What's new in APRSISCE6P110211.zip and APRSIS32110211.zip
About version is 2011/02/11 07:14
Support Luminoscity in Weather data (AB9FX)
Support Water Height in Weather data (http://www.aprs.org/aprs11/spec-wx.txt)
Put "Time: FIXED (111111z)" for permanent objects in Station info popup
Fix ?ARPSH <station> to include traffic counts if heard on RF
Record time and reason of last save into XML config file (attempting to identify unnecessarily frequent saves).
Correct spelling of Luminosity (it's not Luminoscity…)
Add Configure / Screen / DateTime / Date Only, Time Only, Default, and Custom to specify the date vs time based on the units of the seconds.
Delay longer on saving the configuration file when bulletins and telemetry definitions are received. (I'm tired of watching my phone sync with my desktop when I'm not using it!)
Wrap text to multiple CQs for ANSRVR group announcements (Julian G4ILO)
Wrap text to multiple EMAIL-2 messages if it is too long
Ensure that a leading % gets cloned onto subsequently wrapped lines for Kenwood voice-message triggering. (This has been there for some time, but the implementation was extended to cover the previous two changes).
Corrected an insidious bug that would cause the effective filter to drop all of the automatic components (like the NWS offices) and revert to just the m/range and Add Filter components. This explains disappearing MultiTrack objects as well as dropped weather alerts if the APRS-IS connection was dropped and automatically recovered. Panning the main window (assuming a non-zero Range) would re-establish the full automatic filter. This is now fixed. (Steve KF6WAX)
Support Shapefiles (Win32 only). Only as an outline currently, but it's better than nothing! Each NWS alert is expanded into multiple objects, one per county/zone. You have to Configure / NWS Shapes / Add File… to tell it where the *.dbf/*.shp file(s) are located. See WA8LMF's writeup at http://wa8lmf.net/aprs/get_nws_shapefiles.htm. Just substitute APRSISCE/32 and Configure / NWS Shapes / Add File… where appropriate.
Configure a bunch of default line types and symbols for the various NWS Product Codes (http://www.aprs-is.net/WX/ProdCodes.aspx), Eventually these may be user-configurable, but currently are hard-coded.
Do the same for the WXSVR-AU server product codes (http://wxsvr.aprs.net.au/products.php)
Expire NWS objects at their specified expiration time (See NWS-Expires trace log…)
Support Screen / Labels / NWS Calls to hide the pretty useless NWS object callsigns from cluttering the map
Fixed a moving antenna (KB2OCJ-R) caused by a bad course/speed vs PHGnnnn/freq in the parser (Mark KC2VYI)
KB2OCJ-R>APRS,TCPIP*,qAC,T2OREGON:=4048.00N/07414.38WrPHG9490/927.0625 -25MHz PL141.3
Support transparent fills on shapefile and MultiLine areas. See Configure / NWS Shapes / Opacity. 0 is no fill, 100 = full coverage (disappearing maps). 5-10 seems ok to my eyes.
Made a fix for the lower color depths. It works on my Remote Desktop Connection, but it might impact performance. If any of you notice that this version is slower than before (with no NWS shapes showing), please let me know.
Optimized and remembered the shapefile to point conversion so that only the first time drawing in a new zoom or pan takes time. Dropped my CPU from 40+% to 8-10% watching Australia lit up.
Support Configure / Screen / Label / Max Visible… to set the limit on screen labels without editing the XML file.
Define APDUxx as U2APRS for Android (http://aobajoke.no-ip.org/~ja7ude/japanese/u2aprs10/indexe.html)
Mark NWS objects Killed rather than simply purging them away on expiration.
Correct bust that allowed followed killed objects to disappear rather substantially fade until they're no longer needed.
Shaped areas that are killed but centered in a MultiTrack will turn light gray until they're not centered anymore. If you look at the station info popup, it will say "KILLED OBJECT".
NWS shapes are now included in Station popup menu
Corrected black on black station in scrolling station logs when NWS alerts are processed. (Recursion is such an ugly word, especially when it's unexpected)
If too many MultiTracks are open when an NWS alert is received and Configure / NWS / Popup MultiTrack is checked, it just quietly ignores the problem. It used to complain for every one generating LOTS of message boxes overnight.
When manually panning a window, remove the multiline objects to (dramatically) improve pan responsiveness. Area fills will re-appear when the pan operation is complete (ie. when you release the mouse button).
Fixed Configure / Ports / APRS-IS to actually use the Enable, QuietTime, Callsign and Comment (even though the latter two are non-changeable)
Change station info popup relative distance/bearing to FromCtr and FromME instead of opposite (Julian G4ILO)
Add outline to the shapes so that I can see if some of them are actually TOO transparent. Please let me know the object ID if you see one like that, particularly Australia's Flood areas.
