Thanks so much for taking the time to write this up for a dumb ham like me. I guess after first reading of your comments I don¡¯t understand why it was working great until after 4/30/20? The UI-View files do all reside in a separate folder, not in the windows program folders. I went thru all your comments and make comments in red. UI-View may be old but it works pretty good for hams like old me! I practice ¡°if it ain¡¯t broke don¡¯t fix it¡±. Trouble is when it is broke like this, I can¡¯t remember what I did last time to fix it before and what is what in the setup files.
Since the program is so old and the author passed some time ago which I knew, I have been looking for a new APRS program to replace UI-View but most I have researched so far do not work with a soundcard TNC. I use a soundcard TNC with lots of applications but many hams have trouble with setup but it has served me well. In short, I just don¡¯t want all the extra hardware with Signalinks and etc. I downloaded PinPoint as a possible replacement, got it installed and then discovered it did not support a soundcard TNC at this time. They say it will support it in the future. It appears to be a nice program from the interfaces. If you know of an APRS application that does work with a soundcard TNC or that mode is included in the application, let me know. As you probably know Winlink and FLdigi include the interface software in their applications BUT on Winlink if you do packet you have to start a soundcard TNC program first before bringing up the Winlink program the last time I used it in that mode. If you are acting as a Winlink Packet Gateway which I tested a while back, the interface is included. In Winlink I have not used all the protocols they do support but for some reason packet was not one of them the last time I used that mode.
See my comments so far inserted in your comments below in red. Again I really do appreciate your help here.
On May 16, 2020, at 1:03 AM, WA8LMF via groups.io <wa8lmf@...> wrote:
On 5/15/2020 11:21 AM, Charlie Zachry via groups.io wrote:
I am having trouble with UI-View updating my position on APRS-IS and APRS-fi. The last position update for my station (K4RSU) was on 4/30/2020. I do not know what is causing it to not update. All other stations near me are updating fine with the latest date. I am wondering if there could have been a Windows 10 update of some kind that might be causing this. I have had issues before that were caused by a Windows update. Further I think UI-View may be just too outdated for me who uses a soundcard TNC.
Here is my setup:
This setup has worked great for me for years until now. Have also used it for Winlink,, EasyPal, FLDigi and etc. as well as with analog applications.
When a beacon is sent out on 144.39 MHz here is what it looks like from the UZ7HO Soundcard TNC software:
1:Fm K4RSU To APU25N Via WIDE2-2 <UI C Pid=F0 Len=49> [08:07:55T]
=3842.59N/07722.63W-Zach in Manassas,VA {UIV32N}
I cannot find any, easy to understand, documentation with examples that tells what my beacon is saying. What is the destination APU25N mean? Where is the symbol for the map determined? I see the grid coordinates. Where does this burst enter the internet for display on APRS-fi? Is it the gateway or from the originating station? In my case I think that would be my gateway N3HF-1 as I see relays thru this gateway for hams near me but it is not updating my house symbol on APRS-fi
APU25N is the identifier that says UIview32 2.03 sent (originated) this beacon. All applications and hardware devices that send APRS traffic have a unique set of 4 alphanumeric characters after the universal "AP" prefix.
The symbol on the recipient's map is determined by two characters embedded in the string -- the one immediately after N for latitude north and immediately after the W for longitude west. Full details on how this code works is here on my website:
Wow! First of all Stephen you have done a great job in documenting all this. This is exactly what I was looking for. Very UI-View educational.
Looking at my beacons I see how it got to the house symbol for my station but that is not one of those symbols that is in use today per the / chart. Is it just still being used for those as a UI-View default only? I looked at some of the other stations that digipeatered thru N3HF-1 and understand the method to this madness now. How do UI-View users know what to use if it is not in its table or can they? Can they key the symbol some way?
It is posting correctly generated by UI-View on my computer and I can listen to the signal going out on my HT. It sounds fine. Reduced output volume to the radio and that did not help. My normal Gateway station I think is N3HF-1 which is about 3.1 airline miles away. Went to the N3HF-1 home location to ensure I was getting into his site okay and I appear to be full quieting there but did not see any beacon going out from N3HF-1 on my signal.
N3HF-1 is acting as an digipeater and a gateway because I see beacons on UZ7HO app coming out of N3HF-1 for stations around me and when on APRS-fi I see stations around me as well that went thru N3HF-1. So I am straight now on that operation. I remember when I first started using UI-View after it beaconed out I could see my power receive power beaming in a signal to the world. Since UI-View has worked so long on default settings I don¡¯t know what happened here?
Is N3HF-1 a digipeater (relays RF-to-RF) or is it just an igate (RF-to-Internet gateway)? If it is only an igate, you are not going to hear any re-transmission of your beacons on RF.
The typical path is for a station to transmit a beacon, be heard and re-transmitted by one or more digipeaters, and then be heard by an igate station. An igate is a station with a radio, a computer and an Internet connection. There are 10s of thousands of home stations volunteering as igates around the world.
