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readme.azp
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1995-07-19
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This file is README.AZP for AZ_PROJ.PS v1.00, Jun 1995.
AZ_PROJ.PS (C) 1994, 1995 Joseph Mack NA3T and Michael Katzmann NV3Z
AZ_PROJ is a set of files that generates azimuthal equidistant
projections of the earth from (almost, see bugs) any location, giving
bearing and distance from your location to any other place on the
surface of the earth.
AZ_PROJ uses Level 1 Postscript, unless you are using
a color PostScript printer (which we assume are all Level 2), in which
case some Level 2 instructions are used.
The files output on a Postscript device (printer, display
or through Postscript interpreters like Ghostscript - see file
ghost.doc for setup suggestions) and hence are computer
independent. Ghostscript runs on many computers (MSDOS, unix)
producing output in X-windows (unix or DesqviewX), or under MSDOS
with a 386 chip to a VGA display. Ghostscript produces native code for
many printers, allowing many printers to function as a postscript printer.
The data to produce the coastlines, countries, states, rivers, lakes,
and islands comes from the public domain CIA World Data Bank.
AZ_PROJ is distributed under the GNU License (see the file
COPYING).
The zip file AZ_PROJ.ZIP contains the following files.
text files:
COPYING The GNU License under which this set of files is distributed
GHOST.DOC Hints for setting up ghostscript
SIMPSON.DOC Article about NMEA by Wayne Simpson
README.AZP This file
dat files:
ANNOT.DAT An example annotation file
BEA_6M.DAT The 6m beacon list, from M. Harrison in G land
BEA_W3EP.DAT The beacon list, maintained by W3EP
DXCC.DAT The ARRL dxcc countries list, maintained by K2DI
GRID.DAT An example file for grid squares that have been worked
MOUNTAIN.DAT An example file for plotting mountain tops
NMEA.DAT An example NMEA format file for GPS location of QTH
REPEATER.DAT An example file for plotting repeaters
ROVER.DAT An example file for plotting rovers
Postscript files:
AZ_INI.PS The initialisation file - edit for your location and needs
AZ_PROJ.PS The Postsript file which has the routines and generates the
projection
CONTROLD.PS The ^D symbol (EOF for a postscript printer).
wdb files:
AFRICA.WDB Positions of points on the surface of the earth
ANTARCT.WDB derived from the CIA World Data Base
EURASIA.WDB ""
N_AMER.WDB ""
OCEANIA.WDB ""
S_AMER.WDB ""
some of the example bat files for MSDOS:
AZVIEW.BAT view a continent under Ghostscript
AZ_VIEW.BAT other sample files for viewing maps
AZFILE.BAT generate a file for later printing
AZGRID.BAT generates picture with grid squares but no map
AZPRINT.BAT print under Ghostscript directly to a printer
AZ_PRINT.BAT other sample files for printing maps
MAKDAT.BAT concatenate .dat files
MAKWORLD.BAT make the concatenated file world.wdb
MAK_NA.BAT file for generating North America on a postscript printer
This file (README.AZP) is a brief description of the use of
AZ_PROJ.PS. For a detailed explanation see the comments in each file.
AZ_INI.PS
AZ_INI.PS has variables which allow the map to be customised.
The variables are ordered according to the way we wrote the program.
In general the order of variables can be changed to suit your needs,
as long as variables which are defined in terms of other variables
are not exchanged in order (eg colors need to be defined before you
use them). AZ_INI.PS is full of comments which will tell you how to
customise AZ_PROJ. You can remove these comments when no longer
needed.
Customisation:
AZ_PROJ will arrive set up to give reasonable test maps without
any changes (the following values in "options"). The QTH will be set to
ARRL HQ as your QTH, the QTH will be at the center of the map
(ie not center offset), grid locator lines and labels will be
turned on, orientation will be portrait, and the scale (200km/cm)
will give a view of most of North America.
The main place for customisation is the "options" array.
/options
[
41.6 -72.7 (ARRL HQ) % lat, lon, string, for QTH
45.0 -90.0 off % lat, lon (middle of NA), center_offset (here off, using QTH as center)
200 on % scale, using km/cm (off = degrees),
off % landscape (off = portrait)
on on % letter grid squares, labels
on on % number grid squares, labels
on on % compass circumference, compass radial spokes
on % outerborder
on % DXCC countries by callsign (off = by country name)
] def
.WDB files
These are an ascii version of the Central Intellegence Agency
Micro World Data Base (CIA WDB) adapted for AZ_PROJ. These files contain
geographic information.
.DAT files:
These are files containing one piece of information per line.
Each line starts with a word (eg beacon) followed by a ":" (beacon:).
These .dat files contain ham specific information such as dxcc
lists of countries worked and not worked, grid squares worked,
beacons, and any annotations that you want to put on the map
("Mom's place"). Enough information has been included at the
start of each file for you to be able to add/change entries.
