Surely we can put HAMFEST objects on the map to help alert and remind our fellow hams of such important upcoming events! I just checked, and not a single HFEST is showing. There is one HAMFEST object, but it is in New Zealand!
Please use this format for the name of your HAMFEST object:
HFEST-ddx
Use the "\h" symbol which is a bright red object...
This not only makes them stand out on the map, but also includes the DATE (dd) in the object name to make it clear this is a future object. The "x" on the end makes it unique so that FINDU
can find them all:
http://map.findu.com/HFEST*
For details of this format, see the LOCAL INFO page about 30% down the slider:
http://www.ew.usna.edu/~
It's the season, lets show what APRS can do...
Bob, WB4APR
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APRS EVENTS application for generating this info... Thanks to Stephen H. Smith wa8lmf
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The application, APRS Events, is available from M0CYP's UI-View add-on pages
It actually doesn't depend on UI-View or it's settings at all. It is a standalone application that uses the AGW Packet Engine as an interface to access one or more TNCs. You specify a callsign and path completely independently of UI-View.
Currently at my station, AGWpe is arbitrating access to both the HF and VHF ports of a classic original KAM, and access to a second KPC3+. It allows 4 copies of UI-View, UI-Traffic Monitor, UI-Network Analysis and APRS Events to access/share both TNCs.
APRS Events is controlled by a text file "APRSevents.csv" that contains lines like these (these are single lines that may wrap in email):
#2008-07-11 15:05:00#,#2008-07-12 10:00:00#,"Inland Empire ARC Swapmeeet 8AM Sat - Cable Airport in Upland",28
#2008-07-21 15:05:00#,#2008-07-22 21:00:00#,"Pasadena ARC Meeting 7:00 PM Tuesday at Kaiser in Pasadena",28
#2008-07-25 15:05:00#,#2008-07-26 10:00:00#,"TRW Swapmeet Saturday 8:00 AM Manhattan Beach",28
The final set of digits is the repetition rate in minutes. I purposely set the rep rate slightly faster than 30 minutes so that if my "half-hourly" beacons happened to coincide with someone else's, the beacons would gradually drift out of phase over time. The application has a fill-in template to add events, but the user interface is so clumsy and erratic when it comes to editing existing events that I find it easier to edit the .CSV file directly outside of UI Events. (On most Windows systems with MS Office installed, double-clicking the APRSevents.csv file makes it open in an Excel spreadsheet where it is neatly columnated and easy to edit. )
The application is hardwired to transmit in bulletin format. (I wish it could transmit objects as well -- perhaps in a future revision it will). It stores it's own path and originating callsign independent of any other application using AGWpe.
I have set a single-hop path using the actual callsign of a single digipeater (N6EX-1) that covers the area of interest (the San Gabriel Valley -- the area between 5 and 20 miles east of downtown Los Angeles that includes Pasadena, Alhambra, Monterey Park, Arcadia, Monrovia, El Monte, etc). This avoids setting off 4 or 5 digipeaters all over the greater Los Angeles basin simultaneously with the generic WIDE2-2 path normally used around here.
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