The latest released version information is always here and will be below eventually!

July 22, 1998

APRS+SA v0.9.17 Release Notes:

Changes:

1) Lists support "Wildcards". For example, KH2Z* will include all SSID's of KH2Z as will KH2Z-*. Other valid examples are *2Z*, KH?Z*, etc.

2) Data page in Setup. The data page will automatically delete data if enabled. Most data is deleted by time (hours). Position reports can also be deleted by total number. Valid times are from 0 hours to a really big number of hours. You can enable or disable deletion of data by type.

3) A default path can be set for Posits. Enter Callsign on Main page or Setup like this: CALLSIGN/PATH where path is the path ID specified in the Unproto setup window (Ctrl-U).

4) If the RF path is not available, all messages sent to TCPIP, if that is available. This is useful for those running the program with a TCPIP connection only.

5) Statusbar. Range, Proximity Alarms, Bulletins, and Search strings set up a text variable that is displayed when you move the mouse cursor over the statusbar of the main window. Example - do a Range function. The results will appear in the statusbar. When the program sees the mouse move OFF the statusbar, it will revert to normal display. Move it back onto the statusbar will again show the most recent data.

6) The Telemetry page has an additional "Text" column. This column attempts to show the origin of the telemetry packet. Current items for this column include, KPC-3+, Mic-E, and MIM.

7) A new list has been added that looks at the TO field of received packets. If the TO field does not match one of the strings in this list, it is ignored. The list also supports wildcards. For example, if the string AP* is in this list, then most packets from APRS+SA, APRSdos and WinAPRS will be decoded. See the list for default values. This list by default is not enabled.

8) Setup.exe now creates a shortcut on the desktop to APRS+SA.

June 24, 1998

APRS+SA v0.9.16 Release Notes:

New:

1) IGate callsign list, (bottom right list on List page of Setup) will now gate messages TO a particular callsign. This callsign can be a alias callsign such as CQFD! The gating of messages TO a callsign is in addition to the gating of Position reports. Note that only the first 2 callsigns in the list are used for gating, all others will be ignored.

2) Objects page has been split into out going objects at the top, and received objects at the bottom. Out going objects now conform more to APRS protocol in that if another station creates an object of the same name, they then assume transmission of the object and APRS+SA will suspend transmission of it. You can also "kill" and object you have been transmitting, causing it to disappear from APRSdos screens and to be removed from the received object list on the Object page. Transmitted object can have 5 states, each indicated by a different color. A green dot beside an outgoing object means that it is an active object. A red dot means the object is being transmitted as "killed". A blue dot means another station has assumed responsibility for transmitting that object. Black means the object is inactive, and yellow means the object is persistent, which means it can not be remotely killed of taken over by another station. This latter state is in addition to standard

APRS protocol.

Color State

----- ------

Green Active

Red Killed

Blue Remotely Killed

Black Inactive

Yellow Persistent

3) Bitmap window now supports APRS Icons. The bitmap window now has 2 pages, the Map tap and the Setup tab. Current Setup options includes weather to include Icons, Callsigns, and/or Track lines on the map.

4) Bitmap calibration files have been broken into individual files. This means that each bitmap will have its own calibration file (.cal) after the bitmap has been calibrated. This replaces the Directory.cal file which stored all calibration constants. This change was done in order to easily facilitate the sharing of bitmap files and their calibration constants.

5) Change stream characters for dual port TNCs are now programmable. See the Program tab of Setup.

6) There is now an option to treat other SSIDs of MYCALL as a group callsign. For example, if MYCALL is set to KH2Z, and WZ6ZZZ sends a message to KH2Z-1, if this option is enabled, I will decode this message, and it will be in my Inbox. The Callsign will appear as WZ6ZZZ>KH2Z-1 meaning WZ6ZZZ was sending a message to KH2Z-1, but was decoded as a group message. Note that my station will NOT send an ACK (acknowledgement) of the message from WZ6ZZZ as he was sending to KH2Z-1. This feature does allow you to monitor all traffic to your callsign.

7) There is now a general Search String function. This function scans the input data stream for an arbitrary character string. For example, CQFD. When the character string is detected, the WAV file specified is played and an event is recorded in the Event Log. This feature in enabled and configured on the Sounds tap of Setup.

8) Cosmetics: The Message page now has a "Splitter" that replaces the trackbar that use to be on the left of the page. To resize the splitter, drag the line separating the top and bottom panes to the position desired. This true of the Objects page also.

9) The APRS+SA Web Server will now display objects in the lower pane of the Objects page.

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June 4, 1998

APRS+SA v0.9.15 Release Notes:

New:

1) Selective availability (SA) filtering on receive. This option is enabled on the Program page of setup. There is also an SA distance that is user definable from 30 feet to X (some big number). The default is 360 feet. If this option is chosen, then new Posits are examined for range from the previous posit. If the distance it less than the SA distance, the old one is thrown out and the new one is kept. Side effects: if you are tracking a slow moving object, you may not collect a nice track line of travel. Remedy: uncheck this option, and the old program behavior is restored.

2) Zoom Proximity Alarms. When enabled, this feature will redraw the map when a station violates the proximity distance for that type of station. See Sounds page of Setup

3) Proximity Alarms only fire on the first occurance of a particular position. That is, if a station violates a proximity alarm, but does not then move from that position, the proximity alarms will not continue for that station, until it again moves beyond the SA filter distance.

4) Zoom Posit. This feature will zoom the map to the location of any NEW position report. This feature will fire when it first hears a fixed station for example, but will not fire again for that station, unless it moves beyond the SA filter distance.

5) New Position page update option, Update Position page on New Positions Only. This option is useful on slower computers and is enabled by checking the appropriate box on the Program page of Setup. The Position page will show the current position, but not necessarily the most recent position report.

6) Lat/Long entry is now more uniform through out the program. Only Object entry has not changed. Current Position, Map Center and the DF window use the same entry form. You can enter coordinates in Decimal Degrees, Degrees, Decimal Minutes, or Degrees, Minutes, Decimal Seconds. From this form, you can "Hide" the other program windows and can capture coordinate positions from the Altas map. This replaces the D<>DM<>DMS converter.

7) When mobile, the program will transmit the heading and speed in the Posit text when using the RMC NMEA sentence, in the APRS protocol format.

8) The APRS+SA HTTP Web Query is included in this version. This feature is experimental and may change or be removed in future versions. To enable the Web Query click the Open button in the Web frame on the Internet of Setup. The port used for the server is user selectable. It defaults to port 80. However, if you already have a Web server on your machine, this will can cause conflicts. I'd suggest using port 8000 in that case. The URL for the server will be displayed below the Port entry window whent he port has been opened. Use this URL to access the Web Server. For example if your URL shows as http://123.234.456.678:8000, enter this in your Web Browser to access the server on your machine. Note you must have dialup connection open to your Internet service provider before the Web Server will open. All Web Query functions have hypertext links. The Web Query can provide several types of maps, including a Topo map for some areas of the country. Note that the maps are from the vicinity.com web site and have very good coverage of a number of parts of Canada and US possesions!

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May 14, 1998

APRS+SA v0.9.14 Release Notes:

New: Command box on GPS page to send commands to the GPS receiver. Example: I use this to change the configuration on my GPS-35 receiver, to enable or disable various NMEA sentences.

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May 9, 1998

APRS+SA v0.9.13 Release Notes:

Changes:

1) The reloading of window position and column position and width has been made a user option. To enable this, check the appropriate box on the Program tab of Setup.

Fixes:

1) Shutdown icon was incorrect, off by one.

2) Startup icon was incorrect, off by one.

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May 8, 1998

APRS+SA v0.9.12 Release Notes:

Fixes:

1) Secondary Symbol table now supported with Objects

2) Startup error trapping code with restoration of all windows and listviews. (debug). This code just bypasses any errors on startup. It may be that I'll need to pull the window restoration code. It appears that on some setups of APRS+SA, Startup will produce an error with window restoration. This is not well understood at this time. Same copy running in the same household on a different computer runs fine.

Techical Note: I've added new window resizing code to the program on some windows. This code greatly simplifies the process of resizing a window under user command. An example will be found on the Lists tab of Setup.

Development Tools Note: I've discovered a bug in my development tools. This bug introduces typos in the source code that may not become evident until runtime. Please report any recurrent error messages.

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May 6, 1998

APRS+SA v0.9.11 Release Notes:

Installation notes. This version comes with a completely new EXE file. You must download both aprsplus1.zip and aprsplus2.zip. Those who beta tested v0.9.10 already have the new EXE. All others, you must download both files. Copy the contents of both files to a single directory, and execute Setup.exe to install. See release notes for v0.9.10.

New

1) Support for transmitting the secondary symbol table has been enabled.

2) Non-ham callsign (CAP) registration code added. Note, APRServe validation code is sent only for amateur radio registration.

Fixes:

1) DDE support for the Weather form has been modified enabling 3rd party support for entering weather data from an external program, and transmitting it via APRS+SA.

