SYMBOLS.txt 7.9.1            APRS DISPLAY SYMBOLS

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:

        TABLE    RESULT            
         /       Primary   symbol Table  (Mostly stations)
         \       Alternate symbol table  (Mostly Objects)
         0-9     Alternate NUMBERED symbol with 0-9 overlayed
         A-J     Alternate NUMBERED symbol with A-J overlayed (!* also)
        
ALTERNATE SYMBOL TABLE:  This alternate table consists of all of the 
weather symbols plus some new generic shapes for objects.  Press F1-S in 
APRSdos to see these symbols.  The numeral "3" is overlayed on those 
symbols which accept the NUMBERED overlays.

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.

  SSID  SYMBOL   
             
  -0    Dot                
  -1    Ambulance
  -2    Bus    
  -3    FireTruck   
  -4    Bike               
  -5    Yacht (sail)        
  -6    HELO
  -7    Aircraft           
  -8    Ships (power)   
  -9    Car
  -10   Motorcycle   (Was a satellite in older versions)
  -11   Balloons
  -12   Jeep     
  -13   Rv       
  -14   Truck    
  -15   Van 

These defaults can be user definable on a net by net basis.  If your net
must have different defaults, contact me.

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.

                    
$   PRIMARY SYMBOL TABLE (/)        ALTERNATE WX TABLE (\)
-   ------------------------        ----------------------

! - Police, Sheriff                 EMERGENCY (!)            
" - RAIN                           
# - DIGI (white center)             NUMBERED STAR (green)
$ - PHONE                           Bank or ATM  (green box) 
% - DX CLUSTER
& - HF GATEway                      NUMBERED DIAMOND
' - AIRCRAFT (small)                Crash site
( - CLOUDY                          CLOUDY
) - (was Mic-Rptr moved to /m)                                    
* - SNOW                            SNOW
+ - Red Cross                       Church                   <== new
, - reverse L shape
- - House QTH
. - X
/ - Dot
0 - Numeral circle                  NUMBERED CIRCLE
1 - Numeral circle
2 - Numeral circle
3 - Numeral circle
4 - Numeral circle    all of these are available
5 - Numeral circle
6 - Numeral circle
7 - Numeral circle
8 - Numeral circle
9 - Numeral circle                  Gas Station (blue pump)  
: - FIRE                            Hail                     
; - Campground                      Park/Picnic area          <== New
< - Motorcycle                      ADVISORY
= - RAILROAD ENGINE
> - CAR (SSID-9)                    NUMBERED CAR
? - SERVER for FIles                INFO Kiosk  (Blue box with ? in it)
@ - HURRICANE or tropical storm     HURICANE
A - Aid Station                     NUMBERED BOX             
B - BBS                             Blowing Snow
C - Canoe                           Coast Guard               <== New
D -                                 Drizzle
E -                                 Smoke
F -                                 Freezing rain
G - Grid Square (6 digit)           Snow Shower                    
H - HOTEL    (blue bed symbol)      Haze                     
I - Tcp-Ip                          Rain Shower  
J -                                 Lightening
K - School  
L - avail                           Lighthouse                     
M - MacAPRS                       
N - NTS Station                     Navigation Buoy          
O - BALLOON                        
P - Police                          Parking                    
Q - TBD                             QUAKE                       
R - RECREATIONAL VEHICLE            Restaurant                   
S - SHUTTLE                         Satellite/Pacsat
T - THUNDERSTORM                    Thunderstorm    
U - BUS                             SUNNY                       
V - TBD                             VORTAC Nav Aid              
W - National WX Service Site        NWS site and W-R DIGI (green)
X - HELO  (SSID-6)                  Pharmacy Rx
Y - YACHT (sail SSID-5)
Z - WinAPRS
[ - RUNNER                          Wall Cloud                  
\ - TRIANGLE   (DF)    
] - PBBS
^ - LARGE AIRCRAFT                  NUMBERED Aircraft
_ - WEATHER Station (blue)          WX and W-R DIGI (green)
` - Dish Antenna                    Rain       
a - AMBULANCE
b - BIKE                            Blowing Dust/Sand
c - tbd
d - Dual Garage (Fire dept)         DX spot by callsign
e - HORSE (equestrian)              Sleet
f - FIRE TRUCK                      Funnel Cloud                
g - Glider                          Gale Flags                     
h - HOSPITAL                        HAM store
i - IOTA (islands on the air)
j - JEEP (SSID-12)                  Construction (Steam Shovel)
k - TRUCK (SSID-14)
l - Area Locations (avail)  = = >   Area Locations (box,circles,etc)
m - Mic-Repeater                    MILEPOST with 2 digit display   
n - Node                            NUMBERED TRIANGLE         
o - EOC                             small circle                    
p - ROVER (puppy)                   Partly Cloudy            
q - GRID SQ shown above 128 miles
r - ANTENNA                         Restrooms                
s - SHIP (pwr boat SSID-8)          NUMBERED SHIP/boat (top view)
t - TRUCK STOP                      Tornado                  
u - TRUCK (18 wheeler)              NUMBERED TRUCK
v - VAN (SSID-15)                   NUMBERED Van
w - WATER station                   Flooding                 
x - xAPRS (Unix)                                                   
y - YAGI @ QTH
z -
{ -                                 Fog
| - reserved (Stream Switch)
} - diamond  (open with dot in center)
~ - reserved (Stream Switch)

