Notes on Installing and Using UI-View

Invalid & Changed Items In Distribution File  | Windows Vista and Win7 Issues |  Add-Ons  |  Installing and Using Precision Mapping with UIview32   | Installing and Using PA7RHM Map Server | Using MapPoint with UI-View    (Links jump to points further down on this page.)

All discussions below apply to the final 32-bit release of UIview (Ver. 2.03). They DO NOT apply to the older and much more limited 16-bit version (which will work with Windows 3.1 if anyone still cares!).  Note that confusingly, the 16-bit version has a seemingly higher version number (2.39).   Don't be fooled -- all the advanced plugins require the 32-bit Ver 2.03!

The 16-bit version is totally freely downloadable and usable as-is without registration. The 32-bit version requires registration to acquire the key number needed to unlock install and run the program.  The registration, once a USD $15 charge, is now completely free.  See the UIview.org website for details.  Many of the more advanced add-ons, including Precision Mapping zoomable maps, will only work with the 32-bit version.

Invalid & Changed Items in Ver 2.03 Distribution File

Roger Barker (G4IDE),  the author of UI-View, died in late 2004.  At his request, the source code for the program was destroyed, making impossible changes or updates to the final release (Ver. 2.03) of the program.   The main UIview program, as distributed, is now an "orphan" frozen in time as of  14 March 2004, with an increasing number of defaults and settings becoming outdated.  Fortunately, many of these can be changed after the initial install.     Here are some of the changes/updates you need to make after installing the program.

• APRS Server List    Pulling down "File, Download APRS Server List" tries to send you to the URL  http://ahubswe.net/APRServe.txt to download a current list of available APRS Internet servers.   If this address doesn't respond, replace the address in this dialog with   france.aprs2.net/APRServe2.txt  instead. Note that this is a text file with a huge list of APRS web servers located all over the world.  You may wish to edit this list after downloading to include only local servers. 
  
  
   
• APRS Server User-Defined Filter Port 14580  Many APRS servers offer this user-defined filter port that can limit the volume of data sent to your APRS program from the Internet.  For example, only stations within a certain distance from your station, or only stations in a certain rectangular region bounded by certain lat/long values.   The F1 Help screens available during the "APRS Server Setup" dialogs include a text file, filter.txt , describing the filter port options.  This file is now outdated. Additional filter port options, including exclusions as well as the original inclusions have been created since.  The current version 3.0 of the JAVaprs filter port instructions and options are available at:
          http://france.aprs2.net/filter_guide.html  
  
  or on this website at:
  
          JAVaprsFilters.htm
  
  The version of the  JavAPRS Filter Guide on this website has been reformatted from the original raw text to HTML for easier readability and search.
  
  The newJavAPRS filter exclude options are especially useful if you want to prevent maps from being flooded with thousands of non-ham "CWO" (Citizens Weather Observer) stations that share the APRS Internet system with licensed ham stations. Simply add  filter -p/CW  to the "Extra log-on text" field in the "Setup, APRS Server Setup" dialog. 
  
  You may wish to download the text version of the webpage at france.aprs2.net above to update the local version inside the UIview help system.  (scroll down to the very bottom of the web page for the download link).  Overwrite the original "filter.txt" in UIview with the updated version.  The internal F1 help system in UIview will then produce the current and correct information on filter ports. The " filter.txt " file is located in the subdirectory " \DOCS " located under the main UIview program directory.
  
   
• Displayed APRS Symbol Set a.k.a "Icons"     There have been numerous changes and updates to the APRS symbol set since UIview became "frozen".  Fortunately, the APRS symbols used by UIview are contained in a pair of Windows BMP graphics files that can be easily replaced (overwritten) after the program is installed. Replacement current symbol sets for UIview (and the MapPoint add-on UI-Point), are located here:
          Revised APRS Symbol Set  .
  