Since the .dat files are just collections of lines, there is
no real reason to keep the .dat files separate - in principle
the .dat files can be concatenated and the lines put in any order.
We have kept them separate mainly for bookkeeping purposes.
Comments are added by adding the char "%" at the beginning of a line.
Annotations (annot.dat) can be used to mark any spot on the map.
Note: Order of files.
Files can be sent in any order. However the output of each
file will cover up the output of all previous files. Thus the order
in which .dat files are sent to the output (the order in the command line
or in the combined file sent to a printer) affects the look of the map.
The NMEA.dat file uses Global Positioning System (GPS) NMEA formatted data
to locate the QTH (such as on a mountain top). This _must_be read first
as it will move the QTH from that established in az_ini.ps. The output
from grid.dat is an area of solid color that will cover anything
under it (including the waypoint info from the nmea.dat file,) thus
it should go next. The other .wdb/.dat files put points of interest
on the map and these should go later than the grid.dat data.
An example command line to put the files in the correct order
would be
C:>gs -q az_ini.ps -- az_proj.ps nmea.dat grid.dat n_amer.wdb *.dat
When sending to a real Postscript printer, these files could be
concatenated, again in the correct order, by generating the file nacomb.ps,
and then sending nacomb.ps to the printer.
C:>copy az_ini.ps+az_proj.ps+grid.dat+n_amer.wdb+mountain.dat+beacon.dat nacomb.ps
SENDING TO OUTPUT
Sending to a Postscript Printer:
The simplest (but because of expense, probably least accessible
to hams) route to using AZ_PROJ.PS is to send it and the data
files to a Postscript printer. The files must be sent as one stream
(ie one big concatenated file) in the suggested order
az_ini.ps
az_proj.ps
nmea.dat
grid.dat
*.wdb files
*.dat files
contrld.ps
At the end of the concatenated file, there MUST be an EOF
(usually ctrl D) for the printer to know that it had come to the
end of the job. This is usually sent by the spooler, but if your
setup (like most MSDOS setups) doesn't do this, you'll wait hours
till the printer times out. If this is your situation, concatenate
contrld.ps onto the end of your file for printing.
AZ_INI.PS should arrive set for ARRL HQ in Connecticut USA,
with a scale (250km/cm) that will give a map showing most of North
America. The map will be centered on 45N, -90W, however the azimuthal
projection will be centered on ARRL HQ (bearings and distance will
be correct for ARRL HQ).
The variables "send_notices" and "verbose" will be set to
"on" for sending to a screen (if using ghostscript to display on
a screen). These notices will give you an indication of progress,
as due to buffering etc by ghostscript and the slowness of execution,
there are times when not much is happening on the screen. For printing
set these variables to "off" or you will get pages of notices after
the real output comes out.
EXAMPLES:
Printing -
(make sure to turn "off" send_notices and verbose in the az_ini.ps file)
- to a postscript printer (DOS)-
Run mak_na.bat
C:\gs>mak_na
This will produce na_comb.ps (about 1.4Mb). Send this new file
to your postscript printer with
C:\gs>print na_comb.ps
- to a postscript printer (UNIX)-
$ cat az_ini.ps az_proj.ps n_amer.wdb |lp
- to a screen/printer via an Interpreter:
An interpreter (such as Ghostscript) runs on a computer and
knows about files. The names of the data files are then given
as parameters to the interpreter. You can send multiple .WDB and .DAT
files to ghostscript as command line parameters. Note that az_proj looks
to see the size of the display it is printing (or screening) on. Since
the screen and printer are different sizes, you will not neccesarily
get the same picture when previewed on a screen as you will on the
printer.
- screen viewing for DOS:
C:\gs>gs386 -q az_ini.ps -- az_proj.ps n_amer.wdb
or run the supplied file azview.bat
C:\gs>azview
- to a file for later printing
To make the file `n_amer.cdj' which can then be sent to
a color desk jet 550 (which ghostscript calls a "cdj550", see the
ghostscript docs for details of other printers) -
C:\gs>gs386 -q -sDEVICE=cdj550 -sOutputFile=n_amer.cdj az_ini.ps -- az_proj.ps n_amer.wdb dxcc.dat
or run the supplied azfile.bat file
C:\gs>azfile
The format of this command is
DOS command (gs)
gs switches (-q -sDEVICE=cdj550 -sOutputFile=n_amer.cdj)
postscriptfilename (az_ini.ps)
another switch (--)
datafiles for az_ini.ps (az_proj.ps n_amer.wdb dxcc.dat)
- sending a file to a printer
You can send output to the printer directly (see below). However
you might want to generate the file if you want to print several copies of
the map (and only have to calculate the map once), or you have a spooler
(recommend dmp205.zip, look on a BBS) which will give you back your
keyboard again, so you can go on with something else during the printing.
