The character after the latitude "N" in an APRS position report is a TABLE character and the character following the longitude "W" is the APRS symbol character. The TABLE character selects one of two symbol tables or may be used as a numeric overlay over some symbols as follows:

OVERLAY SYMBOLS: These symbols consist of the following shapes that can be overlayed with the numerals 0-9 and A-J (eventually A-Z). Select these from the OBJECTS-OVERLAY menu. THese will only show on APRS78 or later.

CIRCLE, SQUARE, CAR, TRUCK, VAN, STAR(digis), DIAMOND(gates), Triangle

SYMBOLS WITH STAND-ALONE GPS TRACKERS: Since the stand-alone TNC trackers output the raw GPS data over the air, instead an APRS formatted position report, there are two methods for specifying the symbol type. First, by default SSID if no other vehicle data is available. See the table below.

Secondly, you may indicate the desired symbol character surrounded by braces {/$} as the first 4 characters of the TNC BText. Once the BText has been received by a station, the mobile will then be displayed using the specified symbol. The advantage of this method is that more symbols are available than from the SSID convention. The disadvantage is that the symbol is not displayed until AFTER at least one BText is received. The old {$} for only the primary table is still supported.

These AREAS are useful for real-time events such as for a search-and- rescue, or adding a special ROAD or ROUTE for a special event. Be cautious in using the color fill option, since all other objects in that area that occur earlier in your PLIST will be obscured. AND you do NOT know the order of other stations P-lists.

AREAS FORMAT: The new format for specifying special areas uses the CSE/SPD field to provide the additional information as follows:

$CSE/SPD...  Normal Field description
lTyy/Cxx...  Where:  l (lower case L) is the symbol for "LOCATION SHAPES"
                     T is the Type of shape:  0=circle, 1=line, 2=elipse
                                              3=triangle 4=box
                                              add 5 to these => color-in
                     C is the color from 0 to 15.  For colors geater than
                       9, the / is replaced with a 1.
                    yy is the sqroot of the latitude offset in 1/100ths
                    xx is the sqroot of the longitude offset

NEW NWS WX SYMBOLS: With the new Alternate WX symbols table in version 7.8, old versions of APRS will see just lettered circles instead of the new symbols. Those older users may toggle the WX-DISPLAYS-OTHERsymbols to ON, to properly display these alternate NWS symbols.

HURRICANES, TROPICAL STORMS and DEPRESSIONS: These symbols will be differentiated by colors red, yellos, and blue. Additionally a radius of Huricane and also Tropical storm winds will also be shown if the format detailed in WX.HTM is used.

SYMBOLS ON MAPS! APRS can also be permanently embedded in maps. To embed a symbol in a map, simply make the first four characters of the label be a # followed by the dual symbol character, followed by a hex number from 1 to F that indicates the color for the symbol. The remaining 8 characters can be used for a conventional label at the same location. An example are the VORTAC nav-aids in Alaska. The Anchorage VORTAC appears as ANC on all maps below 128 miles. The label entry is #VFANC,LAT,LONG,128.

SUMMARY OF ALL RECENT SYMBOLS CHANGES

1. Moved all WX symbols to ALTERNATE table but still recognize both until primary table symbol is re-used.

2. In keeping with the idea of using the primary table where possible for active stations and the alternate table for OBJECTS, I also moved the following to the alternate table (again recognizng both until the primary is re-used:

NUMBERED ICONS: Permits NUMBERing specific ICON shapes with a set of numerals and letters. The permitted labels are 0-9, !, ?, *, A-Z, and only the following alternate shapes will be numberable in this manner.

Recent Additions.