next beta build #206 of YAAC ("Yet Another APRS Client"), created 2025-Jan-14

downloadable from


changes and updates include:
1. minor performance improvements in core YAAC.
2. generalize NMEA-0183 GPS and gpsd JSON parsers to recognize any
constellation of GNSS satellites to support multi-constellation
receivers.
3. fix some not-properly-encapsulating code to allow unit test code to
work better.
4. fix some GUI views that do not properly implement Night Mode
(dark displays to reduce eye glare in low-light situations). Also
persist the display mode setting in the configuration.
5. add option to popup station window to keep it open and updating
instead of automatically closing when focus moves to another window.
6. fix MADIS weather station data checks to properly perform Optimal
Interpolation for spatial consistency checks.
7. significant performance improvements in rendering topo contour lines.
8. fix scale calculations for bandwidth monitor view.
9. fix bugs in OpenStreetMap tile downloader to honor the choice on the
alternate tiledir selection and properly name the planet.ways file
when it is downloaded.
10. import latest tocalls database from Hessu's repository.
11. add more entries to core YAAC help index.
12. improve documentation of night mode, messaging, and importing
UIView .pos files for locally-originated Objects.
13. in TAK plugin, add support for porting APRS text messages to CoT
chat messages.

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Greetings.

I'm looking through the code, and can't see anything obvious, other than the first '1' in the distance value is aligned with the left edge of the bearing pointer circle. I'm wondering if the leading text character simply didn't horizontally _fit_ in the panel containing the bearing pointer and the text above and below the pointer.

To check this, if you see VK5RR show up again, could you look for the station entry in the View->Station/Object list table, and see what distance and bearing is displayed there? Note that if the text field in the table begins or ends with "...", it means the table column is too narrow to fit all the characters in the column, so you may have to widen the column by dragging the edge of the column header (just like you would resize a column in Microsoft Excel).

Also, were you seeing any other Australians at the time? If so, were any of their distances truncated?

Let me know what you find.

Andrew, KA2DDO
author of YAAC

________________________________________
From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of Tony via groups.io <73GUDDX@...>
Sent: Friday, January 10, 2025 5:16 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [yaac-users] Distance Calculation Issue?

All:

While monitoring 30M APRS, I noticed a discrepancy in the distance calculated by YAAC between myself and VK5RR. The range should be approximately 10,500 miles, but YAAC showed 1,700 miles. I checked APRS-FI to see if VK5RR's position might be off, but it appeared to be correct. YAAC did show the correct bearing which is 273 degrees.

The distance for all other stations seems fine so not sure why the discrepancy for VK.

Any ideas?

Tony -K2MO

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I was just fixing up some YAAC help files, and noticed that there is a detailed explanation of the Object record format in the built-in help. Just look for the help for File->Load->Objects and Items.

Sorry about my previous incorrect statement; it's been years since I wrote that particular help file.

Andrew, KA2DDO
author of YAAC

________________________________________
From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of Keith Kaiser via groups.io <wa0tjt@...>
Sent: Monday, December 30, 2024 3:02 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [yaac-users] objects.pos

According to chatGPT;

This string appears to be an APRS (Automatic Packet Reporting System) location beacon, commonly used in amateur radio for reporting position. Here's how to interpret it:

1. *111111z

* The * might indicate a comment or other specific data type, depending on the context.
* 111111 is the timestamp in UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) in the format DDHHMM:
* DD = Day of the month (11th day, in this case).
* HHMM = Time in hours and minutes (11:11 UTC in this case).
* z indicates that the time is in Zulu time, another name for UTC.
2. 4738.27N

* This represents the latitude in degrees and decimal minutes:
* 47 = 47 degrees.
* 38.27 = 38.27 minutes.
* N = North latitude.

To convert to decimal degrees:
47+38.2760≈47.6378°47+6038.27?≈47.6378°.

3. 12243.53W

* This represents the longitude in degrees and decimal minutes:
* 122 = 122 degrees.
* 43.53 = 43.53 minutes.
* W = West longitude.

To convert to decimal degrees:
122+43.5360≈122.7255°122+6043.53?≈122.7255°.

4. r

* This is the symbol indicator that tells what kind of object this is. In APRS, different symbols are used to represent various things, such as cars, planes, or weather stations. The specific meaning of r would depend on the APRS symbol table being used.

Final Interpretation

This beacon is reporting a position:

* Latitude: 47.6378° N
* Longitude: 122.7255° W
* Timestamp: 11:11 UTC on the 11th day of the month.

This location is near Seattle, Washington, USA. If you have further context, such as the type of object being tracked (e.g., a mobile station, weather station, etc.), it could provide additional details.


