Copyright: (c) Peak Systems, 2003


UI-NWS

UI-NWS is a UI-View32 plug-in that processes the USA National Weather Service (NWS) APRS messages. It displays the messages, and draws shapes on the UI-View32 map corresponding to the areas in the messages.

There are three main types of NWS message - advisory, watch and warn. UI-NWS uses different colours for highlighting the different types of messages in the lists, and for colouring the areas on the map.

To use NWS you must download the required shapefiles from the NWS web site. See Downloading The Shapefiles for more information. Until you have downloaded the shapefiles, UI-NWS is useless.

As NWS messages are received, they are added to the 'Active messages list'. All the zones and counties contained in the messages are extracted, and individually added to the 'Active areas' list. The active areas are then drawn on the UI-View32 map. Areas can be counties, zones or marine zones.

Each message contains an expiry time. When the expiry time is reached, the message is removed from the list, and the active areas associated with the message are also removed from the list. NOTE - some areas may be included in more than one message, so it is possible that a message will be expired but some of the areas associated with it will not be, if they have also been included in other messages with later expiry times.

Some messages are cancel messages, and cause the areas listed in the message to be removed from the 'Active areas' list.

For UI-NWS to be really useful, you need to run it for an extended period. That will allow the list of active areas to build up properly. There is an option in Miscellaneous Setup to load UI-NWS when UI-View32 starts, and it is recommended that you select this option.

Active Areas List

This list shows all the areas for which NWS messages are currently active. You can sort the list by any column by single clicking the column header.

If you are using PmapServer, and you double click a line in the list, then the UI-View32 map will zoom to the selected area. See 'Zoom margin %' in Shapes Setup for information about how to adjust the zoom level.

If you right-click on a line, then a pop-up menu appears with two options - Finger WxSvr, and 'Delete This Message'.

You can also delete an active area by highlighting it and pressing the Delete key. You can delete all the active areas with the Clear, Clear Areas menu option.

Active Messages List

This list shows the messages that are currently active.

If you right-click on a line, then a pop-up menu appears with two options - Finger WxSvr, and 'Delete This Area'.

You can also delete a message by highlighting it and pressing the Delete key. You can delete all the messages with the Clear, Clear Messages menu option.

Options

Show Active Areas List (shortcut F4) - Hide/show the active areas list.

Show Messages List (shortcut F5) - Hide/show the messages list.

When a list is hidden, the other list is expanded to fill the window.

Setup

Shapes Setup - See Shapes Setup

Miscellaneous Setup - See Miscellaneous Setup

Area Alarms - See Area Alarms

The UI-View32 Map

If you double click an NWS area displayed on the UI-View32 map, then a window will pop-up with information about that  area. If you right click this window, then a pop-up menu appears with two options - Finger WxSvr and 'Close'.


Shapes Setup

Fill colour and Border colour - These are the colours used for drawing the NWS shapes on the UI-View32 map. The same colours are used for highlighting the messages in the lists. To change a colour, click the coloured area - it's a button.

Shape border width - the width of the outline border of the shapes.

Shape opacity - For normal bitmap maps, UI-NWS overlays the shapes on the map, with variable transparency. The  opacity setting allows you to control how much the background map will show through the shapes. An opacity setting of zero means the shapes will be completely transparent. An opacity setting of 100 means the shapes will completely obscure the map behind them.

Zoom margin % - When you use UI-NWS with PmapServer, double clicking a line in the 'Active areas' list will cause the UI-View32 map to zoom to the selected county/zone. The zoom margin controls how much of the surrounding will be included. A bigger zoom margin means that more of the surrounding area will be shown.

Fill style - the style used to fill the shapes. This setting is ignored if PmapServer is being used, and the shapes are being underlayed.

Use map server special features - see PmapServer Special Support.


About UI-NWS

This is the UI-NWS About box, its use should be obvious!


Miscellaneous Setup

Start minimized - UI-NWS will minimize itself on start up.

