you can choose live update, and with dead reckoning
enabled, you can have a line that updates about once per second.
You don't get that with Icons off

Now, Icons will only be in the correct location if APRS+SA has drawn the
map. You can not pan or zoom and expect to have the icons in the correct
place.

You must have a printer installed in Win9x in order for icons to appear on
maps. This is a relatively "obscure" requirement that is easy to miss.
So...even if you don't have a printer attached to your machine and never
will, you must install a printer in Win9x if you want icons to work with
APRS+SA

Then, click on the Maps dropdown, on the Maps toolbar, select view, and
Enable Icons. Note, Icons will only be in the correct location if you do
not zoom or pan the map manually. The map must be drawn by APRS+SA. You
can setup Views, defined in the views.txt file, and editable on the Views
menu under the Maps dropdown. Views entries are in the form of: NAME, LAT,
LONG, MAGNITUDE Examples: Seattle,47.6,-122.3,10 Washington,48,W120,7

This way, you can zoom to a specific view, and have Live Update of Icons
and callsigns.

You must have a LOCAL printer installed for map icons to work in the
manner described. Having only a NETWORK printer driver installed means
that the icons won't be drawn unless you have the network connected and
the printer is online.



MAP ICON OVERLAYS

APRS+SA can transmit an Overlay character. Enter that character in the
Settings section under setup (v2.01). See the Config section,
OverlayChar key. Default is empty. eg. The recommended icon for I-gates
is the alternate gate icon with an I overlay.



MAP OBJECTS

1) With SA showing, select Object+Create Object from the Map.
2) Keep the focus on the Objects Editor, but move the cursor over the map
   so that the Lat/Long changes
3) From the Object Editor, click Ctrl-M to capture the cursor coordinates.

Objects can have an expiration time, or transmit forever. This can be
entered in the Object editor by two methods. The upper Date/Time entry
allows for specifying the year, month, day, hour, and minute of expiration.
The lower Date/Time entry allows for an offset of time in Hours and
Minutes up to 24 hours. Unchecking the upper Date/Time box, means the
object does not expire. Objects are transmitted in an initial decaying
interval to the final transmit interval. Setting the state of an
Object to "Killed", Sets the object expiration time to .15 hours.
With the decaying transmission times, this means the killed packet
would be send 6 times and quit.

You can manually make an object active or inactive by right clicking
on the object, and settings its State. A "persistent" object is one that
can not be killed by other APRS stations. 

Object names are now included in the Ignore List, with wildcards.



STREET ATLAS MAP SCROLL AND ZOOM ISSUES

When using APRS+ it's hard to scroll or zoom on a station because
the next time APRS+ re-draws the map it centers and zooms it to the
position and zoom that was set up in APRS+. APRS+ doesn't know
where you set the center and zoom level to in SA.

The easiest work around is to run TWO copies of SA. APRS+SA be default
writes to the second copy. So if  you zoom in on a map, it becomes the first
instance, and any updates go the other copy.  You can switch focus to the
other copy which them makes it the first instance and any updates go to the
other copy. In this way, you do not get over written by updates in the
instance in which you are zooming of panning.

If you start 2 copies of SA,  what ever copy has the focus, or last had
the focus for input, is the first instance. The other is the second instance.
So APRS+SA will write into the second instance, by default. APRS+SA can
support up to 4 instances. 

Now, you can force APRS+SA to preserve the order of the instances, by
checking "Preserve SA Instance Sequence" on the Program tab of Setup. You
can also reserve one instance of SA so that APRS+SA will not touch that
instance at all by checking "Reserve One Instance of SA" on the Program
tab of Setup. There is a "Flash" button there also which you can use to
"flash" the title bar or button on the status bar of the desktop of the
reserved instance of SA. The reserved instance can be used in regular SA
fashion for navigating a route in your car. 

APRS+SA is a one way data flow, APRS+ to SA. What ever you do in SA, never
gets reflected back to APRS+SA.



WEATHER

CORRECT WEATHER ICON = CORRECT DATA DECODING

Make sure your icon is an underscore. APRS+SA only sends weather as a
full weather packet (including position). This requires that you use the
standard weather icon (blue WX) or the alternate weather icon (green WX).
The blue or green WX icons with a black circle around them is a W and is
not valid for a full weather packet (this symbol should only be used for
NWS locations). Using the incorrect icon is likely to cause decoding
problems in other software.



WEATHER INSTRUMENTS DISPLAY FILE

How does aprsplus locate the file that is need from Virtual weather or
weather display?

In the settings.ini file there is a section for WX. For example:

[WX]
File=C:\WDisplay\WXnow.txt
REM File=C:\vws\data\wxreport.txt
Interval=10
Path=

To use both VWS and WD alternate between the two by moving the REM to
whichever one you don't want to be using at the time.

You can also find this in APRS+ at (Setup-Settings-WX) you then double
click on the line you want to change and take it from there.


THIRD PARTY WEATHER SOFTWARE

Weather transmit using data files written by 3rd party programs
such as:

Weather Display:
http://www.weatherdisplay.de/englis
h/

Virtual Weather Station:
http://www.ambientweather.com.

To enable WX transmit, edit or create a file named SETTINGS.INI
Add the following Keys:

[WX]
File=path\name (eg. FILE=drive:\path\wxnow.txt)
Interval=10

Where path\name is a fully qualified path and name to the file written by
the 3rd party programs, and Interval is the time in minutes.  When APRS+SA
transmits the Weather data, it deletes the file, so that no duplicate
transmissions occur.  APRS+SA can be forced to transmit WX from the Send
menu,  select "Send Weather File".

1) New - Weather graphic trending for the 8 displayed parameters.
 a) Stations to trend are selected by checking the call sign on the Weather
    tab
 b) Select the trend to plot using the "Checked" button on the Weather tab
 c) Select stations manually or using the "Select" button.  WXTREND*.TXT
    files can be used to store call sign lists and then quickly recalled
    later. The WXTREND*.TXT files can be created, edited and deleted from
    the "Select" button.
 d) Trend plots can be zoomed using the mouse via click and drag
 e) Trend data requires more RAM for storage. The Data page of Setup has
    new choices to support weather trending.  You may consider increasing
    the WorkSpace size on the Program tab of Setup if you plan to do any
    long term trending, or to collect trend data from APRServe.  Default
    is to trend RF data only.
 f) Trend plots for individual stations can be drawn by highlighting the
    station(s) and using the "Highlighted" button on the Weather tab.
    "Highlighted" and "Checked" buttons work the same except for which
    stations are selected

APRS+SA will work cooperatively with other weather program to provide
transmission of weather data. These programs will write a file which
APRS+SA will read and transmit. Many different weather stations are
supported by these programs.

Weather Display, $49.00 for life time registration.
http://www.weatherdisplay.de/english/

Virtual Weather Station
http://www.ambientweather.com/virtualstation.html

You should evaluate any program for suitability in your application.



WEATHER TREND DATA

Weather trend data - You can now easily identify which station
generated a trend line on a multi-station trend plot by moving the
mouse over a line and letting if "hover" on the line. The Callsign
will be identified in the trend plot window's status bar. This makes
it convenient when you plot multiple stations in separating out which
line belongs to what station

WX trend data is now stored externally in data files in the new WXData
subdirectory. These files are named as follows: CALLSIGN.wx where CALLSIGN
is the call of the transmitting station. The data within each file is 9 8-
byte floating point numbers per record. The first number is a date/time
stamp, the remaining 8 are the decoded weather parameters. All other
aspects of displaying trends remain the same. The Data page now has 2
options to enable saving of trend data and to limit it to just RF
stations. NOTE - trend data is no longer purged as was the case previously
with the Data page. You can now have extended periods of trend data.
Additional work will be required to be able to trim these files.


WX Alarms

Individual stations can now have alarms set for the various parameters,
such as a low temperature, high temperature, high wind speed, etc. To set
an alarm right click on a station on the Weather page to bring up the WX
Alarm window. Enter the parameters desired. The program tests for either
Greater Than or Less Than. So entering a low temperature of 32 for an alarm
value, would cause an alarm when the temperature was below 32. You can
enter alarms for any station from the Alarm window by entering the call
sign of the station desired, entering the parameters, and clicking OK.
To delete a station from the alarm list, enter their call sign, and click
the Delete menu. The call sign drop down list on the WX Alarms window,
shows a list of all stations for which alarms are currently set. Or from
the APRS+SA calculator, enter: #disclose WX_ALARMS

When an alarm is triggered, several things happen:
1) The ALARM.WAV file is played.
2) A message is placed into your message Inbox with the call sign of
   the station causing the alarm, and what event triggered it.
3) if you have Port 2 open, the RTS line is Set so an external event can
   be triggered.  External alarms are cleared via the menus:
   Commands+Clear+Clear Alarms.

Alarm data is stored in the DATA\WXALARMS.DAT file.

The WX Alarms window can also be activated from the Commands menu with
shortcut keys of Ctrl+Shift+W.

Note: You can enter 32 for a low temperature alarm, and 9999 for a high
alarm.  This will effectively prevent a high alarm while having a low
alarm set.

When you want to send the wx file manually, look at the bottom of the
Send menu. 2nd from bottom, above Send Tactical is "Send WXNOW.TXT",
if your version of APRS+SA supports the feature I'm talking about.

It really isn't going to send that file...it is going to send whatever
file you defined in settings.ini

This will immediately send the wx string out, as opposed to waiting for
Interval=10 or whatever you have it set to.


To shut off wx alarm or change settings:

Open the WX Alarm window: Commands>Set Weather Alarms>Callsign

Select callsign, and delete or modify the menu.
Click OK to close the window.


Clearing NWS page

Shift-Click and Ctrl-Click, standard windows keyboard functions, works for
doing multiple select. Ctrl-X will delete them.  Or you can click the
Menu button, and clear them all.

Click the Menu button, Clear Page. Then select the Clear Overlay if you
wish.

