[aprssig] New Feature On My UIview Webserver Maps - U.S. Weather Warning/Watch Zones

[Stephen H. Smith]

I have been experimenting with with some changes and updates to my 
UI-Webserver.    For some time, I have been using the webserver included 
with UI-View to make maps of the APRS activity locally on 2 meters and 
across the U.S. on 30M HF available to anyone on the Internet.  

I am now plotting the US National Weather Service weather warning and 
watch zones for the entire continental US on my 30M HF APRS map at:

     <http://wa8lmf.dyndns.org:14439>    

This UI-Webserver is running here at my house over a consumer "768K" 
ADSL account whose uplink (outbound) speed is only about 150K. . Details 
of the "Ham Superserver" that runs the UIview server and several other 
ham Internet apps is here:

     <http://wa8lmf.net/EPIAserver>     

If too many people hit this server at the same time, you may get 
timeouts or partial loads of the map.  If this happens try again.


*****  HOW THIS WORKS  *****


The UI-NWS add-in for UI-View can automatically plot the U.S. warning 
and watch zones on UIview maps, if you have an always-on Internet 
connection.  These zone outlines are turned on and off by a stream of 
messages, passed over the APRS Internet system. The messages come  from 
a special server that receives US government NWS bulletins and reformats 
them into APRS-compatible bulletins.  These messages are inserted into 
the APRS Internet system by a virtual igate called "WXSVR".

The NWS bulletins are received for the entire country, even on 
regional-filtered APRS feeds. If you use the port 14580 user-defined 
filter port on an APRS server,  adding  "t/n" to the normal port 14580 
filter expression will cause all of the NWS bulletins to be sent, along 
with weather-related APRS area objects originated by APRS users.   
UI-NWS snags these special messages and uses them to light up the 
display of colored translucent area outlines contained in a set of 
"shape files" available from the US NOAA (National Oceanic & Atmospheric 
Administration) website.  

Details on downloading and using the shape files for use with UIview and 
other APRS programs is on my website at:

     <http://wa8lmf.net/aprs/get_nws_shapefiles.htm>

Details for using shape files with UIview are in the help system within 
UI-NWS.  Start this plugin by pulling down "File, UI-NWS" from the main 
UIview 2.03 program.