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Re: More APRS-over-VARA Testing on Cross-Country Road Trip Next Week
Thank you stephen for those explanations,
I found this web site! It must be the guy! 73/s and have fun in your trip Gervais ve2ckn I am always inteested when i see other software used on APRS or else! They dont need to be complicated to work find also! []<> EA5HVK<> Weak signals Software rosmodem.wordpress.com ________________________________ De : [email protected] <[email protected]> de la part de WA8LMF via groups.io <wa8lmf@...> Envoyé : 12 juin 2024 13:27 ? : [email protected] <[email protected]> Objet : Re: [UI-View] More APRS-over-VARA Testing on Cross-Country Road Trip Next Week On 6/12/2024 12:59 PM, Gervais Fillion wrote: Hello stephen,VARA is a high-performance soundcard software modem developed in Spain by EA5HVK. Two versions exist: One for HF over SSB, and one for VHF/FM. The HF version can nearly equal the performance of the very expensive SCS Pactor 4 high-speed hardware modems, purely in software on a PC with a sound-card interface. It can exceed the speed of 1200-baud packet in a 500 Hz (CW) bandwidth on HF/SSB. With a full 2.5 Hz SSB bandwidth on HF, it can exceed the throughput of 9600-baud packet. The VHF version takes advantage of the much greater audio bandwidth of an FM radio. When using a rear-panel wide-audio-response "data port" on a radio, it can exceed the equivalent of 20K baud for data transfer. VARA wraps data in two layers of forward error correction, and has incredible weak signal capability similar to FT-8. It can deliver error-free messages or data on HF signals so weak you can literally not hear them in the radio speaker. VARA is only a modem (e.i a soft TNC). You have to use some sort of application on top of it to do anything. Most commonly, this is the WinLink radio email client (where it is rapidly replacing the SCS hardware TNCs), or the live keyboard-to-keyboard VarAC Chat app. VarAC has the extreme weak-signal capabilities of FT-8 but allows completely free-form conversations. When signals are strong with few errors, VarAC and VARA will automatically increase the speed. You can even transfer files error-free to the other user. If that "file" happens to be a picture, you have a noise-free alternative to SSTV! Because the VARA modem presents a KISS interface to other software, you can use it as a VASTLY improved replacement for conventional AX.25 packet, for applications like APRS. I have been testing and comparing classic packet APRS with APRS-over-VARA for nearly two years now. There is simply no comparison -- on HF, APRS position reports over VARA are received successfully nearly TEN TIMES as often as classic 300-baud HF packet. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stephen H. Smith wa8lmf (at) aol.com Skype: WA8LMF EchoLink: Node # 14400 [Think bottom of the 2-meter band] Home Page: APRS-over-VARA igates now operating on 30 & 60 meters <> "Studio B" Ham Shack on Wheels <> -- APRS over VARA -- <.> |
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Re: More APRS-over-VARA Testing on Cross-Country Road Trip Next Week
Gervais,
It's weak signal software. EA5HVK | Weak signals Software (wordpress.com)<> 73, Jim, N8JE ________________________________ From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of Gervais Fillion <ve2ckn2@...> Sent: Wednesday, June 12, 2024 9:59 AM To: [email protected] <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [UI-View] More APRS-over-VARA Testing on Cross-Country Road Trip Next Week Hello stephen, Simple question, What is VARA ? 73 an good ride Gervais ve2ckn ________________________________ De : [email protected] <[email protected]> de la part de WA8LMF via groups.io <wa8lmf@...> Envoyé : 12 juin 2024 11:55 ? : Ui-View Reflector <[email protected]> Objet : [UI-View] More APRS-over-VARA Testing on Cross-Country Road Trip Next Week On Sunday 16 June 2024, I will be departing from entral Michigan on a cross-country road trip to Los Angeles. I will have "Studio B" (my mobile hamshack and radio operations trailer) in tow. Once again, I will be doing side-by-side comparisons of classic HF AX.25 packet APRS and APRS-over-VARA-HF. I will alternate beacons on AX.25 and VARA, each mode on a 10-minute cycle while enroute. Both modes are originated from the same computer, interface, radio (Yaesu FT-891) and antennas (Quicksilver Radio ham sticks for 60 and 30m) in the car. Note that because this is being run as a full laptop-based APRS setup (not a dumb transmit-only tracker), I should be able to receive/send APRS messages on any of the three modes (VHF, HF packet, HF VARA). Three instances of UIview will be running side-by-side from separate folders to generate the three modes. For the first day out (Sunday 0-500 miles / 800 km), I will be operating on 60 meters "Channel 5" (5.403.5 USB). Plans are for the first overnight in Des Moines IA. For the rest of the trip (too far away from my home igate/webserver for 60M), I will be on the usual 30 meters APRS frequency -- 10.147.600 USB with standard 1600/1800 Hz "KAM" tones on 300-baud AX.25 and standard VARA-HF tones. I will be using WA8LMF (no SSID) for 2M and direct-to-Internet