Packets that do not self purge do not have an explicit expiration-  but
some do have an implicit expiration. All packets coming out of my server
have a sequence tag. This along with the "from" call makes all packets from
the same NWS bulletin (or part of bulletin that have the same geographical
scope) "associated". Any packets matching the "From" call and the first 4
characters of the sequence tag the same should be eliminated at the same
time. This means the only problem then would be the stray packet with no
expiration time and no associated packet with one, such as solar weather,
and tsunamis; or for various other reasons outside of the Wx data server.
73 de kg5qd, Dale. (the person that fills up your NWS tab with
data from his NWS wx data server.)

The 24 hour limit will be reinstated on the next revision of APRS+.



NWS SHAPEFILES DIRECTORIES

Where to put the NWS shapefiles so that APRS+SA will use them?

The z_* and c_* files need to be put right in the NWS directory under your
APRS+SA main directory. However, that alone isn't enough. You also need to
select Setup-Settings, click on the plus sign by NWS and you will see two
file identifiers, one for the c_* and one for the z_*. If you don't change
the text of the parameters to match the spelling of the actual NWS shapefiles,
it still won't work.

NB! to emphasize...There are entries in your settings.ini file that tell
APRS+SA what the names of the NWS files are. As the names of the files are
liable to change be aware that APRS+ must be told what the new file names
are, or the files are useless.

A good description for setting up NWS mapping is at:

http://www.nwaprs.org/nws.htm



NWS TAB

PERUSE NWSTAB.TXT, POSITION2TAB.RTF, SETTINGS.RTF...

This tab decodes NWS warning messages as generated by Dale Huguley's,
KG5QD, server application which translates the NWS messages into APRS
type messages. The NWS tab can automatically map WX warnings using Street
Atlas. The "From" column shows the weather service station issuing the
message, the "To" column shows the type of message, such as WARN for
Warnings, ADVIS for Advisories, WATCH for Watches, etc. The "Expires"
column is the date and time the message is do to expire. The "Type"
column shows the type of message, such as FLOOD for possible Flooding,
SVRTSM for Severe Thunderstorm, TORNDO for Tornado, etc. The Zones/Codes
column is the NWS designation for the location that applies to the message.
The "Posted" column is the date/time that the message was generated.  The
"Sequence" column is equivalent to the message number of regular APRS
messages. The Sequence number contains thePosted date/time information,
and the line number of multi-line ! weather message. Click on the
Sequence column will sort the list by time of origin, and order the
message in sequence with in multi-line messages. You can sort the list
by clicking any column. See theNWSTAB.TXT file in the program distribution
for more information.


NWS Tab Notes

Subject:        	[aprsplus] APRS+SA v1.99YQ - NWS Tab Notes
Date sent:      	Wed, 4 Apr 2001 20:26:25 -0700

APRS+SA NWS Tab
Purpose - decoding, displaying, and mapping of NWS Weather related
messages.

The NWS messages that APRS+SA decodes are generated by a server written by
Dale Huguley, KG5QD.  These messages are in the following format. This
information is from the following URL:

www.aprs-is.net/Wx/

CWAPID>NWS-TTTTT:DDHHMMz,ADVISETYPE,zcs{seq#

CWA is the NWS office (See databases to the left).
PID is the product Code (See database to the left).
TTTTT is ADVISE, WARN, WATCH, etc.
DDHHMMz is the expiration time.
ADVISETYPE is things like FLOOD, FLASHFLOOD, SVRTSM, SEVERE_WEATHER, etc.
zcs are the zone codes, county codes (See databases to the left), or
statement text. {seq# is decoded as:

The first three characters are the "issue time" compressed by assigning
0-9 as themselves A-Z as 10 thru 36 a-z as 37 - 62 --where it is DHM (Day
of the Month-Hour in 24 hour format and Minute). Up to 16 this reads as
hexadecimal so {A8B** was issued on the 10th at 08:11 Z.

The next two characters are line numbers which (along with the "From Call")
make the packet unique. Any packet with the "from Call" and the first 4
digits of the sequence matching are "associated" packets- in other worlds
they are from the same product or portion of product that is defined by
UGC codes.

The final character is for sorting and for assigning some priority to the
various outputs (objects, headlines, packets that highlight counties,
background info).


The APRS+SA NWS tab shows the following columns:

From, To, Expires, Type, Zones/Codes, Posted, Sequence, and Path.

From:  This is the CWA of the NWS office, and PID
To: is the TTTTT, or level of warning
Expires: is the Expiration time of the message
Type: is the ADVISETYPE
Zones/Codes: are the zone and county codes. There can be multiple zones
or counties in one message. Posted: This is the date/time the message was
posted. This is taken from the Sequence number Sequence: is the sequence
number of the message. Path: is the APRS path by which the packet was
received.


NWS TOOLBAR

Map Button: This button calculates a map Overlay from the Zones and Codes
of decoded messages, and them generates a map from this overlay.

Menu Button: Use Shapefiles - This option tells APRS+SA to look for and
use the "Shapefiles" for drawing either a rectangle or an outline border
around the warning area. These "Shapefiles" are available online from the
NWS. A Shapefile is a standard of ESRI, which produces GIS products such
as ArcView. A Shapefile is actually 3 files, a DBF database file, a SHP
file which contains the various "shapes", and a SHX file which is an index
into the SHP file. These files are quite large, but contain all the
information for CONUS and non-CONUS areas covered by the NWS. They can be
downloaded from the locations below. Note, the NWS does update these
files periodically, and the actual file name can change. The main NWS Map
catalog is located at:

http://isl715.nws.noaa.gov/mapdata/newcat

(download the zips from "Zone Forecast Areas" and "AWIPS Counties").

Shapefiles for the coastal zones ("Coastal and Offshore Marine Zones") may be
found at Pete Loveall's AE5PL web site as a database lookup. You can access
all three of the databases for review at

http://www.ae5pl.net/html/aprs.htm

for the current coastal and offshore shape files.

APRS+SA users that prefer circles can download updated zones.txt and
codes.txt files from (http://aprs.ae5pl.net). These APRS+SA users need to
stop and start APRS+SA after installing the zones.txt and codes.txt files so
APRS+SA rebuilds the indexes.

The same Zones.txt and Codes.txt files will work for both APRS+SA and
APRSdos. Zones.txt includes the Marine Zones. And if you want to rebuild
the Zones.txt and Codes.txt index on the fly without stopping APRS+SA, you
can use the following APRS+SA Calculator "trick" which expunges from
memory the current Zones and Codes Index variable. It will be rebuild
automatically next time it is needed using the new Zones and Codes files.

#ex 'ZC_INDEX'

WinAPRS and APRS+SA support these shape files. Other APRS software may
also. Please contact the author of your APRS software regarding how to
update these files.

The files needed are the Zone Forecast Areas, and AWIPS Counties, not the
County Warning Areas. Here are the links to the current Zone and Code
files used by APRS+SA.

http://www.
nws.noaa.gov/geodata/catalog/wsom/html/pubzone.htmz;
(current file format: z_(current file date).zip
e.g. http://www.nws.noaa.gov/geodata/catalog/wsom/data/z_10de02.zip )

http://www
.nws.noaa.gov/geodata/catalog/county/html/county.htm;
(current file format: c_(current file date).zip 
e.g. http://www.nws.noaa.gov/geodata/catalog/county/data/c_10de02.zip )

APRS+SA can still draw warning areas using circles centered on the
various regions with a radius the covers the area.  The files for this
data are the same ones that I produced for use with APRSdos named
Codes.txt and Zones.exe. This are automatically installed into the NWS
directory when you run the APRS+SA SETUP.EXE program. Note: when
APRS+SA first uses either the Shapefiles or the Codes/Zones files, it
much first calculate the indexes. This may cause the program to pause
momentarily while the indexes are calculated.  They are calculated
only once after starting the program.

Menu Button:  Use Boxes instead of Outlines from Shapefiles - If you are
using the NWS Shapefiles, you can generate a rectangle the covers the area
of warning instead of outlining the specific zone and code areas. You
would use this option for speed only.

Menu Button: Text to Speech - This tells APRS+SA to use Microsoft's Agent
to speak out the warning message.

Menu Button: Morse Code - This tells APRS+SA to generate a Morse code
message of the PID code for decoded messages.

Menu Button: Map All Incoming packet on the Overlay - This option causes
APRS+SA to include all decoded Zones and Codes in the NWS Overlay map.

Menu Button: Recalculate Overlay - This causes APRS+SA to recalculate the
Overlay map data for the all the messages received.  You might use this
option if you change which files you are using, Shapefiles or not, or
whether you change from drawing Boxes to Outlines.

Menu Button: Map Overlay - this causes APRS+SA to draw a map with the
current NWS Overlay Map data

Menu Button: Clear Page - this clears the entire NWS tab, it does not
clear the current overlay

Menu Button: Clear Overlay - this clears the current NWS Overlay map data,
but does not clear the NWS tab.

Zones/Codes: In this slot, you can enter the various codes and zones you
want to decode.  You can use Wildcards, and you can multiple
specifications separated by either a space or a comma.  Example:  CA* AZ*
NV*.  This would decode all messages for Zones and Codes in California,
Arizona and Nevada.  When a packet is decoded which passes the
specification you provide, APRS+SA will 1) Draw a map centered on the area
of warning, 2) will generate a audio, Text-to-Speech message is Speech is
enabled, and 3) will generate a Morse code message for the PID if Morse is
enabled.  Decoded packets are added to the NWS Map Overlay.

Mapping note: to get all of the mapped Zones and Codes to be included in
view, check the "Zoom Includes Tracks" option on the APRS tab in the
appropriate MOP file for the map being drawn. If you do not use MOP files,
then the default MapOptions.MOP is used, and you can check the Zoom option
on the APRS tab of the MOP window.

Thanks to Pete Loveall, AE5PL for providing information on the NWS
Shapefiles and NWS Message format.  Thanks to Dale Huguley, KG5QD for the
NWS Server data.  And to Hasan Schiers, N0AN for his hours of testing and
feedback.



LIMITING WEATHER VIEWS

How to the view on the NWS tab

The NWS tab displays all NWS data. There is not option to turn that off.
You can sort the list quickly however by clicking column headings. You do
that for California for example, but clicking the Zones/Codes column, and
then scrolling to the CA_ values.

The Zones/Codes selected affect mapping and audible alarms. But all NWS
data is collected and you can quickly add the additional data to the map
if desired. But again, there is not option to not collect that data.