  
   
• UI-Webserver Maps    If you activate the UI-View Personal APRS Webserver built into UIview, the page that displays details for an individual station attempts to draw 3 maps, at varying scales, centered on the selected station. This map display no longer works. The maps were provided by the website "MapBlast!" operated by Vicinity Corp.  About the time Roger passed away, Microsoft purchased Vicinity, and proceeded to cut off free access to the site.  Two replacements for these maps are now available.  One uses Microsoft's Expedia Mapping webserver, the other uses Google Maps.   Using either one will require editing HTML pages in the "UI-Webserver" directory under the main UIview directory.  Complete details, including copy-and-paste code snippets are available here:
          http://france.aprs2.net/uiws_maps.html 
  
  
   
• SA Map Grabber    UIview includes a utility (on the "File" pulldown) for capturing static (non-zoomable) maps from Delorme Street Atlas for use with UIview.  This utility, (of use to American users only),  only works with the "classic" old-style versions of Delorme Street Atlas ending with Ver 9.0 discontinued in late 2001.  It WILL NOT work with any current version of Delorme products using the "new-style" Delorme interface (i.e. TopoUSA, Street Atlas Deluxe, Street Atlas Road Warrior, SA 2004 and later, etc.). 
  
  
   
• North American users of Kenwood D700 and TH-D7    The TNC initialization files for these radios attempt to leave nothing to chance and totally automate the setup of the radios.  Besides initializing the TNC itself, these files also command the radios onto the the correct radio frequency for APRS.  As distributed, the initializations are correct for the U.K. and Europe where the APRS frequency is 144.800.    For use in North America, you must edit the initialization file and change the frequency to 144.390 .  
  
  After selecting the Kenwood D700 or THD7 tnc type during the "Setup, Comms Setup" dialog in UIview, click the "Edit" button.   Locate the strings
  
    ;Set the frequency to 144.800.
    FQ 00144800000,0!FQ 00144800000,0
  
  Carefully change these to
  
    ;Set the frequency to 144.390.
    FQ 00144390000,0!FQ 00144390000,0
  
  and then save the file. Be sure the total number of digits in the numeric strings are not changed! The changes won't become effective until you exit and restart UIview.
  
  
   
• APRS DESTINATION & PATH  Confusingly Combined in Setup    Not a changed standard but a quirk that confuses many newcomers to UIview.    Unlike every other APRS program and Kenwood TH-D7/D700 radios, UIview combines the destination (normally APRS ) and the digipeater path (normally something like WIDE2-2) into a single string in a single field labeled "Unproto Address" in the "Setup, Station Setup" dialog. It's very easy to overlook erasing the leading "APRS" while editing this field during setup.  This string must look something like
  " APRS,WIDE2-2 " or " APRS,WIDE1-1,WIDE2-1 " .   The entries must be delimited by commas.  No spaces are allowed.
  
  At run time, the item to the left of the first comma is taken to be the destination. Subsequent items to the right of the first comma are interpreted as steps of the path.   If the leading "APRS" is left out, the program will try to transmit to a destination of "WIDE2-2" (or whatever is in the first position) instead.  Since APRS applications and digipeaters normally only respond to a destination beginning APxxxx (and a very few other prefixes), you won't be seen on other peoples' programs.    And you won't be digipeated.  
  
  Note that this combined destination and path entry is strictly a UIview setup-screen idiosyncrasy.  All other APRS programs and APRS devices provide separate fields for destination and path entries. No matter how it is prompted for during entry, all programs transmit this information over-the-air in the same format.
  
   
• Quirky Way of Delimiting Degrees and Minutes in Latitude/Longitude Entries     Like most APRS applications, UIview requires that latitude/longitude entries for positions be expressed in Degrees, Minutes and hundredths of Minutes.  You cannot use Degrees-Minutes-Seconds or Degrees and decimal Degrees. [ DD MM.mm  is the default format of NMEA GPS data, and is also the default format for APRS. ]  
  
  However, unlike NMEA, UIview uses two periods to delimit the string instead of one.  For example, latitude data output from a standard NMEA GPS receiver, for 33 degrees 45.14 minutes north, would look like:
      3345.14N 
  
  UIview requires that this be formatted as:
      33.45.14N 
  
   
• Right-click QRZ.com Callsign Lookup feature needs changes.   One of the choices available when right-clicking on an icon on a UIview map is " www.qrz.com "  which sends you to that website for an FCC database lookup.   As of late August 2009, the QRZ website has changed their interface, breaking this convenient right-click lookup.
  