Keith, WA0?TJT
Author:
ARRL Life Member & VE
ARRL ARES Communicator Level 2, AEC for Platte Co. MO
KCHEART Radio Operator - St. Lukes Barry Road Hospital

On Dec 30, 2024, at 1:24?PM, Jamie H via groups.io <wa7jh@...> wrote:

Andrew,

Do you have a legend that breaks out the object attributes in the object.pos file?

Like what does this all mean:
*111111z4738.27N/12243.53Wr
I feel like the *111111z is time and equals permanent.

What’s the rest mean if I got that right.


Jamie Hughes
WA7JH
(360) 340-8886

There are 2 ways:

1. Click the Message->Station menu entry.
2. Just type it in at the bottom of the map window.

There are other ways as well if other plugins (such as the smallscreen plugin) are installed.

Andrew, KA2DDO
author of YAAC

________________________________________
From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of Glen Briggs via groups.io <kb0rpj.glen@...>
Sent: Tuesday, January 7, 2025 11:04 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [yaac-users] Send a message

how do i open a window to send a message? i can only find a window to show me read messages

Just type in their callsign-SSID as the recipient, rather than picking them from the drop-down list. Note that several of the major APRS-IS services like ANSRVR are already on the drop-down list.

________________________________________
From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of Glen Briggs via groups.io <kb0rpj.glen@...>
Sent: Monday, January 6, 2025 10:07 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [yaac-users] Send a message

How do I send a message to someone not on the map? Or like I want to send a message to ANSRVR

No, night mode in YAAC isn't hidden in YAAC; it's in expert-mode Configuration on the Behavior tab as the "Background display mode" (either Day Time or Night Time).

________________________________________
From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of Tony via groups.io <73GUDDX@...>
Sent: Monday, January 6, 2025 4:41 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [yaac-users] World Map For HF APRS

*
Just out of curiosity, how did you force the background to be so dark? That doesn't look like the Night Mode setting (expert mode on the Behavior tab).

I changed the background color to get the darker map Andrew — LAYERS / GEOGRAPHICAL MAP LAYERS / SET BACKGROUND COLOR.
Also removed most POI's and boundaries to get a solid map background. I don't need a lot of map detail for HF APRS (VARA 10148.2 kHz dial).

I didn't know there was a dark mode — must be hidden.

Tony -K2MO



________________________________
From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of Andrew P. via groups.io <andrewemt@...>
Sent: Sunday, January 5, 2025 5:45 PM
To: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [yaac-users] World Map For HF APRS

Just out of curiosity, how did you force the background to be so dark? That doesn't look like the Night Mode setting (expert mode on the Behavior tab).

Andrew, KA2DDO
author of YAAC

________________________________________
From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of Tony via groups.io <73GUDDX@...>
Sent: Thursday, January 2, 2025 5:42 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [yaac-users] World Map For HF APRS

Andrew:

Download went smoothly and the world map is working. I did notice some missing map segments. As you can see from the attached screenshots, I prefer a dark background, and I was wondering if there's a way to change the label font colors so they show up on those darker colors.

Thanks,

Tony

________________________________
From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of Andrew P. via groups.io <andrewemt@...>
Sent: Thursday, January 2, 2025 12:23 PM
To: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [yaac-users] World Map For HF APRS

You just have to download an area of map tiles larger than 500 mile radius.

However, someone discovered a bug in the downloader, so, in your configured tiledir directory, there will be a file incorrectly named planet.ways.gz, which should be renamed to planet.ways; ity was decompressed upon download, but the wrong filetype was used for the file.

This download bug will be fixed in the next build of YAAC.

Andrew, KA2DDO
author of YAAC

________________________________________
From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of Tony via groups.io <73GUDDX@...>
Sent: Wednesday, January 1, 2025 11:32 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [yaac-users] World Map For HF APRS

Andrew:

Also, YAAC does support a lower-resolution form of the imported OpenStreetMap data that only does national boundaries. To get the planet-level map file, make sure your download range for OSM map tiles covers more than 8 degrees (about 500 nautical miles or 800 kilometers) when you are downloading the tiles.

Can you please give a more detailed (preferably step-by-step) description on how to accomplish this?

Thank you.

Tony



________________________________
From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of Andrew P. via groups.io <andrewemt@...>
Sent: Saturday, December 28, 2024 6:44 PM
To: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [yaac-users] World Map For HF APRS

Regarding your two questions:

1. YAAC can import raster map images for a background. However, they are a pain to pin to the grid so the coordinate system is known properly, so I recommend using UTM-coordinate images with an associated .wld file to provide the pinning information.

Also, YAAC does support a lower-resolution form of the imported OpenStreetMap data that only does national boundaries. However, it's a bit sloppy because the boundary map lines aren't consistently identified, so YAAC has trouble finding all of them. To get the planet-level map file, make sure your download range for OSM map tiles covers more than 8 degrees (about 500 nautical miles or 800 kilometers) when you are downloading the tiles; YAAC will then assume you are going to be zoomed out enough to need the planet file and will download it too.