In turn, every igate is logged into one of the 75-odd inter-connected Internet servers around the world that make up the "APRS Internet System" a.k.a. the "APRS-IS". It really doesn't matter which APRS-IS server you connect to, since they all constantly exchange data each other. Normally, within 1-2 seconds after you send a beacon on RF, it is on all of the APRS-IS servers.
In turn, individual users (APRS uses with an Internet connection but often no radio) also log into one of the APRS-IS servers to view what the APRS-IS has gathered up from all over the world. Public web servers like findu.com, APRS.fi and several others also get their data from the APRS-IS. (The full unfiltered APRS-IS stream is now a non-stop 200-300K/second stream. There are ways to filter this stream so your local program doesn't choke on this firehose of data.) Note that the APRS-IS does not archive data - it only gathers up stuff and immediately forwards it to interested users and public web servers. In turn users of the APRS-IS like findu.com and APRS.fi (and even some individual users) gather the APRS-IS real-time stream and archive it on their own servers. (This is why you can go to APRS.fi and see someone's track from several days ago.)
How does the gateway get information to the internet? I guess in batches over a wireline connection at the gateway to their router?
Not batches. Every received packet is transferred individually to the APRS-IS. It doesn't have to be a wireline -- just an Internet connection of some sort. It could be hard-wired Ethernet, WiFi or even a smartphone with Internet access. Many smartphone users originate APRS traffic from apps on their phones. These go directly to the APRS-IS via cellular data, without ever having traveled on 2 meters RF. Note however that smartphone users never get seen on RF user's maps, since their beacons were never on-the-air in the traditional sense.
An application like UIview can play three roles at the same time:
1. As a "client" to display what your radio hears on RF, and to send/receive
text messages.
2. As an igate to pass what your setup hears on RF to the APRS-IS (assuming
you have an Internet connection).
3. As a digipeater to receive other peoples packets off RF and re-transmit
them on RF.
Each of these roles require proper configuration to function properly. To be seen on APRS.fi (or any other Internet-based APRS site) you must either be heard by an igate station either directly or through one or more digipeaters --OR-- your own station must be connected to the Internet and successfully logged into an APRS-IS server.
Here is a screen print of the UI-View Station Setup page:
(See attachment)
I changed the symbol from a house to a circle with a zero in the center at someone¡¯s suggestion and that did not help. It still did not update on APRS-fi.
These screen shots show you just ran "Setup" from the UIvew distribution and accepted the default settings that are now decades out of date. The author of UIview died in 2004, freezing UIview's development as of April 2004. The program is now an orphan frozen in time for over 16 years. No updates will ever be made, since the author, from his death bed, asked that the source code be destroyed.
He must have been mad at the ham world to destroy all the source code.
However, many changes can and must be made after the initial install. You can read an extensive list of the changes that need to be made after the initial install here on my web site:
<>
Note especially the considerations for installing and running UIview on Windows 7-8-10. You CANNOT blindly accept the proposed default location under /Program Files .
I have everything in a separate folder, not installed by Windows in its program files.
Looking at the screen shots:
* You have not updated the symbol set - you are still using the OEM symbols
from about the year 2000. The symbol set has been revised several times since.
* You have NO configuration information entered in the "APRS Server" setup.
You have not checked the "Open RF-to-Internet gateway" - thus you are not
igating nearby traffic heard on RF.
So I guess I must have had that checked before 4/30/20 since K4RSU was shown on APRS-fi?
* You have not placed any filter information in the "Extra Login Info"
field. Without the proper filter expression, the APRS-IS server will send
you NOTHING.
Why would just a plain old ham station like me need to log on to a APRS server since I would be everything by radio? I can see the APRS-fi app needs to log on when I want information about where my station is. Does my N3HF-1 gateway pass that information along to APRS-IS so when I ask APRS-fi to display for K4RSU that that and surrounding stations is all they display? Don¡¯t know where that 12345 validation number came from? Maybe it was a default.
Hopefully I updated APRS Servers file correctly and the Extra Login Info to exclude the Citizens Weather Stations. I would not have known how to do that without your documentation!
* Two of the three APRS servers you checked do not even exist anymore.
(Remember the server list is over 16 years old.) Updating the server list
is one of the first things one has to do after the initial install.
Thanks for the info on how to do this.
I guess after reviewing your comments I am surprised this thing worked at all before 4/30/20. Maybe it just finally reached a point of no return?
Charles (Zach) Zachry
K4RSU
czachry@...
703-405-4656 Cell
703-730-8118 Home
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stephen H. Smith wa8lmf (at) aol.com
Skype: WA8LMF
EchoLink: Node # 14400 [Think bottom of the 2-meter band]
Home Page:
----- NEW! 60-Meter APRS! HF NVIS APRS Igate Now Operating ------
<>
Live Off-The-Air APRS Activity Maps
<>
Long-Range APRS on 30 Meters HF
<>
.png)