May 3, 1998

APRS+SA v0.9.10 Release Notes:

Note: this is a preliminary release. The version uses aprsplus.exe v3.0.01. Version 3.0.00 has considerable problems with the Internet interface. Please do not mix this version with any previous version. I recommend installing it in a new directory. Copy the contents of aprsplus1-3001.zip and aprsplus2-3001.zip a new directory, and execute Setup.exe to install.

.

New

1) Most columns of data are now moveable in v0.9.10 (with 3.0.01 of the EXE). For example, you can drag the G (Gusts) column on the Weather page over to the W (Wind speed) column.

2) All Window positions and column widths are preserved between invocations of the program for registered users.

3) Several new menu options have been added to the Outbox of the Messages page. These include methods of changing a messages path, and copying the message text into the Message entry window to send it to another recipient. Also, double clicking on a callsign starts a new message to that station.

4) A first draft of a "Find" function has been added. Currently, this only works on the Listviews. The find function is case sensitive.

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April 29, 1998

APRS+SA v0.9.03 Release Notes:

Fixes

1) Several decoding errors of NMEA packets, again modified.

Experimental

The bitmap window has been separated from the main window. A number of new features have been added. This feature remains experimental and may be changed or completely removed in future versions.

1) You can now open other bitmaps other than the default USA2.BMP. I have included World.bmp also.

2) You can open your own Mercator projection map bitmap. You can calibrate it with a 2-point calibration process if you know the Lat/Long of 2 locations, preferably near to opposite corners. Point to the first point, and right-click and choose Point-A. Then the second and choose Point-B. Then choose Calibrate to perform the calibration. If the calibration appears correct, you can save the calibration for future use by choosing the Save Calibration menu option. APRS+SA then writes the information to a file called bitmap.dir. Next time you load this bitmap, the program will read the calibration data from this file.

3) You can Paste a bitmap from the Windows Clipboard. I have used this with SA with 2 Lat/Long MapNotes on it. Note that you can not save calibration from a map that was pasted from the clipboard.

4) You can Copy a bitmap to the Windows Clipboard for use in other programs.

5) The Lat/Long of the cursor is displayed in the Bitmap window statusbar.

6) You can zoom in and out on a bitmap. You can not zoom a map pasted from the clipboard.

7) The only drawing function provided is the location of the most recently heard stations.

------------------------------------------

April 22, 1998

APRS+SA v0.9.02 Release Notes:

Fixes

1) Decoding of NMEA data structures corrected for NULL data. This bug caused errors in the decoded data structure which could cause SA4/SA5 to abend. If you have been using v0.9.00 or v0.9.01, you may have data that has been parsed incorrectly. You may need to delete any data that is causing errors with map generation. Clearing all position data should correct this after starting v0.9.02

Experimental:

1) I have included a bitmap, USA2.BMP used on the "USA" page. This bitmap covers the lower 48 states. It shows the relative position of position reports. The bitmap is scalable. Resizing the main window will cause the bitmap to rescale. Right click on the bitmap for a popup menu. In theory other bitmaps can be used in place of my included USA bitmap. I have not provided users any way to substitute bitmaps and calibrate them. This page may be changed in future releases or removed entirely. Your comments are welcome.

----------------------------------------

April 14, 1998

APRS+SA v0.9.01 Release Notes:

This version requires download of both the aprsplus1.zip and aprsplus2.zip files.

All users are strongly encouraged to stop using v0.9.00 and upgrage to 0.9.01.

Fixes

1) Popup Menu on the lists on the Lists page of Setup and on the Tracking list now works with WinNT.

April 12, 1998
APRS+SA v0.9.00 Release Notes:
This is the first version of APRS+SA that may be registered. See Register.txt.
See Install.txt for installation directions.
This version requires downloading of the entire program file set. The old
APRSa4i.exe file will not work. The V0900 and above executable is called
APRSplus.EXE. Support files include APRSplus.Reg and Setup.Reg which contain
program configuration data. APRSplus.Log which contains the all position
information, and APRSplus.Dat which contains all non-position data, such as
bulletins, messages, weather data, etc. I suggest creating a new directory for
version 0.9.00 and above if you have been using a previous version of APRS+SA.


New:
1) The Weather and Status pages no longer scroll with new incoming data. Callsign
updated inplace. The list of callsigns can be sorted by clicking the column
headers. It can also be sorted by distance away from you by selecting the Sort by
Range menu option via the popup menu, activated by right clicking on the list.
2) 2 more display filters have been added: Local and Tactical filter, found on the
main parameters page of the Setup window. Local only displays data from stations
heard via RF which may include HF Gates. Use the HF Gate filter to exclude these.
The Tactical filter only displays stations in the Tactical list, activated by
pressing Ctrl+T.

Fixes:
1) SSID Icons are now displayed correctly for Mic-E stations.

January 16, 1998APRS+SA v0.8.13 Release Notes

New:

1) The main page of the Setup window has been reworked. Parameters such as com port and baud rates have been coded as "Combo" controls replacing the "List" controls they use to be. This provides a scrollbar in the list to indicate there are more choices than may be displayed.

2) The opening and closing of the serial port has changed. To open the port, select the desired Com Port. To close it, choose the Closed option.Note that v0.8.13 has not been fully tested with all the new changes on the setup page. I have not found any anomalies in the release version, but...

January 16,1998APRSa4 v0.8.12 Release notes.

Fixes:

1) The GPS port supports Com5-Com10. The TNC port already has this support.

New:

1) This is now a TCP page on the main program window that shows the incoming TCP/IP data stream.

2) The Status page will now log non-status packets for station that do not have a status packet already. When an APRS status packet is heard, the non-status packet is replaced. The non-status packets would include such packets as ID, and BEACON. Any packet that does not conform to the APRS protocol.

3) The program will now decode stand-alone weather stations that are either Peet UII or U2000. Also, the weather page formatting has been tweaked.

4) 2 additional program "tweaks" have been added to the Program page of the Setup window. The first will allow deleting of the first 3 characters of the Posit text on the Position page. These 3 characters contain the Icon data and the packet "type" and is stored internally by APRSa4. This option cleans up the display. With this option off how ever, you can sort all Posits by Icon. The second tweak will automatically turn off the screen update pause after performing a Popup menu action on the Positions page.

December 31,1997

APRSa4 v0.8.11 Release Notes

Fixes:

1) Deletion of position reports from the History now deletes the correct item.

New:

1) Multiple item can be added the History page from the Position page

2) A new option has been added to the Program tab of the Setup window to allow APRSa4 to look at either unique position or unique data. Using the later, APRSa4 will accumulate weather reports for example, even though the position has not changed. Remember, APRSa4 has been targeted to tracking movement in the past. Note that this can greatly increase the number of position reports and thus the WS FULL error if enabled, particularly on TCP/IP.

December 29, 1997

APRSa4 v0.8.10 Release Notes

Fixes:

1) Alternating between "Locate" and "Locate Stations in Range" now redraws the map correctly.

2) And empty "via" digipeater path now sets the unproto path correctly.

3) Status and non-status packets are decoded correctly.

4) Bulletins are decoded and placed only on the Bulletin page. (though I kind of liked this bug)

5) The Monitor[557] INDEX ERROR bug has been fixed, again, I think.

6) The position History page has been fixed. All functions with or without filters on should work as expected.

New:

1) On the History page, a "Direct" button has been added. This button will load the callsigns of all stations heard directly, no digipeaters. Not all the reports displayed may have been heard direct, but all stations in the list will have been heard direct at some time, and so are displayed for review.

December 27, 1997

APRSa4 v0.8.09 Release Notes

New:

1) Most tabs of the main window now have a new menu item on the Popup menu called "Locate Stations in Range". This will locate all stations meeting the Time Filter criteria and the new "Locate with Range" value that can be entered on the Main Parameters of the Setup Window. Default is 40 miles. This value is independent of the Range Filter which pertains to your own location. The "Locate with Range" pertains to the callsign of the station you choose on the given tab. All other map parameters, Include Track Lines, Include Range Circles, and Zoom Tracks also apply. The feature allows you to locate a station and stations around them.

2) The Traffic page now has an additional menu item, Range between stations. This allows you to determine how far apart 2 stations in conversation are from each other. Also, The Locate menu item now has 3 types of behavior. If you right click on the From column, then you can locate that station. If you right click on the To column, then you will locate the To station. If you right click on any other column, you will locate BOTH stations. Also, you can locate multiple lines with the same behavior. Also, double clicking on a callsign on the traffic page will initiate a message to that station. This is not new.

3) For SA4 users, there is a check box on the Program tab of the Setup window that allows you now to write SA5 specific files. No more duplicate SA4 and SA5 files.

4) Addition support for dual port TNCs has been added. The short cut page has the ability to choose the active port along with speed keys to also accomplish this.

