Per my comment about possible new symbols to introduce, I went through the symbol codes defined by OpenTRAC, and found all the symbol meanings that didn't correspond to existing APRS symbol codes. These are what's left of the OpenTRAC codes after eliminating ones that correspond to existing APRS symbols (there were 120 of them). The SAR block seems the highest priority, but there still are lots of other codes that seem like it would be useful to be able to define them, at least as Objects/Items (many of them don't generally correspond to stations).
1.2.3 Unmanned Space Debris
2.2.1.1 Experimental Fixed Wing Air
2.2.1.4 Turboprop Airplane
3.1.2 Government Facility
3.1.3 Medical Facility
3.1.3.2 Clinic
3.1.3.3 Triage Facility
3.1.3.6 Morgue
3.1.4 Emergency Services
3.1.4.2 Decontamination
3.1.5.1 Power
3.1.7.2 Apartment
3.1.7.3 Condo
3.1.13.1 Park
3.1.14.1.1 Airport
3.1.14.1.2 Ultralight Flight Area
3.1.14.1.4 Helipad
3.1.14.2 Ground Transport
3.1.14.2.1 Train Station
3.1.14.2.2 Bus Station
3.1.14.2.3 Light Rail
3.1.14.3 Sea Transport
3.1.14.3.1 Port
3.1.14.3.2 Ferry Landing
3.2.1 Vehicle
3.2.1.1 Passenger Vehicle
3.2.1.2 Commercial Vehicle
3.2.1.3 Rail Vehicle
3.2.1.4 Snow Vehicle
3.2.1.4.2 Snow Plow
3.2.1.5 Construction Vehicle
3.2.1.5.1 Bulldozer
3.2.1.5.2 Backhoe
3.2.1.5.3 Loader
3.2.1.6 Public Safety Vehicle
3.2.2 Emergency Equipment
3.2.2.1 Generator
3.2.2.1.1 Portable Generator
3.2.2.1.2 Towed Generator
3.2.2.1.3 Fixed Generator
4.1.3 Support Vessel
4.1.3.1 Tugboat
4.1.3.1.1 Harbor Tug
4.1.3.1.2 Ocean Tug
4.1.3.2 Pilot Boat
4.1.5.5 PWC
4.1.5.6 Skiff
4.1.5.8 DaySail
4.1.5.10 Tall Ship
4.2.1 Floating Structure
4.2.1.1 Oil Rig
4.2.1.2 Dry Dock
4.2.1.3 Bridge
4.2.2 Fixed Structure
4.2.2.1 Oil Rig
4.2.2.2 Dry Dock
4.2.2.3 Anchor Area
4.2.2.4 Mooring
4.2.2.5 Mooring Area
4.2.2.6 Bridge
4.2.2.6.1 Fixed Bridge
4.2.2.6.2 Lift/Swing Bridge
5.1.1 Subsurface Vehicle
5.1.1.1 ROV
5.1.1.2 Submersible
5.2.1 Dive Site
5.2.2 Channel
6.1.1 Ham Radio Contest
6.1.1.1 Field Day
6.1.2 Swap Meet
6.1.3 Convention
6.2.1 Geocache
6.3.1 Parade
6.3.1.1 Parade Staging Area
6.3.1.2 Parade Review Stand
6.5.1 SAR Victim
6.5.2 SAR Tracks
6.5.3 SAR Sign
6.5.4 SAR Evidence
6.5.6 Shipwreck
6.5.7 SAR Man Overboard
6.5.8 ELT/EPIRB Hit
6.6.4 Landslide/Mudslide
6.6.5 Avalanche
6.6.6 Volcanic Eruption
7.1.1.1 Low Pressure Center
7.1.1.2 High Pressure Center
7.1.1.3.1 Cold Front
7.1.1.3.1.1 Upper Cold Front
7.1.1.3.2 Warm Front
7.1.1.3.2.1 Upper Warm Front
7.1.1.3.3 Occluded Front
7.1.1.3.4 Stationary Front
7.1.1.4.1 Trough Line
7.1.1.4.2 Ridge Line
7.1.1.4.3 Squall Line
7.1.2.1 Light Turbulence
7.1.2.2 Medium Turbulence
7.1.2.3 Severe Turbulence
7.1.2.4 Extreme Turbulence
7.1.3.1 Clear Icing
7.1.3.1.1 Light Clear Icing
7.1.3.1.2 Moderate Clear Icing
7.1.3.1.3 Severe Clear Icing
7.1.3.2 Rime Icing
7.1.3.2.1 Light Rime Icing
7.1.3.2.2 Moderate Rime Icing
7.1.3.2.3 Severe Rime Icing
7.1.3.3 Mixed Icing
7.1.3.3.1 Light Mixed Icing
7.1.3.3.2 Moderate Mixed Icing
7.1.3.3.3 Severe Mixed Icing
7.1.4 Wind Barb
7.1.4.1 Jet Stream
7.1.5.1 Instrument Ceiling
7.1.5.2 Visual Ceiling
7.1.7.4 Ice Pellets
7.1.7.5 Ice Crystals
7.1.9.3 Dust/Sand Storm
7.1.9.4 Dust Devil
It was a very subjective process (for example, there are over a dozen airplane codes in OpenTrac which I mapped into either the APRS small airplane icon or the large airplane icon).
So, are any of these worth adding in some of the "holes" in the APRS symbol tables?
Andrew Pavlin, KA2DDO
> Date: Thu, 21 Aug 2014 23:23:07 +0300
> From: hessu-***@public.gmane.org
> To: aprssig-***@public.gmane.org
> Subject: Re: [aprssig] New icon images
>
> On Thu, 21 Aug 2014, andrewemt wrote:
>
> > Greetings, all.
> >
> > I was just reading some archives of the mailing list, and came upon the discussion last year of defining new APRS
> > symbol code meanings and creating new symbol icon images.
> >
> > Has any progress been made on that?
>
> I've mostly finished the work on a new symbol set. I'll release it first
> on aprs.fi (pretty soon), and then open-source the data. The new ones look
> pretty good on modern displays, even when rotated as bitmaps:
>
> https://twitter.com/aprsfi/status/502348470465097728
>
>
> That effort, however, only targeted the old symbol set, and none of the
> new ones, mostly because drawing a lot of additional symbols takes a lot
> of additional time, and it took a lot of time to just do the old ones
> (some 30-50 minutes per symbol! and could easily use more to make them
> better). I'm not quite sure it makes sense to put a lot of effort in a
> huge granularity of different symbol graphics like this:
>
> HOUSE: #-
> /- = House
> \- = (was HF)
> 5- = 50 Hz mains power
> 6- = 60 Hz mains power
>
> ... are there any areas where one house has 50 Hz and the next house
> suddenly has 60 Hz? What is the relevancy of this?
>
> B- = Backup Battery Power
> C- = Club, as in Ham club
> E- = Emergency power
> G- = Geothermal
> H- = Hydro powered
> O- = Operator Present
> S- = Solar Powered
> W- = Wind powered
>
> ... huh? 9 more houses to draw, while somehow signaling which sort of
> power source each house has? Will there also be a separate for a
> Hydro-powered house which has an operator present, VHF yagi antenna and a
> dog?
>
> I'd suggest this sort of granularity and detail could go to the free-form
> comment text. We'll need to hire a full-time symbol graphic artist if we
> go to details like this. :)
>
> The "generalize old symbols" direction would be more useful. Like when the
> current symbolsX.txt redefines \h, which used to be 'ham store', as just
> 'store', which is more widely useful.
>
> - Hessu
>
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