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To : APRDIG@WW
TAPR APRS Special Interest Group Digest for Friday, May 28, 2004.
1. APRS and transit of Venus
2. Microsoft Maps
3. Re: APRS and transit of Venus
4. Re: Microsoft Maps
5. Re: APRS and transit of Venus
6. How to share a TNC
7. Help with homebrew tracker
8. Re: Help with homebrew tracker
9. findU backup server
10. Re: findU backup server
11. Re: findU backup server
12. Re: findU backup server
13. The Funeral for Captain Kenny
14. Re: findU backup server
15. Re: APRS Cross Country Flight
16. Re: findU backup server
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Subject: APRS and transit of Venus
From: "Robert Bruninga" <bruninga@usna.edu>
Date: Fri, 28 May 2004 12:14:18 -0400
X-Message-Number: 1
There were plans to use HAM radio and APRS to track the once-a-century
transit of Venus coming up next week on 8 June.
http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/VenusTransit.html
I have not received much feedback of anyone else planning on making
observations or participating in the HF and satellite nets that were
proposed. I thought this would be a great PR event for HAM radio becasue
it is the FIRST EVER occurrence of this event in Human history when we have
the miracle of Radio to compare observations from around the globe in real
time.
If you will be doing something on HAM radio for this event, lets coordinate
activities. Such as what HF net frequencies should we use? I will try to
coordinate APRS applications on my WEB page above.
de WB4APR, Bob
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Subject: Microsoft Maps
From: Glenn Wiebe <gswiebe@mb.sympatico.ca>
Date: Fri, 28 May 2004 11:18:40 -0500
X-Message-Number: 2
I received my regular "Microsoft This Week for May 27, 2004" newsletter today
and it included:
---------------------------------------------------------------
City maps from Canada, the United States, and Europe
<http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=582226>
---------------------------------------------------------------
I downloaded one file (.mps extension) and found I couldn't open it. I let
XP gp looking for a program that would let me open the file and ended up
at Microsoft where it said "File Type: Unknown".
Weird!
73 de Glenn...VE4GN
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Subject: Re: APRS and transit of Venus
From: "Richard Amirault" <ramirault@erols.com>
Date: Fri, 28 May 2004 13:11:28 -0400
X-Message-Number: 3
Bob, I'm very interested in this event since astronomy is another of my
hobbies ... but I can't see any *useful* data being collected by your
proposal. Maybe I'm just missing the point, but to me it seems like a waste
of time. I would think to collect any meaningful data you'd need
observations that were a lot more controlled than what you propose.
If you just want to have folks broadcast to the world what it looks like at
their location ... ok ... but I'm more interested in what it will look like
from my part of the world and I plan to be out with a (properly filtered)
telescope watching it with my own eyes.
Richard Amirault
N1JDU
PS. and it's not "next week" it's the week after that.
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Subject: Re: Microsoft Maps
From: "Stephen H. Smith" <WA8LMF2@aol.com>
Date: Fri, 28 May 2004 10:16:28 -0700
X-Message-Number: 4
Glenn Wiebe wrote on 5/28/2004, 9:18 AM:
>I downloaded one file (.mps extension) and found I couldn't open it. I
>let XP gp looking for a program that would let me open the file and ended up
>at Microsoft where it said "File Type: Unknown".
If you had read the FIRST line of the web page, you would have noticed
that these are map files for MS Pocket Streets (the tiny version of
MapPoint that runs on Pocket PCs). The extension .MPS stands for
"Microsoft Pocket Streets". You have to:
1) Have an operating Pocket PC. (PDA device similar to a Palm Pilot
that runs a tiny version of Windows)
2) Have the "Pocket Streets" program installed on it. This program
comes as an extra goodie on the CD-ROMs for MS MapPoint and MS Streets
and TRips for full-sized Windows PCs, or it can be downloaded from the
MS website at:
http://www.microsoft.com/pocketpc
3) Use "MS Activesync" to transfer the MPS file from the full-sized PC
(where you downloaded the file from the Internet) to the Pocket PC
(where it will open in "Pocket Streets").
I have been wishing for a long time that one of developers of the PDA
versions of APRS (either Pocket APRS for the Palm, or APRSce for the
Pocket PC) could reverse-engineer the format of the .MPS files.
If they could, we would have an unlimited supply of accurate maps at any
scale for anywhere in North America courtesy of MapPoint. (MapPoint
comes with a utility to select and export tiles of any part of the
MapPoint map in .MPS format to the Pocket PC. You can freely scroll and
zoom the MapPoint presentation over a wide range of detail ranging from
state level major-roads-only down to street level only a few blocks
across.)
