IC-7100 and DRA-36 use for VARA FM WIDE
I have an IC-7100 and a DRA-36 sound card.?
So far I have been unsuccessful in getting true WIDE performance, trying with the USB? cable and the radio sound card, and then with the DRA-36 to the 6 pin mini-din accessory jack.
I have had great success with VARA HF and VARA narrow FM via the USB cable.
If any one has the radio settings that proved successful for them with VARA wide, and techniques for setting the?
DRA board audio levels, I would find them very valuable.
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Re: VARA FM and the Yaesu FT-991a sound card
Mark, I would be very?interested in your IC-7100 setup for VARA WIDE FM.? Please look for a new post for that radio. Dan WD4NG
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Thanks to all for your suggestions. I'll give your suggestions a try. Mark, I'm using an Icom 7610 so no Signa Link. Straight USB connection. I'm trying to recall when I first noticed this issue. Seems like it's only recently.
Ridge N3JUY
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Re: VARA FM and the Yaesu FT-991a sound card
Typo... I meant to say the FT-991A is very probably limited to 3KHz audio bandwidth for -tx-.
Receive audio is likely to be wider... probably 5KHz or more.
Mark - AD7EF
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Re: VARA FM and the Yaesu FT-991a sound card
Bryan;
Like my Icom IC-7100, the built-in sound card hardware on the FT-991A is very probably limited to a 3KHz bandwidth for rx.
For the ¡°9600 bps Packet¡± data-comm capability, required for VARA FM WIDE, you¡¯ll ?need to have at least a 5KHz tx audio bandwidth, and the sound-card output must be routed directly to the FM reactance modulator (bypassing any pre-emphasis filtering normally applied to the tx audio path on FM transceivers)
Icom support confirmed that the tx-audio on the IC-7100 was limited to 3 KHz. I asked about FT-991A 9600 bps packet support on the Yaesu support site, for a friend that has that radio. I asked both if the internal sound-card hardware supported 9600 bps packet, and if it was possible to use external sound-card hardware on the "RTTY/data jack", on the back of the radio. After three weeks, I still haven't heard back from Yaesu.
It's unlikely that the FT-991A mini-DIN6 "RTTY/data" jack supports 9600 bps packet functionality. The pin that other transceivers use for "9600 bps receive" on this connector is labeled "FSK" in the FT-991A documentation, and all of the related menu items are specific to RTTY operation.
I have been able to achieve full VARA FM WIDE throughput on my Icom IC-7100, using a Masters Communication DRA-45 radio-interface card connected to the mini-DIN 6 "data" jack on the back of the radio. The receive input on the DRA-45 is connected to the "9600 bps receive" output on the min-DIN 6 "data" jack.
My extensive web searches haven't uncovered any discussion of successful "9600 bps packet" operation, or VARA FM WIDE operation, with the Yaesu FT-991A
Mark - AD7EF
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Re: VARA FM and the Yaesu FT-991a sound card
Hi Steve,
Yes, exactly.? Narrowband only, unless someone has successfully reconfigured it.
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Re: VARA FM and the Yaesu FT-991a sound card
Hi Dan,
I just watched the video.? I might email the presenter and see if anyone figured it out.? I'll let the group know what I find.
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Re: VARA FM and the Yaesu FT-991a sound card
They got the 991A working for narrowband, just not wideband. They mentioned something about the pin that should?have been used for 9600 data was being used for RTTY (which is why the 991A does RTTY as mentioned in the OP). But, if you do figure it out, please keep me in the loop. :)
Good Luck. 73 Steven Keller KC3DSO Prince George's County, MD ARES Assistant Emergency Coordinator - Operations MDC Assistant Section Emergency Coordinator
Bryan, There is a VARA presentation?from MICROHAMS about a month ago. There were some very capable guys working on getting VARA FM wide running. The 991a had them buffaloed. If you figure it out, they could use some input.