AREA SYMBOLS!  You can define BOX/CIRCLE/LINE or TRIANGLE areas in all
colors, either open or filled in, any size from 60 feet to 100 miles. 
Simply move the cursor to the location, press HOME, move the cursor to the
lower right corner of the AREA and hit INPUT-ADD-OBJECTS-AREA.  Enter
the type of area, and color.  NOTE that AREA shapes can only be defined
by selecting the upper left corner first, then the lower right second. 
The line is an exception.  It is still top to bottom, but the lower point
can be to the left of the beginning point.

   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
                       
These offsets are ALWAYS positive to the right and down, except for the
special case of a lower right quadrant line, these are given the Type of
6 and are drawn down and to the left.

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.txt 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:
   
    ! Emergency              (/! reused for police station)
    L Lighthouse
    N Navigation Buoy        (/N reused for NTS station)
    Q Quake or bulls eye
    V Vortac
    U sunny  (Sunny was $, but prefer that for ATM or BANK)
    l area Locations
    m Milepost               (/m reused for Mic-Repeater)

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.
   
    0  CIRCLE (does all of the existing lettered boxes, plus now numerals)
    A  BOX    (does all the numbered circles, plus now letters)
    #  STAR (digipeaters)       
    &  DIAMOND (gates)          
    >  CAR
    n  TRIANGLE
    s  SHIP/BOAT
    ^  AIRCRAFT
    u  TRUCK (big)
    v  VAN

These labeled icons, then free up all of the primary ICONS 0-9 and A-J.

Recent Additions. 

   SYM  PRIMARY          10 reusable WX, and 20 reusable letters/numerals
    -   -----------      ------------------------------------------------
    A   Aid Station      Blue box with white letter A?
    !   Sheriff          Is a box with ! in it or a sheriffs badge?
    H   Hotel            Blue box with white Bed
    C   Canoe            canoe
    g   glider           hang glider triangle
    w   water H20        box with H2O in it
    t   Truck stop
    N   NTS traffic stn  ARRL diamond with NTS in it?
    ?   APRS File server
            
   SYM  ALTERNATE        53 available
    -   ------------     ------------------------------------------------
    `   Rain             Had been QUOTES but was difficult to handle
    :   Driving Hail     back to back triangles
    f   Funnel cloud     Tornado symbol with FC on it
    [   Wall CLoud       ?
    $   ATM              Green box with $$ in it
    P   Parking          Blue box with P
    R   Restaurant       Blue box with knife & fork
    r   restrooms        Blue box with figures
    X   Pharmacy         Rx
    9   Gas              Blue box with gas pump            (99.9 cents)
    ?   Info place       Blue box with ?
   

          