beaconing via cellular, WA8LMF-2 for the HF AX.25 mode, and WA8LMF-3 for the HF VARA beacons. Thus you can distinguish the posits from the three modes on sites like findu.FI or my own personal APRS webservers at <> I also have a dedicated Road Trip Tracker up at my web site: <> This tracker plots all three modes with their three different SSIDs. It plots only what is heard off-the-air on HF RF, as heard from my home QTH (no Internet).near East Lansing MI. (The two-meter WA8LMF [no SSID] is plotted from both off-the-air and the APRS-IS Internet feed.) The road trip tracker plots posits on 3D-looking relief maps, so once I get to Denver and the beginning of the "real west" (the Rocky Mountains), the map display should be quite interesting. The outbound trip will be on I-80 across Iowa and Nebraska, I-70 across Colorado and Utah, and I-15 Utah to L.A. The return trip about a week later will be along the lay of the old Route 66 (I-40 Barstow, CA - Arizona - New Mexico onward to the eastern US. As an added "side-show" to this trip, I will be running my "Mobile SSTV LiveCAM" from a second HF rig in the car on 15 or 10 meters if the higher HF bands are open. I have a web cam pointed out the front window that automatically grabs and beacons a live SSTV image every ten minutes. This gets especially interesting when I get west of Denver into the Colorado Rockies and the Utah red rocks desert. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stephen H. Smith wa8lmf (at) aol.com Skype: WA8LMF EchoLink: Node # 14400 [Think bottom of the 2-meter band] Home Page: APRS-over-VARA igates now operating on 30 & 60 meters <> "Studio B" Ham Shack on Wheels <> -- APRS over VARA -- <.> |
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Re: More APRS-over-VARA Testing on Cross-Country Road Trip Next Week
Hello stephen,
Simple question, What is VARA ? 73 an good ride Gervais ve2ckn ________________________________ De : [email protected] <[email protected]> de la part de WA8LMF via groups.io <wa8lmf@...> Envoyé : 12 juin 2024 11:55 ? : Ui-View Reflector <[email protected]> Objet : [UI-View] More APRS-over-VARA Testing on Cross-Country Road Trip Next Week On Sunday 16 June 2024, I will be departing from entral Michigan on a cross-country road trip to Los Angeles. I will have "Studio B" (my mobile hamshack and radio operations trailer) in tow. Once again, I will be doing side-by-side comparisons of classic HF AX.25 packet APRS and APRS-over-VARA-HF. I will alternate beacons on AX.25 and VARA, each mode on a 10-minute cycle while enroute. Both modes are originated from the same computer, interface, radio (Yaesu FT-891) and antennas (Quicksilver Radio ham sticks for 60 and 30m) in the car. Note that because this is being run as a full laptop-based APRS setup (not a dumb transmit-only tracker), I should be able to receive/send APRS messages on any of the three modes (VHF, HF packet, HF VARA). Three instances of UIview will be running side-by-side from separate folders to generate the three modes. For the first day out (Sunday 0-500 miles / 800 km), I will be operating on 60 meters "Channel 5" (5.403.5 USB). Plans are for the first overnight in Des Moines IA. For the rest of the trip (too far away from my home igate/webserver for 60M), I will be on the usual 30 meters APRS frequency -- 10.147.600 USB with standard 1600/1800 Hz "KAM" tones on 300-baud AX.25 and standard VARA-HF tones. I will be using WA8LMF (no SSID) for 2M and direct-to-Internet beaconing via cellular, WA8LMF-2 for the HF AX.25 mode, and WA8LMF-3 for the HF VARA beacons. Thus you can distinguish the posits from the three modes on sites like findu.FI or my own personal APRS webservers at <> I also have a dedicated Road Trip Tracker up at my web site: <> This tracker plots all three modes with their three different SSIDs. It plots only what is heard off-the-air on HF RF, as heard from my home QTH (no Internet).near East Lansing MI. (The two-meter WA8LMF [no SSID] is plotted from both off-the-air and the APRS-IS Internet feed.) The road trip tracker plots posits on 3D-looking relief maps, so once I get to Denver and the beginning of the "real west" (the Rocky Mountains), the map display should be quite interesting. The outbound trip will be on I-80 across Iowa and Nebraska, I-70 across Colorado and Utah, and I-15 Utah to L.A. The return trip about a week later will be along the lay of the old Route 66 (I-40 Barstow, CA - Arizona - New Mexico onward to the eastern US. As an added "side-show" to this trip, I will be running my "Mobile SSTV LiveCAM" from a second HF rig in the car on 15 or 10 meters if the higher HF bands are open. I have a web cam pointed out the front window that automatically grabs and beacons a live SSTV image every ten minutes. This gets especially interesting when I get west of Denver into the Colorado Rockies and the Utah red rocks desert. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stephen H. Smith wa8lmf (at) aol.com Skype: WA8LMF EchoLink: Node # 14400 [Think bottom of the 2-meter band] Home Page: APRS-over-VARA igates now operating on 30 & 60 meters <> "Studio B" Ham Shack on Wheels <> -- APRS over VARA -- <.> |
kerry
Matt
Gervais Fillion
Jim Ebner
VE1PS