Minimize in systray - When minimized, UI-NWS will appear as an icon in the systray. (The icon looks a bit like a snowflake.)

Load at UI-View32 startup - UI-NWS will automatically start when UI-View32 starts.

Stay on top - UI-NWS will always stay on top of other windows.

Times without 'z' are local - Some expiry times in NWS messages are not suffixed with 'z' (most are). If this option is checked, then the times without a 'z' will be assumed to be local time.

Audible Alarm - If an NWS message is received for an area with an alarm attached to it (see Area Alarms), then an audible alarm will sound if the checkbox for the appropriate message type is checked.

Alarm for my location - NWS message for areas that include your home location will generate an alarm.

Printing

None - No NWS messages will be printed.

Alarms - NWS messages for areas for which an alarm has been set will be printed.

All - All NWS messages will be printed.

Printer - Select the printer you wish to use.

Font - Select the printer font.

The following printing parameters can be changed by editing UINWS.INI, they can be found in the [PRINTER] section.

SIDE_MARGIN - The width in inches of the side margins on the printed page. If your printer does not print up to the edge of the paper, then you may wish to reduce this. Decimal values are accepted.

TOP_MARGIN - The height in inches of the top and bottom margins on the printed page. Same comment as for SIDE_MARGIN.

SEPARATOR_LINES - This is the number of blank lines printed at the end of the message report. If you use a printer with tear-off continuous paper, then you may wish to put a value in this parameter so the paper feeds past the tear-off edge.


Area Alarms

You can attach an alarm to any county, zone or marine zone area. If an NWS message is received for an area with an alarm attached to it, then the full line for the area in the 'Active areas' list will be coloured. Also, an audible alarm will optionally sound, depending on the 'Audible Alarm' settings in Miscellaneous Setup.

To set alarms, check the required areas. To search the list, enter the required text in the 'Enter text here to search the list' box.

The Sort button will sort the list, with checked areas at the top.

The Clear button will clear all the selected areas.


PmapServer Special Support

UI-NWs has some special support for PmapServer -

Underlay Shapes

If you check 'Use map server special features' in Shapes Setup, then UI-NWS will draw the shapes on the PmapServer maps in a way that makes them appear to be underneath the other map features, rather than on top of them. (Only shapes over the land areas can be underlayed, marine zone shapes are always overlayed.) You do not have to use this option, but it will usually produce a better effect than the default of overlaying all the shapes.

For underlaying  to work, you MUST make the following changes in the PmapServer Control Panel, Options menu. (the Control Panel is accessed from the UI-View32 map menu, when the "Precision Mapping V5 or V6 Server' map is loaded.)

•	Uncheck all the Shade options. If you do not do this then the shading will obscure the NWS shapes.

•	Check 'White Background'. This is not essential, but if you do not check it, then the shapes may not appear on the map.

NOTE - If your PmapServer Control Panel does not have a 'White Background' option, then you have the wrong version of PmapServer! UI-NWS needs PmapServer V1.3 or later.

Zoom To Area

When using PmapServer, double clicking an area in the 'Active areas' list will cause the map to zoom to that area. 'Zoom margin %' in Shapes Setup allows you to control how far in you zoom.


Downloading The Shapefiles

To be able to use UI-NWS, you need the NWS shapefiles for counties, zones and marine zones. UI-NWS is useless without these files. They are the shapefile sets prefixed "c_", "z_" and "mz". Each set contains three files - .DBF, .SHP and .SHX.

If you have already downloaded these shapefiles for use with other software, then you can use your existing files. Otherwise, you need to download them from the NWS site. The starting page is http://www.nws.noaa.gov/geodata/

The files seem to be frequently updated, so the direct URLs for the latest versions change, but if you start at the above page, you can find the files by following these links. NOTE - Read the following carefully! The wording of the link names is correct, but an awful lot of users seem to assume that I have made a mistake, and so download the wrong files.