5) Alternate paths can now be chosen. A paths window allows you to setup alternate paths for messages, bulletins and objects. To activate the Paths window, choose the Unproto Paths under the Shortcuts menu or press Ctrl-U. There are 12 user programmable paths. You can set the path "id", the path, and the port that that path should take. You can also setup paths for dual port TNCs by separating each path with a "/" symbol. To use an alternate path for an outgoing message, enter the callsign follows by the a "/" and the path "id". For example, to send a message to KH2Z via Wide,Wide using one of the default paths, enter KH2Z/WW. Valid port values for Port 1 of the TNC are 1, A, and V. Valid Port 2 values are 2, B, H. This works on a Kantronics KPC-9612 and no other TNC has been tested. To enter an alternate path for an Object, enter the object name with /ID after it. This implies that you should not use a "/" for object names in APRSa4. For bulletins, enter the /ID after or in place of the group call in the Bulletin entry window. Known issues with alternate paths: packets are assembled just before transmission. If you have a number of Bulletins, Messages, and Objects being transmitted in rapid order, with different paths, packets may be transmitted with an undesired path. The work around it to put in a delay when the path is changed, to assure transmission. This has not been implemented yet. Also, a default path has not been implemented. That is, when the program transmits regular Posits and Status packets, they will go to the currently set path and port. This will probably change also in the future.

6) An additional button has been added to the Setup, Main Parameters page. It is a coordinate capture from SA4/5. This works like the Create Object form Map technique. To capture your coordinates from SA, have SA visible on the screen but with the focus on the Setup Window. Move the cursor over SA to the point where your current location is, DO NOT CLICK on that location. Press Alt-M to capture the coordinates and make them your current location. Note, coordinates must be displayed in the status bar of SA for this to work.

7) Also in v0.8.08, the ability to copy data from most windows to the Windows clipboard was introduced. This works very will with program such as Excel though it will work with other word processing program.

Fixes:

1) Objects with the first letter of B, b, G, g, and T did not get decoded by APRSa4. This has been corrected.

 Know issues:

1) AEA TNCs.

December 24, 1997

APRSa4 v0.8.08 Release Notes

Fixes:

1) Deleting and Locating station position from the History page with Range and/or Time Filters activated, did not produce expected results. In particular, the delete function would delete data that was not selected, leaving the selected data undeleted.

New:

1) On the Program tab of the Setup window, and new check box has been added. On Receipt of a new message with this checked, APRSa4 will change the focus to the Messages tab of the main window and bring APRSa4 to the to of all windows. This is the old behavior. With this unchecked, APRSa4 will not change the focus to itself.

December 21, 1997

APRSa4 v0.8.07 Release Notes

New:

1) Range circles can now be plotted. Check the "Include Range Circles" on the Maps page. NOTE: I'm working on the algorithm. I believe that the one I'm using is similar to that used by APRSdos. PLEASE report your findings. Do the circles report a reasonable range?

2) There is now a screen update PAUSE for the Position and Tracking pages. To activate it, use the Pause menu item on the Shortcuts menu. Or press Ctrl-Shift-P. The main windows caption will indicate that the pause function is activated. (Bill?)

3) Additional Shortcut menu item. "Remove Lat/Long = 0/90/180". This removes these errant position reports.

4) Symbols now appear on the Status and Bulletins pages. However, there will only be symbols for a given callsign is a symbol appears also in the Position list. To best see Status and Bulletin symbols, show the Position page, then switch to the Status or Bulletin page. Note: this is an experimental function and may or may not be in future versions.

5) The Setup window has a new Tab called Program. Program tweaks will be added here. Currently there are 2. The WSSIZE (Workspace Size) and "Responsiveness". WSSIZE specifies how many bytes of memory to allocate to APRSa4 from Windows. Responsiveness is an experimental function to increase the responsiveness of the program to mouse and keyboard events. The downside of this function is that processing of data slows. I do not suggest using this on slow computers, or at least, use it with caution. Increase speed can be achieved by use of the Time and Range Filters.

6) Map Features: A new Tab has been added to the Map Features window to adjust how range circles appear. Also, track lines can now have Width and Style attributes.

Fixes:

1) APRSa4 now works on TCP/IP with WinNT Server or WinNT/95 with Server software running.

December 15, 1997

APRSa4 v0.8.06 Release Notes

Fixes:
1) ACK of messages sent via TCP/IP in performed correctly. This was broken in v0.8.05 which required a patch to correct.
2) Numerous queries and other program response to incoming data has been corrected from v0.8.05. The path data in v0.8.05 was changed to include the TO field of the UNPROTO of incoming packets, this caused a number of minor bugs which have been corrected in this release. Most of the problems occurred in TCP/IP communications
3) APRSa4 would not shutdown when connected to TCP/IP at the time the program was closed. I should now close properly in this release.

New:
1) Support for GPSxyz/SYMxyz in the TO field of a stand-alone tracker. Setting GPSxyz as the TO field of the UNPROTO of a tracker, allows the tracker to take on any support symbol. The "xyz" values for just the primary symbol table can be found in the ToolTip of the Symbols window on the Setup page. Documentation for other symbols will be release at a later date.
2) If transmit is disabled, APRSa4 will still accumulate Position data for your station and placing your station callsign in the Tracking list will show a track line for your station. Posits will not go over the air, but will be parsed in the input buffer. Note that APRSa4 filters incoming packet to decrease duplicates. If the Lat/Long of APRSa4 are not changing, then the update rate not necessarily match the Posit rate for fast rates. If the Lat/Long is changing, then an update will be drawn for each new Posit transmission.

December 8, 1997 APRSa4 v0.8.05 Release Notes

Fixes
1) Track lines appear with a type 2 map which was lost in v0.8.04
2) Most recent report is plotted with type 4 map and track lines off. The was broken in v0.8.04

New
1) The path is now displayed with the TO address followed by the digipeater path. If a dual port TNC is used, then the port will be displayed at the end of the digipeater path. If a packet was heard via the Internet gateway, then the path will be prefixed with an I:. Example: I:APRS,WIDE,WIDE/V This path indicates that the packet was heard via the Internet, address TO APRS, via WIDE,WIDE and heard on the VHF port of the originating station's dual port TNC.
2) The History page supports multiple complete callsigns, or one wildcard callsign. A multiple callsign list could be: KH2Z KH2JB KB8KT N8RCW. A wildcard callsign might be KH2* . This would display all callsigns with KH2 in them.
3) A new Shortcut menu has been added that will delete all stations that are not currently with the specified Range.
4) Message page: if you double click on a callsign in the Inbox of the Messages page, then a new message is started to that callsign. If the callsign is a group callsign, then the message will be to the group. If you press the Shift key when double clicking on a group message, then the message will be addressed to the originating station.
5) On the Internet tab of the Setup Window, an IP address can be entered for the APRS server in place of a Server name.
6) I've added and experimental Print function to most tabs of the main program. It will print all the data that is contained in the currently select Listview object of the selected tab. Icons will print along with the position report on the History and Positions tab. WARNING: this function will print EVERY report that is currently displayed. If you have 1500 reports displayed, they all will be queued to be printed. Use the time and range filters to limit your selection. The function does not allow for selection of font. If the text fields are too large for the default font (Arial - small point), then the object will be printed on 2 pages in width, doubling the number of pages required to print the data. Use this function with caution if your supply of paper is low!!

December 3, 1997 APRSa4 v0.8.04 Release Notes
1) Minimize Maximize buttons have been restored. I have not experienced any program crashes with v0.8.04 and minimize running on Win95 OEM SR2.1 with Internet Explorer v4.0 installed. IE4 changes several system DLLs. I do not know how the program will run on other systems with the minimize button restored.
2) Range filter has been rewritten and is faster. Range filter now works with maps 1 and 2. It is not invoked with maps 3 and 4. The range filter looks at the most current position to determine whether to display the station in the Positions list, and not past positions.
3) Status bar numbers has been changed to show the number of stations and number of total unique position reports. The total number of stations is determined by the range and time filter. The total number of unique positions is not affected by the range and time filters, but show the total number currently in memory. The behavior is different from previous versions.
4) Maps page: The rate of map generation now includes 5, 10, 15 and 20 seconds. If you have a large number of stations and a slow computer, do not use the more rapid update rates.
5) Messages page: The text field in the Inbox will now automatically resize so all the text is displayed.

November 29, 1997 APRSa4 v0.8.03 Release Notes
Expiration date has been changed to 1998/1/17. Registration Instructions will be available in the next couple of weeks.

Updated Installation instructions:
2 files, OLEPRO32.DLL and MSVCRT40.DLL were not included in the initial v0.8 APRSA4I.ZIP file. These have been included. Copy these files to the Windows\System directory, BUT DO NOT OVER-WRITE FILES BY THE SAME NAME THAT ARE NEWER THAN THESE FILES. Check to see if you have these files FIRST. Check their date. If they are newer that the files included, do nothing with the included files.

