New spot and log mapper features: Transparent RBN and Color Coded Signal Strength

It was difficult to tell the paths from KD0FNR's 20 meter Rockmite to Reverse Beaccon Network spotting stations, and actual QSOs. I started by labeling the paths, and then took a final step to make the spotting paths transparent and immediately evident.

The first new set of features includes adding descriptive labels to each path including the callsign of the receiving station as well as the time and date the call was received. The labels appear when the path is clicked.

If you'd like to try any of these features out, you can load the kml map at

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dNkpzdjHaQqMRrulhPYHprZb9OJHbSup/view?usp=sharing

into Google Earth on the web.

I also wanted a way to determine the relative strength of signals at a glance. I developed a color coding scheme for the paths based on ROYGBIV with brown added in a 0 for 'unknown'.

The color coding is

Color	S value
Brown	1 or uknown
Red	2
Orange	3
Yellow	4
Green	5
Blue	6
Indigo	7
Violet	8
White	9

For now, dB signal strengths from the RBN are color coded as follows

Color	dB value
Orange	&gt 1
Yellow	&gt 2
Green	&gt 8
Blue	&gt 15
Indigo	&gt 21
Violet	&gt 27
White	&gt 32

Finally, to make it easier to distinguish between actual 2-way QSOs (ham radio contacts), I modified the RBN paths to be transparent.. I tried different path widths first, but was unhappy with the results. It took too much work for me to distinguish one path width from another at a glance.

Here's a look at the whole feature set using the Mt. Tamalpais map as an example

You can find the latest code on in the github project.

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