  To fix this, you will need to edit the UIVIEW32.INI file, located in the main UIview program folder.  Shut down UIview, if it is running. Search UIVIEW32.INI for "[RIGHT_CLICK_URLS]" . Immediately below this heading, you should see:
  
    &www.findu.com="http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/find.cgi?$CALL"
    www.q&rz.com="http://www.qrz.com/database?callsign=$CALLNOSSID"
  
  Edit the lower line to read
  
    www.q&rz.com="http://www.qrz.com/db/$CALLNOSSID"
  
  instead.   (The easiest way to do this is to copy and paste the string from this webpage over the existing one in UIVIEW32.INI .)  Save the changes; then restart UIview.
  
  
   
• UI-NWS feature requires server name change, and additional files to be downloaded.  The UI-NWS feature under the "File" pulldown allows U.S. National Weather Service weather warning areas to appear on top of UIview maps. (This feature is of interest ONLY to users in the U.S. or Australia)  Click Here for more information on downloading and using the NWS "shape files". 
  
   

  As of mid-July 2009, the "virtual igate" WXSVR that injected the NWS alerts into the APRS Internet system to make the NWS feature work was shut down.  A replacement server, AE5PL-WX, is now providing this service. Shapes and symbols for severe weather WARNINGs should appear on maps just as before. However, using the right-click "finger" function to retrieve the full text of NWS bulletins will require editing the two files UIview32.INI and  UINWS.INI located in the main UIview program folder.  Shut down UIview. Locate the string  FQDN=WxSvr.net  in each file and replace it with  FQDN=wx.aprs-is.net . Restart UIview. Note that the volume of traffic provided by the new server is far, far less than the old one.  AE5PL-WX only transmits WARNINGS (servere weather actually in progress) but not the ALERTS and WATCHES sent by the old server.  As a result, you will never see the yellow ALERT areas and orange WATCH areas that formerly appeared on UIview maps; only the red WARNING shapes will appear.

  
  Do not confuse UI-NWS with the NWSget add-on discussed below. 
  
  UI-NWS is a standard part of UIview and will work with any map (that covers part of the U.S).  
  
  NWSget automatically downloads color pictures of Weather Service radar images, similar to the ones on TV weather reports, every 10 minutes.  It then displays them underneath the roads and other details in UIview.  NWSget is a separate download, and only works with Precision Mapping and the PMap 7 server for UIview.
  
  
  

• Vista/Windows 7 Issues    
  
  UIview32 "died" in March 2004, in the middle of the "Windows XP era", long before Vista or Windows 7 were released.  No explicit patches or updates for Vista or Windows 7 exist, nor will revised versions of UIview ever be offered for these versions of Windows.  Uiview CAN be made to work with these versions of Windows, but it IS NOT a mindless "just run SETUP and accept the defaults" undertaking. 
  
  Two major issues exist running UIview on Windows Vista or Windows 7: 
  
  
  
  Windows Vista/Win7 UAC (User Account Control) very aggressively defends the "/Program Files" folder tree, where most programs install by default. This is to protect the system against unknown/unauthorized software, and to prevent "drive-by" downloads of spyware & malware from infected web sites.
  
  The constant questioning of actions by programs unknown and "unblessed" by Microsoft causes problems both installing and running older programs.    You must run both the installer, and the program after install, with elevated "Administrator" privileges. Otherwise, the enhanced security will prevent the program from creating and writing to it's own .INI configuration files.  In turn, this prevents the program from remembering the settings entered by the "merely mortal" user. 
  
