[aprssig] APRS System Overriding Fundamentals

[Stephen H. Smith]

aa8ei at cinci.rr.com wrote:

>
> I hoped that, in time, the map image problem would be solved, still 
> retaining all the 'radio' (and then internet) capability. I haven't 
> tried UI-View and PM7. I gave up on UI-View some time ago because I 
> couldn't get maps of interest to me.

Precision Mapping by itself probably wouldn't do what you are asking for 
since it doesn't feature trails and tiny side roads in remote areas.   
However:

1)   UI-View can use ANY image of a map as long as you can identify the 
lat/long of two points in the image.  These can be screen caps from any 
other computer mapping program, scans of paper maps or even snapshots of 
a actual map on the wall taken with a high-res digicam.   (I've actually 
done this to turn the paper maps handed out at the National Park Service 
entrances into live maps in UI-View.)

For features that don't change during your event, you could mark up a 
paper map with highliters before scanning or photographing it. Or you 
could add symbols and markups to the .GIF or .PNG image in a photo 
editor or paint program after it has been scanned or digitized.

2)    If you use Precision Mapping 7 via the PMap server to display the 
major roads and points of interest in UI-View, you can then add OVERLAYS 
to the display in UI-View, consisting of typical map draw objects 
(icons, lines, outline or solid polygons, etc.) created in PMap's own 
editor.  

3)    With Precision Mapping server in UI-View, you can ALSO use 
UNDERLAYS  which are Windows BMP images.  With underlays, the normal 
coloration of areas such as cities, counties and states become 
transparent (the borders remain) so that scanned topo maps, aerial 
photos, etc can show, underneath aprs objects and any overlay objects.  

 4)   UI-View uses a simple rectangular X/Y  "non-projection" of 
latitude and longitude; i.e. 1 min of lat is exactly the same distance 
onscreen an a min of longitude regardless of position on the earth's 
surface.   The UI-View/PMap underlay process will actually "distort" 
properly proportioned images such as photos and topo map images to 
properly register with PMap's own data when these images are used as 
underlays.

5)    An add-on tool for UI-View (UI-Terra) will actually capture 
calibrated ready-to-use-with-UIview  aerial photos from the  TerraServer 
website.   These could be an excellent starting point for PMap underlays 
as well.




Stephen H. Smith             wa8lmf (at) aol.com
                                                    
Home Page:                   http://wa8lmf.com

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