? It is long but worth watching. Dan WD4NG?
On Wed, Jul 1, 2020 at 11:15 PM Bryan < kf1d@...> wrote: Hello,
I am thinking of buying the Yaesu FT-991a.? This radio has a built in sound card.? Has anyone tried it with VARA FM at the 9600 setting?? Did it work well?? Or would I still need to purchase a separate sound card that handles 9600 speeds?
This is all I could find online:? "However, the FT-991 also do FSK RTTY as well as CW, (with its built in sound card) something that the Signalink cannot do."?
Not sure if that information is helpful or not but felt I should include it.
Thanks,
Bryan, KF1D
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Re: VARA FM and the Yaesu FT-991a sound card
Bryan, There is a VARA presentation?from MICROHAMS about a month ago. There were some very capable guys working on getting VARA FM wide running. The 991a had them buffaloed. If you figure it out, they could use some input.
? It is long but worth watching. Dan WD4NG?
On Wed, Jul 1, 2020 at 11:15 PM Bryan < kf1d@...> wrote: Hello,
I am thinking of buying the Yaesu FT-991a.? This radio has a built in sound card.? Has anyone tried it with VARA FM at the 9600 setting?? Did it work well?? Or would I still need to purchase a separate sound card that handles 9600 speeds?
This is all I could find online:? "However, the FT-991 also do FSK RTTY as well as CW, (with its built in sound card) something that the Signalink cannot do."?
Not sure if that information is helpful or not but felt I should include it.
Thanks,
Bryan, KF1D
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VARA FM and the Yaesu FT-991a sound card
Hello,
I am thinking of buying the Yaesu FT-991a.? This radio has a built in sound card.? Has anyone tried it with VARA FM at the 9600 setting?? Did it work well?? Or would I still need to purchase a separate sound card that handles 9600 speeds?
This is all I could find online:? "However, the FT-991 also do FSK RTTY as well as CW, (with its built in sound card) something that the Signalink cannot do."?
Not sure if that information is helpful or not but felt I should include it.
Thanks,
Bryan, KF1D
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Ridge;
What radio are you using, and how is your radio interfaced to the computer? If you¡¯re using a SignaLink, or other external rig-interface, there should be a rx/receive level knob on the interface box.?
If you¡¯re using a built-in sound card interface on the radio, there should be a receive audio-level, for the ¡°USB sound-card¡±, somewhere in the radio¡¯s menu system.
Mark - AD7EF
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Generally spoken, it is best to change volumes in the 'analogue' domain instead of in the 'digital' domain. The latter is the pc/windows volume controls, the first is your transceiver's RF knob. If you set the volume in windows too low you will lose amplitude resolution, damaging the original signal. This will not happen when setting your transceiver's RX volume.
It is a trade-off where the volumes will be set, but keep in mind to mostly have your trx take care of it (in magnitude).
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Ridge, That is normally most easily adjusted by adjusting your windows 10 "microphone" settings for your sound card - maybe a codec or pnp designator. I normally get to that by right clicking on the small speaker symbol on the tool bar, the choosing "open sound settings" then changing the microphone to be the codec or pnp, then adjusting the slider. Dan WD4NG
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I thought I read for best results - when signals weak and better throughput - meter should be a 75% most of the time.
I am trying different controls on windows and radio, not sure what works.
let you know if I find something, or hope someone else figures it out :-)
john kk4shf
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You might update to vers 4.0.2 while you are at it
On 2020-07-01 7:28 a.m., Ridge Gardner
wrote:
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
Good morning,
I have just noticed that the meter for Audio Input in VARA is
"Pegged". I've attached a screenshot of said meter. How or what do
I adjust to correct this? It doesn't seem to be adversely
affecting the program.
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Good morning,
I have just noticed that the meter for Audio Input in VARA is "Pegged". I've attached a screenshot of said meter. How or what do I adjust to correct this? It doesn't seem to be adversely affecting the program.