Fixes
1) APRSa4I should terminate properly now when the program is closed

1997, November 27 APRSa4 v0.8.02 Release notes.
Fixes
1) Open Log Text file does not abend.
2) Auto-Reply now does.
3) Range Filter has been reworked to look at current postions.
4) Error when Group Callsign list was empty has been fixed. 5) All v0.8.01 patches have been included.

1997, November 24 APRSa4 v0.8.01 Release Notes.

1997, November 24
APRSa4 v0.8.01 Release Notes.
New Items:
1) History page will accept the wildcard * at the end of a callsign to showall the match up to that point. The delete position fix does not work withthis mode yet.
2) Continuous typing in the Send To dialog box for messages.
3) Right click more responsive during long internet downloads. I hope thisworks!
4) Group callsigns now implemented. All messages to a Group are logging inthe inbox. Messages are not ack'ed. Defaults are CQ, ALL, APRSA4. You canadd or delete.

Known Issues
1) Slow Positions page update.

As always, please report the orchids and onions.

1997, November 20
APRSa4 v0.8.00 Release Notes.

Install:
I've included a new EXE with this version called APRSa4i.exe. This file contains the Internet interface and a lot of debugging code, andis larger than previous versions of APRSa4.exe. Unzip the file in its owndirectory. I suggest not using your old APRSa4 directory. Then, fromWindows Explorer, drag and drop GPS0801.W3 on to APRSa4i.EXE. This willstart the program. After it starts, terminate the program. This willinitialize all the necessary parameters. You may then restart the programby double clicking on APRSa4i.exe. You can create a shortcut toAPRSa4i.exe..Many things have changed in APRSa4 v0.8 from previous versions. This version has support for a TCP/IP connection to APRServe, a program writtenby Steve Dimse, K4HG. The address for APRServe is the default address. Toconnect to the Internet, you may have to connect using a dialup connectionto your ISP. Or, with Internet Explorer 4.0, the dialer will dial automatically with you attempt a connect in APRSa4. The Internet connectionis made by clicking Connect on the Internet Tab in the Setup window.Checking the Gate box will the Gate all TNC data to the Internet for othersto see. Note, when first logging on to an Internet connection withAPRServe, anywhere from 50-150Kb of data are send to the program. If youhave a slower computer, please be patient. My laptop take about 4 minutesto finish processing the initial data dump. My desktop computer takes about40 seconds.

New Items:
1) TCP/IP
2) Configuration now have names. When you save a configuration file, you will now be able to assign a standard name to the file. These files can be accessed from the main window or the setup window.
3) Log files. APRSa4 can now keep a log of all data received on the TNC orTCP ports. These files are opened or closed from the File menu on the mainwindow.Positions page
4) Positions page now shows the Path of the displayed packet.
5) Screen updates have been speeded up. Selected items stay selected between screen updates. The popup menu no long has a timer. Screen updatesare now at half the rate of the APRSa4 system clock. Track page
6) Screen updates have been speeded up.History page
7) Path data is now displayedBulletin page
8) You can Locate and Range a station from the Popup menu, activated by theright mouse button. Traffic Page
9) Screen updates have be speeded up.
10) Double-Clicking on any callsign will activate the "send message to"window. If a station was heard from the Internet, it will be setup to sendit back to the Internet. To send a message to the Internet, a /I isappended to the end of the callsign. To send a message to KH2Z via theI nternet, the callsign is entered as KH2Z/I. APRSa4 will automaticallyassign the /I to all stations heard via the Internet from the most pages.
11) Any station can be located from the Traffic page using the Popup menu,provided a position report has been heard for that station.
12) The traffic page can be sorted. Click on the column headings to sort acolumn. This makes it easy to see what stations are on TCPIP for example.Or who KH2Z has been talking to. Or who have been talking to KH2Z. Oncesorted, it new messages are appended to the bottom of the list, leaving thelist unchanged otherwise. To get the list back into chronological order,click the Date/Time column button. Status page
13) Stations can be Located and Ranged using the Popup menu. Also, theirhistory can be reviewed.
Messages page
14) You can now enter an auto-reply message. Check the Auto-Answer box andenter your desired text. The message number that is sent out is the same asthe message number received and is only sent once for each new messagereceived while this feature is active.
15) Stations can be Located and Ranged, or their History reviewed now fromthe Message page.
Dual Port TNCs
16) You can now enter data for a dual port TNC in the Setup window. APRSa4breaks the Unproto text into two parts. You can enter the data for eachparts separated by a "/" symbol. For example in the TO field can beAPRS/SPCL and the Path field can be RELAY,WIDE/ECHO,GATE. If no "/" isentered, then the data in the field is set for each port.
Path data
17) Paths now include the port data. If there is port data, it is displayedfirst followed by a ":", then the path. An example would be 1:WIDE,WIDEwould be Port 1, using the WIDE,WIDE path. Some TNCs use V and H for VHFand HF.

Fixes:
1) Coordinate stealing has been minimized. The decoding of coordinates viathe TNC port is prevented if HSP or Pico modes are not in effect. This is a rare event, I'd appreciate feedback if this happens again.
2) Stream switch characters can now be entered on the text entry window onthe TNC page. I plan to add further support for dual port TNCs in thefuture, but this should help those who have had problems changing ports.
3) WinNT - I think the serial port configuration is now fixed.I've renames the APRSa4 files (again). They are APRSa4.Dat for the position data, and APRSa4.Set for the setup data. Imade them conform to 8.3 file names because of some hiccups I've had with acouple of windows API calls.

1997, October 30 APRSa4 v0.7.04 Release Notes.

Changes
1) Expiration date is now 1997-Dec-01 - Fixes the expiration bug in 0.7.03
2) All patch files for 0.7.02 are included in 0.7.04
3) v0.7.04 is "un-minimizable". The program will detect an attempt to minimize it and will revert back to a standard view. This helps to prevent a bug in APRSa4 that causes the program to crash when restored from a minimized state.

1997, October 14 APRSa4 v0.7.02 Release Notes.

New features for 0.7.02
1) APRSa4 now supports 2 instances of SA4 running. All maps from the maps page will be drawn in the first instance of SA4 APRSa4 finds. All "locate" functions, will be drawn in the second instance of SA4 found. The order in which they are "found" may not be the same order in which they are started. In order to take advantage of this dual map function, you must start 2 separate instances of SA4. On my 485-DX50, with 16 Mb or RAM, I have had no problem running APRSa4 with 2 instances of SA4, alone with MS-Mail, and MS-Internet Explorer v3. Your mileage might vary. I may add support for additional instances of SA4 in the future.

Changes
1) The Popup Menu on the Positions page now has a "dwell time" of 6 seconds.
2) The "DataRead" patch to v0.7.00 has been incorporated into v0.7.02

1997, October 08
APRSa4 v0.7.00 Release Notes.

New features for 0.7.00
1) APRSa4 now supports multiple configuration files, numbered 1-5. Configuration files are created from the Setup window using the File menu, Save Configuration File, then a number from 1 to 5. To restore a configuration, use the File menu, Open Configuration File, then 1 to 5. The configuration file hold information concerning all user selectable items, user definable text strings, lists, map preferences, and sound selections. Set the program up as desired and save it to the desired configuration file. Different users can also be configured if desired. The name of the configuration files has been changed. They are now named Config#.aprsa4 where # is a number 1 - 5. APRSa4 saves a Config.aprsa4 file when the program closes, and uses this file on program startup. In the future, the configuration file to be used will be selectable from the command line.

2) A new experimental "Track Me" function has been added. This will be found on the Maps page. This function will redraw the SA4 map with movement of your station, in an interval you define from 1 seconds, to billions of seconds. This function also looks at your current position and if it does not change, the map is not redrawn. This function is independent of other APRSa4 functions, and currently, no track line is drawn. Only the current position is displayed. Other map types can be enabled and APRSa4 can send and receive regular APRS traffic. The time interval is calculated based some what on the speed of on going calculations. That is, if you have the redraw rate set to 1 second, the map may not redraw at one second intervals because your computer may not be able to keep up with the demand. One the map has been generated, the new time for a redraw is calculated. Note also, SA4 may not keep up with the demand. A little experimentation on your part may be necessary to determine the best setting for you use.

3) APRSa4 has had the ability to archive data specific for a given callsign to disk. This has been improved somewhat in that the data being move to disk is compared with data that may already exist. Duplicates are removed. You can now retrieve this data back into APRSa4's active memory for replotting of the track data, or further editing from on the History page. To reload archived data, select the Files menu on the main program window and choose the Open Callsign Log File (speed keys: Ctrl-F-L). Select the desired Callsign Log file which will have the format of callsign.log. APRSa4 will through out any duplicates.

4) Column width can now be adjusted automatically from most pages. Choose the Adjust Column Width menu item from the pages Popup menu, activated by Right clicking on the appropriate pane of the page. On the Positions page, this feature will be found under the View item of the Popup menu.

