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30-meters vs 40-meters APRS-over-VARA Shootout Coming


 

There has been considerable discussion of the relative merits of APRS-over-VARA on 30 meters vs 40 meters recently on several mailing lists.

On February 8th, I will be traveling from my home QTH in central Michigan (Meridian Twp east of East Lansing) to Traverse City, MI for the annual Cherryland Amateur Radio Club? Swap-N-Shop. This is about a two-hundred mile (360 Km) drive.

I plan to conduct a test of 30M vs 40M APRS-over-VARA on this trip. I have TWO HF rigs in the car with separate antennas. One is a Yaesu FT-891 with a mono-band hamstick on a fender split-ball mount, dedicated full-time to 30M HF APRS. The other is a Yaesu FT-857 with an ATAS-120A screwdriver antenna? hard-mounted to the trunk lid is used for general operating on bands other than 30M -- usually for my "Mobile SSTV LiveCAM" on 15 or 10 meters.

For this trip, I will put the 857 and ATAS-120 on 40 meters APRS.? I will run two instances of UIview, two instances of the VARA-HF modem, and two interfaces on the mobile laptop, one for 30 meters and one for 40 meters side-by-side. The Panasonic Toughbook CF-53 quad-core computer with 16GB RAM has no trouble running all this,? along with a third instance of UIview for two-meter packet APRS on my Kenwood TM-D700.

The departure to the ham fest will be in darkness around 3:00 AM local (Eastern) time, so as to arrive at the venue by 7:30 AM (around sunrise) in time to setup.? The return trip will be in full daylight, problably starting around 1:30 PM local.

As in previous packet vs VARA tests, I will be using different SSIDs for the 30 and 40 meter beacons -- WA8LMF-2 for 30 meters and WA8LMF-3 for 40 meters so one will able to generate different tracks on APRS-fi for the two bands. WA8LMF (no SSID) is always my two-meters FM + internet beacons.

This trip will probably be in the skip zone for my own igate in central MI (once I get out of town) on 30 meters, and probably also on 40. I will be depending on other's igates on both bands to reach the Internet on HF.

Any thoughts about this before I set out next month??

I'm already planning to do this also on next summer's annual road trip to Evergreen Colorado for the Evergreen Jazz Festival always the last weekend? of July. This will involve full-summer long-days HF propagation on both bands.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stephen H. Smith wa8lmf (at) aol.com
Skype:??????? WA8LMF
EchoLink:? Node #? 14400? [Think bottom of the 2-meter band]
Home Page:

New? 30 Meter?? APRS-over VARA? Frequency
As of 1 Jan 2025.?? Details Here:
<>

- APRS over VARA? --
<>

"Studio B" Ham Shack on Wheels
<>

-


 

No thoughts. Just congratulations and I am so proud of your work. I love
40M.
Be safe and keep warm.

Hello
George Kirn had contact with this data.


On Fri, Jan 3, 2025 at 4:58?PM WA8LMF via groups.io <wa8lmf=
[email protected]> wrote:

There has been considerable discussion of the relative merits of
APRS-over-VARA
on 30 meters vs 40 meters recently on several mailing lists.

On February 8th, I will be traveling from my home QTH in central Michigan
(Meridian Twp east of East Lansing) to Traverse City, MI for the annual
Cherryland Amateur Radio Club Swap-N-Shop. This is about a two-hundred
mile
(360 Km) drive.

I plan to conduct a test of 30M vs 40M APRS-over-VARA on this trip. I have
TWO
HF rigs in the car with separate antennas. One is a Yaesu FT-891 with a
mono-band hamstick on a fender split-ball mount, dedicated full-time to
30M HF
APRS. The other is a Yaesu FT-857 with an ATAS-120A screwdriver antenna
hard-mounted to the trunk lid is used for general operating on bands other
than
30M -- usually for my "Mobile SSTV LiveCAM" on 15 or 10 meters.