2. The graticule grid lines can be turned off by unchecking the menu choice View->Layers->Lat/Lon Graticule.

Hope this helps.

Andrew, KA2DDO
author of YAAC

________________________________________
From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of Tony via groups.io <73GUDDX@...>
Sent: Friday, December 27, 2024 12:54 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [yaac-users] World Map For HF APRS

All:

I'm new to YAAC and I was wondering if it's possible to import a simple World Map? My primary interest is HF APRS so there's no need for a detailed street map. Also wondering if it's possible to remove the grid lines.

Thanks, Tony

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• Just out of curiosity, how did you force the background to be so dark? That doesn't look like the Night Mode setting (expert mode on the Behavior tab).

Just out of curiosity, how did you force the background to be so dark? That doesn't look like the Night Mode setting (expert mode on the Behavior tab).

Andrew, KA2DDO
author of YAAC

________________________________________
From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of Tony via groups.io <73GUDDX@...>
Sent: Thursday, January 2, 2025 5:42 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [yaac-users] World Map For HF APRS

Andrew:

Download went smoothly and the world map is working. I did notice some missing map segments. As you can see from the attached screenshots, I prefer a dark background, and I was wondering if there's a way to change the label font colors so they show up on those darker colors.

Thanks,

Tony

________________________________
From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of Andrew P. via groups.io <andrewemt@...>
Sent: Thursday, January 2, 2025 12:23 PM
To: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [yaac-users] World Map For HF APRS

You just have to download an area of map tiles larger than 500 mile radius.

However, someone discovered a bug in the downloader, so, in your configured tiledir directory, there will be a file incorrectly named planet.ways.gz, which should be renamed to planet.ways; ity was decompressed upon download, but the wrong filetype was used for the file.

This download bug will be fixed in the next build of YAAC.

Andrew, KA2DDO
author of YAAC

________________________________________
From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of Tony via groups.io <73GUDDX@...>
Sent: Wednesday, January 1, 2025 11:32 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [yaac-users] World Map For HF APRS

Andrew:

Also, YAAC does support a lower-resolution form of the imported OpenStreetMap data that only does national boundaries. To get the planet-level map file, make sure your download range for OSM map tiles covers more than 8 degrees (about 500 nautical miles or 800 kilometers) when you are downloading the tiles.

Can you please give a more detailed (preferably step-by-step) description on how to accomplish this?

Thank you.

Tony



________________________________
From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of Andrew P. via groups.io <andrewemt@...>
Sent: Saturday, December 28, 2024 6:44 PM
To: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [yaac-users] World Map For HF APRS

Regarding your two questions:

1. YAAC can import raster map images for a background. However, they are a pain to pin to the grid so the coordinate system is known properly, so I recommend using UTM-coordinate images with an associated .wld file to provide the pinning information.

Also, YAAC does support a lower-resolution form of the imported OpenStreetMap data that only does national boundaries. However, it's a bit sloppy because the boundary map lines aren't consistently identified, so YAAC has trouble finding all of them. To get the planet-level map file, make sure your download range for OSM map tiles covers more than 8 degrees (about 500 nautical miles or 800 kilometers) when you are downloading the tiles; YAAC will then assume you are going to be zoomed out enough to need the planet file and will download it too.

2. The graticule grid lines can be turned off by unchecking the menu choice View->Layers->Lat/Lon Graticule.

Hope this helps.

Andrew, KA2DDO
author of YAAC

________________________________________
From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of Tony via groups.io <73GUDDX@...>
Sent: Friday, December 27, 2024 12:54 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [yaac-users] World Map For HF APRS

All:

I'm new to YAAC and I was wondering if it's possible to import a simple World Map? My primary interest is HF APRS so there's no need for a detailed street map. Also wondering if it's possible to remove the grid lines.

Thanks, Tony

The window font sizes can be changed from the expert-mode Configuration dialog. There is not presently a way to change the font color for map labels, but I am looking into such a change.

Andrew, KA2DDO
author of YAAC
________________________________________
From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of Tony via groups.io <73GUDDX@...>
Sent: Friday, January 3, 2025 3:37 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [yaac-users] Label Font Color / Size Change?

All:

Does anyone know how to change the map label font color and size? Also wondering if the various program window fonts are adjustable.

Thanks, Tony

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Hi All,

Apologies if this is old news.

With thanks to Andrew (KA2DDO) for the tip, I have successfully been using YAAC on a MacBook Air (M2), with the VGC VR-N76 in KISS mode.

I made several false starts trying to follow Linux instructions. Things work differently in MacOS!

