User's Manual

Appendix A File Formats
The READING.RTE File
The data in the Reading.rte file specifies what transponders are to be read. This data
contains the transponder serial number, latitude, longitude, and street address. The
latitude and longitude are used when the MI is in the Lat/Lon or GEO modes of
interrogation. The list of transponders loaded from disk may be examined at any time by
using the options under the Summary command. This file is usually created from a
larger, more centralized database using TICS, however it may be created using any means
available. The Reading.rte file consists of an input header, followed by up to 10000
transponder entries. The format of the input file must be strictly adhered to, as even a
single character out of place will corrupt the file. The file format is shown below, and
Figure 20 is a sample Reading.rte file listing.
route name latitude longitude file creation
date
total record
count
columns 1-3 5-10 12-17 19-24 26-30
width 3 6 6 6 5
type characters hexadecimal hexadecimal decimal decimal
Figure 18. READING.RTE input file header format
serial
number
latitude longitude street
address
place
identifier
columns 1-7 9-14 16-21 23-41 43-45
width 7 6 6 19 3
type decimal hexadecima
l
hexadecima
l
characters characters
Figure 19. READING.RTE input file record format:
Notes: 1. The latitude and longitude in the file header may be the Lat/Lon of the
place where the file was created. This is for reference only.
2. The latitude and longitude are stored as 24-bit binary quantities known
as BAMS which stands for Binary Angular Measurements. This is a
format
which allows a number consisting of degrees, minutes, and seconds to be
stored as a binary equivalent number. The binary format is faster and
easier
for the MI to work with. A BAMS number is created as follows:
BAMS = ( Total degrees ÷ 360 ) × 16777216
Total degrees = Degrees + ( Minutes ÷ 60 ) + ( Seconds ÷ 3600 )