What is the APRS latitude/longitude position format?
In an APRS weather data packet, the part between “z” and “_” is the latitude and longitude of the station position. The particular format used is from the LORAN position format and is capable of about 60 feet resolution on the findu.com maps. The format is “ddmm.hhN/dddmm.hhW” without the quotation marks, where d is degrees, m is minutes and h is hundredths of minutes. The first eight characters represent latitude (north in this case), and the last nine characters represent longitude (west in this case). The hemispheres are represented by capital letters; N, E, S, W and remove the need for plus or minus signs on the latitude and longitude. Note that leading zeros are required, that there must be only two numbers to the right of the decimal point in the latitude or longitude, and that colons are not allowed. Many examples of correct format positions are contained here, and here and there is a web-based DMS, LORAN, decimal conversion tool. Any lat/lon changes for the CWOP database should
