APRS igate running xastir

Moin

I just played a little bit with APRS igate on Linux. There are some igate software available on Linux but the most supported package (javAPRESSrvr) is not available today because of an error on Yahoogroups where the files are hosted.

Therefore I installed xastir from Sourceforge and connected the the local running instance with the APRS-IS network. Now DM1AS is visible on FINDU.

Nice side effect on this, the server generates an Google Maps page every 5 minutes with APRS stations around my home. Maybe tomorrow I connect my radio to the igate and there will be more local stations available.

So far you can see the map here:http://tinyurl.com/nacc5k

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Posted in GPS, HAM, System | No Comments »

Bikemap Routes on Garmin GPS

Moin

I love Peters Bikemap.net page. Using this service to plan all my bike tours. Unfortunately my Garmin (GPSmap 60) does not understand the gpx file from Bikemap export. I wrote this little script to modify and split the route into smaller routes. GPSmap 60 only handle 250 points per route. Therefore the script splits the route into smaller pieces, renames the note names into “rtept” resp. “rte” and uploads the route via USB to the connected garmin.

What you need to run this script are gpsbabel and the unix commands: sed, split,cut and head .

Here it is, as usually no guarantee.

#!/bin/bash
filename=$1

gpsbabel -i gpx -f ${filename} -o csv -F out.csv
split -l 200 out.csv splits
rm out.csv

for i in `ls splits*`
do
 gpsbabel -i csv -f ${i} -o gpx -F ${i}.gpx
 sed 's/wpt/rtept/' ${i}.gpx > out
 rm ${i}.gpx
 mv out ${i}.gpx
 rm ${i}

 linenumber=`wc -l ${i}.gpx | cut -d " " -f 1`
 let linenumber-=1

 sed -n 10,${linenumber}p ${i}.gpx >a.gpx

 rm ${i}.gpx

 cat ${filename} | head -n 9  >${i}.gpx
 echo "<rte>"                >>${i}.gpx
 cat a.gpx                   >>${i}.gpx
 echo "</rte>"               >>${i}.gpx
 echo "</gpx>"               >>${i}.gpx
 rm a.gpx

 sudo gpsbabel -r -i gpx -f ${i}.gpx -o garmin -F usb:0
 rm ${i}.gpx
done

Posted in GPS | 3 Comments »

Easter Geocaching

Moin

Together with a friend of mine we are planning to take the opportunity and make a nice friday-easter-geocaching-event (fege). We are planning to make 3 or maybe 4 multicaches and several single caches on the road. Here are the stages for the multis (must do)

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and here are all stages from the multi and a lot of singles arround Bad Cannstatt.

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Posted in Event, GPS | No Comments »

Using Garmin with linux and gpsbabel

This post if more for myself then for others because you can find this information on many places. I bought a Garmin GPS Map 60 some time ago. It works great with Linux and the GPSBabel software. In order to transfer the loc files from the Geocaching.com side you can use this script:

#!/bin/bash
rm a.csv
rm a.kml
rm a.gpx
for i in *.loc
do
gpsbabel -i geo -f $i -o csv,prefer_shortnames -F $i.csv
cat  $i.csv >> a.csv
rm  $i.csv
done
gpsbabel -i csv -f a.csv -o kml -F a.kml
gpsbabel -i csv -f a.csv -o gpx -F a.gpx

sudo gpsbabel -i gpx -f a.gpx -o garmin -F usb:0
sudo gpsbabel -i garmin,power_off -f usb:0

This script converts all the *.loc files in one folder into one GPX and one KML file. the KML file can be placed on a webserver and then fiewed with google maps or via google earth. Here are some usefull commands:

Upload route:

sudo gpsbabel -r -i garmin -f usb:0 -o kml -F u.kml

Tracks downloaden from Garmin:

sudo gpsbabel -t -i garmin -f usb:0 -o gpx -F tracks.gpx

Switch the Garmin off:sudo gpsbabel -i garmin,power_off -f usb:0

Best Webpage I found for creating routes for bike tours is Marengo

And now have fun.

Posted in GPS | 3 Comments »