Fixes:
1) Errors reported when clearing all the position data with the Time Filter on has fixed ( I think ).

1997 September 30

APRSa4 v0.6.15 Release Notes:
This version contains the same features as v0.6.14 except incorporates the P0614.DeleteCall patch file. V0.6.14 would generate errors with an empty data set. That is, a new Locator.log file. Also, v0.6.14 reported the wrong expiration date on the opening splash screen, though it did display the correct one on the "About" screen. No other changes have been made.

1997 September 29

APRSa4 v0.6.14 Release Notes:

Fixes:
1) Creating an Object using the Map method no longer causes termination of the program.
2) Untested: a 2 second delay has been added to the ASTRAL string sent to a Tripmate GPS receiver from the time the port is opened to the time that the string it transmitted. I've not had any reports about this function for a while. Does it work for anyone or do I need to start over??
3) Prior versions often activated Wave messages a multiple number of times. This has been greatly reduced, now triggering only with the first report.

New:
1) Stations can now be added to the "Keep Recent Position" and "Ignore all packets" list from the Positions page using the Popup menu activated by right-clicking on a callsign. Objects can be added to the lists in this way.
2) A new Telemetry page has been added. This page will display telemetry from a Kantronics TNC that supports Telemetry such as a KPC-3 Plus, or from a Mic-E in Telemetry mode. Telemetry from a TNC is kept for each new transmitted value, based on the TNC packet counter. See you Kantronics manual for a description of the Telemetry packet. Data from a Mic-E is kept based on the reported position. If the coordinates are not varying from a Mic-E, only the most recent values for that position will be displayed. Right-click on a callsign for the Popup menu to clear the page or delete specific reports.
3) Partial support of the pass through of characters in text messages has been added. The pass through character, Ctrl-V can be added to any supported text field by pressing Ctrl-V. A "^v" will appear in the text line showing where a Ctrl-V has been added. For example, to add a Tilde to a line of text, press Ctrl-V followed immediately by ~. It will appear like this in the line of text: ^v~. This might be useful for transmitting certain Email addresses. The pass through of a carriage return is not supported.
4) Expiration date as been set to October 15, 1997.

1997, September 23

APRSa4 v0.6.13 Release Notes

Fixes:
1) []WI errors with the creation of objects has been fixed.
2) More Error checking has been added to the Object entry form
3) Error report when checking bearing and distance to your own current data has been fixed.
New:
1) The creation of objects is now under the Objects Menu item on the Main window.
2) 3 methods are now supported for object creation.
[1] Map method
[2] completely manual entry method.
[3] creating an object at your current location.
3) Objects can now be created quickly at your current location. Choose the Objects menu, the "Create object at my current location" item. Or press Alt-0-C. Then edit the data as desired.
4) Objects can now be edited after creation. Right click on the item you want to edit and choose the Edit item.
5) A new patch procedure has been added so that any internal APRSa4 routine can be changed via the patch mechanism. The adding of patch files is easy. Simply copy the patch file to the APRSa4 directory. At program startup, APRSa4 will look for patch files. If found, the program code contained in the patch will be loaded and used. The only time patch files are applied is at program startup. Simple fixes can then be downloaded in a short amount of time. All patch files will begin with a P and a 4 digit version number. A patch file for v0.6.13 will start with P0613. Other characters may appear in the patch file name. Multiple patch files may be applied at once. This facility is for development and debug purposes.
Note that APRSa4 will keep and transmit objects with the same name, if the Latitude and/or Longitude are different. This may change in the future.

1997, September 19

APRSa4 v0.6.12 Release Notes

APRSa4 v0.6.12 is now available for download. The only difference between 0.6.12 and 0.6.11 is that more error checking has been added to 0.6.12 on the Objects form. Error messages from the form will appear in its status bar.

1997, September 18

APRSa4 v0.6.11 Release Notes

An Object entry form has been added. There are 2 methods of using this form. Manual entry of all desired data, or using a map "capture" mode. To active the Object form, use the menu Send menu on the Main window.

to use the manual entry method, choose Send|Objects|Manual. The from requests the object's name, Latitude and Longitude ( in APRSa4 decimal format ), the time the position was valid in the form of Day,hour,min. For example, September 18 at 15:54 would be entered as 181554 ( in APRS format ). The objects speed and direction can be entered but are not required. If either the speed or direction are left blank, no speed or direction data will be transmitted. You can choose the appropriate symbol and enter associated text. Pressing OK will queue the object to a default transmission time of 20 minutes. Press Close to close the form. Press Clear to reset the form's text fields.

The map capture method.
To use this method, first, bring SA4 to the forefront. Then using Alt-Tab, switch back to APRSa4. Activate the map capture method by choosing the Send|Objects|Map Object menu items. The main APRSa4 window will be hidden from view leaving SA4 and the Objects form. Now move the mouse over the map to the location where you would like to place an object. Do not click the mouse on the map. When the map shows the appropriate location and a Lat/Long value is showing in the lower left corner of SA4, press Alt-M. The coordinates will be captured and entered into the Objects form. Enter all other appropriate data and click OK ( Alt-O ). This object will now be queued for transmission.

A new Objects page has been added for outgoing transmitted objects on the Main window. When on this page, right click to active this page's menu. Most options should be self explanatory.

1997-09-13

APRSa4 v0.6.10 Release Notes:

Fixes
1) Program now remembers various options on Maps page - Track lines, zoom,description.
2) The various "Locate" functions, such as double clicking on a callsign onthe Positions page or using the Locate menu item of various popup windows,and been changed to allow better locating of multiple stations. It alsoignores the fixed map center and zoom.
New
1) A new bulletin "editor" has been added. To send a bulletin, from themain window, choose Send|Bulletin, or press Alt-S-B. The "editor" willautomatically format the outgoing bulletin into a maximum of 4 lines of upto 70 characters. The "line number" is automatically entered, or can beset manually. The "line number" is the letter or number following BLN inthe "TO" address of the bulletin. Outgoing bulletins will appear on theMessages page. Bulletins follow the same syntax as messages in the APRSprotocol. The "editor" had drag and drop capability. There is a "Format"button on the Bulletin form. This is in case you have imported data intothe bulletin window which has been formatted in another program. This willmake is conform to APRSa4 formatting. The bulletin "editor" can make ituseful to drag and drop data from another Windows program such as a Webbrowser looking at weather data.
2) There is also an Integrated ASCII text editor now available. It can beactivated from the Files menu on the main window. This is still veryunsophisticated. It can be used to edit TNC files ( the default ) or othertext files. The Text Editor is Drag and Drop enabled.
3) ?APRS? can be activated from the Popup menu on the Positions page.
4) Bulletins or messages can be erases separately from the popup menu inthe Outbox on the Messages page. You can now also clear the enter Outboxfrom a menu command.
5) APRSa4 asks if you really want to quit went you exit the program.
6) APRSa4 now sends the Restore.tnc file to the TNC at shutdown.

1997/09/09

APRSa4 v0.6.09 Release Notes:

New or changes:
1) A new outgoing message window has been created. You can access thiswindow no matter with tab is active on the main window. The message entrycontrols on the Messages page has been removed. This new window can beactivated by Clicking the "Send Message" menu or by pressing Alt-M. Thereis also a ?APRS? button that can be used to query a particular station. Note: I have noticed that WinAPRS and MacAPRS do not respond to directed?APRS? requests.
2) APRSa4 now responds to a general ?APRS? or a specific request for?APRS?.
3) I believe the decoding of barometric pressure and humidity are workingcorrectly. Please let me know if you find a case where it is not doing so.
4) WinAPRS and MacAPRS do not support extended line numbers in messages. I have disabled this feature by default. It can be turned on by clickingon the check box on the Messages page. A warning window will popup warningyou about the problem with Win/MacAPRS.
5) 3 new menu items have been added to the Shortcuts menu. One will clearALL received data, the next will clear all position data, the last willclear all but the most recent-position data for each known station. Thesemenu items replace the buttons lost with the upgrade to v0.6 or APRSa4.

1997-08-04

APRSa4 v0.6.08 Release Notes

Fixes: None
New
1) A proximity alarm function has been added. This function monitorsincoming data and based on the proximity configuration, can generate asound event. There are 4 types of proximity alarms: [1]Stand-alonetrackers which includes NMEA data and Mic-E. [2]Fixed stations, with orwithout a computer such as weather stations, digipeaters or home stations.[3] Mobile stations with computers. [4]Objects. Callsign files can alsobe enabled for proximity. A wave file with the name of the callsign youwant to track needs to be created for this function to work. I have a filecalled KH2JB-9.WAV for my wife’s car tracker. All proximity alarms andoptions are located on the Sounds page of the Setup window.
2) A time filter has been added. You can look be in time from .1 hour toinfinity. This function does not delete any data, it just limits what ispresented to you for display on the Positions and Tracking page, and whatdata is plotted on maps. This makes it easy to see what activity has takenplace over the last hour, 2 hours, day, or week. A Time Filter menu itemhas been added to the Shortcuts menu. The Time Filter can be set manuallyfor any time greater than or equal to 0.1 hours on the Main Parameters pageof the Setup Window.
3) APRSa4 now decodes and displays the secondary symbol table of APRSdos. The file Symbols2.bmp is now a required file. The provision to transmitsymbols from the secondary table has not be added. There are now tooltipsthat tell you which ASCII character each symbols is.
4) Double clicking on a callsign on the Positions page will generate alocate map.
5) Double clicking on any callsign on the Traffic page will start amessage to that callsign.
6) Experimental: The Setup window disappears when ever it looses focus.