Configure / NWS Shapes / ShowMe will popup individual shapes that include, or are near, the screen center of the main window when the menu option is selected.
Replace Track(ObjectID) with the description of the shape for test shapes and better describe shape-expanded NWS objects.
Title of windows "following" an NWS object (like the tests and auto-popups from Configure / NWS / Popup MultiTrack) are more informative.
Configure / NWS Shapes now supports unchecking individual files. I need to add a prompt to ask if you're only disabling or would like to remove the file from the list.
Whenever a version change is detected, the pre-upgraded XML files is saved as .XML.yyyymmddhhmm where yyyymmddhhmm is the previous version string that should match a saved .EXE.yyyymmddhhmm.
If the program detects a version downgrade, it will warn you that some settings may be lost. This is due to the non-downgrade-compatible XML configuration upgrades that may have occurred. Proceed at your own risk.
Corrected bust in shape optimizer that was causing not all of the "rings" to draw. This was particularly evident in QLC111. You should see lots more detail in AUS shapes now.
Don't pop up an already-expired NWS object. WXSVR-AU does LOTS of these for some reason. I'm not sure how long they keep transmitting the NWS-CANCLs.
Force a filter of m/0 if no other filter is required (Julian G4ILO) (Adam KB8VOM)
Configure / NWS / Popup MultiTrack now has Always and New options. "Always" will create or focus MultiTracks for NWS objects. "New" will only do this for a newly created object.
Support suppressing NWS Popups unless they describe an Area (multiline or shapefile). This avoids consuming a bunch of redundant MultiTracks for single point objects.
New (possibly temporary) Packets(Internal) trace log as well as INT (vs RF or IS) flagging in both the Transmit and Packets logs. This will make identification of internally-generated packets a bit easier, in case I ever need to know such a distinction.
Transmit when "T" is pressed on the keyboard (assuming the main map window is focused, otherwise Windows won't tell me you even hit a key). (Alan N6VUD)
New Configure / NWS / Notify Products to individually disable the various known NWS Products (http://www.aprs-is.net/WX/ProdCodes.aspx and http://wxsvr.aprs.net.au/products.php) from triggering message notifications and MultiTrack popups. Eventually you'll be able to configure more stuff on each Product than just the enable like color, line style, symbol, -IS to RF IGate…
Configure / NWS / Popup MultiTrack / Close On Expire if selected will auto-close a MultiTrack window if the contained object is NONE displayed, centered, and an expired NWS object.
If multiple areas are specified in a single NWS message, they are now coalesced into a single object. This works well for US objects, but the AUS alerts are coming from different offices, so they still don't get much smaller.
Configure / NWS / NWS Entry Servers will now let you disable NWS recognition by entry server. It knows about AE5PL-WX (USA) and WXSVR-AU (Australia) as defaults but will learn others if anyone else begins injecting NWS objects.
Fixed the Configure / NWS / Notify Products so that they actually show whether they are disabled or not. It was working before, just not making the symbol disappear.
Corrected behavior if a shapefile cannot be opened. APRSISCE/32 should no longer exit in this situation.
Shape/DBF files are now probed and will be disabled if they are not both accessible and seem to be what their name implies. (James VE6SRV)
Weather objects that came from an NWS Entry Server that has a configured finger server (AE5PL-WX only right now) will offer a "Finger" option on the popup menu. Selecting this will attempt to retrieve and display the full text of the NWS alert. This option is disabled if Enables / Internet Access is not checked. (Steve KF6WAX)
When you disable a configured shapefile, you are given the option of removing the file from the list. If you say No, it will simply be disabled and remain unused. (Note: This was backwards in the previous release and didn't get mentioned)
Click on a colored shape to find the station causing the color. (Steve KF6WAX) - This was actually in an earlier release, but I neglected to credit Steve.
Changing Opacity and enabling/disabling shapes was only forcing a refresh on the main window. It now refreshes all MultiTracks as well.
Removed empty MultiLine definition preventing popup of things like:
CTLBFU>APRS,qAS,WXSVR-AU:;CTL0437zA*040437z3341.85S/15024.67E:R NSW, Govett St Katoomba {24bAA
Fixed WinMo's NWS Offices popup menu population
Checkmark MultiTrack on a station popup menu if it is already tracking somewhere
Don't offer Range on a station popup menu in the main window. APRSISCE/32 automatically ranges the main window.
Fixed Configure / Screen / Lat/Lon to properly display Configure / Beacon / Precision ambiguity coordinates for screen center.
