[aprssig] APRSPoint with MapPoint 2004 Media

Sat Dec 8 09:05:41 EST 2018

Hi Stephen and everybody else who has responded on list and off list,
First of all I must say thanks.
And yes, I agree with everybody that say CDROM/DVD are not good long term backups (at least not the ones you burn at home); and me working in Information Systems should know better.  But as we say in Spanish: "En casa de herrero, cuchillo de palo" (literal translations is "In blacksmith home, you have wood fork").
Also, I have "lost" (they are not really lost, just very well stored by my wife, so well stored that not even her remembers where they are) all my hard drives with backups of many of my softwares, including ham radio software.  So I have been scavenging all my boxes here at home and the net for all those software I used to have.
After the hurricane, I lost my last personal working PC (desktop style) and a little after that, I lost my working laptop (which belonged to my ex-employer) when my employer at that time ended operations and recalled the equipment back.
Now recently I managed to put back to work an old desktop that used to belong to my late father.  And I also got donated an old laptop I have been putting back to work.  They are old and with low power CPU, but at least they do the basic job done.
I have been setting all my old ham radio software on those machines, specially the laptop, and that includes the APRS programs (old and new) since I may not use them all regularly (specially the old ones), but sometimes I use them for historical/educational/fun reasons.  Those include the old programs WinAPRS, UI-View, and the APRSPoint for which I asked for a copy of the media (the APRSPoint which included the mappoint license sold by Cai; which I am still looking for).  Of more recent programs, and that I normally use more on day to day basis, YAAC.
I also installed the Balloon Trak program from EOSS, in case that I do again; I have not done one in a long time; a balloon chase.
Hurricane Maria taught us that we must be more prepared than before, and I hope I can have all this things (and many others) ready soon.
Thanks again.

Francisco Diaz
NP3OD

For weather in the San Juan, PR area http://www.np3od.tk/cumulus/

    On Friday, November 23, 2018, 6:12:59 PM GMT-4, Stephen H. Smith <wa8lmf2 at aol.com> wrote:  

  On 11/23/2018 4:37 PM, Francisco Diaz via aprssig wrote:

   Hi all, 
  I do not know if someone can help me, but I do make the question. 
  In Janury 2006 I bought APRSPoint, which included MapPoint 2004.  Today I was trying to install the software, but unfortunately both disks seem to be bad, probably from age.  Last time I used them (a year ago) they worked fine.  And I made the mistake of not making some sort of backup of them.  Also, to my bad luck, APRSPoint is out of business, so I can not ask them for help. 
  So the question is this, does anybody in the list still have that software (APRSPoint with MapPoint), that could make .ISO images of both disks and send them to me online? 
  Any help would be appreciated.  If you feel more confortable answering me off the list, I have no problem; my email is np3od at yahoo.com    

More confirmation of what I have repeatedly warned people about:   Recordable CDs & DVDs are NOT archival media suitable for long-term storage.   

APRSpoint is actually a plug-in or add-on to MS MapPoint.   You must have MapPoint installed first.    MapPoint is now a discontinued product with the final version being the 2013 edition.    

[ALL of the  locally-stored  independent-of-the-Internet  mapping packages (Delorme Street Atlas, Delorme TopoUSA, MapPoint and Microsoft MapPoint fell victim to the smartphone foolishness of assuming you can be constantly tethered to the Internet and only need Google Maps. --  They were all  discontinued In the same period of about 18 months. As you well know in PR, you CAN'T depend on the Internet always being there.   Not to mention the hundreds of thousands of square miles of  western North America that have NO CELL COVERAGE AT ALL, even without a hurricane.]

I have cached the last version ever of APRSpoint (ver 4.57) on my website at  

     <http://wa8lmf.net/hamdisks/APRSPoint457.msi>

The out-of-print MapPoint  (both the North American and European versions) can usually be found on the Bittorrent peer-to-peer file shareing networks.

Stephen H. Smith    wa8lmf (at) aol.com 
 Skype:        WA8LMF
 EchoLink:  Node #  14400  [Think bottom of the 2-meter band]
 Home Page:          http://wa8lmf.net

 Live Off-The-Air APRS Activity Maps
    <http://wa8lmf.net/map>

 Long-Range APRS on 30 Meters HF 
    <http://wa8lmf.net/aprs/HF_APRS_Notes.htm>

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