Known issues:
1) Barometric pressure in not always decoded correctly ( there are atleast 4 different format for it! ). All of weather decoding needsrevamping. Stay tuned.

As always, feedback, positive and negative is appreciated.

1997-08-31

APRSa4 v0.6.07 Release Notes

Fixes
1) Index Error in Value[116]

New
1) APRSa4 will now transmit "=" timeless packet with no GPS input is beingreceived. That is, when port 2 is closed and the program is not in HSP orPico mode. In APRSa4 is in one of the GPS modes, the transmitted packet isa '@' timed packet.
2) When APRSa4 terminates, it now sets the BT to "!" timeless packetinstead of "="
3) A manual weather entry form has been introduced. Please check unitswhen entering data. The weather form is entered via the Shortcuts menu orpressing Ctrl-W. I'd like feedback on this one.
4) A second list has been added to the Lists page of the Setup window. Stations whose callsigns are in the Ignore list will be ignored.

1997-08-30

APRSa4 v0.6.06 Release Notes

Fixes
1) InputTnc[86] error. Occasionally occurred when using the Tracking"Auto-Update" feature in v0.6.05.

New:
1) Position page: Double Clicking on a position reports will generate amap showing the location of that station or stations.
2) You can locate and range positions on the History page. Range nowincludes bearing from History page.
3) On Traffic page, is you Double Click on a callsign, either TO or FROM,APRSa4 prepares to send a message to that station.
4) Range and Locate now work from the Status page using the Right Clickpopup menu.
5) Range and Locate now work from the Weather page using the Right Clickpopup menu.
6) New Callsign.wav sound support has been added. If Callsign is checkedfor the appropriate page in the Setup window, APRSa4 will look at theincoming packets, and based on what is enabled, will look for a .WAV filewith the callsign of the reporting station. So for example, if I'mtracking my wife, KH2JB-9, and Callsign is enabled for the Track page, thefile KH2JB-9.WAV will be played when a position packet is heard from herstation. A WAV file must exist for each station you want the callsign.wavfeature to work for.
7) A new page has been added to the setup page, Lists. This will hold"lists" of items. The one list I have on the page is the "Keep Latest"list. Type a callsign of a station you only want to keep the most recentreport for in the Editbox just under the title, and press enter. To deletea callsign, double click on that callsign. Is So. Cal. where I live, thereare several stations that transmit every 30 seconds 24 hours a day andnever move except as Selective Availablity moves. This list will onlytrack the latest report from that station and will delete all olderreports. I plan to add a "Reject" list. This "List" page is experimental. I'd like your feedback about it.

1997-9-27

APRSa4 v0.6.05 Release Notes

This version requires that v2.0.00 of APRSa4.EXE be used. There a number of changes andadditions

New
1) All menus are activated by a click of the right mouse button. The onlypage that still uses a left double click is the Track page, to movestations into or out of the Tracking list.
2) Sounds can now be selectively turned on or off. Each page has theability to have a WAV file associated with updating information. Forexample, if a new unique position is received and the WAV file has beenenabled, it will be played. You must have a WAV file that matches the namespecified for it to be play. You can now also disable all sounds.
3) Range and bearing can now be used on the History page, where only Rangewas reported.
4) Messages are now numbered 0-9,A-Z, and a-z. At which point, thenumbering restarts at 0. This should not encourage you to have 62 activemessages! I believe that APRSdos and WinAPRS will ACK these messages sonumbered.

Fixes
1) The program will decode bulletins with a new Locator.log file.
2) Several other annoying error messages have been fixed.
3) The program will start after having used a previous version of theprogram. If a update version is detected, you will have to re-enter theSetup information.
4) I have added several TNC files that a user has sent me. I have nottested these. Please report any problems you have with them andsuggestions for corrections.

The expiration date has been moved to 1997-10-1. A number of people haveasked if they can register the program and not have to worry about anexpiration date. If the next several versions are found to be "stable", Iwill consider beginning to take program registrations and issuingregistrations number that will allow the program to not expire. Understand, I think there are a number of features that can and will needto be added.

Thanks to those who have sent Email with comments, suggestions and buginformation.

APRSa4 v0.6.03 Release Notes

BUGS.

A number of bugs have been fixed. A number of them have to do with theupdated APRSA4.EXE file. Several of the controls appear to be handleddifferently in APL 2.0.00 as compared to APL 1.8.07. I've run this versionin many different configurations. I can not get it to crash, but I'll betyou will. Here is the latest fixes.

1) Monitor[380] Which wipes out the Traffic page.
2) Row Identifier Errors on the Track page.
3) Several error nobody else has reported ( created after fixing #1 above )Also
4) The program now remembers if Auto update is checked or not
5) It remembers the Group names on the Bulletins page.
6) Range and Bearing fixed ( I hope - Let me know Bill )
7) Tripmate - I doubt it. ( I need to get my hands on one )

Note. Future versions of APRSa4 will REQUIRE the update of the APRSA4.EXE. Your "About" window should show APL v2.0.00 when the updated EXE isrunning. The old EXE showed APL v1.8.07. A number of the problems thathave appeared this weekend it a compatiblity problem between 1.8.07 and2.0.00. I've really been targeting 1.8.07, but using 2.0.00 with the 0.6W3 files. Confusing I know. But, 2.0.00 of the EXE will be required forfuture versions.

1997-23-08
APRSa4 v0.6.01 Release Notes

This version fixes a few problems that occurred with the update to v0.6.00and adds a few new items:
Fixes:
1) The program remembers the Map Configuration again.
2) Starting 0.6.00 sometimes required the deletion of the "Locator.log"file. This I believe has been corrected.
3) The Transmitted Symbol reverted back to the default "." Symbol. Theprogram now restores the symbol you have chosen.
4) Initialization of the Tripmate did not work in 0.6.00. I do not know ifit will work in 0.6.01! This initialization string is now ASTRAL. This string is sent to the GPS port when it is opened. There is also a newmenu item on the Shortcuts menu that will send the init string to eitherthe TNC/GPS or GPS port. This all added for debug purposes.
5) The program occasionally would report a "Duplicate Row" error. Ibelieve I've also fixed this problem.

New:
1) When choosing Range to a station, it will report the range and bearing.

APRSa4.EXE (found in APRSA4.ZIP) has also be updated. It is now version2.0.00 replacing 1.8.07. It is not necessary to download the newAPRSA4.EXE to run with v0.6.01 of APRSa4. However, in the future, the newAPRSA4.EXE will be required to run APRSa4. If you update to v2.0.00 ofAPRSA4.EXE, follow the installation instructions carefully. There are 2files that need be copied to your Windows\System directory. You must notoverwrite files with the same name that are newer than these files.

APRS/4 Release notes for V0.6.00
1997/8/20 KH2Z

A number of significant changes have been made in the programconfiguration. The Ports and Config pages of versions prior to v0.6 havebeen combined into a new window. All pertinent information required forthe program configuration are now in this new Setup window. The programnow will also remember all information in this window except the StatusText which is reset at program startup. This implies that if the programhad a serial port open and transmit enabled when the program was shutdown,that at program startup, the program will begin monitoring the APRS channelwithout further user intervention. The "About" window that appears atprogram startup will also disappear as the startup procedure progresses. So now, double click on the programs shortcut, and no further action isrequired to begin monitoring IF a valid configuration has been stored.

To perform a program setup, click the "Setup" menu item on the main window. There are a number of speed keys available on the setup window. Look tothe items text for the appropriate clue character which will be underlined. Using then Alt-char will put the focus on that item. Note that in thefields where a time is chosen, you can change the time by either pressingthe key of the first character or using the up and down arrows to scrollthrough the choices. Using the first character is useful if you are usingthe program without a mouse. This is particularly true with the com: portswhere the arrow keys will not scroll through the choices if the particularport is not available. Using the "C" key repetitively will allow theselection of all the various options. To close a serial port, click on theappropriate port designation again.

A new option has been added for the particular type of GPS receiver youmight be using. Currently valid choices are NMEA and Tripmate. TheTripmate option has not been tested, but what this does is sends ASTRAL tothe serial port where the Tripmate is attached when the serial port isopen. This assumes that the Tripmate is powered on at the time the port isopened. Maybe someone familiar with the Tripmate will report if the unitwill accept multiple transmissions of the ASTRAL string. These optionsonly apply to the GPS port and not to the TNC/GPS port.

