SCREEN.txt 6.5c THE APRS MAP SCREEN This file was written to describe some of the subtleties of the APRS main map screen. There are several distinct areas where information appears. They can be grouped as follows: --------------------------------------------------------------------- | CURSOR BOX | FLAG AREA | TIMING/WARNING AREA | | |-------------------------------------------| |-----------------------| | | Brg/Rng & Grid Square | | |-----------------------| + | | + | | | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| | TO CALL : Outgoing message lines (use ERASE to delete them) | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| | FM CALL : Incomming message lines (use KILL to delete them) | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| | 23rd line * | Heard | | 24th line * | | 25th line * | Channel load, etc | --------------------------------------------------------------------- * As of version 6.5, APRS supports highres 43 line VGA mode and these lines will be 41, 42 and 43 respectively CURSOR BOX: The cursor box displays the location of the cursor and the map range. The range shown is roughly the Nautical mile radius from the center of the screen to the top of the screen. Toggle range in Kilometers with the CONTROLS-KM command. Bearing/Range: If the MAPS-PLOTS-RANGE command is given, then the RANGE and BEARING of the cursor from the center of the screen will be shown in STATUTE miles. The outer concentric circle is equal to the indicated map range scale in STATUTE miles. The Bearing is shown as the GREAT-CIRCLE bearing. To see the difference, at ranges above 1000 miles, a yellow heading marker shows the actual great circle bearing. Grid Square: This field will show the Maidenhead Grid Square location of the cursor when the MAPS-PLOTS-GridSquare command is given. NatlGridRef: The English version of APRS displays the National Grid Reference in this box FLAG AREA: This area is for warnings and annoncements as follows: 1) Shows weather reports in response to the NEXT-WX command. 2) Announces new bulletins have been received 3) Announces DX Cluster monitoring mode TIMING/WARNING: Shows the current time, and the time to go before the next Beacon, Posit, Object or Message packet to be transmitted from your station. The time to go is in minutes until it gets below 99 seconds, and then it shows in seconds. If the time to go is greater than 9 minutes, then >9 is shown. This display is only updated about once every 5 seconds. Other displays: 1) trapped errors (file errors etc...) 2) indicator whenever GPS or other data is being fetched 3) The box shows purple when your XMTR is disabled. 23rd LINE: This line is the bottom most useable text line that will not automatically scroll the screen. Its uses: 1) All prompts that require more than one character response 2) The bottom line of the split screen message display 3) Displays CALLSIGN/DIGIPATH and HEARD log for HOOKED stns 24th LINE: Captures any received BEACON that is new 25th LINE: This line displays monitored packets. It displays the packet first, and then over-writes a 3 character label showing how APRS interpreted the packet. Typical labels: BCN: Processed to the LATEST BEACON page POS: Processed as a POSIT MSG: Message APR: Other APRS formats such as ACKS Hrd: Neither of the above GGA,GLL,RMC,VTG: The packet had a NMEA string in it To? means the TO field did not match one of the following APRS,BEACON,CQ,QST,MAIL,SKYWARN,SPCL,GPS No> Couldnt find the packet >TO field identifier BLANK:If your packets only blink and then go blank, then there is a problem with extra linefeeds. Channel Load: A CSMA packet channel with no hidden transmitters nominally achieves about a 36% throughput, considering acks and retries. For displaying channel loading, I use that 36% figure as 100% channel load. THat is why you may sometime see figures approaching 300%. No DIGIPEAT... Since APRS is always monitoring the channel, it can tell if its own packets are being digipeated on the channel. If it does not hear a digipeat of its transmitted packets, then it displays a message on the 25th line. On any packet channel, packets will suffer collisions preventing some packets from getting through. If you see this message on everyone of your packets, then there is something wrong with your transmitter or your chosen UNPROTO path. This is turned off on HF where there should be NO digis. + PLUS symbols: On maps, these mark the center of each map. If they appear yellow, then that map is visible at the present screen range. If they are white, then you must zoom down one step to see the indicated map. Remember, however, that APRS will not use a map until the ENTIRE screen will fit on the given map. That is why the + symbols are useful, by zooming in near them, you will see the more detail map at its largest practical range. To see the true extent of each map file, use the MAPS-LOCK command and then zoom back out. Symbol Colors: White - Active APRS stations Gray - TNC on-line, but APRS is not running Dark Gray - Has not been heard in 2 hours Green - APRS WIDE area digi Blue - WX stations Lght Blue - Dead Reckoned station RED - WX alarm values exceeded Purple - OBJECT reported by someone else Yellow - OBJECTS you are uplinking