STREETS.TXT STREETS-ON-A-DISK APRS Interface notes =========================================================================== Document version: STS-2 Document dated: 5 Dec 2000 (Replaced STS-1 of 10 Nov 2000) Author(s): Bob Bruninga, WB4APR ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Streets-On-A-Disk by Klynas Engineering is a maping program that has been around for many years. Even before GPS, it was used by many counties for their Emergency Operations Data bases. At the urging of and with great assistance from Jim Carter, WB6HAG, now there is a version of APRSdos that will display all ICONs on the map as well as give access to all the usual APRSdos communications and messaging capabilities. APRS-STS.exe is a TEXT only version of APRSdos written to avoid any conflicts with WINDOWS and to allow it to run in a DOS window. It is functionally equivalent with APRS8??. Here are the added commands for Streets: CONTROLS-STREETS-OUTPUT - Controls outputing of objects to Streets CONTROLS-STREETS-COLORS - Enables Mic-E Icons to change color* CONTROLS-STREETS-MESSAGE - Enables the display of the Mic-E Comments CONTROLS-STREETS-SPEED - Enables the display of Course and Speed info CONTROLS-STREETS-ARROWS - ICONs = DIRECTION ARROWS if moving CONTROLS-STREETS-ENTER - Outputs to STREETS immediately CONTROLS-# - Indicate how many STREETS#.GPS files are needed alt-SETUP-POSRATE - Sets how often a file is written to STREETS VIEW-STREETS - Lets you view the STREETS.GPS file JUST-X - Lets you display JUST stations of type X. If this is used on the MAP display, then it will refresh STREETS with JUST those stations only SPACE-BAR - Output to STREETS immediately New in STS-2, you can run APRS-sts.exe in a networked environment. In this case, it can output multiple STREETS#.GPS files, one for each copy of STREETS that is running on the network. Each copy of streets must be configured to use its own STREETS#.GPS file. Where # is 1 to 9. This # is saved in your configuration file. To make APRS-STS remember this value, you must enter a special validation number for it. TO configure STREETS to work with APRS-sts, you must follow the detailed set-up instructions provided by Jim Carter WB6HAG. In general, STREETS can have a table of up to 64 Icons. You can use some of their standard ICONS or make your own. But in any case, you must define the APRS symbol characters to match the desired ICON. APRS defines ICONS with two characters. THe first is the "/" or "\" table character, and the second is any of the printable ASCII characters defining 91 possible /X symbols and 91 possible \X symbols. Further, on some icons, you can replace the "/" or "\" with any alphanumeric overlay of 0-9 and A-Z. See SYMBOLS.TXT. SPECIAL ICONS: Becuase of this limit to only 64 ICONS at a time, some users may want to use the most distinct Icons to see all APRS activity, while others might want to concentrate on mobile Icons and have them change color with the Message Number from the Mic-E format. To do this, there has to be a separate Icon TYPE in the file for each combination of Mobile Icon and Color (as indicated by the M1 to M6 comment number). In this case, I have asked Jim Carter to provide two files that the user can select. One is the general APRS symbol file, and the other concentrates on Mobiles. Nomrally, APRS-STS.EXE passes all APRS symbol characters (ICONS) through to the "TYPE" column in the special STREETS#.GPS file. If the user is using the special MOBILES ICON file, then he should set CONTROLS-STREETS-MOBILES to ON. This will attach the Comment number M1 to M6 onto each ICON TYPE. As long as their are matching symbols for these combinations, then the differing color Icons will show in Streets. If however, the general Streets file is used, then only the CAR or the VAN can change color because they only have the additional table entries necessary. To take more advantage of this capability, the user can select CTRLS-STS-COLOR to ON, and this will force all Mic-E packets to use only these Colord CAR and VAN icons when the mesage umber is anything other than M0. Here are all the conversions that APRS may make under these conditions: * If the station has a NON-ZERO speed then there are two options. 1) If CTRLS-STS-CSE/SPD is on, then the CALL has CSE/SPD appended 2) If CTRLS-STS-ARROWS is on, then the ICON is converted to a DIRECTION ARROW showing the 8 cardinal directions. This is conveyed using sumbol characters "0)" through "7)". * If the station is showing a Mic-E EMERGENCY, PRIORITY or SPECIAL message, then the ICON is converted to the \! EMERGENCY, \P PRIORITY or \$ SPECIAL ICONS always. # But if CTRLS-STS-MOBILES is on, then ONLY the EMERGENCY ICON does this * If CTRLS-STS-COLORS is enabled, then if a Mic-E is set to any MESSAGE other than M0, Off duty, then the ICON will be converted to one of seven colored CAR ICONS equivalent to "1>" through "7>". If the Mic-E (Kenwoods only) is set to CUSTOM messages C1 through C6, then the ICON will be converted to the VAN ICONS of "1v" through "7v". * IF CTRLS-STS-MOBILES is set, then it appends the Comment# to the ICON TYPE and depends on the streets icon file to have a matching color. de WB4APR, Bob