Pinpoint v2.1

Click the download button below to download the latest stable version of PinPoint. To read more about how to install and use PinPoint, please download the Quick Start guide from the link below (you will need a PDF reader).

Installation
To install PinPoint, make sure the required software is installed (see below), then download the file, unzip it, and double click it to install Pinpoint. If you are updating PinPoint, please uninstall the old version first manually.

System requirements for running PinPoint:
- Windows 7, 8, 10 or 11
- Windows .NET framework 4.7.2, which can be downloaded from Microsoft
- At least 4GB of RAM, but 8GB or more recommended
- Screen resolution of 1024x768 or higher

Latest stable version: PinPoint v2.1 Build 240324 (March 24, 2024). Scroll down for previous versions.

Download PinPoint Build 240324

Download the Quick Start guide

 

Updates

March 24, 2024 Fixed a bug where the Auto Answer message didn't include the AA: prefix and had a message number. Fixed a bug where the Kenwood TH-D7 command file was missing. Fixed a bug with sending bulletins where it would include a message number. Fixed a bug with the SMS gateway message, which still referred to the old gateway when using the F4 function key to bring up the dialog box. PLEASE NOTE: If your previous version is build 230511 or lower, first uninstall PinPoint by hand under Add or Remove Programs in Windows.
March 16, 2024 This is a bigger update, so please read carefully first.
- I moved all code to Visual Studio 2022 (from Visual Studio 2013. Yeah, a bit old, I know). PinPoint now requires .Net 4.7.2 so Windows Vista may no longer work (I have no way to test that currently).
- Upgraded all mapping and other libraries to the latest versions. Some maps that were no longer working (like OpenStreetMaps) are now working again.
- Support for negative altitudes.
- Fixed a few UI bugs.
- Fixed two bugs when using KISS and not using an APRS path (VARA over HF). The APRS path can now be blank.
- Using a new installer that will (in the future) automatically un-install the old version of PinPoint before installing the new one. No more manually uninstalling the previous version after this release is on the website. For now, still uninstall the old version first before installing. The next version shouldn't require it anymore. You will need to set up the PinPoint configuration again for this switch over to the new installer.
- Now enforcing uppercase call signs in the messaging windows.
- Fixed an issue with capability & status messages when using iGate.
- Improved auto reconnect on APRS-IS when the TCP connection fails.
- You can now override the TOCALL parameter. Mostly used for VARA over HF. Experts only.
- Updated the SMS gateway call sign from SMSGTE to SMS.
- Single MSI installation file.
- Please download the Quick Start Guide from the website, under Download.
(05/11/2023) Fixed a bug where messages using serial KISS TNC's (RF) would not be sent out under certain circumstances. Fixed a display bug where sometimes altitude would not be decoded properly. Fixed a bug where network KISS TNC's would not auto-connect when configured as such.
(12/24/2022) Some USB to serial port adapters would not work with PinPoint and neither would the Kenwood D-74 in KISS12 mode via USB. This has now been fixed. For use with the Kenwood D74, make sure in PinPoint to use TNC Type = Serial KISS and Flow Control = None (under Tools > Options > TNC). On the D74, in the Menu under Interface, make sure that only the KISS section is pointing to USB and that the radio is in KISS12 mode (not APRS12 mode!). Additionally, the Options screen was getting cut off at the 1024x768 resolution. It now renders correctly.
(12/11/2022) Fixed a small bug in decoding position latitude in MIC-E packets when located in the southern hemisphere. Thanks VK8MT! Fixed another issue where MIC-E stations with position ambiguity turned on would sometimes be marked as bad MIC-E packets.
(12/04/2022) Found a few more bugs in PinPoint and added a few convenience things.
Bug: PinPoint was not sending an ACK(nowledgement) of messages sent to it via APRS-IS. Only via RF.
Bug: The Reply/Forward option when right-clicking a message stayed greyed out when using APRS-IS.
Bug: When auto answer is enabled, PinPoint was sending an auto-answer to Winlink, EMail & SMS gateway messages, creating an infinite loop of back and forth messages. It will never send an auto answer to those gateways now.
PinPoint now remembers who you last sent a regular APRS message to and will pre-populate the call sign field with the last used recipient for the next regular APRS message, which you can override.
When you try to compose a message when neither TNC or APRS-IS is connected, you will now get an error.
When composing a message, PinPoint will now default to RF or APRS-IS as the communications method ("Send via"), depending on what is connected at that time, rather than always defaulting to RF. If RF or APRS-IS is not connected, that respective option in "Send via" is now greyed out.
(12/03/2022) Created additional options for messaging under the Tools menu. Fixed a few small bugs. Whole message section will be overhauled, but just making it works a little better for now. Checking whether you have the latest version is now done at startup only and results can be seen in the bottom status bar (on the right). Click the link to go to the website to download the latest version.
(11/27/2022) Resized the Options screen so that screen resolutions of 1366x768 continue to work.