There is now also a list of valid NMEA sentences that you choose from forwhich you want APRSa4 to look for with it receives NMEA data. You canchoose one or all of them.

For timings, I suggest that you set the System Clock to 1 second. But ifyou experiment with faster settings, please let me know the results on yourmachine. Please report the machine type and speed if you do. The defaultTNC delay time is 0. It seems that only the Pico TNC has a problem withcommand timings.

?APRS? has been added to the "Shortcuts" menu. Note that APRSa4 does notrespond to this command yet. The speed key to this command is Ctrl-Q.

1997/08/09

APRSa4 v0.5.08 Release Notes
v0.5.09 has only 2 lines of source code swapped to fix a bug. Otherwise, 0.5.09 is the same as 0.5.08.

1997/08/09

APRSa4 v0.5.08 Release Notes

The programming timing has been completely changed. Prior to this version,there were 3 separate timing loops that controlled the program. Now thereis only one. All program functions now run off this one timing loop. Thespinner on the Config page that use to control the TNC timing loop is nowcalled the "System Timer" and can be varied from .1 to 2 seconds. I stillsuggest running at 1 second ( because of my slow computer ). Experimentwith this timing and please report and problems you might have. I would beinterested to know if on "fast" computers, if a faster update rate is wellbehaved.

The Monitor TNC button no longer appears. Opening the first serial portbegins monitoring of the TNC data. The program now remembers if transmitis enabled and will begin transmitting as soon as the serial port isopened.

There was a bug in 0.5.07A where the program would transmit"uncontrollably" with the Pico Packet and would lock up with certaincombinations of timing parameters. I have not tested 0.5.08 with the Pico. I would suggest that the System clock be at 1 seconds and the GPS updatebe not less than 2 seconds.

I have tested 0.5.08 with the HSP. I has not linked HSP data input to theGPS update spinner on the Config page. V0.5.08 will look to the HSP beforetransmitting a Position Packet so that the transmitted position will be themost accurate possible went in HSP mode.

If a second serial port is used for GPS input, this port will be looked atat the System Clock rate as is the TNC port. Position data should be verycurrent in this mode.

You will have to set up all configuration parameters with the first startof v0.5.08. The config.log is now keyed to the program version. Aconfig.log file from v0.5.07 will be ignored by 0.5.08.

New
1) Single timing loop.
2) Config.log remembers is transmit is enabled
3) TNC monitoring begins when the TNC serial port is opened.

Fixes:
1) "TNC" port decodes NMEA data correctly and can be used as a GPS inputnow.

APRS/4 Tracker/Win95-NT v0.5.07 Notes.

1997/7/29

This version corrects some of the problems introduced in 0.5.06. First, APRSa4 now looks at the configuration file for a version stamp. If the version stamp does not coorelate with the currently running version, the configuration file will be ignored. This means, with an update, you will need to re-enter configuration data. More variables have been added to the configuration file. I am working on a single configuration screen which will replace the Ports and Config page with a Configuration window. This will apppear in a future version.
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One of the corrections in 0.5.07 is that the error checking for your active coordinates has been inprove hopefully decreasing the chance of APRSa4 crashing SA4.
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Several items have been added to the Shortcut menu.
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Pico notes. Do not set GPS update to less than 2 seconds unless you can confirm that it works on your system, I have observed that setting it less than 2 seconds caused the Pico to not send its location data correctly. Also, setup your TNC com port delay to .2-.25 seconds.
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For Kantronics KPC-3 and PK9612, you can set the com port delay to 0 seconds.
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I suggest that you set the TNC update to 1 or 2 seconds.
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For HSP, I suggest that you not set the GPS update to less than 10 seconds and maybe 20. When APRSa4 transmits it position in HSP mode, it will first look for a position from the GPS receiver before transmitting it's Posit. This also applies to the Pico. So the only reason for setting the GPS rate to a low value is to keep your own coordinates current, but APRSa4 will transmit the most current coordinates it can find.
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A list server has been setup by Sam Nabley, K8SN for APRSa4. To subscribe, send an Email message to: majordomo@k8sn.org Leave the subject empty and in the text body, place: subscribe aprsa4
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APRSa4 v0.5.06 Release Notes

1) The shortcut menu is now visible. You can send a Position packet with Ctrl-P, Locate yourself on the map with Ctrl-L and others.
2) Pico update is not based on the GPS Update rate. That is, APRSa4 will send a Ctrl-E to the Pico TNC at the rate of the GPS Update if Pico mode has been selected.
3) Group Messaging has been changed to accomidate Bob Bruninga and APRSdos. To send a group message, enter BLN#xxxx where BLN indicates a bulleting, # is the line number, and xxxxx is the group. APRSa4 automatically truncates group names to 5 characters do to the limitations of the APRS protocol. In the group list on the Bulletins page, entering a group name of CA* will decode all group messages to CAxxx. If just CA is entered, only messages to CA will be decoded.
4) You can locate yourself on the map with Ctrl-L. This will first read the coordinates from the HSP port if selected of from the Pico that mode is selected.
5) Additional support for the Pico has been added. The method of sending the Unproto and Alias have been changed to hopefully consistantly change the variables in the Pico do to the Pico's limitations on port commands speed.
6) The Page Fault issue that occurs when transisioning from a minimized to a standard window has been addressed again. While recent versions exhibited this problem much less that earlier versions, the problem was not solved. I have worked with what I think are the offending variables and have not observed a Page Fault with 0.5.06, but maybe I'm just lucky. Please let me know if you continue to experience it.

1997/7/22
APRSa4 v0.5.05 Notes

1) Group messaging. This works very much like bulletins but instead of being addressed to BLN, it is addressed to GRP. The full format is GRP#xxxxx where xxxxx is the group name and # is the line number. Group names are entered on the Bulletins page in the edit box at the top of the page. Names are typed in with at least 1 space between each name. Any number of names can be typed in and the names can be of any length, but only the first 5 characters of the name are used to determine a match. To send a message to a specific group, APRS for example, enter GRP1APRS in the box for the callsign on the Messages page. The word APRS should be entered on the Bulletins page in order to decode and display an incoming message to the APRS group. If an * is entered in the group name editbox, then all GRP messages are decoded and displayed. Embedded wave file names are looked for and decoded in the message text. Group messages are not ACK'ed and do not expire. They must be deleted in order to stop their transmission. Only 9 out going messages of all types are allowed.

APRSa4 v0.5.04 Notes.
Expires, August 1, 1997.

There are a number of changes in APRSa4 v0.5.04 from even v0.5.03
1) The SSID alternate symbols for stand-alone trackers has been implimented in this version.

2) Stations in the tracking list now have a "T" in the lower right hand corner of the symbol on the Positions page. This will indicate that the station is being tracked.

3) You can determine the range to any station from the Popup menu. Double click on any station and choose the "Range to Station" menu item. The distance will be shown in the 4 pane of the status bar at the bottom of the window. This function is available for weather stations as well.

4) You can now choose you symbol that you want to transmit from a popup toolbar on the Config page. Just click on the "Symbol" button and the toolbar will appear with all of the available symbols. Note that APRSa4 currently is only working with the primary symbol table. ( time ). With v0.5.04, there is no need to enter your symbol character at the beginning of the Posit test line. It will be automatically inserted when the packet is transmitted.

5) Support for the HSP has been added. I have tested this with a Garmin GPS 12XL, running at 9600 baud and a KPC-3 TNC using the Kantronics HSP cable. APRSa4 will determine the location from the GPS just before transmitting the Posit text. Pressing Ctrl-P at any time will transmit a Posit. You can watch the Lat/Long window on the Ports page to see input data from the GPS, or you can also view the input from the TNC and GPS windows. Again, APRSa4 only polls the GPS via the HSP just before transmitting a Posit. So if you are transmitting a Posit every 20 minutes, there will be only one update of the location data once every 20 minutes. I plan to add the ability to update your location more frequently without having to tranmit a Posit in the future.

6) Pico. The status of this feature is still unknown. I have not tried the program personally with a Pico. I have decreased how often I poll the Pico for data. I understand that the Ctrl-E feature does work. You can press Ctrl-E from the keyboard at any time and from any page to transmit a Ctrl-E to the TNC.

7) There is a menu item on the Popup menu on the Positions page that says "Archive to Disk". This will take all the highlighted stations and create individual log files for each station, and then remove them from the currently loaded memory. For example, my data would be saved in a file called KH2Z.log or KH2Z-9.log for the mobile. BUT, I have not provide the read Log file function in v0.5.04. I suggest that you not use this feature at this time.

8) There is one additional menu item on the Position page Popup that allows a different view of the data on the Positions page. The page can be viewed in either "Report" mode or "List" mode. Experiment and let me know what you think.

