Libris Britannia 4/science library(b).zip/science library(b)/HAMRADIO/APRS400.ZIP/README/README.HLP

Text File | 1994-01-19 | 27KB | 463 lines

README.HLP                   APRS HELP DOCUMENT

     Since my on line HELP screens seem to only make sense to expert users, its
time to further elaborate on the key commands for APRS.  ALSO NOTE THAT MANY
COMMAND CHARACTERS HAVE CHANGED BEGINNING WITH VERSION 2.08!

     In most cases, all APRS commands are active from all pages and APRS
processing of packets continues in the background.  (An exception is while a
BLUE-BOXED prompt is on the screen).  The first Help page defines all command
characters.  To begin with, APRS has eight major display screens:

  MAP       - For showing the positions of all stations and objects
  LATEST    - Shows the latest Beacon or broadcast message for all stations
  POSITIONS - Shows position packets and comments from all stations and Objs
  WHEN HEARD- Shows station activity in number of packets per hour per station
  READ MAIL - Shows the last 23 message lines heard between any stations
  DIGIs USED- Shows digipeater paths used by all stations
  ALL BCNS  - Chronological log of all beacons and messages
  HELP      - Toggles through 4 screens (or use F1 for on-screen help)
  INFO      - Information (further help and suggestions)


MAP DISPLAY:  The map display is the most important display in APRS.  It shows
a map of the packet network area and the positions of all reporting stations.
Stations reporting packet positions over the air are shown in white, objects
that you are reporting to the network (uplinking) are shown in yellow, objects
reported by other stations are shown in purple, positions that have not been
updated in 2 hours are shown in gray.  To help highlight the WIDE area
digipeaters in an APRS net, the WIDE digipeaters are shown in green.

  SPACE   - Displays the current map.  By marking important or special objects
            with a # on the P-list, you can display the map with all other
            stations or objects suppressed by simply hitting the # key.

  ARROWS  - Move the map cursor on the sscreen.  If you turn NumLok off then
            hold the shift key with the white arrow keys, then cursor will
            move 5 times faster.

  PgUp/Dn - Zooms the display in and out by a factor of 2.  Ctrl-PgUp/Dn
            zooms by a factor of 8.

  Home    - Will home the center of the screen to the current cursor location
            SHIFT-HOME will redraw the map below the current map (very useful
            for areas where maps overlap)

  End     - Will return the map to your default position stored in CONFIG file
            SHIFT-END will return to the APRS default location stored in the
            first 3 lines of the MAPLIST.apr file.  Usually the whole USA.

  alt U   - This key will display the map UNDER the current map.  Since APRS
            always uses the latest map in the MAPLIST.APR file that meets the
            current screen conditions, areas where maps overlap may sometime
            be obscured.  Alt-U will display the next higher map in the list.

  ^D      - Toggles Dead Reckoning on and off so you can either see where the
            station was at the time of the fix, or where he should be now.

  J       - JUST ONE - Used to display just one symbol type at a time.  Used
            to selectively display stations like all WX stations.

  ^R      - RANGE RINGS - Displays one ring at the current range scale and
            another at half the range.

  HOOK    - Hook is a Navy term for selecting an object on a radar screen. Use
            the RETURN/ENTER key to hook an object at the cursor location.  To
            progressively hook one object after another, use the gray +/- keys.
            The POSITION and BEACON packets from a hooked station are displayed
            on the bottom of the screen.  While a station is hooked, it can be
            moved by moving the cursor to the new location and hitting the
            INSert key or it can be removed using the DELETE key.  To prevent
            inadvertant movement of objects, the U key UNHOOKS an object.

  INSERT  - Relocates a HOOKED object on the screen.

  DELETE  - Deletes a HOOKED objecct on the screen

  alt-M   - MAP BORDERS - Shows borders of all MAPS in the MAPLIST.apr file
            If A map border appears, but does not come up, then the MAP file
            is missing.  If the Map file exists but the borders do not show up,
            then the file is not listed in the MAPLIST.apr file.

  alt-F   - FEATURES:  Toggles a number of map features on/off.  There used
            to be separate alt keys for each feature, but in version 2.08,
            these were all consolidated into the FEATURES submenu.  Features
            are Boundaries, Headings, Roads, Calls, Waterways, etc.  In version
            3.08 the ALL command was added so that ALL features could be turned
            on/off at once.  This might be useful for slow 8088 machines where
            turning off the map still shows the relative positions of stations
            but without taking the 10 seconds required to draw the maps.

  shft-F6 - Loads all National Weather Service sites on the current map out to
            a maximum of 256 miles.  Then use alt-N to load current NWS data
            if avilable.