RESTRICTING WEATHER WARNINGS

To restrict the incoming internet data to the program to just display
weather warnings that effect your area, do the following:

Put the Zone and County codes that you are looking for in the "Zones/Codes"
area of the NWS tab. For instance, Place "TX_C085 TX_Z104" without the quotes
in "Zones/Codes" so all that are displayed are alerts for Collin County,
Texas. I could have used "TX_C* TX_Z*" to get all Texas alerts.  If you want
to restrict your map updates, as well, make sure that "Map all incoming
packets on the overlay" is not checked.

Click on Setup -> Settings


FINGER LOOKUP OF NWS DATA

Data provided by KG5QD's NWS server, via an Internet connection. Right
click on any warning, and select the new topmost option, "Finger Weather
Server". This select the From callsign plus the date code, and "fingers"
it via Dale's server. Also added is a Finger button on the NWS tab.
Clicking the button will present you a small editbox just below the button
where you can enter the letter code of the NWS office you are interested
in. Pressing Enter, or the Esc. key, or clicking outside the editbox will
cause a Finger lookup, provided you have entered a 3-letter code or more.
Less then 3 letters will not trigger any action causing a cancel of the
request.

Enter "fingerhelp", all lowercase, for more Finger information.



GATING NWS WEATHER DATA

With APRS+SA, go to the SETUP -> LISTS and enter callsign for the
station information you want to gate. In my case I use BMX* to get the
messages sent to SKYBMX since the sending callsign always starts
with BMXxxx for messages generated for the Birmingham, Alabama
area. We also gate the OHX* messages from Nashville, TN since we
are in between the two areas and have coverage extending in both
directions.

This allows you to gate weather information for your specific area
versus all SKYxxx messages.



CHANGING NWS FEATURES

Under the NWS tab you can select several items and change
their function.  From the settings.rtf document included with the
latest versions you will find the following text:

NWS
CodeFile, name of the NWS Shapefile used for Codes
ZoneFile, name of the NWS Shapefile used for Zones
MarineFile, name of the NWS Shapefile used for Marine warnings
Shapefiles, turns on or off the use of Shapefiles
Boxes, uses shapefiles, but draws boxes around the zone or code instead
of outlines
TTS, use Text-to-Speech to announce incoming warnings
WaveSound, play wave files with same name as warning type.
Example:  FLOOD.WAV for FLOOD warning.
Morse, use Morse code to announce incoming warnings
MorseSpeed, sets the speed of the generated morse code, valid values
(0.02 -  0.12)
MorsePitch, sets the pitch in Hz for the generated Morse code (200-1200)
MorseVolume, sets the volume of the generated Morse code (0-127) Enabled,
turns on or off the decoding of NWS warnings. OverlayAll, turns on or off
the decoding of all NWS warnings, not just the currently selected codes and
zones


Changing the Enabled value from 1 to 0 will shut off all decoding
of the NWS messages. Go to your NWS tab under MENU and click
on clear page and clear overlay. Your NWS will stay empty and the
map overlay will not contain any red or yellow NWS weather watch
circles.

Some of the keys in the settings can also be changed by clicking on the
MENU button on the NWS tab.

Your yellow and red circles come from the NWS settings and from the
settings under the MENU button on the NWS tabs.



GATING WEATHER WARNINGS

TO gate those warnings to local rf, find the CWA for your area (in our case,
North Texas is served by FWD) and put that CWA in your Gate to RF area of
your Lists Setup. On my IGate, I have "FWD*" (without the quotes) in my
Gate to RF list. The asterisk is a wildcard that allows any message from
your CWA to be gated.



PLAYING WEATHER WARNING .WAV FILES

To play a wave file for the NWS Warning Type.  Example, if a NWS warning
was received which was "FLOOD", APRS+SA would look for the file
WAV\FLOOD.WAV and play it if Wave files for NWS were enabled.



LOCAL TACTICAL CALLSIGNS

To assign a tactical callsign to someone so that there is only local display
of the tactical information for them (without them having to do anything),i.e.
to change the display of a call sign on just the map without changing
anything in a tracker, tnc, remote equipment, software, etc...

For your computer only; it isn't sent out to anyone else. You get the
Tactical Callsign window by entering <Ctrl> <T> together, put the
cursor
on the empty callsign=tactical entry box, enter text in the following syntax:

callsign=tac_call

Press keyboard <Enter> key

Example:

WA4HEI=SAG4

Press keyboard <Enter> key


Clearing Tactical Calls List

You have to hit the clear button. Then, to confirm that you really want
to do this, put the cursor on Yes, in the new pop-up dialog box, and
click left, once. The list is gone.

Clearing Individual Calls

High-light the desired call with the cursor and one left mouse click,
then left double click erases it.



REMOTE TACTICAL CALLSIGNS

Also, you can add stations to other APRS+SA stations by sending an APRS
message to TACTICAL.  In the message text, put: WA4HEI=Pete Or for multiple
stations, enter: WA4HEI=Pete;WB2BOL=HAWK

Note also, you can send messages TO the Tactical callsign, and APRS+SA
will substitute the real callsign.  If WA4HEI=Pete is in your Tactical
list, when you put Pete in the TO field of the Message window, it will
generate a message addressed to WA4HEI.



GRID SQUARES & LAT LONG CALCULATOR

Setup > Main > Latitude Longitude button enables the Co-ordinate
Conversion and Map Capture utility that simplifies much conversion
math.

APRS+SA's "Calculator" can calculate Maidenhead coordinates (Grid
Squares), both forward and reverse. CommandsActivate the APRS+SA "Calculator"
from the  Menu.

16 character Grid Squares now supported in Coordinate Conversion calculator.
This should give about 0.00001 degree accuracy to the grid value.  Yes, Grid
Squares can be more then 6 characters!

To Calculate the Grid Square from Longitude/Latitude, uses the following
syntax:

# GridSq lat, long   <Enter>

where # is an even number, between 2 and 16, of grid square characters
desired, lat is the Latitude in decimal degrees, and long is the Longitude
in decimal degrees.  <Enter> Depress "Enter" key

Examples; (6 is default):

GridSq 34, -117
DM14MA

10 GridSq 34, -117
DM14MA00AA


To calculate the Lat/Long from the Grid Square, use the syntax:

GridSq 'gridsq'

where 'gridsq' is the group of grid square characters.  Example:

GridSq 'DM14MA'
34 ¯117

Note - There is nothing magical about using 6 characters for the Grid
Square. It can easily be extended. In fact, the Trimble ScoutMaster GPS
receiver would report extended Maidenhead coordinates. APRS+SA's Grid
Square function can calculate these extended values, up to 14 characters!

14 GridSq 34,-117
DM14MA00AA00AA

GridSq 'DM14MA00AA00AA'
34 ¯117

Or, a more meaningful value of Lat/Long:

14 GridSq 34.02345,-117.1575
DM14KA15CP40AR

GridSq 'DM14KA15CP40AR'
34.0234498 ¯117.1575



DATA LOGGING

There are several types of logging of TNC data you can perform. First,
you can log all input from the TNC. This is activated from the main
program window, File menu, "Start Logging TNC Data". Next, you can save
received and decoded packets. This is done in 2 possible forms. One is
in the APRS+SA internal data format. These can be quickly loaded at a
future date for review. NOTE: The time filter, and auto data deletion
functions will hide and/or remove the data. So when reviewing old data,
turn off auto-data deletion. You can also save the received position
packets in their raw TNC data format if you are saving the original packet
(Position tab of Setup, upper right, "Store original packet with posits".
These can then be saved as a text file. See the data type in the Save
dialog box on the History tab.



CALCULATOR VIEWING OF ARCHIVED TIMESTAMPED PACKETS

First, the Packet Archiver is not a "finished" product.  What it does,
is store every packet heard on RF for recall later. It does not log
TCP/IP packets, you have FindU for that. The Packet Archive function
creates 2 files, PACKETSYYYYWW.pkt and PACKETSYYYYWW.idx.  YYYY is
the year, WW is the week of the year.  For example, for July 21, 2000,
we are in week 29 so the files would be named PACKETS200029.

You can start storing data by clicking the Commands > Start Packet
Archiver. The command does not toggle.

or, for auto archiving at program start: Setup > Lists > Archive : turns
on or off Packet Archiving, 0 or 1.

To recall the data open the Query Window, select Commands>Calculator to
start the APRS+SA "Calculator". Enter the following, CASE IS IMPORTANT

ArchiveForm 'Create'

This will create a query form with several edit boxes on it, and an OK
button if the form window is maximized sufficiently. The first editbox
is for entering the callsign of the packets of interest. You can also
enter the packet type in the second edit entry (NB! Text search is not
implemented.) For example, enter, CASE SENSITIVE! :

WA4HEI gets all packets with "WA4HEI"
digi retrieves all packets with "digi"
$ recalls NMEA strings
@ for timed Position reports
: will recall all message type packets.
$=@!: will recall the multiple types requested
Leave it blank, and you get everything

There are other functions, again not to expose to the end user in any
convenient way.  If you open a file from the ArchiveForm (Query Window),
go back to the "Calculator" and enter the following; case sensitive:

ALookup 'Stats'

This will return the number of bytes, average bytes per packet and a few
other items.

Other ALookup commands are:
ALookup 'Count'
ALookup 'Calls'
ALookup 'Types'
ALookup 'FileTime'

Again - this is all experimental, and my be altered or removed in a future
release.



APRSERVE.TXT

An APRSPLUS trick. Double click on the "Server" label on the
Setup - Internet dialog. It opens the text file of servers for
easy editing. Comment out, with semicolons ";", the ones you aren't
currently using. Add a new server with the name and port, in the format

hostname:port

examples:

localhost:3131
www.aprs.net:23

Most of the pull down lists related to configuration files behave
similarly.

If no TCP/IP data is received for 60 seconds, APRSPLUS will disconnect
from and immediately try to reconnect to the same host, or connect to
the next host address (if there is one) in the aprserver.net file.