My steps were as follows:

1) make sure your VGC VR-N76 is updated to the firmware supporting KISS
2) on the radio, hit the green button for settings, again to select “General Settings”, then "KISS TNC", then "Enable KISS TNC”. You can back out of the menus with the Red button.
3) on the radio, hit the greed button for settings, and scroll down to “Pairing” in the main menu and press the green button again to enable pairing to your Mac.
4) on the Mac, use Bluetooth System Settings to pair the VGC. It will show up as a headset, but _that is fine_. The Mac will notice the VGC supports the serial profile, and will mount it as (in my case) /dev/tty.VR-N76 and /cu/
5) in YAAC, configure a standard Serial_TNC port using that serial port device.

Works like a charm.

Thanks again Andrew for the great software (and support ;)
—惭颈办别
(VA3HHQ)

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A few other things to look at regarding rendering topographic contour lines:

Where are you trying to look at the map (geographically speaking)? You didn't specify your callsign so I couldn't guess at where you are located to see what kind of slopes you have in your area. The vertical spacing between contour lines is not dynamically computed, but rather set manually in the View->Layers->Show Topography->Edit Topographic Colors dialog box. So if you are:
a. zoomed out a lot, and
b. have steep slopes in the area to be rendered, and
c. have a small value for the contour interval setting,
the contour lines on those steep slopes will be mashed together because the horizontal distance between contour lines (in screen pixels) will be less than the pixel size. Also, the renderer has to check rendering lines for every possible contour line between the minimum and maximum elevations on the screen, so the smaller the spacing between contour lines, the longer it will take to compute the contour lines because more levels of them will have to be computed. And more uneven terrain will guarantee that more lines will be crossing slopes, increasing the computation for those additional contour lines.

So, if it is just taking forever to render the contour lines and you are looking at hilly terrain, try enlarging the contour interval to reduce the computation.

Hope this helps.

Andrew, KA2DDO
author of YAAC


________________________________________
From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of David Lowry via groups.io <huskyrunnr@...>
Sent: Tuesday, December 31, 2024 6:57 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [yaac-users] Can’t get topo lines

Resolved. Wrong password to reach the NASA data, yet looked like it was downloading so didn’t think to check. Thank you again, your words explained a lot that I did not know about using this function. I also got the repeater finder working. No window would pop up until I moved from the toughpad “recommended” resolution of 150% to 100%.
David

You just have to download an area of map tiles larger than 500 mile radius.

However, someone discovered a bug in the downloader, so, in your configured tiledir directory, there will be a file incorrectly named planet.ways.gz, which should be renamed to planet.ways; ity was decompressed upon download, but the wrong filetype was used for the file.

This download bug will be fixed in the next build of YAAC.

Andrew, KA2DDO
author of YAAC

________________________________________
From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of Tony via groups.io <73GUDDX@...>
Sent: Wednesday, January 1, 2025 11:32 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [yaac-users] World Map For HF APRS

Andrew:

Also, YAAC does support a lower-resolution form of the imported OpenStreetMap data that only does national boundaries. To get the planet-level map file, make sure your download range for OSM map tiles covers more than 8 degrees (about 500 nautical miles or 800 kilometers) when you are downloading the tiles.

Can you please give a more detailed (preferably step-by-step) description on how to accomplish this?

Thank you.

Tony



________________________________
From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of Andrew P. via groups.io <andrewemt@...>
Sent: Saturday, December 28, 2024 6:44 PM
To: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [yaac-users] World Map For HF APRS

Regarding your two questions:

1. YAAC can import raster map images for a background. However, they are a pain to pin to the grid so the coordinate system is known properly, so I recommend using UTM-coordinate images with an associated .wld file to provide the pinning information.

Also, YAAC does support a lower-resolution form of the imported OpenStreetMap data that only does national boundaries. However, it's a bit sloppy because the boundary map lines aren't consistently identified, so YAAC has trouble finding all of them. To get the planet-level map file, make sure your download range for OSM map tiles covers more than 8 degrees (about 500 nautical miles or 800 kilometers) when you are downloading the tiles; YAAC will then assume you are going to be zoomed out enough to need the planet file and will download it too.

2. The graticule grid lines can be turned off by unchecking the menu choice View->Layers->Lat/Lon Graticule.

Hope this helps.

Andrew, KA2DDO
author of YAAC

________________________________________
From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of Tony via groups.io <73GUDDX@...>
Sent: Friday, December 27, 2024 12:54 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [yaac-users] World Map For HF APRS

All:

I'm new to YAAC and I was wondering if it's possible to import a simple World Map? My primary interest is HF APRS so there's no need for a detailed street map. Also wondering if it's possible to remove the grid lines.

Thanks, Tony