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USAGE.md

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mpad - Usage and Command Syntax

What you need to know as a program user

  • The program's default action is to retrieve a wx report for the given address/coordinates. This assumption is valid as long as the user has not specified a keyword that tells the program to do something different. This means that you can a single datetime-related keyword like e.g. 'tomorrow' and the program will try to return the wx report for you.

  • By default, the metar and taf commands will only return the data requested by the user, read: if metar data was requested, the user will only receive METAR data. You can request both METAR and TAF data at the same time by adding the full keyword to your inquiry, e.g. metar full or taf full will return both METAR and TAF information to the user.

  • Default date is always today. If you omit any date-related information, today will be the default value.

  • Default daytime is always full, meaning that you will get e.g. the wx report for the whole day. See the next paragraph on limitations wrt keywords and time zones. Note that full can be time- or content-specific.

  • Although both date or daytime settings can be specified at all times, any provided information in this matter may be partially or fully ignored by the program, dependent on the keyword (e.g. sunrise/set and moonrise/set will ignore the daytime argument)

  • Starting with MPAD version 0.60, WX reports use local time stamps. For everything else, time stamps are __always returned in UTC (unless otherwise mentioned). Rule of thunb: if you see a "Z" or "UTC" qualifier, assume that all values are in UTC.

  • Certain action command keywords can be specified in combination with a date setting and a daytime setting, e.g. request a wx report for the next day. The respective keyword documentation settings state if the keyword can be used in conjunction with a date/daytime keyword. All restrictions wrt UTC time settings do apply - see previous paragraph.

Command keyset

Legal mumbo-jumbo

In reference to the European Union's GDPR regulations and other legal rules and regulations that I may not be aware of at this time:

  • This is a hobby project. It has no commercial background whatsoever.

  • If you intend to host this software and exchange data with APRS-IS, you need to be a licensed ham radio operator. You also need to provide an APRS passcode for logging on to APRS-IS. If you don't know what this is and how to get such a passcode, then don't host an an instance of this program.

  • The user's position information (as well as other APRS user's position data) which is used by MPAD is acquired from freely accessible data sources such as the APRS-IS network, aprs.fi et al. These data sources gather APRS information from ham radio users who did decide to have their position information actively submitted to the APRS network. Any of these information sources can already be used for a various user's position inquiry.

  • Based on the user's keyword request (submitted via the APRS message to MPAD), information such as wx reports that position data is gathered and/or transposed into human-readable location information.

  • That information is then returned back to the user via APRS-IS (and subsequently via radio transmission)

  • One or multiple keywords can be sent to MPAD, thus telling the program what to do. This is done by actively sending an APRS message to the program, either via ham radio or APRS-IS. All commands need to be send to the program's APRS identifier MPAD (or a different identifier if you have decided to host your own instance). The program will neither actively monitor a user's position or trigger any automatic transmissions to a user but will only respond to commands that have been sent to it by a ham radio user.

  • MPAD does not collect any information that isn't already available on the Net.

  • No transaction data with the exception of the following cases is stored:

    • Number of total transactions and last package number

    • Program exceptions and/or crashes may be stored to log files for debug purposes (these may include the full original APRS message)

    • Position report emails generated by MPAD will automatically get deleted after 48 hrs (default program setting of my local MPAD installation)

    • Bear in mind that whatever information you send to the APRS network will be digested by APRS-IS and reflected on sites such as aprs.fi or findu.com.

  • If you intend to host your own instance of MPAD, you need to provide API access keys to the following services:

    • aprs.fi

    • optional: DAPNET / hampager.de

    • optional: SMTP/IMAP user account

  • Don't rely on this service's availability.

If you use this program, then you agree to these terms and conditions. Thank you.