The File->Configure->Defaults dialog

• Transmit Station Option: Choose your station type. Fixed stations will transmit the position set in the Station configuration dialog. Mobile stations will typically have an attached GPS unit, and will transmit their positions based on what the GPS reports. Weather stations with attached weather sensors can send special APRS packets containing the weather data.

• IGate options: Xastir has limited capability to relay APRS data from the radio to internet servers and from internat to radio. These options allow you to control that behavior globally if you have both types of interfaces active. Note that Xastir is intended primarily as an APRS client, not as APRS infrastructure, and enabling IGate capabilities should be coordinated with other hams in your area. It is not necessarily helpful for home stations to serve as IGates, and in some areas with well-placed APRS infrastructure, it can be seen as unwelcome, especially if you have internet-to-rf traffic enabled.

• Transmit compressed objects/items: use Base-91 compression for any object or item packets your station transmits (this is different from your primary station position reports).

• Activate alternate net and "ALTNET": If the check box is selected and an alternet net name entered, packets will be transmitted with a TOCALL of the ALTNET setting instead of the usual TOCALL (which normally identifies the software or hardware running APRS). This is primarily intended to be used for special events. Other stations not configured with the same altnet should ignore any packets sent to the altnet, and only stations with the same altnet configured should pay attention to them.

• Disable Posit Dupe-Checks: Normally, Xastir will ignore multiple copies of the same position report it hears (as, for example, when it hears the same packet data from three different digipeaters in the area one after another). In rare special cases, you might want to see those additional reports on your map. Selecting this option disables this check for duplicate packets and records them all on the map.

• Pop up new bulletins: APRS stations can transmit "bulletins" to all stations that can receive APRS data. Selecting this option will cause Xastir to pop up a dialog box with the bulletin text upon receipt. Disable it if hams in your area are going overboard with bulletin transmissions, or you just don't want to see bulletins automatically.

• View zero-distance bulletins: Normally, Xastir allows you to select a distance range so that bulletins transmitted by stations outside that range will be ignored. But sometimes a station transmits a bulletin before it transmits a position, so you have no idea how far away it is. This option allows Xastir to show them to you anyway.

• Warn if Modifier Keys: Xastir's commands can change meaning if you have your Caps Lock or other modifier key activated. Enabling this option will cause Xastir to point that out to you if you've got such a key activated.

• My trails in one color: If you operate multiple APRS stations (say, your home, the radio in your car, and your laptop attached to a temporary station at a public service event), each station will have your callsign and a unique SSID. Normally, Xastir treats all of these as unique stations and draws their trails in different colors. This option will cause all APRS stations with your callsign but different SSIDs to show up on the map in the same color.

• Load predefined objects from file: this is for configuring a capability for special events such as search and rescue missions, races, or other HAM supported activities.

  "Load predefined objects from file" and the pick list which follows it allows you to replace the list of Predefined objects that are accessible from the right click pop-up menu with your own list of objects. A set of standard Search and Rescue objects and a set of typical public event objects are supplied in the predefined_SAR.sys and predefined_EVENT.sys files. You may also use these files as a template to create a predefined_USER.sys file. See the instructions in the predefined_SAR.sys and predefined_EVENT.sys file for details on how to define objects for a custom predefined objects menu. If both "Load predefined objects from file" is selected and a file that exists in the xastir/config/ directory is selected, then the objects defined in that file will be shown on the Predefined objects menu. The unaltered predefined_SAR.sys file defines the same objects as the default menu.