MILEMARK.TXT INTERSTATE MILEMARKERS Version: 8.7.6 20 Apr 2005 Added California (prev was 862 Dec 03) Author(s): Bob Bruninga, WB4APR ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Updated 3 July 2007 to add all 0 milemarks and all end milemarks and fix some errors. See details at end. INTRODUCTION: Prior to APRS, Mile markers were and remain the universal mobile radio position location system for all 2-way radio users and services. I consider Milemarks to be a manditory requirement in all APRS systems though it was not in the spec. By using this feature built in to APRS, you can easily locate someone simply by reference to their Milemark. APRS uses my Mile Mark data file which has all the milemarks in the Interstate Highway system. The data is stored as straight line segments between mile markers at changes of directions. APRSdos interpolates the location of mile markers inbetween. In versions prior to 860, APRSdos only used the LATITUDE for north- south segments and LONGITUDE for east-west segments. This file was called MILEMARK.DAT and is also the file then that UIview and some other APRS programs adopted. To display a location it would just draw a horizontal or vertical line and the location of the milemark is the intersection of the line and the road. After version 860, APRSdos draws a 1 mile ambiguity circle in the vicinity of the mile marks every 2nd, 5th or 10th mile mark depending on Range Scale. To see the old description, see MILEMARK.OLD. USAGE: The Command in APRSdos was MM-VA95-114 for example to locate mile mark 114 on I-95 in Virgina. But in APRS861, this was simplified to just MM-VA95 which now displays a Mile Mark circle every Nth mile so that you can see them all at once. This is much more useful and easier. The OLD format is in MILEMARK.DAT. Its format included individual line records with both the starting and ending mile mark for each straight line segment and the LATitude or LONGitude of each end depending on whether the road was going N/S or E/W: Examples: SS##,EW,MM1,LO2,MM2,LO2 or SS##,NS,MM1,LA1,MM2,LA2 The NEW MM-DATA.DAT file, however, used since Version 862 includes LAT/LONG for each listed mile mark and the straight line segments are simply the lines between each point in the file. The format for each significant milemark in the MM-DATA.DAT file is of the form: SS##,MK,LAT,LON Where the SS## identifies the STATE and interstate # (it is a variable length string, so "FL5" or "GA985" are valid) and the next fields give a mile mark and its LAT/LONG. Since the intent of this system is only to locate mile marks within about a mile, the file does not try to follow every single bend in the road but just the general trend of the road. So, concentrate on building the data for the long straight stretches and dont worry about the nooks and crannies. I only used 9 entries for the 400 miles of I-40 through the length of Tennessee, for example. After ver 862, if you enter SS? for the interstate, APRSdos will list all the interstates in that state and the milemarks in the database. In April 2005, I made a special EXE called APRSxMM.EXE which has these special commands for quickly building short text files for new mile marks. Code is in in APRS6XW but commented out. MAP-NEW: Lets you name a new text file. (SSnn) Move cursor to desired mile mark location MAP-X: Lets you enter the mile mark number MAP-Z: Closes that text file MISSING DATA: At long last, Calif, Maine and PA were added in April 2005. But still some states dont have mile-mark exit numbers so I cannot do them just from maps. I need LAT/LONG of the key mile markers: MA, NH, and NY interstates 81, 88, and 390 also CT needs these: I395 at route 2 Norwich I395 at rt 138 or 164 I395 at Mass State line I 95 at RI state line Note, in NY, the I-87 portion of the NY State Throughway is called NYST to distinguish if from NY87 where exit numbers restart at 0. The program MILEMARK.EXE will read the MM-DATA.DAT file and plot the resulting map as a troubleshooting aid. APRS-Touch-Tone MILE MARKS USING THE FILE MM-TT.DAT --------------------------------------------------- Mile marks were also added to APRStt so that touch-tone users could place themselves on the map with only a few digit entry. But since APRStt is purely a local simplex or one repeater system, there is no need to include the STATE in each road name. So for APRStt, the local APRS-tt SYSOP has to trim down the MM-DATA.DAT file to only the Interstates in range and the state abbreviations are removed, so that VA95 becomes just "95" for example. He should save the trimmed file as MM-TT.SSn for his backup copy and then copy it to the generic name of MM-TT.DAT so that APRS-tt can find it. In APRStt, the DTMF entry MMRD#nn will place a station on the map in the vicinity of mile mark nn on road RD. Even with the state abbreviation removed, there is no ambiguity because mile marks always go from west to east and south to north. So the end of the interstate in one state and beginning in the next are always significantly different milemark numbers and easy to differentiate. Version MM-data1.txt added all 0 mile marks version mm-data.010 added end points and added all Deleware interstates added ILlinois I-72 fixed bug in FL I-95 Up through Louisana now with end points. Version mm-data.011 added remaining end points and New Nebraska I-80 fixed big problems with I35 and 90 and I94 in MN fixed I95 in RI and added 295 Fixed I83 in PA and added to I99 de WB4APR, Bob