[aprssig] Color code for fading stations?

[Robert Bruninga]

>>> sv2agw at raag.org 08/01/06 3:55 AM >>>
> What is the color code for stations that are about to removed?
> I mean when a station beacon arrives it is displayed normal, 
> after 5 minutes the station color needs to change and so on 
> as there is no new beacon.

Here are the original APRS definitions:

WHITE          - Station with message capability
LIGHT GRAY - Station without message capability
LIGHT BLUE  - A dead-reckoned station (more than 1 minute old)
DARK BLUE   - Previous position
DARK GRAY  - Station more than 80 minutes old 
VIOLET         - SOmeone else's OBJECT
YELLOW       - Your OBJECT
GREEN          - Digipeaters
BLUE             - Weather stations
WHITE CIRCLE - (or box) around IGATES
ORANGE       - A Mic-E (or KWD) set to SPECIAL
RED              - An emergency station (Mic-E or KWD)

The reason for the 80 minute fade-to-gray for old stations is
because that is just under the shortest possible ORBIT time for
any satellite.  The ISS for example returns in 90 minutes, so 
we want any old contacts that came in via a satellite to be 
faded to gray before the next orbit.  So this 80 minutes
seemed like a good time frame for all of APRS.  The original
fade-to-gray was 2 hours, but once we began using APRS
via satellite, APRS addendum version 1.1 shortend that
to 80 minutes as above and suggested it apply to all of
APRS as a default.

Hope that helps.

Bob, WB4APR