HEARD WITHIN X DIGIPEATER HOPS

Internet to RF. If your IGate has heard an RF station within X hops (X<=3)
in the last Y hours and someone on the Internet side has a message for
him, APRS+ will reverse gate it. ALL rf traffic heard will be sent
*to* the internet - the servers will take care of dupe filtering.

This setting should be <= the number of hops your station typically
transmits.  If you hear a 3-hop station and send him a message using 1
hop, chances are he won't get it. So if you have WIDE,WIDE set for your
UNPROTO path, you may want to set your max to 2. Of course, your mileage
and circumstance may vary.

NOTE: The odds of a packet being received by any addressed station, in
a "busy" network, decreases at a geometric rate, for each additional
digipeater hop. In a busy network, a choice of three hops borders on
deliberate QRM.

WIDEn-n is calculated into the number of Hops.

"Heard within X digipeater Hops" means if you set it to 0 then it
would only be passed on to rf from the internet if only the receiving
Igate heard it, directly.

"Heard within Y hours" means if you set it to 8, it would pass the
message to the station if it was heard within the last 8 hours and
also if it passed the X hops test.



REVERSE IGATE FEATURES

In accordance with those calls and icons specified in the
Setup > Lists > Gate Callsign, and Icon lists, APRS data can be
reverse IGated, from the internet to the rf network. This allows for
listed stations, anywhere on the internet or some distant part of
the rf network, to be heard on the local rf network.

You could, for example, include your mobile tracker call in the
Callsign list, and be driving around in another state with your APRS
data broadcast on your home rf network. You could exchange rf
messages, at your distant location, with folks on your hometown
rf network. I suspect, for those interested in telemetry, even greater
challenges are apparent.



REVERSE IGATING NWS WEATHER WARNINGS

To reverse-IGate NWS warnings for ONLY your location

You need to know the weather service stations for your area. Example, for
SoCal, LAX is in the ID of the weather service in Los Angeles. So I enter
LAX* in the Gate by Callsign list. New Mexico might be ABX*, etc...



IGATE SUBSTITUTED TEXT TAGS

Substituted Text tags are allowed in Status Text, Posit Text and
Auto-Reply Text. For a list of tags, and their meaning, see
SubText.TXT.  Example:  The Tag <GS6> would be substituted with the 6-
character Grid Square.  Thus, where <GS6> is entered, it would be
substituted with DM14KA for my home station.  Uses: IGate can indicate
its status by entering the appropriate combinations of text and tags.

The replaceable tags are Substituted by the appropriate value, when
transmitted. For example, the tag for the IGate is <IGATE2>. On transmit,
the <IGATE2> tag is changed to either Yes or No depending on whether the
IGate is enabled or not; so putting something like this in your Posit text
or Status text would show the IGate status. IGate=<IGATE2>, in the allowed
text, would be transmitted as either: IGate=Yes  or IGate=No, depending on
the active configuration.

Example: "IGate is <IGATE2>". If the gate is open, the transmitted
text would be "IGate is UP".

Recommendation: Place important information and tags in the first 20
characters of the POSITION COMMENT text so that users with Kenwood D7's
can see them.

Variable    Value           Meaning
--------    -----           -------
<IGATE>     No\Yes          Is IGate open and available
<IGATE2>    Down\Up         Is IGate open and available
<FILLER>    No\Yes          Is Channel Filler on
<INET>      Unknown\No\Yes  Is an Internet Connection Available
                            (Win95/98= Yes/No)  WinNT=Unknown
<VER>       ###XX           Version of APRS+SA
<TTS>       No\Yes          Is Text-To-Speak Enabled
<SA>        SAx             Version of Street Atlas being used
<TNC>       Name.tnc        TNC file in use
<UP>        Days:hr:min:sec Time since program was last restarted
<WWW>       No\Yes          Is Web Server enabled
<URL>       Web Address     URL of APRS+SA Web server if enabled
<UNIQUE>    9999            Number of Unique stations with Position
<POSITS>    9999            Current number of unique position reports
<TAC>       Tac Call        Tactical Callsign
<EMAIL>     Email Address   Email address as entered on the Profile page
                                  of Setup
<NAME>      Name            Name as entered on Profile page of Setup
<HOMEPAGE>  Web Address     Web Address as entered on Profile page of
                                  Setup
<GS4>       Grid Square     Grid Square - 4 character
<GS6>       Grid Square     Grid Square - 6 character
<GS8>       Grid Square     Grid Square - 8 character
<GS10>      Grid Square     Grid Square - 10 character
<GS12>      Grid Square     Grid Square - 12 character
<GS14>      Grid Square     Grid Square - 14 character

ECHO - TAG SUBSTITUTION AND REQUEST MESSAGE.

Send a message to an APRS+SA station, and enter in the message text:
ECHO:<TAG><TAG>...  where <TAG> is any of the valid Text
Substitution
tags. Tags can be combined with any combination of text and tags.  Note,
returned message will be truncated to 56 characters. If the text is
longer then 56 characters, the trailing characters are elided and
substituted with "...".



IGATE SELECTIVE CALL SIGNS, WX REPORTS

To selectively gate some call signs or weather reports from the
internet to RF (specifically to VHF, and NOT HF), you enter the
call signs in the Gate by Callsign List on the Lists page. And check
the checkbox at the top of the list to enable it.



TRANSFERRING WAYPOINTS TO A GPS RECEIVER

Support for NMEA transfer of waypoints to a GPS receiver connected
via Port 2 of APRS+SA. The program will create waypoints in $GPWPL format
for position reports, and send them to the GPS if the port is open.  The
selection of the reports to send currently has 3 methods. All, Tracked
Stations, and stations selected to be displayed in the History tab.  Note,
wildcards are supported in the selection of stations. Selecting All and
using the Internet feed is probably not a wise choice, but I'll leave it
up to you. See Settings.RTF for options on the new GPS section of
Settings. $GPWPL sentences can be generated from the Position, Position2,
History, Weather, and IGates tabs.  Right click on the selected station or
stations, and choose, "Send to NMEA GPS".



MAPPING INTO MAPSOURCE

Highly Experimental: Mapping into MapSource. MapSource is from Garmin
for the Mapping GPS receivers. In the release, I have added a couple of
experimental maps. You enable these options on the MPS section of
Settings. 1) Tracking.  You can enable mapping of position reports into
MapSource.  If you have Zoom Most Recent on (see Tracking tab), then it
will only map the report that was just received.  If you have Zoom Most
Recent Off, them that map is similar to the stations on Map 4 of Maps.
And Clicking the Map 4 button will cause MapSourse to be populated with
the most recent position for stations in the Tracking list. The other
option is Mapping ALL reports, similar to Map 2 of the Maps tab. WARNING:
Do not enable Zooms on MapSourse if you have other programs open that use
Ctrl-D to Delete data. You may loose data in those program if you switch
the focus to those program when MapSource is being updated by APRS+SA
/WARNING:  NOTE: this is all experimental, and ! may be removed at any
time.  /NOTE:.  Notes on MapSource - MapSource Roads and Recreation maps are
similar to Street Atlas USA as far a street placement.  MapSource
Metroguides are very good maps, and appear to be more current then either
R&R or SA. There is also a World map available, and a number of European
R&R and MG maps. Also, Topo maps for the US. The program Trackpoint+
supports MapSource and SA maps also, if you want to try just an APRS
mapping program



PROXY SERVERS

There are several different kinds of proxy servers. On the Internet tab
of Setup, you enter your proxy's address, and the address of APRServe in
the "server" slot.  Click connect.  APRS+SA will first connect to the
proxy, then issue a connect command to APRServe. This configuration works
in a number of locations.  If this does not work, click the Manual
checkbox next to the Proxy, and click connect, go to the TCP tab of the
main server, and enter the appropriate commands to connect to APRServe,
for you proxy.  Once connected to APRServe, click the APRServe button to
validate you station. Yes, manual is a bit of a pain.   Brent KH2Z



KISS, KipSS/PE, AND KipSS


KipSS/PE TO AGWPE

The program, KipSS/PE uses the Kiss over IP interface and talks to
the AGWPE. KipSS/PE works just like KipSS, except the KipSS/PE talks to
the AGWPE while KipSS talks to a TNC.

You need to download the file, KipSS/PE.zip at:

ftp://ftp.tapr.org/aprssig/w
instuff/aprsplus

The SV2AGW Packet Engine and supporting documentationlinks are at the
beginning of this document subject material.

Install and configure the AGWPE files in their own directory.

In AGWPE's WinSock and HTTP Interface Setup window, leave the TCP port #
at the default 8000, unless you understand the setup better than I do.

You should start, and configure  AGWPE first, then run the program
KipSS/PE.EXE.

In the KipSS/PE window there is a dialog box for Settings; ignore it, it is
not used at this time, unless you understand the setup better than I do.

N.B.!!! KipSS/PE ALWAYS (to date) assumes that the PE will be at 127.0.0.1
on port 8000 so to change the Settings data actually accomplishes nothing,
except to create input dialog with an expectation that it will do something.

Click "PE Open" button. Button will change to "PE Close".

Next, there is an IP address selection. It should show all valid IP addresses
for your computer. KipSS/PE uses port 7301, as default, so select the
appropriate IP address, and do not add a port number, unless you understand
the setup better than I do.

Click "Open TCP/IP"button. Button will change to "Close TCP/IP"

On APRS+, connect to KipSS/PE from the KipSS section on the Internet tab of
Setup. Enter the IP Address that you are using in KipSS/PE, without a port
number. Port 7301 is the assumed default; do not add a port number, unless
you understand the setup better than I do.

Back on KipSS/PE, you can check the Auto-Start checkbox.

Exit KipSS/PE.

When you start KipSS/PE next time, it will automatically connect to the
PE, and open the TCP/IP port for client programs.

APRS+SA will automatically connect to KipSS/PE, when you start APRS+. This
assumes you start AGWPE first, then KipSS/PE, then APRS+SA.

KipSS/PE works and acts like KipSS. The KipSS/PE icon will appear in the
System Tray once started. The Icon is the letters K I S S in Morse code.

Hitting the Esc key or [X] will hide the KipSS/PE window. Click on the
KipSS icon to bring the window back. There is no button on the task bar.
The way to close the program is by clicking on the Exit menu.