- without a spooler
C:\gs>copy/b n_amer.cdj lpt1:
- to the printer directly
To send to the printer (through lpt1:, note: can use MODE to redirect)
C:\gs>gs386 -q -sDEVICE=cdj550 az_ini.ps -- az_proj.ps n_amer.wdb dxcc.dat
or run the supplied azprint.bat file
C:\gs>azprint
- using ghostscript to simulate a printer
Sending to a printer is slooow and some printers (DEC for instance)
don't seem to like our code. If you aren't getting output from your
printer after a reasonable time, then try making a smaller comb.ps file
(no .wdb files, turn off all lines and try just printing the Title info).
If that doesn't work, you can use ghostscript to simulate a printer to
see what's wrong. Try
c:\gs>type comb.ps | gs386 -q -
The first part of the instruction sends the file to stdout, the
second part tells gs386 to take input from stdin (for unix change "type"
to "cat"). You'll get a screen display instead of printout. Note that
comb.ps will have the EOF for the operating system and controld.ps
is not needed (but will do no harm) in comb.ps.
for UNIX:
To printer (without creating an intermediate file)
%gs -q -sDEVICE=cdj550 '-sOutputFile=|lp -or -onb' \
-r300 -dNOPAUSE az_ini.ps -- az_proj.ps n_amer.wdb dxcc.dat
COLOR PRINTERS:
If you have a color printer, read the poop in az_proj.ps
about gamma correction (search for string "gamma"). If you have
a Deskjet550C or 1200C you are already covered. If you don't
get this right, then the colors you get on the screen will not
be the same as on the printer.
CUSTOMISING AZ_PROJ
"send_notices" and "verbose"
You can have these "on" if you have a launching window
(ie a window which is different to the window displaying the map)
to display these messages.
You HAVE a lauching window in multitasking systems like
Windows, DesqViewX, X-window, and a Mac using LaserWriterUtilities
("send PostScript document to printer") and a Postscript printer,
which gives you a .log file to dump the error output.
You DO NOT have a lauching window in MSDOS (the error
messages will write all over your screen output) or on a postscript
printer (where the messages will come out on subsequent pages, except
on a Mac where they go to a file). For these latter systems use "off".
Next change the lat/lon to your QTH (use decimal degrees,
eg 90.05, with N and E being positive, S and W being negative),
center_offset (2nd line) to "off", change the scale to "500"
and scale type to "off". There being two authors on this project
there are two ways of doing this. The first is the original method,
which is just to change the value of say lon_QTH (just below the
heading "Manual method" in az_ini.ps. This method works for all
variables in az_proj.ps. We think that only a few of these variables
are going to be changed a lot and they have been put in an array
called /options in az_ini.ps. To activate the /options option, turn
the variable /use_automatic_option "on". The values in the array
/option will then override the values declared elsewhere in
az_ini.ps.
You can turn letter_squares and labels on/off, with
number_squares and labels on/off.
Run gs386 sending output to the screen. Intitially just let
az_proj.ps generate grid squares by not feeding any map data to it -
C:\gs\azgrid.bat
After the grid squares are output, the program will ask
for input. You can either manually type in points on the earth
(in .wdb format), which is tedious, or exit.
Next feed it some data file(s), e.g. dxcc.dat and various
continent(s) (africa.wdb, antarct.wdb, eurasia.wdb, n_amer.wdb,
oceania.wdb, s_amer.wdb).
C:\gs>azview.bat
or for a few more continents
C:\gs>gs386 -q az_ini.ps -- az_proj.ps n_amer.wdb s_amer.wdb dxcc.dat
GS386 gives output for about double the area that will be
printed, so you will have to learn to correct for this. As well the colors
on the screen are rather washed out and not a good representation of the
final colors printed (the colors for the version that runs under DesqViewX
are very good and the area presented to the screen is the same as for
the printer).
If this goes well, create an output file for a printer
C:\gs>azprint.bat
or
C:\gs>gs386 -q -sDEVICE=cdj550 -sOutputFile=your_qth.cdj az_ini.ps -- az_proj.ps n_amer.wdb s_amer.wdb bea_w3ep.dat
A command line like this may be too long for brain damaged MSDOS,
so you have to concatenate some of the files. If you do the following
concatenations (perhaps as bat files)
C:\gs>copy n_amer.wdb+s_amer.wdb amer.wdb
C:\gs>copy dxcc.dat+bea_w3ep.dat na.dat
then the previous instruction becomes
C:\gs>gs386 -q -sDEVICE=cdj550 -sOutputFile=your_qth.cdj az_ini.ps -- az_proj.ps grid.dat amer.wdb na.dat
For world maps, the file "world.wdb" can be created from the
supplied "*.wdb" files by running the supplied file "makworld.bat".
Have fun
Our addresses are in AZ_PROJ.PS
Mike NV3Z and Joe NA3T
Jun 1995