DISPLAY SCREENS:  The remaining six APRS display pages are called up with
single key commands as shown below.  If there are more than one page of packet
stations in the net, then use the PgUp and PgDn keys to cycle through multiple
pages.  On both the P and L lists, you can move the cursor to select a single
station.  A prompt then allows you to (1) display the object on the screen, (2)
see a chronological list of all previous beacons from that station, (3) delete
the entry, (4) insert a position for a BEACON only station, etc.

  L - LATEST DISPLAY - Lists the latest BEACON packet from all stations.  This
      screen is like a braodcast message display showing the latest bulletin
      from each station.  It is an active screen updated in realtime as packets
      come in.

      F - FULL LENGTH - Same as L but displays full length of long beacons.
          Beacons can actually be about 1.5 lines long (total 128 bytes)

      O - ORDER THE LATEST LIST - Moves older beacons to the start of the list,
          and the most recent beacons to the end.  ALT-P does the same thing,
          but also deletes all stations more than a day old.

  P - POSITIONS DISPLAY - Lists the latest POSITION packet received from each
      station.  Since each position report can contain comments, this display
      is useful for seeing comments and resolving position data.  You may
      select (HOOK) any station or object in this list for manipulation.  See
      the section on OBJects.  Also the JUST ONE command works on this display
      to show JUST one type of stations at a time.

  W - WHEN HEARD - This display shows statistics of the number of packets heard
      from each station for the last 24 hours.  It is useful for observing
      station activity and on HF for observing propogation changes.

  R - READ MAIL - This screen monitors all messages on the frequency and keeps
      the last 23 lines heard.  This screen is useful for "READING the MAIL"

  D - DIGIPEATER PATH - This display shows the raw packet header including
      the digipeater paths used by all stations in your LATEST list.  Proper
      use of digipeaters is very important for minimizing QRM on APRS nets.

  A - ALL PACKETS - This display shows a chronological history of all packets
      received.  It also includes your incomming and outgoing message lines.
      Since messages do not have a time of receipt appended to them, this
      display is useful for seeing approximately when a message line was
      received.

  H - HELP - Toggles through two different pages of HELP

  I - INFORMATION - Another screen of useful information

  N - NON STANDARD TNC's - Gives info on operation with non TAPR2 TNC's.


TEXT MESSAGES:  There are two types of messages in APRS.  First are broadcast
messages (beacons) to all stations.   New BEACONS are shown at the bottom of
all APRS screens on frequency and highlighted in green so that all stations see
the new message or change in status.  They are also added to the ALL and LATEST
pages of all stations on frequency.  These beacons are perfect for alerting the
net to your current status.  Secondly, APRS implements a one line message
capability between operators.  Each line is ACKed when received by the other
station.  Multiple lines can be buffered up for eventual delivery.

  B - Displays your latest Beacon message.   Alt-B - Alters it.

  M - Displays messages on the current screen.  If messages are already on the
      current screen, then M forces a one-time transmission of all messages,
      without changing the current timing.   When ever you call up a new
      APRS screen, the messages are overwritten.  They will reappear if there
      is any change, such as an incomming message line or an ACK to one of
      your outgoing lines.  If messages are already displayed, then the M key
      forces an immediate repeat transmission of the last undelivered line.

  S - SEND MESSAGE - You are then prompted for the callsign of the station
      that you want the message to go to.  If you already have outgoing
      message lines pending, then the previous station callsign is pre-loaded.
      If you don't want to send the message, just enter a blank line.

      NOTE: APRS messages are the least efficient APRS mechanisim.  Intense
      real-time rag-chews on a busy APRS frequency should be done without
      digipeaters or with only the exact path specified, or should be done
      more effeciently using the TNC talk mode via a normal AX.25 connection.

      ACKS:  When your MSG is acknowledged, the word *ACK* (or *REJ* if his
      screen is full) will be over printed on the outgoing MSG line.  Note that
      unlike normal packet, APRS does not compute the return path for an ACK.
      Each station must set his outgoing VIA path so that his packets
      (including ACKs) get back to all stations in the net.  On the 5th DUPE
      of an incomming message, APRS will warn you that the other station is
      probably not getting your ACKS!

  K - KILL incomming message lines.  K key kills one line at a time.

  E - ERASE outgoing lines.  E key erases one outgoing line at a time.  First
      it erases *ACKed* messages, and then erases other lines.