If APRS+SA is not receiving data via the KipSS interface in 120 seconds,
i.e. if you are on a quiet RF network, you will get a reconnect to KipSS
every 120 seconds, on the TNC page, if nothing has been received.

NOTE: If you understand how and why to shuffle the various port options,
      of the various pieces of software, in this integrated setup, I
      would like to know, and include it in this documentation.

      I spent many hours trying to make sense of it, and failed. Using the
      port defaults, as described, resulted in a working and stable
      configuration for me, WA4HEI.



AUTOMATING STARTUP OF APRS+SA WITH AGWPE

Automate the Entire Startup Process via the AGWPE.INI file

Want to get the AGWPE program to automatically start KipSSPE and
then APRSplus and Radio Mobile when AGWPE finishes loading? Here's how:

Locate the file AGWPE.INI in the AGWPE program directory.
Open the file in the Windows Notepad or any other ASCII editor and
add the following paragraph to the bottom of the file:

[RUNPRG]
RUN0=D:\Amateur\APRSPLUS\KipSSPE.exe
CMD0=0
RUN1=D:\Amateur\APRSPLUS\APRSplus.EXE
CMD1=0
RUN2=D:\Amateur\Radio Mobile\RMWDLX.exe
CMD2=0

Note: Be sure to edit the file paths in the paragraph to match the drive and
directory where you have installed the KipSSPE and APRSplus programs.
Then save the file and close the editor. This automated process will
begin the next time you start AGWPE.



AUTO STARTUP OF APRS+SA FROM MULTIPLE AGWPE.INI FILES USING VBScriptfiles
OR BATCH FILES

>Windows Scripting Host has to be installed to run scriptfiles. Since the
>appearance of script-viruses one should be very careful when the Scripting
>Host is installed, especially when using Outlook Express.

Anyone with anything like a recent version of IE installed will already
have the Windows Scripting Host (WSH) installed. In my experience it is
now unusual to find a PC that hasn't got it installed. If WSCRIPT.EXE is
in your WINDOWS, WINDOWS/SYSTEM or WINDOWS/SYSTEM32 folder, then WSH is
installed on your PC.

As regards security issues with WSH or any other aspect of Windows, one
thing every Windows user should do as a matter of routine, particularly
if they use Outlook Express, is to go to the Windows Update page -
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/ - and install any available critical
updates.

--
Roger Barker, G4IDE - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SV2AGW

To be able to choose from differently configured AGWPE.INI files, how
about using a good old DOS batch file? Or, if you want to be a bit more
modern, a VBScript?

Batch file - Put the following two lines in Option1.BAT, and save it in
in your AGWPE folder.

COPY AGWPE1.INI AGWPE.INI
"AGW Packet Engine.exe"

Then make another one called Option2.BAT that copies AGWPE2.INI, etc...

VBScript - Put the following four lines in Option1.VBS, and save it in
in your AGWPE folder.

set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
set sh = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
fso.CopyFile "agwpe1.ini", "agwpe.ini"
sh.run """AGW Packet Engine.exe"""

(Note - there are three sets of double quotes surrounding the file
name.)

Then make another one called Option2.VBS that copies AGWPE2.INI, etc...

Create a separate shortcut to each VBScript, and name it to reflect its
unique purpose. A double left mouse click, on each shortcut, will then
start AGWPE according to the parameters stored in the particular
AGWPE.INI file identified in the VBScript associated with the shortcut.

--
Roger Barker, G4IDE - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SV2AGW



SETTING UP APRSPLUS FOR 2 TNCs

There isn't provision for a 2nd TNC. Only a single dual-port such as a
KAM or KPC-4.

You can use more than 1 TNC, indirectly, by installing AGW Packet Engine
which can deal with multiple hardware TNCs as well as the soundcard soft
TNC.

Then install the APRSplus add-on middleware KipSS/PE which then attaches
AGWPE to APRSplus as a quasi-Internet connection. The KipSS/PE interface
is activated on the Internet tab of the pulldown Setup screen. For more
information, see the  web site:

http://www.qsl.net/soundcardpacket/

or get the capture of this site into an Acrobat .PDF file located at
website:

http://members.aol.com/wa8lmf/links<
/A>

Note that:
1) When you go to the APRSplus FTP site, be sure you are downloading
   KipSSpe, not the  similar-named KipSS file !

2) The KipSSpe interface only works with REGISTERED copies of APRSplus!



APRS+SA KipSS Password

You can't change it. KipSS has two login methods. Initially, it was an
internal hashed number that was created based on your call sign. Your call
sign and the number is sent to KipSS which then verifies it is correct, and
validates it. The alternate method is the Password you define in KipSS.
Then the logon sequence is \CALLSIGN\PASSWORD. Note: KipSS and KipSS/PE are
2 quite different programs, and the above discussion pertains to KipSS.



KISS SETUP - KipSS - FOR LAN OPERATION

"If you are not using the KISS interface, you are relying on the
command set to match the standard TNC interface of the world.

It is my strong opinion everybody should be using the KISS interface
to avoid the subtle issues that crop up with new firmware additions.
Do not rely on the command interface as a method to communicate
with the TNC. Use the KISS interface. This interface is the only way
you can eliminate relying on the programmers to keep up with every
little change a TNC manufacturer implements in the Command
Interface. Unlike the Command Interface, the KISS interface does
not change.

The KISS interface is more reliable and it is faster than using the
Command Interface. The KISS Interface does not have to send
the "K" or "CONV" command so it will allow data to be sent out
the TNC. Then, it has to send a "^C" to put it back in the command
mode to issue commands. This is messy, sluggish, error prone,
and slow...

I have another I-Gate locally on the APRS frequency that has only
a KISS chip in it. It is a TNC2 clone by MFJ. I burned a KISS
EPROM for it, so it is always in the KISS mode. The latest uptime
on this system is now around 80 days running under Windows 95B
and APRS+SA v203. It is solid as a rock..."

KipSS.  KipSS is a program that allows KISS of IP.  This makes an
ideal interface for working over a network, either local or remote
over the Internet.  For information about KipSS, see:

ftp://ftp.tapr.org/aprssig/w
instuff/aprsplus

See the file KipSS.htm or KipSS.zip. KipSS runs in conjunction with
APRSPLUS.EXE found in APRS+1.zip at the same FTP location. With KipSS,
multiple copies of APRS+SA can share a TNC. APRS+SA can be run on
multiple computers.

Kiss mode in APRS+SA does require MSCOMM32.OCX to have been installed
on your system. Old versions of SA use to install this file.  SA9
does not appear to install this file. I have uploaded the file
MSCOMM32.exe to the FTP site which will install this
file on your
system. Just accept the default choices and the file should be
installed and registered on your system. 

Do note, that Kiss mode from either APRS+SA or KipSS uses completely
different code to communicate with the serial port then what is used when
you open either Port 1 or Port 2 on the Main tab of Setup.  Kiss is using
the MSCOMM32.OCX ActiveX communications control.  The proper way to setup
Kiss or KipSS is to do the following:
1) Enter the appropriate communications parameters in the Setup> slot.
2) The second slot contains the commands to put your TNC into Kiss mode.
   As an example, for a KPC-3, I enter: INT KISS (CR) RESET (CR)

Note the (CR) sequence is replaced by a carriage return character when
actually sent to the TNC.

3) Click the Open button.  If it opens the serial port properly, the Open
changes to Close.
4) Click the Kiss On button.  It should change to Kiss Off.

There are 2 Transmit buttons next to 2 Demo> slots.  In the Demo slots,
you can enter complete packets, in TAPR2 format in order to test the Kiss
interface.  The packet contains the Path, a port assignment, and the
packet data payload.  Example: WA4HEI>APRS/1:This is a test This would
transmit a packet from WA4HEI, to APRS, on Port 1.  The payload is "This is
a test".  If you have a single port TNC, and have entered /2, your TNC
will probably not transmit.

The Transmitted Data slot shows the complete packet that was attempted to
be transmitted.  If you TNC is not transmitting, check which port, if any,
was being selected.

The Received Data slot shows packets successfully decoded on receive.

KipSS allows a list of KipSS nodes in the Kipss.txt file.  The color
":" is the separator for the data in this file. The basic form is for
data entry into the Kipss.txt file is as follows: station
identifier:IP address:IP Port.  Examples:

Redlands Node:209.145.3.45:7301
Redlands Node Also:wa4hei.whiner.com:7301


Alternative

If several PCs are being networked with TCP/IP protocol,native mode
of Win98, 2K, and later; BUT not native to Win95 (which as to be
installed as an add-on), you can use AGW on ONE pc with a radio attached
to the soundcard. Since AGW ( and for that matter, most APRS apps) acts
as an IP server, you can then set the APRS applications on the other
PCs to connect via "Internet" instead of via the TNC port. Determine the
IP address of the sound card "server" PC on your LAN,  and  then set
that address into the IP address box of the APRS apps running on the
other machines instead of the "real" aprs.net address.


Alternative

KipSS will work fine under Win2K.

Copy the KipSS files into their own directory (not APRS+SA's directory).
Exit APRS+SA. Run KipSS. Define callsign and alias (I use RELAY). Select
TNC port and select autostart.

KipSS requires a TNC that can operate in KISS mode. It will set the TNC
to KISS mode and you should start seeing RF data showing in the receive
window.

With KipSS running, start APRS+SA and go to setup. Turn off the TNC
port. Go to the Internet Tab.  In the bottom right of that setup screen
is a KipSS Open button and a text field. Enter the IP address of the PC
(127.0.0.1 if APRS+SA is on the same PC) and port number (7301). It will
look like 127.0.0.1:7301

You can create a file with this info in it. In your APRS+SA data
directory, create a file called "KipSS.txt" (without the quotes). Enter a
line that looks like: TNC Name:IP Address:Port The IP Address can be a DNS
name or a physical IP address. The Port is 7301.

Hope this gets you closer. The password is only needed for non-APRS+
applications.