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New vARIM Messaging Program for VARA HF Modem - version 1.0
Hello,
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Introducing a new member of the ARIM family, vARIM, adapted to use the VARA HF modem. Version 1.0 is available here:
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on the vARIM Help page.
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Files are also available in the Files area at the arim-ham Groups.io group:
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vARIM is a peer-to-peer messaging and file transfer for HF bands. It's similar to gARIM, but with a reduced feature set because VARA doesn't support "unconnected" transmissions like ARDOP does. For instance, there is no beaconing. All vARIM data transfers are made during an ARQ session. It will run on Linux, Raspberry Pi, Cygwin/X on Windows and also Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) on Windows 10. The VARA modem runs only on Windows computers, but vARIM can run in Cygwin/X or WSL on the Windows computer, which is convenient. Alternatively, you can run vARIM on a Linux or RPi computer and attach it to a VARA modem instance running on a Windows computer in the same local area network.
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For Linux OS, the binary distributions are for Ubuntu 18.04 and derivatives like Linux Mint 19.x only. It's best to compile vARIM from source code to avoid library versioning problems. It's easy, instructions are found in the INSTALL file included in the source distribution (with instructions for Fedora 28 and derivatives, and for Cygwin/X too).
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Be aware of some differences in the configuration file format - an existing gARIM config file (garim.ini) can't be used without modification. The details are found in the Help document linked above.
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vARIM is ready for new VARA HF version 4 which came into play on June 30, 2020. VARA HF version 4.0.x introduces a robust 500Hz ARQ bandwidth option. vARIM allows you to specify which bandwidth to use in the .ini file, or as a choice in the "ARQ Connect" dialog (500 or 2300 Hz).
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To key the rig, if VOX isn't suitable, vARIM supports hardware PTT using serial port RTS or DTR signals. This works on Linux, RPi, Cygwin/X and WSL using built in serial ports or USB-to-Serial converter cables. PTT setup details are found in the Help page at
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I have a station running VARA HF version 4.0.1 on (dial) 7.085 MHz that's available for testing. The station call sign is NW8L and it will be configured for ARQ using the 500Hz bandwidth. It might be QRT from time to time if thunderstorms are in the area (near Albuquerque, NM). At NW8L vARIM is running in WSL on the same Windows 10 laptop that hosts the VARA HF modem. The audio interface is a USB sound card connected to line in and line out jacks on the rig. The rig is keyed using vARIM's hardware PTT (DTS) over a USB-to-Serial converter cable between computer and rig.
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If anyone using VARA HF has time to test vARIM I would be interested in your results and bug reports. If you install vARIM, try connecting to NW8L on (dial) 7.085MHz and sending me a message!
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73,
Bob NW8L
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Re: VARA 4.0.0 shows UPD dwnld avbl vers 4.0.2
As with version 4.0.1 the installer gives a false positive with fi MS-Antivirus. Jos¨¦ knows about this, don't worry.
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https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/944c88a2cc964062262346690e89b70405d73d0abd1717fc2ddf89086d18b5ea/detection/f-944c88a2cc964062262346690e89b70405d73d0abd1717fc2ddf89086d18b5ea-1593554076
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Re: VARA Chat install problem
This is not a big deal, just allow the software to run and mark it safe. Run as administrator.
?I make legitimate software myself, valid as it could be, but my software has to get warmed up and no complaints,
to be allowed,
They really don't look at all the code. kind of a dumb way to really check.? Norton is worst.
Since their aren't? 1,000,000 customers/Hams following, installing first day, it takes a bit for it to look safe to the big guys.
they more its downloaded and deemed safe the more it gets considered safe.
Sorry you work for a big corp, I feel your pain.
73
john kk4shf
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Ridge Gardner N3JUY
Mark Davis
Steven, KC3DSO
Jan PH3J
john sails
Andy VE4PER