  One way to avoid a lot of the UAC security hassles is to install UIview completely outside the default "Program Files" folder tree.  Edit the proposed location during install that begins  "C:\Program Files\Peak Systems\xxx", and change it to something directly off the drive root outside of "Program Files" such as C:\UIview32 instead.
  
  If you are installing into the 64-bit version of one of these systems, you must override the default proposed install path of "C:\Program Files\xxxx" and navigate/browse to "C/Program Files (x86)/xxx" instead, to force UIview to use the 32-bit subsystem of these otherwise 64-bit OSes.  
  
  
  
  The other issue is that Vista and Windows 7 quietly dropped support for the traditional Windows .hlp Help File format, rendering UIview's extensive help system unusable, along with those of thousands of other older programs. The file "WinHlp32.exe" must be downloaded from Microsoft, and installed into Vista or Win7, before these older help systems will work.  
  
  Quoting from the Microsoft web site:
  
  "Microsoft stopped including the 32-bit Help file viewer in Windows releases beginning with Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. To support customers who still rely on legacy .hlp files, the Microsoft Download Center provides WinHlp32.exe downloads for Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Server 2008 R2."     
  
  More information about, and downloads of, the missing WinHlp32.exe component are here:
  
       http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917607
   

UI-View Add-Ons

Although the main program is unchangeable, Roger provided and documented an API (Applications Programming Interface) that allows external programs to exchange data with UIview.  Details on this interface and code samples are located in the subdirectory \DEVELOP, located under the main UIview32 directory.   As a result, add-ons for UIview to continue to be developed.  Some examples are:

• Precision Mapping Ver 7 Server      Released several months after Roger's death, this add-in allows Undertow Software's Precision Mapping Streets & Traveler Ver 7.0, Ver 8.0 or Ver 8.1 to be used in UIview32 as a seamless continuously zoomable and scrollable street-level map of all of the United States  and Canada.   Download from the UIview.org website at:
  
      http://www.ui-view.org/uiview32/uivpmap.shtml
  
  Details on configuring PMap Server 7 for use with the now-discontinued Precision Mapping 7.0 are HERE.
  Details on configuring PMap Server 7 for use with the current Precision Mapping 8.0 or 8.1 are HERE
   
• NWS-Get    Automatically downloads US National Weather Service color weather radar images from Internet servers, and converts them for display as underlays for Precision Mapping maps in UIview.  The radar image actually appears underneath the roads, county boundaries, state lines and APRS symbols instead of the usual background shading.   Downloadable from http://billdiaz.dynip.com/nwsgetdetails.htm  This is a .ZIP file whose contents have to be installed "by hand".
  
  I have repackaged NWSget as a fully automated Windows installer that creates directories, shortcuts, etc. Download this version here:   NWSget_SETUP.EXE  (466KB EXE file)
  
   
• UI-Aloha    Computes and displays Aloha range circles (the standard measure of reliable APRS coverage range, based on number of other stations on the air) on maps displayed inside UIview. 
   
• UI-PHG   Computes and displays coverage circles of individual stations (if they are transmitting the Power-Height-Gain information in their beacon)  on maps. 
  
  Both of these add-ons are available at:     http://www.activeham.com/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=22&Itemid=51
  
  
   
• UI Instant Messenger  (Improved APRS Messaging Client)     UIview does include APRS messaging but it doesn't support the decaying retry algorithm that yields the most efficient use of the APRS channel.  This external add-on does.  As a bonus, this program can operate completely independent of UIview directly over an Internet connection.
   
• UI Height-Track   Draws track lines for selected stations on any map displayed inside UIview (i.e. won't work with external maps such as MapPoint).   Track lines can either be specific colors for specific stations, or can be color-coded based on altitude data (if transmitted).
   
• UI-XTR     Files with the extension .XTR (eXTeRnal) placed in the main UIview program directory determine which add-ons should start automatically when UIview is started. UI-XTR provides a convenient "control panel" located in the UIview "File" pulldown to individually enable or disable each of the growing collection of UIview add-ons.
   