Stephen H. Smith wa8lmf (at) aol.com
Home Page: http://wa8lmf.com
Ham Radio/Mobile SSTV page: http://members.aol.com/wa8lmf/ham
APRS Stuff http://members.aol.com/wa8lmf/aprs
Personal APRS Webserver http://members.aol.com/wa8lmf/webserver
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Subject: Re: APRS and transit of Venus
From: "Robert Bruninga" <bruninga@usna.edu>
Date: Fri, 28 May 2004 13:22:36 -0400
X-Message-Number: 5
Yes, The Venus Transit on APRS is just for fun. But it will show the
paralax and different angles from different observers and all of us
armchair APRS voyers can watch...
>>>"Richard Amirault" <ramirault@erols.com>5/28/04 1:11:28 PM>>>
>Bob, I'm very interested in this event... but I can't see
>any *useful* data being collected by your proposal. Maybe
>I'm just missing the point, but to me it seems like a waste
>of time.
Yep, but if one is going to be out in the field for 6 hours watching the
event anyway, it sounds to me like there is a lot of time available.
I am NOT proposing this to initiate a large effort, but simply proposing a
way to organize it for those people who just happen to wanna play radio on
this once in a life time event... (and oh by the way, let us in the USA
who cant see it be able to at least have something to do)...
>If you just want to have folks broadcast to the world
>what it looks like at their location ... ok ... but I'm
>more interested in what it will look like from my part of
>the world and I plan to be out with a (properly filtered)
>telescope watching it with my own eyes.
Same here. And it sounds quite boring, so I am looking for a way to play
radio while I sit there...
You know hams... just looking for an excuse to play radio...
Bob, Wb4APR
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Subject: How to share a TNC
From: wes@johnston.net
Date: Fri, 28 May 2004 15:21:58 -0400 (EDT)
X-Message-Number: 6
We did an APRS talk at the local Red Cross office a few weeks ago and I
used an 802.11b access point to facilitate my presentation. I had setup a
KPC3 TNC at home via AGWPE for the demo and used the wireless NIC in my
laptop on the poduim to connect to the TNC at home just as if it were in
the meeting hall. Another ham joined in and used the access point to
connect to the regular APRS-IS stream. Well, all of this got me thinking
(look out!).
Bob Bruninga has long touted his zip-lan concept and as technology marches
on, I think this is it's replacement.
Given that so many APRS client programs connect to AGWPE (Winaprs, UI-View,
XASTIR), and so many laptops and palms can talk to 802.11b, this becomes
the natural choice for ad-hoc networks. I think that a PC with a 12v ATX
power supply ( http://store.ituner.com/ituner/posoformi.html around $40 )
running win98 or better could become the "aprs server" for any EOC. If you
install AGWPE with a sound card TNC or KISS mode tnc, anyone running one of
the aforementioned aprs clients could easily connect to the AGWPE TNC on
the server. Further, if you set aside a little HDD space, you can store
copies of the APRS client you wish to provide to the users. For example, a
copy of Winaprs with the PORTS.INI already pointing to the AGWPE TNC you
are hosting. You can also store all the maps your users will need.
Now for the 802.11b part... Most access points will act as clients too.
This means that you can setup an 802.11b AP which can connect directly to
your PC's network card without using a crossover cable. Although you could
use a PCI 802.11b network card, you would probably want to move the antenna
to a better locaion than the back of your PC, and coax is lossy... I think
it's better to extend CAT5 cable than 2.4ghz on coax. With a POE adapter,
you can power the remoted access point directly from your PC's 5v power
supply. Now in windows if you don't have a 2nd network card, create a
bogus dialup internet account. If you do have a 2nd network card, you can
plug it into the first available CAT5 jack at the EOC. In either case, you
will need to turn on Internet Connection Sharing on the bogus dialup or 2nd
netowrk card so that your copy of windows will act as a DHCP host on the
wireless enabled AP network port. Now any 802.11b client who connects to
your network will get an IP address and be automatically configured by your
PC. From there he can download aprs software and maps, and run. Total
time would surely be on the order of 2 to 3 minutes from when the user
turned on his laptop. Now the users in the area can connect to your TNC or
to the APRS-IS via your server.
Now you have a 12v powered APRS Server which can talk to any laptop. Set
this server up in your car, or at the EOC.
Now if I could just distribute a pre-compiled copy of xastir and make the
server PC actually dish out maps like teraserver does.... ho hum.
Wes
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