[Xastir] Can I ???

[Curt, WE7U]

On Wed, 28 Apr 2004, Special Account wrote:

> Have xastir running on Fedora and am quite taken with it... Kudos' to
> the developers !
>
> So a newbie question... apologize in advance.
>
> I need to have a number of (for lack of a better term) object databases
> show on the map display.
>
> The "database" (now in a spreadsheet - but there are ways to export it)
> has in it:
>
> Hospitals
> Fire stations
> Police Stations
> Emergency Shelters
> Logistics Depots
> Water Supply Points
> Repeaters
>
> Associated with these "objects" are location, capacity, capability,
> contact frequency, etc; I'd like to "plot" them on my map display and
> when I mouse over the "object" and get the "station info" I see the
> associated data with the object.
>
> How can I do this with xastir? (a newbie I am... a programmer I'm
> not)...

There are a couple of ways that I can think of:

1) Create fake APRS Object or Item packets out of them, store them
in a file, then suck that file into Xastir using the "Open Log File"
option.  That will make them appear on your map.  If you use your
own callsign for them, Xastir should transmit out their locations as
well, as if you had created them manually via the mouse.

2) Create your own GNIS-format map file (really just a bunch of
text), and then enable that map.  This method would allow you to
enable/disable various layers/groupings of the above individually,
and you wouldn't end up transmitting the locations.  Some of the
above objects show up as icons on the maps, some just as text with a
little red 'x'.  If you need more of these to show up as icons, we
could discuss adding that capability to Xastir.

You can't get data about an object in Xastir by just placing your
mouse over it, but you can by right-clicking and then choosing
"Station Info".

--
Curt, WE7U			    archer at eskimo dot com
Arlington, WA, USA		http://www.eskimo.com/~archer
"Lotto:    A tax on people who are bad at math." -- unknown
"Windows:  Microsoft's tax on computer illiterates." -- WE7U
"The world DOES revolve around me:  I picked the coordinate system!"