[aprssig] DIGI_NED 0.4.0

[Henk de Groot]

Hello,

Here is an update to DIGI_NED, version 0.4.0. DIGI_NED is currently
finished work in maintenance mode.

Last week a bug report surfaced on Ubuntu 9.04. The satellite tracker
made DIGI_NED crash. It turns out newer compilers have better check
mechanisms to trap bugs where code writes outside the boundaries
of an array. A bug like that surfaced in the DIGI_NED code and
has been there for years. The bug is only visible when using a modern
GCC compiler to build the code. The bug is fixed now.

Now that I'm making a new package I also made some changes to the
way satellites are announced. This was a long standing request by
Bob Bruninga to alter it. The formatting has changed so the
newer Kenwood radios can pick up the downlink QRG directly. Also the
elevation is degrees was not clear and a precision in degrees is
misleading since nobody is in the same position and the elevation is
already changed by the time you look at it. This is now changed to
a more simple HI and LOW where HI is 20 degrees or more and LOW is
below that. Preceding HI and LOW it tha AMSAT satellite name. The
aditional advantage is that the Kenwood speech chip can pronounce
this so the satellite and  elevation are known even without looking
at the display.

Another change is that the example digi_ned.ini file is now
accordign to the new paradigm. The original digi_ned.ini file is
move to an appendix at the end of the digi_ned.txt file; I did
want to keep is because it contains a lot of usefull text and
examples.

The instant floppy now also generates a new paradigm digi_ned.ini
file and uses the latest DIGI_NED build for DOS. Also the Windows
version is now up to date to the current source code.

I posted the source and binaries to my website:

http://home.kpn.nl/pe1dnn

Here are the changes to DIGI_NED itself from the Changes.txt file:

Changes.txt

05-12-2009 version 0.4.0
- With Ubuntu 9.04 a bug sufaced in the satellite tracker code. Data was
  written outside the allocated space. It had no ill effects before but
  is definately a bug. Thanks to Michael Lussier for reporting it and
  helping to find the cause.
- Also in the sattracker there was a long standing wish from Bob Bruninga
  to change the format of the satellite objects. The downlink frequency
  has now MHz attached to it so newer Kenwood receivers can tune to the
  QRG directly, the second frequency has the word "up". Elevation data
  is gone to make room. On the second screen (not visible on the TH-D7 but
  visible on the D700) there is the AMSAT designation and HI or LOW for
  elevation. HI means 20 degrees or more, LOW means below 20 degrees
  elevation.
- Updated digi_ned.tle and digi_ned.sat.
  Note: only 12 satellites have current data. Others do not seem to be
  updated anymore. I have no idea what satellites to include, but at least
  we have de "APRS" satellites ISS, NO44, GO32 and AO51.
- New command for sat users: "sat now". Shows sats that are in range now
  Thanks to Michael Lussier for the suggestion.
- Moved the old digi_ned.ini to an appendix section in the digi_ned.txt
  manual. The supplied digi_ned.ini is now conform the new paradigm.
- WIDE2-1 as first unused call in the path is now recognised as a
  local station (instead of 1-hop already done).

APRS[tm] is a Trademark of Bob Bruninga,
his home page is at "http://web.usna.navy.mil/~bruninga/aprs.html"

Kind regards,

Henk.