Add Configure / NWS / Notify LineType to show descriptions of the various line types and how many NWS Products are of a specified type (http://www.aprs-is.net/WX/MultilineProtocol.aspx). More to come here later…
Added a missing length check on a [512] byte buffer in the KISS logic. Not tha there's a high likelyhood of actually decoding such a long packet, but we're trying to figure out why Colin, 2E0XSD is terminating intermittently.
Configure / NWS Notify LineType now offers to set or clear the enables on the corresponding Products. This is what I was hoping to do with it. Someday, it'll allow configuring the rendering details, just like the Products will someday support configuring the associated line type. (BTW, if you're brave and careful, you can do this now via the XML file. Just be warned that you can mess things up in there too!)
Configure / Beacon / After Transmit disables beaconing until after the current location is verified and Transmit is pressed. The current location is automatically centered and zoomed to make it easy. This is ignored if the GPS is enabled at or after startup.
Fixed the initial startup "Drag and Zoom to Home, then Click Transmit" reminder to remain in the bottom center of the map even if the window is re-sized. This also applies to the new "Beaconing Suspended" reminder window (they're actually the same window!).
Configure / Objects / <YourObject> dialog now supports "GoTo" which will move the main window to center on the object's location and zooms to the minimum level to set the location. Note that the object will only be visible at that location if it is enabled! This feature can be used to select from a "list" of location (objects) for the purpose of setting a current location for the new Configure / Beacon / After Transmit feature.
Support FTM350v1.3(RO) port type. This is receive-only and completely untested with a "real" FTM-350 connection, but at least it interprets the captures I've received from various people!
Support IS-Sever port type providing a feed-through APRS-IS with local filters (for multiple instances of Win32 version with a single full feed to APRS-IS). None of the port configuration dialog checkboxes applly (except enable). A custom dialog for this port type will come in the future. But for now, configure it as an IP port, 0.0.0.0 is the node (or bind it directly to one of your interface IPs like 127.0.0.1 for local access only), the Port is up to you but must be unique and available on your local machine. When an APRS-IS client connects, the user logon string is required and validate. If the password doesn't match, input from that port will not even display on the server's instance let alone get forwarded on to APRS-IS. A valid password port will go out to all other local connections, be displayed on the server instance, and be forwarded on to the upstream APRS-IS network server. This is supported on WinMo as well, but I have only tested it on Win32. As the question was raised, "who would turn their phone into a server?" I suspect the answer is balloon chasers that want to distribute an APRS-IS feed across a local, mobile WiFi network!
Some weather data files apparently only put a single digit day in at the beginning of the month. All previous samples had a leading zero to make a fixed, parseable field. Updated to support a single digit Date. ()
Add ,qAR,call-SSID to RF-received packets before gating them from RF to IS. This is the first phase of q-Construct () support.
Fixed a few issues related to the IS-Server support including at least passing messages addressed to the immediately connected downstream client callsign.
Downstream transmitted packets no longer flag as * (RF Received, but no new qAR) in the upstream server's scrolling station pane.
You can now send messages to your own callsign-SSID like ?APRSS and ?APRSH/L/D. Just ignore the fact that you see it twice in the chat. Remember, you're seeing BOTH sides of the conversation, just like you do inside your head when you argue with yourself!
Change the default number of inbound connections to an IS-Server port to 16 (Win32) or 6 (WinMo) (Curt WE7U)
Make sure same-named Station Weather data is displayed on the Me popup dialog (N4MAK)
Fixed NWS Alert explosion to happen regardless of whether or not Messages is checked. The only way to prevent expansion is to disable the Entry server or NWS Office. A non-configured Office/CWA is implicitly disabled. An unknown Entry Server is implicitly Enabled. (Lynn KJ4ERJ)
Fixed Configure / Ports / APRSIS Enable checkbox to actually affect the enable/disable status of the port. Also, changing the APRS-IS server should trigger a disable/enable sequence to bring the new server into use.
Don't Expire NWS objects based on their received age vs station age, but honor their internal Expiration time.
New XML configuration file elements
<LastSaved> and <LastSaveWhy> to track why config is being saved so seemingly often
<NWS.Opacity>, <NWS.ShapeFile> and <NWS.ShapesEnabled> - See NWS features
<View.NWS.Labels>
<NWS.MultiTrackNew> - Only popup multitrack for NEW NWS objects
<NWS.MultiTrackLines> - Only popup multitrack for non-simple (area) objects
<NWS.MultiTrackAutoClose> - Close MultiTrack when NWS object expires
<NWSServer.*> - Tracks NWS Entry servers
Performance enhancements
Delay longer on saving the configuration file when bulletins and telemetry definitions are received.
Optimized shapefile coordinate mapping to screen points for current display
Merge multiple area objects into a single "station" for NWS alerts.
Optimized coding of visible station painting for MultiTracks