These (and many other UIview add-ons) are located at:
     http://www.apritch.myby.co.uk/addon.htm  

• UIsounds.exe (located on this website)     Makes UI-view beep like a D700 when your own call is
  digipeated and sound like an AOL Instant Message when a message is received.
   
• PA7RHM Mapserver  Downloads map images from the online Microsoft Expedia map server, and optionally captures them as calibrated static maps for off-line use.  Download it at
       http://www.pa7rhm.nl    More details on setting up and using this add-on below.
   
   

These are only a sample of the add-ons available for UIview. Many more are described and linked from the main UIview.org website.

• Reducing Distorted Appearance of Maps     UIview and Precision Mapping both use a simple rectangular plot of latitude and longitude that make the North American landmass look oddly stretched.  The distortion is due to the simple non-projected display of map data used by UI-view. UIview assumes that latitude and longitude lines on any map form a simple rectangular grid instead of the converging curved lines that they are in real life.   Further, it assumes a degree of latitude is exactly the same distance as a degree of longitude (only true on the equator).  This makes calculating where to place a given lat/long report on the map extremely fast and simple -- no spherical trig or involved coordinate transformations needed!   The rectangular deviation from curved isn't that obvious in a small area such as a city.  It becomes much more obvious as you zoom out to a state-level or continental display.
  
  Precision Mapping provides a way of tweaking the aspect ratio of the displayed maps. Although it will remain a Mercator-like rectangular display with longitude lines that remain parallel (instead of converging at the poles). the display will have more "normal" proportions.

• 1. Exit UIview
  2. Locate the directory where you installed PMap Server. 
  3. Open the file  MapPro71.cfg with a basic ASCII text editor such as Notepad.
  4. Search for the paragraph heading "Modules" .
  5. Somewhere in this paragraph you should see the entry  "ASP=1.00"     (This means aspect ratio of lat vs long is 1:1 )
  6. Change this entry to something like   " ASP=.750 " or "ASP=.800 "
  7. Save the file.  Be sure the file gets saved with it's original extension of  .cfg .
  8. Restart UIview.  

  The continental US and southern Canada should now have more reasonable and pleasing proportions.  This will do nothing to correct the gross distortion in Alaska and northern Canada where the longitude lines are severely converging.
  
  This only affects PMap Server displays within UIview.  You can correct the aspect ratio for the standalone Precision Mapping .7 program the same way.  Look for another copy of MapPro71.CFG in the Precision Mapping 7 directory and edit it the same way.   
  

  
  

Using The PA7RHM Mapserver for UIview

Chris van Gorp's PA7RHM mapserver automatically captures and calibrates maps from Microsoft's Expedia on-line mapping service for use with UI-View. You can zoom out to regional or country level or zoom in to street-level anywhere in North America or Western Europe.  The appearance of these maps is almost identical to images produced by the local programs MS Streets&Trips (North America), MS Automap (Europe) and MS MapPoint for both regions.   It can produce views elsewhere in the world but these will be simple outlines of national borders and provinces with cities shown as simple point objects.  No roads or hydrographic features show.

Operation with a live Internet connection, is very straight-forward.  Just install the program from the downloaded setup file, and then select "Map Server by PA7RHM" from the UIview "Load A Map Dialog."    Configuring it to capture maps for use without an Internet connection is a bit more involved.

The mapserver saves captured maps in UIview's optional "Extra Maps Directory".  It won't save any maps until you define such a directory in UIview.  The original intent of this optional directory was to allow the storage of large archives of static (non-zoomable) maps on a CD-ROM instead of filling up the UIview "\maps" directory on your hard disk.   For application with the PA7RHM server, this directory has to be on a hard disk (or other writable device such as a USB flash drive) since it needs to be writable.

1. From the Windows File Explorer, create a directory for additional maps. It can be located under the main UIview directory, or somewhere else you prefer on your hard disk. Since you will want to edit files in this directory and delete unwanted views, it may be convenient to place this directory directly off the root of the drive instead of nesting it inside many layers of subdirectories. 
    
