[aprssig] AVRS/APRS-Alert Updates

[John Gorkos]

I just wanted to do a little self-promotion and give folks who are interested 
in updates on my coding projects.

AVRS-
  I'm working with the AllStar author to add AllStar nodal information along 
with the existing IRLP and EchoLink data.  This will give us a third 
interconnect network to chose from.
The following commands are currently working when you send an APRS message to 
"AVRS":
? - will return the CLOSEST VOIP gateway node (either IRLP or Echolink, and 
soon allstar) to your last beaconed position
?E - returns the Echolink node info for the node closest to your last beaconed 
position
?I -  returns the IRLP node info for the node closest to your last beaconed 
position
?A -  returns the Allstar node info for the node closest to your last beaconed 
position (probably next week some time, doesn't work yet)

?<callsign>  - returns the CLOSEST VOIP gateway node (either IRLP or Echolink, 
and soon allstar) to <callsign's> last beaconed position
I hope to add ?<callsign>/[E|I|A] soon, but I've got other work to do first.

LOCATE -
  A new service added by the AVRS daemon is the "LOCATE" service.  Sending a 
message to "LOCATE" will result in the server sending you a message with a 
plain-English description of the last known position for the target.  For 
example, if I send a message from my home station (AB0OO) to "LOCATE" with "?" 
as the body, I get this:
AVRS>APZ013,TCPIP*::AB0OO    :AB0OO heard 0d0h1m54s ago 9.75km E of Sugar 
Hill, GA{0

If I send one to LOCATE with "WB4APR-3" in the body, I get this:
AVRS>APZ013,TCPIP*::AB0OO    :Wb4APR-3 heard 0d0h7m35s ago .98km SW of 
Annapolis, MD{0

I'm working on a SAT server, too, where you can send a query to "SAT" with ? 
for the params of the next satellite pass over your location, or ?[SATNAME] to 
specify a satellite.   That's a few weeks out, but I DO have working* Java 
code for satellite prediction.

APRS-Alert-
  The http://www.aprs-alert.net website is ticking along nicely, I think.  I'm 
not getting ANY feedback on it, so it works great, no one is using it, or no 
one care enough to complain.  My current project for that is to constantly 
pull and parse Common Alerting Protocol data (i.e. NWS alerts/bulletins) and 
give you the option to get a message with something like
"AB0OO-9 has just entered an active tornado warning zone"

There are still a few stability/memory issues plaguing the system.  I'm doing 
something stupid with large hashtables, and leaking memory somewhere.  I try 
to check on the system every few hours, and restart it when necessary, but 
occassionally it will go 6 hours or so without me catching it.  I can't really 
automate the restarts, because I'm collecting core dumps when it dies.

Anyway, feel free to play with the APRS toys I'm making.  All the code is 
available at http://avrs.sf.net (sourceforge).  If you want to help code, 
please do.  If you want to help test, my ab0oo at arrl.net or jgorkos at gmail.com 
addresses are the best places to get messages to me.

Thanks.
John Gorkos
 
* working code is defined as "it compiles and doesn't format my harddrive when 
I run it"