[OZAPRS] Message Traffic and WX Alerts in Xastir

Geoff geoff at gatwards.org
Wed Nov 26 21:02:46 EST 2008 

David,

Looks like Xastir's Alert list is breaking up the messages a little
differently...

CNTFLW (Originating callsign = CWA+PID)
PM2AA  (I believe this is the checksum sequence payload - see
wxsvr.aprs.net.au/protocol.html)
NWS_WATCH  (warning type)
25 at 2202z -----> 26 at 1002z  (Issue time -----> Expiry Time)
YN   (This is the one I have no idea about!!)
VC_C021  (Victoria County 021 area)
FLOOD  (Plaintext warning type)

So if we could understand where that third last piece of data comes from
we'll be able to sort this ... Whatever it is, I'm guessing that ?N is not
valid, and therefore why it's not showing up.

There is a THIRD message transmitted with each Wx alert that I didn't
mention in the first mail - the Warning Summary is also transmitted as a
standard APRS Message to BOMxxx where xxx is the CWA code.
This is there to allow display in a readable format on mobile rigs like the
D700/D710 etc.  That's what you are seeing in the message window - actual
messages :-)

Geoff





-----Original Message-----
From: ozaprs-bounces at aprs.net.au [mailto:ozaprs-bounces at aprs.net.au] On
Behalf Of David
Sent: Wednesday, 26 November 2008 6:51 PM
To: Australian APRS Users
Subject: Re: [OZAPRS] Message Traffic and WX Alerts in Xastir

Hi Geoff..tnx for the info...very helpful

FYI...not expecting any Xastir help...

in the WX Alert List i find the following:-

CNTFLW  PM2AA NWS_WATCH 25 at 2202z ---------> 26 at 1002z YN VC_C021 FLOOD

This brings up a Yellow area with Flood insert

ILLSWW  Q50AA NWS_ADVIS 26 at 0500z ---------->26 at 1200z ?N NS_Z541 WIND

Icon shows only no area shown


in the Message Traffic List

QCWSTS  >  BOMQCW   seq:Q3eAC type:M    SEVERE STORM WARNING (WIND) FOR 
MARANOA/WARREGO,CENTRAL HIGHLANDS,CENTRAL WEST,CHANNEL COUNTRY AND 
DARLING DOWNS

Thunderstorm icon   with QCW_STS label
many others similar for Eastern and Western Australia

as you can see these are different from the ones that you gave in you e-mail
why i dont know ...will have to do much more research

73 David VK4BDJ

Geoff wrote:
> I can't answer the Xastir specific queries, however how the shapefiles are
> triggered is as follows:
>
> Each shape within each shapefile is assigned a field that is used to
> 'trigger' the shape (Each shapefile has a unique .dbf format - we just
> copied what the Yanks use)
>
> In the z_ausXXXX file for example, the .dbf contains STATE, ZONE and
> STATE_ZONE.  These are defined within the .dbf as for example NS, 025, and
> NS025 respectively.
>
> The APRS message that triggers this zone contains the state and zone(s)
> required to be highlighted (Leading 0 is insignificant)
>
> The APRS message itself looks like:  
> UPWSTS>APRS::NWS-WARN :260830z,TSTORM,NSZ25 {Q5QAB
>
> Now I'm not sure how Xastir handles this, but in UI-View, all it cares
about
> is the NSZ25 part and the expiry time.  TSTORM is a "plaintext" identifier
> that only shows up within the NWS plugin, and the shape is automatically
> hidden when the expiry time passes.
>
> Objects on the map are just that - objects, triggered by an object beacon,
> like this one:
> UPWSTS>APRS:;UPW_STS  *260830z3023.94S\14310.20ETSevere Tstorm {Q5QAA
>
> The symbol used to represent the Thunderstorm is Symbol-set \ (Alternate)
> symbol T.  We're using the same symbols as the US NWS messages, so they
> should be available.
>
> Regards,
> Geoff  VK2XJG
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ozaprs-bounces at aprs.net.au [mailto:ozaprs-bounces at aprs.net.au] On
> Behalf Of David
> Sent: Wednesday, 26 November 2008 3:30 PM
> To: Australian APRS Users
> Subject: Re: [OZAPRS] Message Traffic and WX Alerts in Xastir
>
> Hi Andrew......ive been getting areas with Yellow and Flood for some 
> time now....also was getting Blue Alert at one stage.....
> at the moment we have large areas with STS Severe Thunderstorm Storm 
> warnings....
> i note that in the /usr/local/share/symbols dir there is no .xbm for 
> Thunderstorms...would this cause them not to be shown up as colored 
> areas as they are in UI-View  (Red)...if this is so how would one go 
> about making a .xbm for Thunderstorms.....have tried to change the file 
> name of the Tonado one to see if it worked ...nix...
> how  does the .shp file pick up which warning and what it is from
>
>
>
> 73 David VK4BDJ
>
>
>
> Andrew Errington wrote:
>   
>> I did a quick experiment.
>>
>> I have made my own .dbfawk files for the map data from here:
>>
>> http://mapcenter2.cgpsmapper.com/mapsetview.php?id=185
>>
>> (You can get maps of Oz too, but for any of these files you have to run
>> cgpsmapper first to convert to shapefiles).
>>
>> I used QGIS to examine the list of fields, and entered that list as the
>> dbfinfo line in the .dbfawk file.  Unfortunately I couldn't get XASTIR to
>> recognise my .dbfawk, so I moved the .dbfawk file to the maps directory
>> (to the same directory as the shapefiles) and gave it the same name as
the
>> shapefile.  It worked.
>>
>> Today's quick experiment was to move the files *back* to the /config
>> directory and try and get them to work.  When I did that XASTIR reported
>> its "No DBFAWK signature for..." error, but then I selected Map|Index:
>> Reindex all maps, and viola!  The .dbfawk files were found and used.
>>
>> The second thing I did was to edit the dbfinfo line and change all the
>> field names to uppercase (I already had them as lowercase).  This did not
>> seem to make a difference, which implies that the dbfinfo line in .dbfawk
>> files is case-insensitive.  I would like to verify this with the source
>> (or by asking someone who knows for sure).
>>
>> It might also be useful to point out that you can tweak the .dbfawk files
>> while XASTIR is running.  XASTIR reads them every time it re-draws the
>> map, so your changes are visible without having to quit and restart
>> XASTIR.
>>
>> Hope this is useful.
>>
>> 73,
>>
>> Andrew
>> ZL3AME
>>
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>>
>>   
>>     
>
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