Alternative

I run KipSS on the computer with the TNC (download from the APRS+SA
directory on TAPR). I run APRSPlus on that TNC as my RF Only view and as
an APRS weather station. I run APRSPlus on a different server as an
IGate. Both APRSPluses talk to the RF world via the single TNC



KIPSS WITH TWO LAN COMPUTERS ON ONE TNC

Set 2 IP addresses in KipSS, one 127.0.0.1 and the other the LAN IP of
your KipSS PC. Have APRS+SA connect to KipSS via the KipSS box on the
Internet Setup using 127.0.01:7301 for the local and LANIP:7301 for the
remote where LANIP is the IP address of the KipSS PC. KipSS should be
set to use all defined IP addresses.



Kiss Mode:
1) first, the file MSCOMM32.OCX must be installed on your computer.
   This is Microsoft's serial port ActiveX control.  It use to be
   installed by Street Atlas USA, but I believe the most recent versions
   do not install it.  I have posted the file MSCOMM32.exe on the APRS+SA
   section of TAPR's FTP directory.  See address below.

	
KISS MODE  SETUP FOR KAMXL AND...	
	
To setup Kiss mode:
2) Main tab of Setup, be sure Port 1 is CLOSED.  Mode:  KISS
3) Click the Kiss Mode button to open the Kiss window
4) Enter the appropriate serial port settings for you setup.  Default
   is: COM2:9600,N,8,1.
   If you use COM1, change this setting to COM1. Your computer and TNC
   must be communicating at the same baud rate also!
5) Enter the command string that puts your TNC into Kiss mode.
   (read the manual). Default is:  <INT KISS> <RESET>. This
   works for Kantronics TNCs. I do recommend having a <CR> which
   generates a return character at the beginning of the string for the
   most reliable operation.

At this point, APRS+SA and the TNC should be in Kiss mode.

Since the KamXL is a dual port TNC,  you need to also:
6) Check Dual Port TNC on the Main tab of Setup.
7) Enter all paths with BOTH  TNC Port 1 and TNC Port 2 paths.  These
   are entered like this. ECHO,GATE/RELAY,WIDE. The "/" character separates
   the two paths. 
8) You need to enter your paths on the Unproto Path window where you can
   set the Default Port also.
  
   Note: A port of 1 is the TNC Port 1.
         A port of 2 is the TNC Port 2.
         A port of 0, is BOTH TNC ports. 

9) Clicking the Set button a any path, will specify the path and port
   as the Default.



SEEU FOR FINDU

17 Jun 2000 23:40:54

I have posted the file, SeeU.zip at TAPR's FTP site.  See:

ftp://ftp.tapr.org/aprssig/w
instuff/aprsplus.

SeeU uses SQL lookup to FindU's database, and takes the data and plots it
into Street Atlas USA.
It should work with version SA4,5,6, and 7. There are 2 lookup modes:
1) Latest Known Position
2) Track data.

Track data is limited to 100 position points in the last 24 hours.
Latest Position is the last known position for your chosen station.

Setup instructions, download the SeeU.zip and unzip the contents to a new
directory. Double click on SeeU.exe and the program should start.

There are 4 menu options.
1) Connect - makes or breaks connection to FindU.
2) Lookup - performs the lookup of position data.  You must connect to
FindU first. 3) Options - Sets various display options for Street Atlas.
NOTE: APRS tab is NOT used. 4) View - View the data you have downloaded in
the Lookup

How to do a Lookup:
1) You must have an active Internet connection. Sorry, no proxies.
2) Start Street Atlas USA. NOTE: the program defaults to SA7. If you
   are using a different version, you much change it by selecting the
   Options menu, then the Map Features tab, and set the SA Version.
3) Connect. Click connect to connect to FindU. The status bar will show
   you progress as the connection proceeds, finally showing you "Ready for
   Lookup"
4) Enter the call sign of the station you want to locate.
5) Click Lookup which has 2 options
    a) Track Data which is limited to the last 24 hours and only the last
    100 points in the time frame. NOTE: This can time some time!!  You
    need to be patient with this option
    b) Last Known Position will show you the last known position for a
    station. This is generally very quick.

Map display - The track map will show the track, if any and the call sign
of the station, followed by the time since the position was heard.
Example: KH2Z (0:0:1:34) Meaning:  0 days, 0 hours 1 minute 34 seconds The
Last Known Position will show the call sign and the time with a dot at the
location of the station.

This is the first release of this program. I have not tested it on any
platform other then Win98. It is supplied AS IS. There is no guarantee
made of any kind. Use this program at your own risk.

SeeU should run Win95 (with latest updates from Microsoft), Win98, and
WinNT/2000. Again, I have only used it on Win98.

FAQ: Does it show Icons?  No.



HISTORY FILES

History Tab - enter the callsign(s) of the positions you want to save,
click the Save button. You can either save the original packets, or save
in APRS+SA's log file format.

To recall the history log file. Under File, select "Open Position Log
File" and open your saved history file. Prior to opening the history
file you will also likely need to do the following:

Under COMMANDS set Time Filter and Range filter to "OFF"
Under SETUP | DATA uncheck Enable Automatic Data Deletion
Select the History Tab and Enter the tracked callsigns of interest in the
Callsign box

Assuming you want to see the posits on the Tracked map ...
Select Track Tab and enter Callsigns of interest in the "<Callsign" box.



HISTORY PAGE WILDCARDS

The History page now accepts "wildcards", and multiple callsign wildcard
patterns.  Wildcards are, "*" and "?".  "*" means any character or number
of characters.  "?" means any character, in this position.  To display all
stations with a K prefix, enter K*.  To enter all Hawaiian stations, enter
?H6* ?H7*.  To see all stations with the call of WB4APR, enter WB4APR*.
To find all callsigns with APR in them, enter *apr* . 



HISTORY LIST

If you draw maps, such as "Stations in Range", or "Local", or "Direct",
the callsigns of those station will be entered into your History list.
You can predefine any number of callsigns for the History list in the
History.txt file. Double-click on the "Enter Callsign>" label to the
left of the callsign list to edit the History.txt file.


The dropdown list is for saving a series of callsigns that you can quickly
recall if desired.  Hover the mouse pointer of the edit box and you will see
a "ToolTip" saying you can save the lists in the file named History.txt.
OR, a shortcut to opening and editing that list, just double click on the
"Callsign>" label to the left of the edit box.  Each row can contain a list
of callsigns.

SAVING AND LOADING HISTORY "TRACK" FILES

History Tab - From the History page, enter the callsign(s) of the
station(s) you want. Then click the SAVE button. You can save the
data in APRS+SA's internal format or if you are saving the original
packets (option on the Position tab of setup), you can just save the
original packet to a text file.

To reload the previously saved data, and then generate a map from those
data. NB!!! When you reload, be sure that automatic data deletion is
turned off if the data's time stamp is not within those being
preserved on the data tab of setup, or else it will be automatically
purged during the next cleanup!

The track (and everything else APRSplus superimposes over a Street
Atlas map) is part of a normal Street Atlas overlay file with a form
of the type filename.SAn where n is the version of Street Atlas you
are running; i.e. if you are running Street Atlas 8.0 these files will
be of the form filename.SA8.



SAVING STREET ATLAS DISPLAYED DATA OVERLAY FILES

You can save everything on the current map by doing a File, SaveAs in
Street Atlas and giving the overlay any name you wish. (This is an
intrinsic feature of Street Atlas that is completely independent of
APRS). Later on, you can start Street Atlas alone (APRSplus not
required) and reload the overlay by doing a File, Open.  If you wish,
you can use SA's own draw tools to annotate the overlay and then
re save it.  When an SA overlay is saved, the current center position
and magnification is saved along with any drawing objects (lines,
labels, map notes, etc) so when you reload it, the map will return to
the same position and size as when you saved it.

APRSplus actually creates these overlay files "off-screen" and then makes
SA open them (each time the map refreshes or plots a new position, the
overlay file who's name shows in the SA title bar is being re-written).
If you then save it under a new name before the next refresh, you have
grabbed it for posterity...



OBJECT OVERLAY FILES

There is a way to add objects to SA or APRS+SA maps, and  to have them
show on the map, each time a map is loaded. These objects (locations,
wx, etc.) will not be transmitted, and whenever a map is drawn,
designated objects are added to the display.

This is called an Overlay. There are a several types of Overlays.  The
global overlay is generated by the GLOBAL.SAx file  Enter your objects on
the map in SA, and save it a file named Global, in the APRS+SA DATA
directory. It will then be loaded automatically when a map is drawn.
Or, you can load the objects manually from the Files menu, where you can
open any SA map and the objects in it will become overlay objects.  And
Each map can have it own overlay.  Save the specific overlay to a file of
MAPNAME.SAx.



MIC-E TRIGGERING PORT 2 DTR LINE FOR EXTERNAL HARDWARE

Fri, 10 Nov 2000 15:54:23 -0800

Experimental: Mic-E alarms now trigger the toggling of the
DTR line of the serial port opened as Port 2 on the Main tab of Setup.
This port is frequently used for GPS input, and the DTR line is not used
in communications.  This line can now be used as a trigger to external
hardware when a Mic-E alarm is received.  In addition, this can also be
triggered by messages sent TO ALARM, ALERT, WARNING or EMERGENCY.  The DTR
line is raised when triggered.  To clear an alarm, used the Commands Menu.
 Commands+Clear+Clear Alarms, or simply, Alt+C+C+C.  An addition method of
triggering an external alarm is to send a directed message to your APRS+SA
v1.99YF station, and using ** as the first 2 characters of the message.
Additionally, ## will trigger a second alarm using the RTS line



STREET ATLAS TOPICS

RUNNING SA MAP DATA RUNTIME FILES (MAP FILES) FROM ANY DRIVE

I forgot to mention that there is another completely undocumented program
in the SA8 bundle that will let you use CD data copied to ANY location on
your system AFTER SA8 is installed.  In the subdirectory \UTILS underneath
the main directory where SA8 is installed, you will see an application
OSMOSIS.EXE . Running OSMOSIS allows you to specify the location of the
SA8 data files if they are in a location other than under the main program
directory.  This location can be on another drive, or even another machine
on a network using Windows UNC naming conventions; i.e.
\\SERVERNAME\DIRECTORYNAME.

