[Cluster-tech] PC41 locations and things

[Dirk Koopman]

I don't know which authors are subscribed to this forum but I hope, one
way or another I get to you all. 

For some considerable time now there has been a small disagreement with
lat/long -> locator calculations. These have been minor, one minute
differences that I have not been particularly bothered with. I have
never to to bottom of this and I don't know which software is also
generating type 5 PC41s. 

I suspect the differences come about because of what part of the locator
square is sent out as the lat/long. Is it the middle or one corner, if a
corner which one. That sort of thing. We should agree on on how we
interpret these fields.

However, of late, the errors have suddenly got more serious. This is an
example that has just come past.  

07Jan2007 at 21:11:15 <- I WR3D PC41^SV1DVX^5^KM18WA^H26^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:15 -> D ED7ZAB-5 PC41^SV1DVX^5^KM18WA^H25^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:15 -> D S50DXS PC41^SV1DVX^5^KM18WA^H25^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:15 -> D GB7TDX PC41^SV1DVX^5^KM18WA^H25^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:15 -> D GB7DXA PC41^SV1DVX^5^KM18WA^H25^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:15 -> D PI4TUE-8 PC41^SV1DVX^5^KM18WA^H25^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:15 -> D GB7DJK-1 PC41^SV1DVX^5^KM18WA^H25^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:15 -> D GB7XDX-1 PC41^SV1DVX^5^KM18WA^H25^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:15 -> D GB7WDX PC41^SV1DVX^5^KM18WA^H25^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:15 <- I ED7ZAB-5 PC41^SV1DVX^5^KM18WA^H9^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:15 <- I S50DXS PC41^SV1DVX^5^KM18WA^H9^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:15 <- I PI4TUE-8 PC41^SV1DVX^5^KM18WA^H25^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:15 <- I S50DXS PC41^SV1DVX^3^38 1 N 23 53 E^H9^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:15 -> D ED7ZAB-5 PC41^SV1DVX^3^38 1 N 23 53 E^H8^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:15 -> D GB7TDX PC41^SV1DVX^3^38 1 N 23 53 E^H8^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:15 -> D GB7DXA PC41^SV1DVX^3^38 1 N 23 53 E^H8^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:15 -> D PI4TUE-8 PC41^SV1DVX^3^38 1 N 23 53 E^H8^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:15 -> D WR3D PC41^SV1DVX^3^38 1 N 23 53 E^H8^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:15 -> D GB7DJK-1 PC41^SV1DVX^3^38 1 N 23 53 E^H8^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:15 -> D GB7XDX-1 PC41^SV1DVX^3^38 1 N 23 53 E^H8^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:15 -> D GB7WDX PC41^SV1DVX^3^38 1 N 23 53 E^H8^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:15 <- I WR3D PC41^SV1DVX^3^38 1 N 23 53 E^H26^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:15 <- I ED7ZAB-5 PC41^SV1DVX^3^38 1 N 23 53 E^H3^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:15 <- I GB7DXA PC41^SV1DVX^5^KM18WA^H22^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:15 <- I PI4TUE-8 PC41^SV1DVX^3^38 1 N 23 52 E^H3^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:15 -> D ED7ZAB-5 PC41^SV1DVX^3^38 1 N 23 52 E^H2^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:15 -> D S50DXS PC41^SV1DVX^3^38 1 N 23 52 E^H2^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:15 -> D GB7TDX PC41^SV1DVX^3^38 1 N 23 52 E^H2^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:15 -> D GB7DXA PC41^SV1DVX^3^38 1 N 23 52 E^H2^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:15 -> D WR3D PC41^SV1DVX^3^38 1 N 23 52 E^H2^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:15 -> D GB7DJK-1 PC41^SV1DVX^3^38 1 N 23 52 E^H2^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:15 -> D GB7XDX-1 PC41^SV1DVX^3^38 1 N 23 52 E^H2^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:15 -> D GB7WDX PC41^SV1DVX^3^38 1 N 23 52 E^H2^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:15 <- I PI4TUE-8 PC41^SV1DVX^3^38 1 N 23 53 E^H25^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:15 <- I GB7DJK-1 PC41^SV1DVX^3^38 1 N 23 53 E^H24^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:15 <- I ED7ZAB-5 PC41^SV1DVX^3^38 1 N 23 52 E^H18^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:15 <- I WR3D PC41^SV1DVX^3^38 1 N 23 52 E^H21^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:15 <- I GB7DJK-1 PC41^SV1DVX^3^38 1 N 23 52 E^H23^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:15 <- I S50DXS PC41^SV1DVX^3^38 1 N 23 52 E^H4^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:15 <- I GB7DXA PC41^SV1DVX^3^38 1 N 23 52 E^H1^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:17 <- I WR3D PC41^SV1DVX^3^0 0 N 0 0 E^H26^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:17 -> D ED7ZAB-5 PC41^SV1DVX^3^0 0 N 0 0 E^H25^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:17 -> D S50DXS PC41^SV1DVX^3^0 0 N 0 0 E^H25^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:17 -> D GB7TDX PC41^SV1DVX^3^0 0 N 0 0 E^H25^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:17 -> D GB7DXA PC41^SV1DVX^3^0 0 N 0 0 E^H25^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:17 -> D PI4TUE-8 PC41^SV1DVX^3^0 0 N 0 0 E^H25^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:17 -> D GB7DJK-1 PC41^SV1DVX^3^0 0 N 0 0 E^H25^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:17 -> D GB7XDX-1 PC41^SV1DVX^3^0 0 N 0 0 E^H25^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:17 -> D GB7WDX PC41^SV1DVX^3^0 0 N 0 0 E^H25^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:17 <- I S50DXS PC41^SV1DVX^5^JJ00AA^H9^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:17 -> D ED7ZAB-5 PC41^SV1DVX^5^JJ00AA^H8^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:17 -> D GB7TDX PC41^SV1DVX^5^JJ00AA^H8^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:17 -> D GB7DXA PC41^SV1DVX^5^JJ00AA^H8^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:17 -> D PI4TUE-8 PC41^SV1DVX^5^JJ00AA^H8^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:17 -> D WR3D PC41^SV1DVX^5^JJ00AA^H8^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:17 -> D GB7DJK-1 PC41^SV1DVX^5^JJ00AA^H8^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:17 -> D GB7XDX-1 PC41^SV1DVX^5^JJ00AA^H8^~
07Jan2007 at 21:11:17 -> D GB7WDX PC41^SV1DVX^5^JJ00AA^H8^~

Could you all have a look at your code (and maybe your logs) to see who
or what is causing this. 

Whilst I am on and writing about PC41, there appears to be a sysop that
has taken it upon himself to issue PC41, type 1, records with the name
'Selfspotter'. This has also been going on for a while. I will be doing
something in my software to mitigate the damage this is causing. I shall
also be changing the DXSpider PC protocol implementation to allow a
composite record to be sent with all the bits of information in one line
(a PC95). This will also allow me to control whether to accept
information from non-homenodes as the origin (in common with all PC9x
packets) will be in the packet. It has the format:-

PC95^origin^timestamp^call^name^qth^lat/long^homenode^locator^H99^

Any of the information fields can be missing (as in ^^), any field with
two spaces in will delete that slot from the user record (as in ^  ^). 

As I have mentioned PC9x packets, these will only be sent to nodes that
advertise that they accept them in the PC18 text, sent on node
connection. 

Also I am currently (finally, after many false starts over the years)
successfully sending and maintaining accurate node and user lists using
the new PC92 protocol on a number of test nodes that I control. This
will be the subject of another email RSN.

73 and HNY

Dirk G1TLH