Note about Symbols their bitmaps. I have provided 2 symbol bitmap files. Symbols.bmp and Symbols2.bmp. The latter is for the Secondary Symbol table which APRSa4 currently does not support. There is also an Overlay.bmp file. These files are constructed as 16 pixel by (16 time N) pixel files. They can be edited and altered as desired. I do not suggest that you do to maintain compatibility with other current versions of APRS. If you do have some suggestions or make any interesting changes, please forward them on. The Overlay.bmp file currently a 16x16 pixel bitmap of a small T for overlaying on the symbol in the Positions page. For the current version, I have left these bitmaps available to the user. This may change at a future date. I appreciate any feedback you have one keeping them available to the end user.

APRSa4 v0.5.03 Notes
Expiration date: 1997/7/21

New:
1) APRSa4 now supports the primary Icon table on the Positions page. SSID and the secondary Icon table is not support yet. Unzip the GPS0503.ZIP file into your APRSa4 directory. The file symbols.bmp should be in the install directory along with GPS0503.W3. Note: the program will continue to use old data in the LOG file but will only correctly display Icons for new reports. You may see a lot of Hurricaines in the old data! For this release, I have replaced the small-x icon with an APRSa4 icon. It will appear as the APRSa4 icon to APRSa4 users, and an "x" to everyone else. This is the "." designator. This is x-perimental and may change later. To use the APRSa4 icon, replace the "/" with a "." ( no quotes ) as the first character of the Posit Text on the Config page. Please report if I have transposed the position of any icon or have left any out.

APRSa4 v0.5.02 1997/7/04
Expiration date is 1997/7/21

New:
1) APRSa4 now looks for Embedded Wave File Names in Status and Position packets
2) Default Maps Objects can now be created. This is now to do it. Start SA4. Enter any SA4 drawing object you want. This can be Mapnotes, circles, place names, anything. Set the map for the desired magnitude and map center. From APRSa4, using the Files menu, select Open SA4 Objects File. All the objects in that SA4 file will now be entered on any map the APRSa4 creates. The Objects File map center and zoom will be entered in the Map Options window. If the Fixed center and magnitude check boxes are selected, then APRSa4 will produce maps with these values of center and magnitude. Note, you can open multiple SA4 file this way. Data from successive files will be added to those already opened. The map center and magnitude will be that of the LAST file opened. This new command can allow you to draw in a parade route for example and each time a map is drawn, the route will be visible. Seach boundarys can be entered if desired, or maybe the location of aid stations. If you are a Waypoint+ user, track files saved as an SA4 file can be opened in APRSa4 and redrawn in the APRSa4 maps. The utility will allow you to easily define the map view that you want.

Fixes:
None. The minimize to standard window Page Fault in Kernel32 still exsists, but is much more rare that it use to be. We will continue to work on this.

I'd like your feed back on the new Map Object Files utility and Embedded Wave files.

BH, K

V0.5.00 Notes

The is a new experimental feature in APRSa4 v0.5.00. This is not an APRS standard. I called it embedded WAV file names. Basically, this is how it works; the percent symbol, "%" denotes the start of a wave file name. When APRSa4 encounters a %, it looks for the first work after it for the name of a wave file to be played. An example, %update would play the Update.wav file. If you sent a message to someone with this as the message text:
%alarm %fire on South county road.
APRSa4 would look for ALARM.WAV and FIRE.WAV and play them. The message text would be as above. This requires no change in APRS protocol as I understand them to take advantage of then Embedded wave file name function.

Try this, let me know what you think. Of course, each station must have a wave file that coresponds to the embedded wave file name. If no file is found, APRSa4 will ignore the name and continue, no error message will be generated. To use this function, add appropriate wave files to your APRSa4 directory. The feature could make custom alarms and warning and other messages easy to add.

Any wave message you do not want to hear, delete to appropriate wave file.

This is all experimental. Feedback desired. This feature currently works only for bulletins and messages, not for status or posit packets, though that will probably be added later if it is found that this is a desireable feature.

Notes for APRSa4 v0.4.09 1997/6/20

This version has trial code for the Pico Packet. APRSa4 will now send a Ctrl-E every 6 seconds to the TNC when the Pico option is choosen on the Config page. Be sure to set the LGE parameter of the Pico to $05 so it will respond to CTRL E. This is consistent with DOS APRS. Other TNCs should have the "Standard" option checked. ( Maybe a misnomer? )

Several menu bugs have been fixed that were introduced in v0.4.08. The weather page now sorts data "correctly". Click on any column header to sort. You can sort in the Positions and Status pages also.

There is now a "Send To" menu item added to the Traffic, Bulletin and Weather pages when you Dbl-Click on a station.

The "Filter Position Data" function has been changed. This is how it is works. The most recent position fix is taken as a starting point. Then each point back in the history is looked at. If the distance travelled is less than .06 mile, the point is discarded. Once a point greater than .06 miles is found, than point is then used to compute distances futher back in the history log. This will effectly throw out most stationary data. It is a first draft. I is not automatic. You must choose this function from the Positions page.

Note for APRSa4 v0.4.07 1997/06/15.

New:
1) The options window has changed. You can now set a fixed Magitude for maps. Set the Fixed Magnitude spinner to the desired level and chech the Fixed Magitude checkbox.

2) You can also set a fixed map center as before. But you can do this from the Positions page. Double click on any position and choose the "Make Location Map Center" option.

3) There is a programmable TNC inter-command delay option now. This can be set from 0 to .3 seconds. My KPC-3 does not require a delay. I understand that the PicoPacket may require as much a .2 seconds. I'd like feedback on what setting you find required for your particular TNC.

Recommended APRSa4 startup procedure:
1) Start the program
2) Set appropriate serial port and baud rate for the TNC port
3) On the Config page, enter appropriate callsign and other text options.
4) Choose an appropriate TNC configuration file and "Send" it.
5) Enable Transmit.

Note that the startup procedure is likely to change to an automatic sequence in a final release.

Note for APRSa4 v0.4.06
There are a number of things that have changed in this version. This willrequire some close attention when testing. A number of the added featuresare not automatic.

1) You can enter an Alias now, no big deal here.

2) You can now send a configuration file to the TNC. I'm using the sameconfiguration files that come with APRSdos. They have names of *.TNC. Note, the program does NOT restore the configuration of the TNC beforeAPRSa4 startup. On the Config page, there is a box where you can enter thename of the configuration file you want to use. These file must be in thesame directory as APRSa4. You can not type the name in, the program willfind all the *.TNC named files and allow you to choose the one you want. Enter the name you want, and press the "Send to TNC" button. This willsend the file to the TNC. Note that I have a .1 second delay betweencommands. I have found that my KPC-3 does NOT require a delay. Iunderstand that the PicoPacket might require a .2 second delay. Pleasetest this and let me know if the configuration works.

3) On the TNC page, I have changed the Ctrl-C button to read Ctrl-E. Thiswill send a Hex 5 to the TNC which I am told causes the PicoPacket totransmit it GPS buffer to the computer. You can still enter Ctrl-C, makesure the focus in on the edit box to the right of the Ctrl-E button andfrom the keyboard, press Ctrl-C to get into command mode. The Ctrl-Cbutton is no longer needed.

4) I have changed the parsing routine on input data considerably. This wasto accommodate the configuration files. It appears to be working fine, butI have only watched it for about 1/2 hour.

..I realize that there a number of things to test here. I would appreciateany feedback you can offer. Please tell me what kind of TNC you are usingwhen you respond. Those with Picos, let me know if the Ctrl-E works. Iunderstand that the Ctrl-E might not be the default and you may have tochange this setting from the default. Hopefully soon, the configurationfiles will be working. Note that the program does not save the name of theconfiguration file between invocations of the program.

..Another problem I have observed and have no solution to resolve it. Whentransitioning from a minimized window to a standard window, the program attimes causes a Page Fault in Kernel32. The only solution at this time isto NOT minimize the program. Have other observed this? Does the programcause a Page Fault at any other time?

..I appreciate all you have offered their feedback on the program.

Brent Hildebrand, KH2Z
Redlands, California
BHildebrand@Worldnet.att.net

New for v0.4.00

1) APRSa4 now has transmit enabled. It will only transmit position and status packets. If there is not a valid callsign,
the program will not transmit. It there is no position information entered, position packets will not be transmitted.

2) Data entry on Lat/Long fields now has some data checking. Remember, APRSa4 displays data only in decimal
degrees. West and South are negative. 34 degrees 30 minutes would be 34.5

3) Before starting v0.4.00, delete the config.log

4) I understand that some TNC/GPS combos, such as the picopacket, have both GPS and TNC data on the same
serial port. APRSa4 does not at this time support this. I am thinking of making both serial ports "equal". That is, both
ports could be hooked up to a TNC or GPS and have the data parsed appropriately. Yes, you could have 2 TNC's
hooked up at once under this scheme. The transmit port would have to be designated.

For any questions regarding the software and it's operation, please e-mail:

Brent Hildebrand, KH2Z Redlands, California
BHildebrand@Worldnet.att.net