2. In UIview (not the map server) pull down "Setup, Miscellaneous Setup" and locate the "Extra Maps" box at the bottom of the screen. Click the "Browse" button and navigate to the directory you created above .
    
3.  Every time you zoom or scroll the PA7RHM server screen, a new pair of files (GIF image and INF file) with matching random-looking alphanumeric-string base file names will appear in this directory.  These random-looking names will now show up in UIview's "Load A Map" dialog after you do "Map, Refresh Map List".
    
4. The names that show in "Load A Map" are not the file names. They are text strings contained INSIDE the .INF file for each map. Open the .INF file with Notepad or other basic text editor, and edit the third line to something more descriptive such as "Denver Metro Area" or "Westside - Street Level".  The string is completely arbitrary and can be anything you like. When you refresh the map list, you will now have more meaningful map titles.
   .
5. You can quickly accumulate hundreds of maps, since you get a new map-and-inf pair every single time you zoom or scroll. You will probably not want to leave the "Save Map Copies" mode left turned on in the PA7RHM server very long. You will also probably also want to select just a few views to keep,  and delete the rest.  Use an image-management thumbnail-and-viewer utility such as IrfanView to preview and delete files. Or as a last resort, open the GIF images in your web browser for a quick view.
    
6. To use the stored maps, you don't run the server at all. Once they are captured and stored, the maps are just like any other static map, such as the ones that came with UIview.  Just do "Map, Load A Map" in UI-View and select one of the stored static maps. If you have captured several maps that cover adjacent areas with some overlap, and UIview is set to track a particular station, UIview will automatically try to select the map with the best view of the station's current location as the station  moves.
    
7. The Expedia maps, like maps generated by MapPoint, are projected on a non-rectangular grid to minimize distortion when the earth's curved surface is displayed as a flat image.   The disagreement between UIview's simple rectangular x-y grid "non-projection", and the curved, projected view generated by MapPoint, is insignificant at city, county or district level.  You WILL see significant error in the placement of APRS symbols, away from the map center, when the map is zoomed out to beyond 75 miles (120KM) or so.

Using Microsoft MapPoint with UI-View

UIview can pass it's received position reports to Microsoft MapPoint (either the North American or European version) via the UI-Point "middle-ware" plug-in. Launching UI-Point from the "File" menu inside UIview causes an application that is actually MapPoint minus some of it's toolbar buttons to appear. This modified version of MapPoint, with all of it's normal menu pulldowns replaced with new ones, operates along side of UIview.   Note you must have MapPoint. MS Streets & Trips or Autoroute will not work with UIview. Click here for more information and details about MapPoint.

The maps displayed in MapPoint are independent of any maps running normally inside UIview.  UI-Point plots standard UIview icons on the MapPoint display, but alphanumeric overlay characters that appear on top of the base icons on maps inside UIview don't show on the MapPoint display.  None of the other UIview plug-ins or enhancements that add track lines, range circles, weather alerting zones, overlay objects, etc to maps inside UIview will have any effect on the UI-Point/MapPoint display.

Note that APRS position reports received from the APRS Internet system (rather than off-the-air from a radio/TNC) don't appear by default.  Pull down "Options, Traffic Filter" from the UI-Point menu bar. Clear the check box for "Don't Display Internet Traffic". 

MapPoint is a large, resource-sucking, rather slow program. When UI-Point was first released years ago, the author was concerned that the typical PC used by hams wasn't fast enough to keep up with the flood of data from the APRS Internet system, while running the sluggish MapPoint. As a result, he defaulted Internet display to off.  (The over-the-air data rate is only 1200 baud and is no challenge for even slow PCs to keep up with.) Today, with fast PCs with hundreds of megabytes of RAM on broadband connections with port 14580 selective filtering of the Internet stream, UIview and UI-Point have no problem keeping up with the Internet data.