For this trip, I will put the 857 and ATAS-120 on 40 meters APRS. I will
run
two instances of UIview, two instances of the VARA-HF modem, and two
interfaces
on the mobile laptop, one for 30 meters and one for 40 meters
side-by-side. The
Panasonic Toughbook CF-53 quad-core computer with 16GB RAM has no trouble
running all this, along with a third instance of UIview for two-meter
packet
APRS on my Kenwood TM-D700.

The departure to the ham fest will be in darkness around 3:00 AM local
(Eastern) time, so as to arrive at the venue by 7:30 AM (around sunrise)
in
time to setup. The return trip will be in full daylight, problably
starting
around 1:30 PM local.

As in previous packet vs VARA tests, I will be using different SSIDs for
the 30
and 40 meter beacons -- WA8LMF-2 for 30 meters and WA8LMF-3 for 40 meters
so
one will able to generate different tracks on APRS-fi for the two bands.
WA8LMF
(no SSID) is always my two-meters FM + internet beacons.

This trip will probably be in the skip zone for my own igate in central MI
(once I get out of town) on 30 meters, and probably also on 40. I will be
depending on other's igates on both bands to reach the Internet on HF.

Any thoughts about this before I set out next month??

I'm already planning to do this also on next summer's annual road trip to
Evergreen Colorado for the Evergreen Jazz Festival always the last
weekend of
July. This will involve full-summer long-days HF propagation on both bands.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stephen H. Smith wa8lmf (at) aol.com
Skype: WA8LMF
EchoLink: Node # 14400 [Think bottom of the 2-meter band]
Home Page:

New 30 Meter APRS-over VARA Frequency
As of 1 Jan 2025. Details Here:
<>

- APRS over VARA --
<>

"Studio B" Ham Shack on Wheels
<>

-









 

40 meters is way more popular than 30.
it would be a great opportunity for folks who have tnc with UIdigi for example to transfer there ,,for fun and try!


what are frequencies that you are using?

i am curious to listen and see if i hear something here!!

73 stephen,Best 2025 in your projet.

Gervais,ve2ckn

i am running an Igate and Digi here on vhf.


________________________________
De : [email protected] <[email protected]> de la part de WA8LMF via groups.io <wa8lmf@...>
Envoyé : 3 janvier 2025 17:58
? : Stephen Smith <wa8lmf@...>
Objet : [UI-View] 30-meters vs 40-meters APRS-over-VARA Shootout Coming

There has been considerable discussion of the relative merits of APRS-over-VARA
on 30 meters vs 40 meters recently on several mailing lists.

On February 8th, I will be traveling from my home QTH in central Michigan
(Meridian Twp east of East Lansing) to Traverse City, MI for the annual
Cherryland Amateur Radio Club Swap-N-Shop. This is about a two-hundred mile
(360 Km) drive.

I plan to conduct a test of 30M vs 40M APRS-over-VARA on this trip. I have TWO
HF rigs in the car with separate antennas. One is a Yaesu FT-891 with a
mono-band hamstick on a fender split-ball mount, dedicated full-time to 30M HF
APRS. The other is a Yaesu FT-857 with an ATAS-120A screwdriver antenna
hard-mounted to the trunk lid is used for general operating on bands other than
30M -- usually for my "Mobile SSTV LiveCAM" on 15 or 10 meters.

For this trip, I will put the 857 and ATAS-120 on 40 meters APRS. I will run
two instances of UIview, two instances of the VARA-HF modem, and two interfaces
on the mobile laptop, one for 30 meters and one for 40 meters side-by-side. The
Panasonic Toughbook CF-53 quad-core computer with 16GB RAM has no trouble
running all this, along with a third instance of UIview for two-meter packet
APRS on my Kenwood TM-D700.

The departure to the ham fest will be in darkness around 3:00 AM local
(Eastern) time, so as to arrive at the venue by 7:30 AM (around sunrise) in
time to setup. The return trip will be in full daylight, problably starting
around 1:30 PM local.