To use it, copy the entire contents of the SA8 runtime (data) CD (except
for the directory \UTIL which is not needed) into a directory such as
\SA8data on your hard disk,  preserving the relative directory structure.
Then run OSMOSIS and specify the entire path  to this directory, including
the drive letter; (such as D:\SA8data) when prompted for the data
location.

Start up SA8 and test it. You have succeeded if you  can zoom into mag 12
or closer (where the grey minor streets start showing) and see street
detail without the CD inserted. (The Interstate and major road data is
part of the base SA8 installation and will show even with no CD,  or no
data extracted).



EXTRACTING SPECIFIC SA FILES FROM CD TO HD

I don't have my SA8 CDs handy to make sure of all the steps, but here is
the general way to get SA8 files onto you hard disk.

When you start SA8 Installation, select the "Custom" option.  One of the
next screens will allow up to pick components - pick "Extractor" in
addition to whatever else you want (I'm not sure right now what the
choices are).  Extractor is the program that will allow you to load the
files on your HD.

After installation is completed, open the Programs menu and then look for
the Delorme section. You should see Extractor as one of the Delorme
programs. When you run Extractor, you may select just what you install
right down to county level (I think).  For example, I only installed
states where I generally travel. There are also some other choices, like
Interstates. Check all of them out to see what you like.

I was disappointed that Delorme did not have more on Extractor in the
manual.  I have run several previous versions and it took me a couple of
tries to remember how to get to it.

If you have already installed SA8 without extractor, you may have to
completely remove it and the re-install, putting Extractor in during
installation.  I could never figure out how to get Extractor to install
after SA8 was already installed.


Once things are expanded it seems to take at least 850 MB for a full
install. There are many options for customizing the extent of the
installation:

You can elect whether or not to store points of interest info. This has
an impact of 10's of MB, and greatly affects search speed for points of
interest and zip codes. You should probably go for everything rather than
a partial here. - you can select specific types of points of interest info
to extract. This seriously slows down the extraction process and will make
you think the computer stopped. - you can select specific geographic areas
to extract street info from. Since I live close to CO in the SE corner of
WY I have CO and WY loaded on HD. Anything outside of that, I need the CD
to be present if I want close up detail. Major highways for the whole
country always install no matter which states or counties you select on a
partial extraction. This option affects 100's of MB of HD space.

You run the Extract program that's in the same directory as your SA.
Loading the Extractor is an install option which you might have said NO
to. If it's not on your HD already, just run Setup again from the CD.

>Also, there is mention that there is an option during install to install
>all the files to the HD...I sure never saw it. Now...how do I go about
>changing it.

You only see that when you run Extract.

>Another consideration is how will APRS+SA know to look to the HD instead
>of at the CD?

No difference whatsoever - Brent's APRS+SA looks for your Street Atlas
*executable* by name once you tell it which version you have. Street Atlas
in turn keeps track of where it's *data base* info is stored.



RDF RADIO DIRECTION FINDING FUNCTION(S)


APRS+SA can draw RDF Bearing lines. Press Ctrl-D to activate the DF
window. Current position can automatically be entered, bearings are
manually entered. Bearing lines then persist until they are deleted with
most subsequent map redraws.



TRACKPOINT+

Jan 2001

Posted to the TAPR FTP site, Trackpoint+.
See: ftp://ftp.tapr.org/aprssig/
winstuff/APRSPLUS/Trackpoint.zip

Trackpoint+ is position plotting program that utilizes either
DeLorme's Street Atlas USA (SA)  maps or Garmin's MapSource (MPS) maps
for the display of APRS style station location, and tracks. Both SA
and MPS can provide street level detail maps. SA provides coverage
for the United States. MPS provides coverage for the United States in
3 different style maps, including Topo style maps, and also Canada and
many parts of Europe.

Trackpoint+ decodes various position packets and APRS style status
packets only.

Trackpoint+ does not connect to a TNC directly. Input to Trackpoint+
is via TCP/IP.  Trackpoint+ will connect to either APRServe, AFilter,
or KIPSS. KIPSS provides TCP/IP connectivity to a Kiss TNC, and is
available at the above FTP site.

Trackpoint+ currently is available for experimentation only. Read the
file Trackpoint.txt in the program distribution.



PEEDY - TEXT TO SPEECH TTS

MS Agent is used to do Text-to-Speech (TTS). It requires at least 3
files, The Agent software, MSAGENT.EXE, the TTS software TV_ENUA.EXE,
and a character. Peedy seems to be a popular one. Install all three. On
the Program tab of Setup, the is a slot to enter the character you want
to use, if you have chosen Peedy, enter: Peedy Now if you click on the
Speech menu, Enable, you should see Peedy "fly" on to the screen.  The Off
Screen menu moves the agent character off screen, but you still hear it.
What you hear depends on what you have configured the character to speak.
This is set on the Sounds tab of Setup. At the top, there is "Tracking
Talk>" with several options. Also, you can enable the several Speak
options on the right.  Note, if you do not have WAV files for the other
possible sound effects, the Agent will speak what the name of the file you
have selected. Example, you have a selected the WAV file UPDATE.WAV to be
played when a new Position report is received, the Agent will SPEAK the
work UPDATE. Enabling the speaking of incoming messages means the Agent
will speak the text of the message.

Peedy will only announce positions for your tracked stations if you
have them in your track list (otherwise he might never shut up!) Also,
you have to have the Setup > Sounds > Top Right, check Verbose.



.WAV FILES

For those that may be interested in generating a complete custom set of
.wav files, they may be generated at a number of internet web sites with
interactive demonstration pages of text-to-speech software or projects. A
search for "text-to-speech software interactive demonstration" should
reveal enough sources to generate .wav files to meet most operator
requirements.



WEB PAGE SERVER

TEMPLATES

1) Templates.  These are web pages you can design to display certain text,
data, and/ or maps the way you want. The Templates are called up from the
Message entry window, under the Query button.  For example, you may have
found a location on the Internet to provides really cool maps.  You can
build a web page using replaceable parameters that APRS+SA provides to
build your page.  I have provides a couple of examples in Template1.htm or
Template2.htm.  Template1.htm will draw a web page with 3 maps from
MapBlast.  The replaceable parameters in the Templates are delimited like
this:  #long#.  This would be replaces by the Longitude of the station you
have entered into the Message entry windows To Callsign slot. Click the
Query button, and choose the Internet menu option.  Note: In all prior
versions, a connection to APRServe was required.  This restriction will be
dropped in the next revision, because obviously, you may have an Internet
connection without a connection to APRSer! .  Here are a list of
replaceable parameters you can use in constructing a web page Template.
#call#,  #blat#, and #long#.  These apply to the call sign in the Message
entry To field.  Additional replaceable parameters include  #mylat#,
#mylong# and #mycall# for your Latitude/Longitude and call sign.


APRS+SA web server now has settings that can be entered into the
SETTINGS.INI file to allow for generating Web Pages with just RF Stations,
or all known stations.  Also some time limits are now adjustable.  The
following are the INI file Keys for the Web Server

[Web Server]
RF=1
PositionTime=2
HistoryTime=2
StatusTime=4

RF=1, means, only draw stations on your local RF network.  This ignored
IGated packets. The time values are in hours, and the defaults are shown.

Web Server: Web page for specific stations now shows time since last
position heard, and automatic reload after 3 minutes.

New - APRS+SA Web Server, map definition portion is now user configurable.
Edit the MapHtml.txt file. Provided replaceable parameters include
Callsign, Latitude and Longitude. In the text file, enter #callsign# for
Callsign, #lat# for Latitude, and #long# for Longitude. See the file
MapHtml.txt as an example.



MESSAGES, BULLETINS AND EDITING

The maximum length of a message is 65 characters.  APRS+SA will split
a message at a space character, you can just keep typing. The number
of characters is displayed so that you can keep a message short, if
your target station can not display the full length message. You may
choose shorter message lengths to create shorter packet lengths that
decrease the odds of intermittent noise spike corruption of any
individual packet, a common lower hf phenomenon due to various forms of
QRN.

You can enter a message, and choose "Load" instead of "Send". This
enters the message into the queue in the suspended condition. APRSPLUS
will start transmitting the message when it hears the target station.
In this way, you can load a suspended message to a station that is not
on the air, but who can then receive it the next time that station is
on the air and is recognized by your APRSPLUS program.

APRS+SA will transmit an outbound message, then 8 seconds later repeat
it, doubling the interval each time until 20 minutes and it will
timeout.  It will try again, one time each 20 minutes if it hears the
target station again.

Note: If a station, for which a suspended message is queued, returns
to the air with a tnc only, i.e. a compatible APRS program is not
operating at the target station when it returns "on the air", then,
upon hearing the intended recipient station, the senders APRS+
software will try to deliver the message to a dumb tnc that will not
"ack"nowledge reception. The message originating APRS+ program will
continue the previously described transmit cycle.

Right click to see individual or grouped message line options.
Control+left click or shift+left click allow user to select various
combinations of message lines. Editing and manipulation of message and
bulletin lines is done from the message and bulletin tab pages.

Editing existing message and bulletins may be initiated by double left
clicking a queued message or bulletin on the message tab page. The
existing "to call" will be loaded into the message dialog box,
allowing a total rewrite, if desired of that particular message text.

A single right click on a queued message brings up a message line
menu, from which Copy Message may be chosen to load both the "to call"
and the message text, allowing editing of both.

To initiate automatic transmit control of loaded or manually suspended
bulletin(s), you must right click > Resume Transmission. As these
generic messages are targeted to a group of stations, they have no
auto resume transmit option as message lines addressed to specific
stations.

Right click message line and select Queue Time: Shows time of next
transmission, in status bar, for the particular line clicked.



EXPERIMENTAL MESSAGE FUNCTIONS

New message functions: one can now store and retrieve and delete data
remotely. To use these functions, one sends an APRS message to your
station. In the message body, use the following constructs:

STO:name data goes here.
RCL:name
?name?
DEL:name

name is the "name" of the data being stored. Note that the construct
?name? will also return the requested data.  ?name? and RCL:name
return the same data, however, ?name? transmits the data only once
while RCL:name queues the data up as a regular APRS message.
STO/RCL/DEL are not case dependant.