 ^T - TALK TO TNC - This commmand allows you to disable APRS and talk straight
      through to your TNC to establish a direct CONNECTION.  This is useful for
      connecting to another APRS station's internal TNC mailbox to leave a
      message if he is not on line with APRS or for a quick keyboard to
      keyboard QSO with another APRS operator, known to be at his keyboard.
      These brief keyboard connections are not too dissruptive to other APRS
      operations on frequency as long as no computer data is transferred.
      Also permits you to monitor your other COM port hooked up to GPS or WX.

OBJECT FUNCTIONS:  Any station may place an object on the map to be displayed
at all stations.  Once on the screen, the object is listed in the P-list with
a (+) symbol.  This means it will be transmitted by your station.  You can STOP
transmitting each object by hooking it on the P-list and hitting S.  Users with
an un-validated copy of APRS are limited to only one uplinked object.  Even
after you have removed the object from your screen, or have stopped sending it,
it wil remain on all screens in the network until each individual operator
deletes it.  If an object has not been updated in over two hours, it fades to
a gray color.

  alt-A - ADD AN OBJECT - WIll add a new object to the screen at the current
          cursor location.  You are prompted for all pertinent information.
          There are 28 symbols that can be used to display the object.  They
          are listed alphabetically.  Some symbols are specific and some are
          generic so that they can be defined for each special APRS net.

  alt-D - DIRECT L/L INPUT - This command allows you to add an object to the
          screen without having to slew the cursor to the desired location
          first.  It is useful when you are given the L/L of the object, such
          as for entering the position of reported hurricanes.

  ctl-U - Enables/disables uplinking of all of your objects.

  PLIST - On the PList, you can HOOK any object or station with the cursor and
          then you may execute a number of different commands on that object:

          U or Q - Uplink or Quit uplinking that object
          Move   - Move it anywhere else on the map
          Show   - Center the map on the object
          Delete - Deletes the object from your list
          Just   - Lists only stations or objects of JUST one type
          Kill   - Stops display of your object on EVERYONE's screens!  This is
                   new in version 3.08.  The object remains in everyone's list
                   but just does not clutter the map.

 shft-F6- With one keystroke, you can load all of the National Weather service
          sites onto your current map out to 256 miles.  This 256 mile
          limitation is to prevent overloading your P-list.

OPERATIONS FUNCTIONS and CONTROLS:  There is a status display that I call the
control panel which can be displayed at the bottom of the screen.  It shows the
status of all toggle on/off functions, your validation status and your VIA
path.  Items in lower case are off and upper case are ON.  Example:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| NEW | GPS | XMT | UP | DR | LOG | DF | BCNS | cw | VHF | DIGI-1,DIGI-2     |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

   C    - CONTROLS - Displays a control line at the bottom of the screen
          showing the status of many APRS switches and modes.

  ^X    - XMT DISABLE - Toggeles on/off

  ^U    - UPLINK ENABLE - Toggles on/off.  If on, then your objects marked
          for uplinking, will be uplinked to all stations in the net.

  ^D    - DEAD RECKONING ON/off

  ^G    - LOG on/off - After 200 position reports are logged on moving stations
          then the positions are saved to a track history file for later replay.
          This command allows you to turn off that function.

   X    - CROSS Triangulation (DIRECTION FINDING) ON/off

  ^O    - OTHER PACKETS - Use this command to toggle the APRS beacon processing
          filter between APRS Only packets or ALL OTHER packets.  The state
          of this switch in shown on the control line.  Use OTHER to monitor
          non APRS frequencies to collect BEACONS and see who is on the air.

  ^C    - CW MESSAGES - Toggles CW mode on and off for new incomming messages
          lines to you are sounded out in CW if you are not near your CRT.

  ^Q    - QUERY -  This command sends an immediate APRS query packet to all
          stations on frequency.  All APRS stations will respond with all of
          their BEACONS, POSITS, OBJECTS, and MESSAGES sometime in the next 2
          minutes.  This command is AUTOMATICALLY sent when a station starts
          up the  APRS program.  This is why you hear a flurry of packet
          activity each time a new APRS station fires up on frequency.  With
          version 2.05, you can selectively Query any single APRS station by
          sending him a one-line message with the characters ?APRS in it.

  ^W    - WEATHER QUERY - Same as QUERY, but only weather stations respond.

