GIF Image files with a GEO Reference file can be used as maps themselves, or as background images to vector maps in WinAPRS. These can be scanned yourself from any form of paper map, as long as you can get the reference points, or from a commercial GIS data source.

These files can get quite large to provide good resolution, but can be zoomed in and out.

The GEO files are quite small and have the following format 

INTELLICAST	Christchurch(M35)
FILENAME	M35.GIF
#
# WGS-84
#		x	y	lon		lat
TIEPOINT	136	136	172.2729068	-43.2841045
TIEPOINT	5304	3944	172.740032	-43.5381518
Where INTELLICAST gives a description of the image
FILENAME gives the name of the GIF file
Lines staring with a # are comments
and the TIEPOINTS give x and y pixel values for an upper left and lower right location of the image, and the lat and long are the positions of those point. In Canterbury we have tried to standardise on the WGS-84 Datum for all maps and image files.

GEO files are only a few hundred bytes.

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