Example:
STO:Jim Call home when you can
RCL:Jim
Jim=Call home when you can{01}

These messages are stored in the DATA subdirectory with following
naming construct:  "name.msg" This allows for the creation of any
number of such files for recall later.

Experimental: APRS+SA runs using an advanced "APL" interpreter.
This allows for interpreting code on the fly. This release allows for
inputting of numerical code. Send a message as in #2 above as
follows:

APL:code goes here
XEQ:code goes here

Examples:
APL:  (1+2) #time (3+4)
Returned:
APL=21{02}
APL:  GridSq 34,-117
Returned:
APL=DM14MA{03}

This is experimental.



REPLY/ACKS - ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Reply/Acks have message "acks" encoded in the APRS message line
number. This is an attempt to increase message through put. Thus, each
outgoing message to another station will include the message number of
the most recently received message in an attempt to speed up the "ack"
process. Line numbers will look like this:

{AK}MN where AK is the message number to be "ack'ed", and MN is the
Message Number of the new outgoing message.

This has been implemented in v1.99XN to be transparent with the
current APRS messaging system. This is experimental, and will only
work fully between other stations that support reply/acks.



SMART BEACONS

Normally position reports are transmitted at time intervals determined by
the number in the pulldown to the right of the "Posit Text" window

With Smart Beaconing checked, the rate of position reporting  varies based
on your speed as reported from an attached GPS receiver; i.e. if you are
moving rapidly (GPS position is changing rapidly) it sends position
reports more frequently. If you stop moving, position reports are sent
much less frequently to reduce channel congestion when there is nothing
new to report.

Variable Beaconing for moving stations based on the "Smart Beaconing"
work of Steve Bragg and users the HamHUD.  See:

http://www.hamhud.net/

To setup variable rate beaconing, press Ctrl+Shift+B or use the Commands
menu to bring up the window to set beaconing parameters. Beacon rates
are determined by speed and turn angle. Faster speed has faster beacon
rates, up to a maximum of Beacon_Fast rate at Fast_Speed. Beacon rates
will not be faster then Beacon_Fast based only on speed. When stopped,
or at a speed less then Slow_Speed, the beacon rate becomes Beacon_Stopped.
Beaconing can be triggered by a turn. Speed must exceed Slow_Speed for
turning angle to cause beaconing. This is determined by 3 factors,
Turn_Minimun, Turn_Factor and Turn_Time. See the Turn Plot for beacon
rate based on the turn angle and speed. To have APRS+SA use variable
rate beaconing, check the Checkbox next to the "Smart" button on Port 2,
main tab of Setup. This should apply whether position input is via
Port 1 or Port 2. The "Smart" button also activates the Variable
Beaconing parameter setup window.



QRZ AND EMAIL ACTIVE X FEATURES

eXtensions for APRS+SA v2.0

Download APRSX.ZIP at tapr.org

1) Unzip the file APRSX.ZIP into a subdirectory of your APRS+SA directory.

2) Copy the files XLOOKUP.W3, XLOOKUPNAME.W3, and XSMTP.w3 to your APRS+SA
   directory.

3) Execute the SETUP.BAT file.  This will configure the file APRSX.EXE as an
   ActiveX control.

4) Edit the Email section of Settings, under Setup in APRS+SA.

[Email]
EMAIL_RETURN=you@mailhost.com
EMAIL_HOST=mail.mailhost.com

you@mailhost.com should be your return Email address, or an appropriate
email address.

mail.mailhost.com should be address of your POP3 mail host.

You should now be able to send APRS Email messages and do QRZ callsign
lookups.

To send an Email message, send a message to your station's callsign and in
the message body, put:

em: someone@somewhere.com  The message subject goes here

You should receive back a confirmation that the message was actually sent
 correctly.

To lookup information by callsign, send a message to your stations'
callsign, and in the message body put:

L:wa4hei

You will be returned the name, license class, and address associates with
that particular callsign if the data is available.

A simplified WHOIS variant is as follows:

w:w1aw

You can also do a name lookup to find a callsign.

n:robert bruninga

Returns is the number of "hits" and up to seven callsigns.  Any more then
seven will be truncated.

[1] WB4APR

Doing name lookups is not always successful as city names and street names
may also be included in the search.

Brent KH2Z



POP3 GATEWAY

Email to APRS message.  See settings.RTF, Pop3 section.
This allows the sending of Email messages to APRS messages. Only
the Email Subject line is used to generate a message.  Provision is made to
only allow users that you want on the system.  The email subject is
delimited by user defined characters, default are "<>".  A sample message
might be:  <CALLSIGN:ID1>text_message where CALLSIGN is the target
station, ID1 is the users ID, and text_message is the message being sent.
In the Pop3 section of Settings, with RegisterUsers enabled, an entry
must be made for ID1.  Example:  ID1=#ID2.  The "#" sign is used to indicate
that this entry is active.  ID2 is then used in the APRS message to
indicate where the message came from. [ID2] is inserted at the beginning of
the message, resulting in:  [ID2]text_message on air.
Example:  Send an Email message to your address.  In the subject enter:
<KH2Z-1:73>This is my message
If 73 is a valid user, indicated by the entry in the Pop3 section of
Settings, a message will be generated.  Pop3 entry:
73=#BH
Generated message:
[BH]This is my message



MESSAGE FORMS

Message Forms is a simple way to transmit preformated data.  Using message
forms, you can easily create DX lists,  race check point list, formatted
telemetry, and ordered lists.

A "Form" is a simple text file with text and fields.  Fields are delimited
using braces:  {field}.  A field can name can be prefixed with an
exclamation point to make the field a "key" field.  When using key
fields, only the most recent packet with a matching key is kept and
displayed.  Several fields can be combined to make the key by just adding
the exclamation point to each field name.  A field name can be postfixed
with a greater-than symbol to indicate that the data in that field should
be carried forward to the next packet in order to minimize the entering of
repetitive data.

To send a message form from APRS+SA v2.20, click the Send menu, and select
Send Message Form, or press Ctrl+Shift+M.  In the Message Form window,
clicking the File menu, and the List item will show a list of currently
available forms. Clicking on a form will open that form and the window
will be populated with the information about that form so that you can
enter the data and transmit it.

To display received Message Form data, click the View menu item, and
select Message Forms.  Data will be displayed in a tabular format.  At the
bottom of that window will be tabs showing the name of the form in use.
There may be multiple pages in multiple forms data has been received.

Installation:  Currently, v2.20 is distributed as an update to v2.15.
Unzip the contents of the file, GPS220.zip into your APRS+SA directory,
and run SETUP.EXE.  As always, you might want to backup your files before
performing the update.  The update includes the file APLGRID.DLL which is
used to enter and display Form data.  This file is an ActiveX control
which APRS+SA will automatically register on your system.  APLGRID.DLL
does require the presents of Microsoft's XML v4.0 ActiveX control in order
to save data between sessions.

If you do not have the file MSXML4.DLL in your system directory, it can be
downloaded at  http://msdn.microsoft.com/xml .  It can be downloaded as a
Windows install or a CAB file.  If you download the CAB file, you will
need to do some manual work.  Take the contents of the CAB file, and put
them into your Windows\System directory.  Then from a command prompt,
enter:  REGSVR32 C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\MSXML4.DLL. 

Sample forms:
NAME.FRM
First Name:{First} Last Name:{Last} Callsign:{!Callsign}

DX.FRM
Callsign: {!Callsign}  Freq:{Freq}  Comment:{Comment}

CKPOINT.FRM
Callsign:{Callsign>} Check Point:{CkPoint>}  Runner:{!Runner}

In the above examples,  The !Callsign and !Runner fields are Key fields.
The Callsign> and CkPoint> fields will cause the previous data to be
carried over into a new packet for either use or editing.



MAPSOURCE SUPPORT

Not able to get APRS+SA to write to MapSource? Is there something specific
under the maps or track tab you I need to select or click?

With the MapSource writing enabled in the MPS section of Settings, APRS+SA
will attempt to write MPS files for Tracked stations only.  MapSource must
be running.  And note, APRS+SA does not officially support MapSource, this
item was added as an experiment a number of  months ago.  To my
recollection (weak as it is), there has not been much feedback about this
"feature".  If you are interested, you might want to try TrackPoint+,
available on the APRS+SA FTP site at TAPR.  TrackPoint+ is also a proof of
concept program that has also received very little feedback.

Scrolling is turned off when you perform any right-click options on the
Position tab and other tabs.  You can might want to check the "Turn
Scrolling on after Menu Actions on the Position Page" on the Program tab
of Setup.



ERROR TRAPS

In addition to the new trap, I have added a "Tracer" function which
will trace the execution of each function and windows callback.  When
activated and the program abends, it will save the execution stack for
review. To activate the Tracer, you need to open the Calculator
window, and enter the following:

Tracer

Ignore the error in the upper calculator window - this is expected.



APRS+SA AND PSK31svr

PSK31svr by Roger Barker, G4IDE, is an experimental TCP/IP server that
will talk to APRSPLUS for the purpose of transmitting and receiving
PSK31 data in the APRS format.

As an experimental program, what you see is what you get, with all
possible consequences! RTFM! Read the docs!

The program can be found at:

http://www.rochesterny.org/beaconet/


Set up APRSPLUS for an internet connection but instead of connecting
to your favorite internet APRS server, comment out all the internet
servers in the APRSERVE.TXT file and add this one:

localhost:3131

This will provide the connection from APRSPLUS to PSK31svr so that both
programs can talk to each other.

NB! Make sure that Setup > Program > Add Transmitted Data to Input Buffer
is NOT checked. If it is it will cause all data originating from your
system to be sent to PSK31svr, twice, resulting in 2 status beacons,
position reports, queries, etc.

The purpose of the function is to cause your own data to be decoded
as if transmitted on RF; i.e. it is always decoded.  It ensures you
see it as if digipeated, while using APRS+ in the manner for which
it was designed.



APRS MESSAGE FORWARDING TO EMAIL

See Settings.RTF, Email section. When Email forwarding enabled, APRS
messages that the program receives, either to you directly, or enabled,
group messages, are forwarded to the Email address you supply.  This is
great for taking advantage of your Text Messaging enabled cell phone.
Always receive your APRS messages when your cell phone is active!

FINI
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