  ^P    - PING -  Sends out a ping packet.  If the packet is digipeated by your
          selected VIA path, you will see it monitored on the bottom line of
          your display.  This lets you know that your station is transmitting
          and that the digipeater in your selected VIA path responded.

  ^V    - VIA PATH - Used to set up your outgoing digipeater path. (IMPORTANT!)
          If you have not selected a digipeater that covers your APRS net, then
          your packets and acks will never get to the other stations on freq
          even though you see them fine.  YOU MUST SET YOUR VIA PATH TO COVER
          your intended APRS AREA by selecting an appropriate digipeater path!
          In V2.13, APRS will warn you if another station does not appear to be
          getting your message ACKs.

 SHIFT-F1 was added in APRS version 2.12 so that an APRS station can override
          the normal APRS default ALIAS of RELAY and set his ALIAS to be the
          generic WIDE area address so he can serve as a temporary WIDE digi.
          Do this only with the concurrence of all others on Frequency.

 SHIFT-F4 Toggles nuisance BEEPS on and off.


OTHER FUNCTIONS:  These commands are set up and control functions that are
not done that often in normal operation:

   V - VALIDATE - This key is used to bring up the information on registering
       your copy of the program and for entering your validation number.  It
       is also used to enter your special WX, DF or GPS option code.

altC - CONFIGURATION FILE - Used to save your current configuration.  Saves
       the current map size and location as well as the state of HF/VHF, and
       your digipeater path.  Only registered users can save a config file.
       With V2.13 you can save each CFIG file with an optional 3 character
       file extension so that you can call them up quickly for different
       applications.  You invoke the optional files with a /EXT switch when
       you give DOS the APRS213 command.  IE:  C:> APRS213 /MOB would load
       the CFIG213.MOB file which you saved when you operated MOBile.  etc

  ^L - LOAD - This key allows you to load a backup file.  The file named BACKUP
       is saved every time you quit APRS so that you can restart the program
       to the last on air situation.  I save a different file for each packet
       frequency so that my map only shows stations on the current frequency.
       To facilitate this process, you only need to enter the numeric digits
       to LOAD a backup FREQxxxx or HFxxxx file.

  ^A - APPEND - This will permit you to load in a BACKUP file without losing
       all the stations that are already in your P and L lists.  If the same
       calls are in the appended file as are already in memory, there will
       be numerous dupes that should be manually deleted.  Also, APPEND does
       not append any LOG or WHEN-HEARD data.  The main reason for adding
       this feature is for loading KD4UYR automatic NatlWeatherService data.
       His program takes a National Weather Service Bulletin and automatically
       converts it into an APRS BACKUP file.  Just APPEND his data file, and
       your map instantly shows all the NWS WX stations on it!  This capability
       is now obsolete in version 3.10, which includes the NWS crunching within
       APRS!  See alt-N command.

altN - National Weather Service Update.  This key will search a designated file
       for NWS hourly weather advisories.   For each NWS station listed in both
       the data file and already in your P-list, the current conditions will be
       loaded.  Use the shift-F6 commands to pre-load your P-list with the NWS
       stations near you.

altL - Will load the most recent BACKUP.BK file with one keystroke.

  ^S - SAVE - Used to save the current situation in a file.  The file name
       defaults to the name of the last file loaded.  It is a good idea to
       save a separate file for each packet frequency on which you operate.

  ^I - INITIALIZE TNC - sends out TNC commands to setup the TNC for APRS.
       Note that this is the same as the TAB key.  Your TNC is automatically
       initialized when you start, but can be done at any time, if your TNC
       looses power, or needs to be reset to APRS defaults.  When you QUIT
       APRS, it gives a list of TNC parameters that were changed by APRS.

  ^X - XMT ON/OFF - disables routine transmitting from your station.  This is
       good for stations monitoring an event, but not actively participating.
       It keeps their routine beacons off the frequency.  The T key will force
       a one time transmission of your BCN, POS, OBJ, and MSG packets.

altD - DOS Shell - allows you to shell to DOS for whatever purpose...

TRACKING and TRACK HISTORIES - All position reports are saved to memory and
eventually to file for subsequent replay.  Each new position report is checked
against the last position from that unit and the current screen.  There are
several commands related to station tracking:

   T - TRACK - This is a subcommand on the P-list display which allows you to
       designate a station for tracking.  If TRACK is on, then the map will
       always remain centered on the selected station.  The map is re-drawn
       whenever the station moves beyond the present map range (use R command
       to show the Range Rings.