As in previous packet vs VARA tests, I will be using different SSIDs for the 30
and 40 meter beacons -- WA8LMF-2 for 30 meters and WA8LMF-3 for 40 meters so
one will able to generate different tracks on APRS-fi for the two bands. WA8LMF
(no SSID) is always my two-meters FM + internet beacons.

This trip will probably be in the skip zone for my own igate in central MI
(once I get out of town) on 30 meters, and probably also on 40. I will be
depending on other's igates on both bands to reach the Internet on HF.

Any thoughts about this before I set out next month??

I'm already planning to do this also on next summer's annual road trip to
Evergreen Colorado for the Evergreen Jazz Festival always the last weekend of
July. This will involve full-summer long-days HF propagation on both bands.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stephen H. Smith wa8lmf (at) aol.com
Skype: WA8LMF
EchoLink: Node # 14400 [Think bottom of the 2-meter band]
Home Page:

New 30 Meter APRS-over VARA Frequency
As of 1 Jan 2025. Details Here:
<>

- APRS over VARA --
<>

"Studio B" Ham Shack on Wheels
<>

-


 

On 1/3/2025 6:13 PM, Gervais Fillion via groups.io wrote:
40 meters is way more popular than 30.
it would be a great opportunity for folks who have tnc with UIdigi for example to transfer there ,,for fun and try!


what are frequencies that you are using?

i am curious to listen and see if i hear something here!!

73 stephen,Best 2025 in your projet.

Gervais,ve2ckn

i am running an Igate and Digi here on vhf.


________________________________
This is APRS over the VARA-HF high-performance soundcard "soft-modem" --? not conventional packet.?? The standard frequencies for this mode are

??? 7083.500 KHz USB on 40 meters
? 10148.200 KHz USB on 30 meters

Packet TNCs, either hardware or software are useless for this mode.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stephen H. Smith??? wa8lmf (at) aol.com
Skype:??????? WA8LMF
EchoLink:? Node #? 14400? [Think bottom of the 2-meter band]
Home Page:

New? 30 Meter?? APRS-over VARA? Frequency
As of 1 Jan 2025.?? Details Here:
<>

- APRS over VARA? --
<>

"Studio B" Ham Shack on Wheels
<>

-


 

i am listening now using a web site that is SDR Receiver.
the site that i am using is quite performant.


i am listening at 40 meters.

i dont hear any sound,,no bizarre sound like FT8 if you like!

what noise should i listen??

Gervais

________________________________
De : [email protected] <[email protected]> de la part de WA8LMF via groups.io <wa8lmf@...>
Envoyé : 3 janvier 2025 18:24
? : [email protected] <[email protected]>
Objet : Re: [UI-View] 30-meters vs 40-meters APRS-over-VARA Shootout Coming

On 1/3/2025 6:13 PM, Gervais Fillion via groups.io wrote:
40 meters is way more popular than 30.
it would be a great opportunity for folks who have tnc with UIdigi for example to transfer there ,,for fun and try!


what are frequencies that you are using?

i am curious to listen and see if i hear something here!!

73 stephen,Best 2025 in your projet.

Gervais,ve2ckn

i am running an Igate and Digi here on vhf.


________________________________
This is APRS over the VARA-HF high-performance soundcard "soft-modem" -- not
conventional packet. The standard frequencies for this mode are

7083.500 KHz USB on 40 meters
10148.200 KHz USB on 30 meters

Packet TNCs, either hardware or software are useless for this mode.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stephen H. Smith wa8lmf (at) aol.com
Skype: WA8LMF
EchoLink: Node # 14400 [Think bottom of the 2-meter band]
Home Page:

New 30 Meter APRS-over VARA Frequency
As of 1 Jan 2025. Details Here:
<>

- APRS over VARA --
<>

"Studio B" Ham Shack on Wheels
<>

-