(11/05/2022) Fixed a bug related to sending ACKnowledgements for messages without a sequence ID. Fixed the scaling issue related to the initial EULA window. Automatically disable startup and shutdown scripts when dealing with KISS or read-only TNCs. Keep checking whether Internet is available automatically every minute. Ability to send Bulletins, SMS and Email in the Tools menu. Added display of MaidenHead Grid at the top of the map. A few smaller GPX import fixes.
(07/01/2022) More fixes related to reported GPX file issues. Will need to revamp during next major release.
(03/24/2021) Fixed some issues/errors while loading GPX files. PinPoint only understands tracks and waypoints in GPX files. Nothing else.
(12/12/2020) Mostly small bugfixes. Still working on some larger new features, but not having a lot of time available at the moment.
(04/14/2020) Bugfixes. Options screen size was still incorrect on some displays.
(04/12/2020) Bugfixes. Fixed 'only map stations heard directly' feature. Resized Tools>Options window for smaller displays.
(04/02/2020) Bugfixes and speed improvements. Finally built in Release mode rather than Debug mode. Ability to turn off diagnostic logging under Tools > Options > Misc.
(05/21/2019) General bugfixes with station tracking. There's an option available to track all stations by default (See Tools > Options > Map). Had to remove track color selection as that now alternates automatically with each new station.
(05/18/2019) Added support for the Yaesu FTM-400, which uses a non-standard APRS protocol. Only supports read only. Select the Yaesu FTM-400 TNC under Tools > Options > TNC. Fixed a bug so that PinPoint correctly interprets $GLGGA and $GNGGA NMEA sentences from a serial GPS unit.
(05/17/2019) PinPoint now by default checks to see if there is a newer version available at startup. You can turn this off under Tools > Options > Misc. Altitude wasn't converted to metric in metric mode when changing it on the fly. Added an option under Tools > Options > Misc to force PinPoint into metric mode (overriding local PC setting). Before PinPoint would only switch to metric if your entire PC was already in metric mode.
(05/16/2019) Sent extra 0x0D at end of network KISS packets, which should not be needed. Direwolf is happy now. :-) Also, build numbers are now 2 digit year, month, day to prepare for automatic update checking, which is coming soon.
(05/08/2019)
Fixed a bug that would move your initial map position at program end and a bug regarding beaconing of the correct altitude. Set the default altitude to zero.
(04/21/2019)
Metric support: Support for metric units and computers that use a comma for decimal separator. Detects metric and comma decimal separation automatically.
New option: Keep map centered on own position option. See checkbox in Tools > Options > Map.
New feature: Single instance application to prevent accidentally starting it up again.
New option: Auto connect APRS-IS, TNC and/or GPS at startup. See checkbox in Tools > Options > TNC.
New option: Start up PinPoint with map centered on last reported position.
Bug fix: On computers that use comma for decimal separation, GPS altitude was incorrectly interpreted.
Bug fix: Fixed issue with compressed position data format with radio range that caused crash.
Bug fix: Stations showing up in weird positions (Germany, Faroe Islands) as a result of localization. Handle commas for decimal separation correctly on computer that require it.
10/06/2018) KISS support : Improved KISS modem/TNC support. Fixed some protocol issues that some implementations of KISS didn't like. My bad. Made some incorrect assumptions when configuring the serial port. Big thanks to Rob Riggs, WX9O at Mobilinkd, LLC for the great Bluetooth enabled TNC and thanks to KC8GXR and WY7CDL for the remote debugging support.
(7/04/2018) Station filter : Added an option under Tools > Options > Map to only display stations that are listed in the space separated text box. See the Quick Start guide for more info.
(7/04/2018) Station distance : When clicking on a station on the map, the pop-up menu shows how far away the station is from your current position.
(4/11/2018) GPX file import : If the <sym> element used for waypoints in the GPX file is two characters, interpret it as an APRS symbol using the standard APRS 'table + symbol' mapping. Includes support for overlays.
(3/16/2018) First release : Original first production release after many months of beta testing, with help from my friends at ARES of Douglas & Elbert Counties in Colorado.

Older versions

If you run into an issue with a newer version of the software, feel free to download a previous version to see if the problem goes away. Then, please submit a bug report to the email adress on the home page.
- PinPoint_v2_build_240316.zip - March 16, 2024
- PinPoint_v2_build_230511.zip - May 11, 2023
- PinPoint_v2_build_221211.zip - December 11, 2022
- PinPoint_v2_build_221204.zip - December 4, 2022
- PinPoint_v2_build_221105.zip - November 5, 2022
- PinPoint_v2_build_220701.zip - July 1, 2022
- PinPoint_v2_build_210324.zip - March 24, 2021
- PinPoint_v2_build_201212.zip - December 12, 2020
- PinPoint_v2_build_200414.zip - April 14, 2020

Beta versions

This section is for testing of new versions that are not considered stable yet and are actively being updated with bug fixes and enhancements. Download if you feel adventurous, but keep in mind, you may run into some issues.

Bug reports are always welcome. You can contact the author at ab0wv at arrl.net. Please include as much detail as possible, and include the files PinpointRawpacketsMMDDYYYY.txt and PinpointDebugLog.txt from your Documents folder. Thanks for your support!

No beta versions at this time. Please download the latest stable build linked above.