OpenStreetMap.org maps on aprs.fi

Today I added OpenStreetMap maps on aprs.fi. They can be selected using the map type drop-down menu in the top right corner of the map.

OSM support has been on my things-to-do list for a couple years, but since then, it had become much easier to do, and the map coverage of OSM had increased greatly.

The OSM maps have data in many places where there's no Google Maps coverage at all (for example, take a look at Tbilisi, Georgia). Around my home there's more accurate coverage of walking paths in addition to roads.

If you'd like to improve the OSM maps in your area, just go to openstreetmap.org and click on Edit. Please see the wiki for more information on how to get started. If you feel the Google Maps aren't so good in your area, editing OSM maps can become a nice long-lasting hobby project!

Heard & Gated statistics: 6 months of history accessible

The "who heard who" statistics on the info pages of APRS igates and digipeaters now have a pull-down selection for the past 6 months of data. The same selector was also added for the gated and heard maps. The feature had been requested by quite a few users in the past, and it's been on my mind from the moment I added these statistics in the first place. The data was there in the database, I just hadn't gotten around to adding the user interface for jumping between months before now.

Tracking multiple stations in embedded map

A little Sunday morning coding brought the embedded map up to par with the real-time map's callsign search code. Embedded maps allow you to put a real-time aprs.fi map on your own web page.

To track multiple stations, separate them with a comma (','):

he_track = 'CALL1,CALL2';

This now uses the same search routine as the real-time map. If there are tracking targets in different target classes (APRS, AIS, web) having the same name, you might have to add the class prefix:

he_track = 'a/aurora'; // APRS object Aurora, not the AIS ship Aurora

Sharing your position on the map without GPS

The aprs.fi site now supports sharing your current position from the convenience of your web browser by simply pointing at the map, without using a GPS or web browser Geolocation API support.

1. Sign up to the service, if you haven't done so already. Your account's nickname will, by default, be used to mark your position.
2. Log in!
3. Find your current position on the map.
4. Zoom up close for more accurate pointing.
5. Right-click the position and select Upload my position. On a Mac, press ctrl to simulate right mouse button. Left-handed mouse setup will probably use the left button, but if you have one, you know better.
6. If you didn't get the position quite right, simply move the symbol image by dragging and dropping it.
7. When you've moved, right-click and upload the position again.

To change the symbol icon, the web station's name, or the comment text, click on the Favourites (star) tool button in the top right of the screen, and select My stations and bookmarks, and then Settings from the default My web stations item.

I also upgraded the web server software to a new major release. Nice surprise – it didn't require any configuration changes, it just worked. Or so it seems.

Outages due to upgrades during early December

The aprs.fi service might have some small service breaks during the following few days. I'm upgrading the master server with 4*1TB disks (RAID10, 2TB usable capacity) and doing some other upgrades while I'm at it (including but not limited to the new operating system kernel, switching filesystems, LVM, database engine upgrade, etc). The first two disks already went in tonight and replaced half of the old ones, and the process will continue with data migration from the old disks to the new ones.

The first reboot (due to kernel upgrade) will be on Wednesday morning (around 0600 UTC probably). The web service should keep on running happily, but if the reboot will only take a short while, I probably won't bother to move the APRS data collection master function to the second server during the reboot, and some data will be lost during the boot.

Sorry for the trouble!

Clickable track lines, center & zoom links, etc

I've just installed a few small improvements on aprs.fi.

The track lines are now clickable, allowing for easier track line identification and jumping to the current position of that station.

The info balloons of stations (and the track lines) now have "center" and "zoom" links. There's also a new separator line in the info balloon, indicating the track line color used by that station.

The track waypoint hover-on callsign labels now also show the symbol of the station.

The track line drawing code received a nice little bug fix: the station symbol image is only really drawn at the last position within the selected time range. The symbol image will no longer jump and run away when you scroll the map along a track line towards the current position of the station.

Date/time range lookups on the map

This isn't, technically, a big feature, but I expect it to make a lot of people happy. I should have done it a couple years ago.

The map's user interface for looking up historical tracking data used to only allow fetching a single UTC calendar day at a time. I've now implemented arbitrary date / time range searches, where you can select up to 14 days of track data at a time. It also allows for more exact time lookups, such as 2010-10-20 05:58:00 to 2010-10-20 06:38:00. Click the calendar icon to open up the new search form.

I've also switched to a tabbed view for the year ranges, and brought back a bit of December 2008 data. 2008 will go away over time, but the tabbed view fits at least 3 years without taking an awful lot of valuable screen estate.

The user interface still needs some tuning. The time ranges are expressed in UTC regardless of your time zone settings. The UI doesn't say that yet. It also fails to mention the 14 day limit (but it will complain with a nice red error message box if needed).

I might raise or lower the 14 day limit, depending on the amount and magnitude of server load peaks it generates. We'll see. I'd like to make it 30, but it might have some adverse effects.

I've also made small changes to the real-time map's update API, making the communication between the JavaScript running in the web browser and the server a bit quicker and smaller, saving some bandwidth. This change made it necessary to take the web service into maintenance mode for a few minutes, forcing all current viewers of the map to load the new JavaScript components of the page.

How do you like it? Feedback in the comments, please!