SYMBOLS.txt 7.7 APRS DISPLAY SYMBOLS The 44th character in the APRS standard position report determines the symbol to be displayed according to the following table. Notice that there are several generic shapes without designated descriptions, so that users can tailor their symbology to a particular APRS net application. NOTE! In general, symbols only have the meaning defined by the particular APRS net that is using it. DO NOT INFER that an EMERGENCY or QUAKE symbol is real without positive confirmation. For example, the QUAKE symbol makes a nice bull's eye, useful for highlighting certain objects (such as the HARA arena at Dayton). SYMBOLS ON MAPS! APRS can also be permanently embedded in maps. To embed a label in a map, simply make the first three characters of the label be a $ followed by the symbol character, followed by a hex number from 1 to F that indicates the color for the symbol. The remaining 8 characters can be used for a conventional label at the same location. An example are the VORTAC nav-aids in Alaska. The Anchorage VORTAC appears as ANC on all maps below 128 miles. The label entry is $VFANC,LAT,LONG,128. AREAS ON MAPS! You can define BOX/CIRCLE/LINE or TRIANGLE areas in all colors, either open or filled in. They can be any size from 60 feet up to 100 miles. Simply move the cursor to the location, press HOME, move the cursor to te lower right corner of the AREA and hit INPUT-ADD-OBJECTS- AREA. You will be prompted for the type of area shape, and the color. Please note that AREA shapes can only be defined by selecting the upper left corner first, then the lower right second. The line is an exception. It is still top to bottom, but the lower point can be to the left of the beginning point. These symbols are useful for defining areas on MAPS in real-time to everyone in the net. For example, defining the area for a search-and-rescue, or adding a special ROAD or ROUTE for a special event. Be cautious in using the color fill option, since all other objects in that area that occur earlier in your PLIST will be obscured. AND you do NOT know the order of other stations P- lists. See the AREAS section below for details. SYMBOLS WITH STAND-ALONE GPS TRACKERS: Since the stand-alone GPS/PACCOMM TNC trackers output the raw GPS data over the air, instead an APRS formatted position report, there are two methods that I have included for you to be able to specify the symbol type. First, there is a default SSID convention which will be used if no other vehicle data is available. See the table below. SSID SYMBOL SSID SYMBOL -0 Dot -8 Ships (power) -1 Ambulance -9 Cars -2 Bus -10 Space objects -3 Firetruck -11 Balloons -4 Bike -12 Jeep -5 Yacht(sail) -13 RV (recreational vehicle) -6 Helo -14 Truck -7 Aircraft -15 Van These defaults can be user definable on a net by net basis. If your net must have different defaults, contact me. Secondly, you may indicate the desired symbol character surrounded by braces {s} as the first 3 characters of the TNC BText. Once the BText has been received by a station, the mobile will then be displayed using the specified symbol. The advantage of this method is that more symbols are available than from the SSID convention. The disadvantage is that the symbol is not displayed until AFTER at least one BText is received. APRS SYMBOL TABLE - --------------- ! - 3 vert bars (EMERGENCY) " - RAIN # - DIGI $ - SUN (always yellow) % - DX CLUSTER & - HF GATEway ' - AIRCRAFT (small) ( - CLOOUDY ) - Hump * - SNOW + - Cross , - reverse L shape - - QTH . - X / - Dot 0-9 Numerial Boxes : - FIRE ; - Portable tent < - Advisory flag = - RAILROAD ENGINE > - CAR (SSID-9) ? - GRID SQUARE (six digit. Not shown below 8 miles) @ - HURRICANE or tropical storm A-J LETTERED CIRCLES ...............ALTERNATE WX DEFINITIONS: K - School A - reserved L - Lighthouse B - Blowing Snow (also BBS) M - MacAPRS C - reserved N - Navigation Buoy D - Drizzle O - BALLOON E - Smoke P - Police F - Freezing rain Q - QUAKE G - Snow Shower R - RECREATIONAL VEHICLE H - Haze S - Space/Satellite I - Rain Shower (Also TCP-IP) T - THUNDERSTORM J - Lightening U - BUS V - VORTAC Nav Aid W - National WX Service Site X - HELO (SSID-5) Y - YACHT (sail SSID-6) Z - UNIX X-APRS [ - RUNNER \ - TRIANGLE (DF) ] - BOX with X (PBBS's) ^ - LARGE AIRCRAFT _ - WEATHER SURFACE CONDITIONS (always blue) ` - Satellite Ground Station a - AMBULANCE b - BIKE c - DX spot by callsign d - Dual Garage (Fire dept) e - SLEET f - FIRE TRUCK g - GALE FLAGS h - HOSPITAL i - IOTA (islands on the air) j - JEEP (SSID-12) k - TRUCK (SSID-14) l - AREAS (box,circle,line,triangle) See below m - MILEPOST (box displays 2 letters if in {35}) n - small triangle o - small circle p - PARTLY CLOUDY q - GRID SQUARE (4 digit. Not shown below 128 miles) r - ANTENNA s - SHIP (pwr boat SSID-8) t - TORNADO u - TRUCK (18 wheeler) v - VAN (SSID-15) w - FLOODING(water) x - diamond (NODE) y - YAGI @ QTH z - WinAPRS { - FOG | - reserved (Stream Switch) } - diamond ~ - reserved (Stream Switch) AREAS: The new format for specifying special areas uses the CSE/SPD field to provide the additional information as follows: $CSE/SPD... Normal Field description lTyy/Cxx... Where: l (lower case L) is the symbol for "LOCATION SHAPES" T is the Type of shape: 0=circle, 1=line, 2=elipse 3=triangle 4=box add 5 to these => color-in C is the color from 0 to 15. For colors geater than 9, the / is replaced with a 1. yy is the sqroot of the latitude offset in 1/100ths xx is the sqroot of the longitude offset These offsets are ALWAYS positive to the right and down, except for the special case of a lower right quadrant line, these are given the Type of 6 and are drawn down and to the left. EXTENSION ALPHABET: There is potential for an alternate symbol alphabet. This alternate alphabet is indicated by a backslash character instead of the / character between the LAT/LONG fields. So far, we have NOT defined any new symbols to use this alternate alphabet. But if you just GOTTA have that special symbol, lemme know. Now there is potential room to add it. NWS WX SYMBOL EXTENSION: I have re-defined several of the LETTERED BOXES to have alternate WX symbols. Any user can toggle on or off these symbols. Use the WX-UseNWSsyms command. Also, with WX symbols ON, the letters WX will appear on the control line instead of CW. Also some of the normal APRS wx symbols are re-drawn to match the standard NWS symbol. ALTERNATE NWS Symbols MODIFIED EXISTING SYMBOLS --------------------- -------------------------- D - Drizzle " - Rain E - Smoke * - Snow F - Freezing rain e - Sleet G - Snow Shower { - Fog H - Haze I - Rain shower J - Lightening HURRICANES, TROPICAL STORMS and DEPRESSIONS: These symbols will be differentiated by colors red, yellos, and blue. Additionally a radius of Huricane and also Tropical storm winds will also be shown if the format detailed in WX.txt is used.