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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";
color:windowtext'>My memory's a bit foggy on the discussions, since they were
several years ago. I have this vague recollection that there was a
"disconnect" between the actual bulletins provided by Environment
Canada and the shapes. I think it boiled down to "somebody" doing the
work as you describe below, and at that time (and probably still), the people
most interested in Canadian data were primarily concerned with the warnings,
and less with the shapes. I don't recall anybody involved with the early
discussion even knowing if drawings as you describe exist anywhere (at least in
a form the average citizen could get at). I know Dale and some others had
looked into this much more deeply than I, and eventually gave up.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";
color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";
color:windowtext'>Either way, *<b>just</b>* getting the actual warnings would
probably make most people who care very happy. Heck, for all I know, I'm the
only Canadian left who does care. :-)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";
color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";
color:windowtext'>Brad.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";
color:windowtext'>VE3BSM<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";
color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";
color:windowtext'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:windowtext'> Stephen H. Smith
[mailto:wa8lmf2@aol.com] <br>
<b>Sent:</b> Tuesday, August 04, 2009 17:08<br>
<b>To:</b> TAPR APRS Mailing List<br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [aprssig] "The New" WXSVR and Canada<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Brad [VE3BSM] wrote: <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>Previously,
Dale's server provided warnings (but not shapes) for some or all of Canada. I
know because I was gating warnings for Ontario (WTOSVR) out to RF. I recall
Dale & I exchanging e-mail on his work to being able to send out the
Canadian warnings (and the near-impossibility of doing shapefiles for Canada
thanks to the Canadian government).</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><br>
Why should that be "near-impossble"? The shapes are
just vector-drawing outlines, similar to what Adobe Illustrator, AutoCad or
Corel Draw create, tagged with absolute lat/long coordinates rather than inches
or cm from some arbitrary origin point.<br>
<br>
Even if these shapes are not available for effortless download from some
government agency, it should be possible to load a scanned image of a paper map
(or bitmap image from a website) into a vector-oriented program like Corel
Draw, Adobe Illustrator, MapInfo or ArcView as the bottom layer. Then
trace the boundaries of whatever warning zones or areas Environment Canada uses
for weather alerts, using the program's vector draw tools. You then
save the outline objects on the vector layers into individual files and convert
them to ESRI ArcView format. <br>
<br>
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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