   A - ALARM - This is also a subcommand on the P-list which allows you to set
       an alarm on a given station.  If that station moves, APRS will beep and
       will re-center the map to track that station.  The same filter as used
       on the P-list is also used here so that the randomness of Selective
       Availability does not unnecessarily trigger this alarm.

   M - MOVE - A subcommand on the P list for moving a station.  Similar to just
       hooking it with the RETURN key, but is the only way to move an object or
       station with 00000/00000  for LAT/LONG.

altP   POSITION FILTER ON/OFF -   If a position is the same (within 20 yards or
       .01 minute of LAT/LON), then the report is not saved in memory or to a
       track history file.  If this POSITION filter is on, then the comparison
       is made out to 80 yards to include most of the randomness added to the
       GPS system by the Deaprtment of Defense.  This prevents non-moving GPS
       packet stations from filling up track history files with redundant
       positions.  In version 3.08, when the 80 yard filter is disabled, this
       also turns on a WX saver routine which will save all Weather reports in
       the Track History file for later trend analysis.

  ^S - SAVE - Forces a save of a BACKUP.BK, a BLxxxxxx,LOG and a TKxxxxxx.HST
       If you are in the field, and may possibly loose power, do a ^S every
       now and then, to be sure you save all track histories.  After the
       event, you can use a DOS text editor to append all the track history
       files together for the one event.  When you Quit APRS, ONLY a Backup
       file is saved, the LOG and TRACK data are LOST!  If, however, you give
       the BACKUP file any OTHER name, then a LOG and TK.HST file ARE saved.

altR - REPLAY - Used to replay track histories for moving stations or objects.
       Track histories are retained in memory for instant replay up to 200
       points.  When memory is full, a file is automatically saved and memory
       cleared for more points.  If less than 200 points are in memory, you
       MUST MANUALLY force a save using ^S BEFORE exiting the program or the
       track history points in memory will be lost!  During Replay several
       commands are useful to center the screen on the moving object, change
       the speed of replay and zoom in or out, etc.

 ^G    LOG - Toggles on and off the automatic logging of track histories to
       file.  Default is ON so that after 200 position reports, a file is
       automatically saved and memory is cleard for further accumulation.  If
       off, the 200 reports are retained in memory until you QUIT.

DIRECTION FINDING:  APRS can instantly traingulate fixes from multiple reporting
packet stations.  Even stations reporting a beam haeding that are not APRS
equipped, can be placed on the map by any APRS station using the ALT-A command
and be given a beam heading.  APRS assumes that any station or object using
the TRIANGLE symbol is a DF station and will plot a line of bearing in the
direction of his COURSE and with a quality proportional to the speed field.
Note that APRS uses 360 degrees as North and assumes 000 means no direction
information available.  A speed of 8 indicates excellent quality.

   ^B - BEAM HEADING - for entering a beam heading for your station.  If you
        are running the WX station option, it will be dissabled while the DF
        report is operative.  You may also specify a Quality factor 1-8.

    X - CROSS TRIANGULATE A FIX (ON/off) - plots all beam headings on the map.
        The more dotted the line is, the less its quality.


WEATHER STATIONS:  APRS displays weather stations as large blue circles with
a white line showing the wind speed and direction.  Remember that APRS uses
360 degrees for North and assumes that 000 means no direction information is
available.  Other useful WX commands:

alt W - Displays the next weather station in turn.  Displays the WX conditions
        in the weather box at the top of the screen, and circles the station
        on the map for identification.  The Weather box at the top of the
        screen will automatically be updated everytime the selected WX station
        sends out a WX report.

alt E - Enter a weather report.  Used to enter a manual WX report.  The word
        (manual) will be added at the end of the report to indicate that it
        was a one time synopsis and that APRS should not update the Date-Time
        each time it is transmitted.

    J - Use the J command to select Just Weather stations for display.

In version 3.07, several additional weather symbols were added.  These weather
symbols are selected from a Weather sub-menu activated by selecting the W key
from the general symbol menu.  The symbols combined with aptly chosen object
names can be used to convey most severe weather needs.

In version 3.08, an APPEND FILE command was added so that a backup WEATHER
SERVICE file in APRS format can be loaded without losing stations already in
the L and P lists.  KD4UYR has written a program that converts National Weather
Service Bulletins into an APRS compatible BACKUP file!  His program is now
obsolete, since APRS version 3.10 includes this capability in the shift-F6 and
alt-N commands.   Also in 3.08 and fixed in 3.09 you can now use the Alt-P
position filter command to enable or disable the saving of WX reports to track
history files for trend analysis.