[aprssig] Re: WINAPRS maps?

[Scott Miller]

Maptech was at least willing to talk to me, though I had a hard time getting
in touch with anyone really technical.

What I would absolutely *love* would be the addition of some psudo-NMEA
extensions to their handheld Pocket Navigator product to handle waypoint
management, map note import/export, and maybe area definitions.  Even if it
handled GPWPL properly, that'd be a start.  With a small set of fairly
simple extensions, you could build a Bluetooth-enabled tracker/gps/radio
module that'd stay tucked away in a backpack, but would pass GPS and APRS
data to a Bluetooth PDA.  This would be perfect for SAR - no worries about
keeping the handheld in a good position for GPS coverage, automatic transfer
of tracks and search assignments, the ability to see other teams and
remotely defined waypoints, and so on.

If anyone knows of a PDA-based mapping system that can do this now, let me
know...

Scott
N1VG
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mark Sproul" <kb2ici at amsat.org>
To: "TAPR APRS Mailing List" <aprssig at lists.tapr.org>; <w7ts at comcast.net>
Cc: "'TAPR APRS Mailing List'" <aprssig at lists.tapr.org>
Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2005 11:53 AM
Subject: [aprssig] Re: WINAPRS maps?


> Stephen is correct
>
> Of these, Precision Mapping is the ONLY company that embrases
> developers. Street Atlas threatened to sue me when I first approached
> them over 10 years ago about utilizing their product into mine.
>
> Precision Mapping developer model is very good if you are using
> Visual Basic or Microsoft Foundation Class for your development
> environment. Since I use neither of these, it is very difficult. I
> got it working very well with Prec Map 3.0/3.5. With PMAP 5.0 I got
> it working but had to limit the screen to square.
>
> 2 years ago I wrote my own map engine utilizing the TIGER data. All
> of the map companies start with TIGER data. This is VERY GOOD data
> and they are doing LOTS of work to improve it. The advantage here is
> that you can download the latest version of the data from the census
> bureau and do not have to wait for Pmap, Street Atlas or the Sproul
> brothers to come out with the maps for it. Also I have LOTS more
> control over the map features than ANY of the other programs. Each
> and EVERY line type is defined and can be enabled or disabled and can
> be set to any color the user wants.
>
> The most recent versions of WinAPRS and MacAPRS do an fantastic job
> of speeding TIGER map drawing up. The first time it takes awhile,
> then from then on, everything is MUCH faster.
>
> Mark