Zones

NWSI Libraries: Zone Forecast Areas, and then Public Forecast Zones

(CONUS/OCONUS), Download Compressed shapefile.

Marine zones

NWSI Libraries: Coastal And Offshore Marine Zones, and then Coastal

Marine Zones including the Great Lakes, Download Compressed shapefile.

Counties

County Libraries: AWIPS Counties, and then US Counties (CONUS/OCONUS),

Download Compressed shapefile.

NOTE - To get to this link, you have to scroll down the page! It is NOT the 'County Warning Areas' link near the top of the page!

When you have got the files, they need to be unzipped into a folder that will be created the first time UI-View32 V1.5 or later is run. The folder is \NWS\Shapefiles in the UI-View32 program folder. Make sure you put them in the correct folder, or UI-View32 will not find them! You can tell if you are putting them in the correct folder, because it will contain a file called "Put the NWS shapefiles in here.TXT".

f you have already downloaded the NWS shapefiles for use with another program, then you can tell UI-NWS and UI-View32 to use the shapefiles in a different folder to the default folder, and so avoid having two copies of the files on your PC - see Using Existing Shapefiles.


Preliminary Help

This help page is being displayed because it is the first time this installation of UI-NWS has been used. PLEASE READ IT. It's a lot easier than struggling, and then having to ask me for help!

•	UI-NWS processes and displays weather warnings from the US National Weather Service. If you have no interest in these warnings, then stop reading now and close the program.

•	To use UI-NWS you MUST download and install the NWS shapefiles - see Downloading The Shapefiles.

•	UI-NWS has special support for PmapServer - see PmapServer Special Support.

•	UI-NWS has a number of configuration options - see Miscellaneous Setup, Shapes Setup and Area Alarms.


Using Existing Shapefiles

If you have already downloaded the NWS shapefiles for use with another program, then you can tell UI-NWS and UI-View32 to use the shapefiles in a different folder to the default folder, and so avoid having two copies of the files on your PC.

To alter the path for the shapefiles, edit UIVIEW32.INI with a plain text editor when UI-View32 and UI-NWs are not running, look for the user section, and change the NWS_SHAPE_FILES_PATH entry so it points to the folder where your shapefiles are.

Example - You have downloaded the shapefiles for use with WinAPRS, and they are in C:\WinAPRS\NWSshape. So you would put -

NWS_SHAPE_FILES_PATH=C:\WinAPRS\NWSshape

A possible problem!

Both UI-View32 and UI-NWS use the shapefiles. They open the files in shared, read-only mode, and they do not keep the files open - they are opened and closed each time they are accessed. If the files are shared with another program, that is running at the same time as UI-View32/UI-NWS, and the program does not open the files in shared mode, then UI-View32/UI-NWS will not be able to use the files.


Finger WxSvr

If you select this option, a request is sent to the finger server at wxsvr.net to retrieve the full text of the NWS message that generated the APRS message.

The Print menu option prints the message text, using the printer and font configured in Miscellaneous Setup.

You can also open the window from the Finger menu option.

When the 'Finger WxSvr' window is open, you can send manual requests by entering suitable text in 'Finger command'. A good starting point is to send the command fingerhelp.

When you send a command to the server, it is displayed on the window title bar. If the command appears to be a request for the full message text, then it is decoded into county warning are (CWA), product id (PID), and issue time. The issue time is formatted dd-hh:mm, where dd is the day of the month, hh is the hour and mm is the minute.

A CWA list can be obtained by sending the finger command nwshelp, a PID list can be obtained by sending the finger command typeshelp.

Please note the following important points!

1. To be able to finger WxSvr, you need an internet connection.

2. Only APRS NWS messages automatically generated by WxSvr will produce a successful finger result. NWS messages from other sources will result in a "not found" message from WxSvr.

3. The finger function will not work properly with any NWS alerts in your lists that were received with a previous version of UI-NWS.