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Hello Steve:

Ok, your explanation was very good and have Pinpoint configured I think. VaraHF modem SW is of course working ok. My GPS shows up on Pinpoint too.

Where else would the GPS show up? ?? If you are not operating mobile (i.e. not changing position), you don't really need a GPS connected anyway - just hand-enter your latitude and longitude into PinPoint or other APRS client.?

Now I need to get pinpoint to interface with the Icom 9100. What piece of software is used? "UZ7HO Soundmodem"?

NO!? The Soundmodem is a conventional packet TNC in software - completely irrelevant to operations with VARA.? [NOTE that you might want to use the Soundmodem instead of VARA on 2M VHF to take part in conventional packet APRS on 144.39 since the IC-9100 is a "DC-to-light" HF/VHF/UHF radio.]

VARA is your software modem.? It uses a sound card (either internal to the computer, or an external one connected by USB) to generate data tones on TX and to decode data tones on RX.? You need to connect the soundcard output and input on the computer,? to the radio's rear panel "DATA" port.? The IC-9100 appears to have two such ports - the industry-standard 6-pin mini-DIN port -and-? a full-size 13-pin DIN port that is proprietary to Icom. ??? You will need to make up (or acquire) an appropriate cable to connect the interface to one of these radio ports.?

You will also need a USB cable to connect a USB port on the computer to the USB port on the Icom,? for PTT keying.??
????????? -or-
skip the hassle of dealing with virtual com ports created by USB-to-serial drivers.? Use a tone-activated interface like a Tigertronics SignaLink USB.? This device has it's own built-in soundcard and a VOX-type circuit that automatically keys the transmitter whenever VARA or other soundcard digi-mode generates a transmit tone.?

I'm going to need to direction about this part.?

Thanks,

AL7PX

Todd

?

_.

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Thanks for the thorough explanation Stephen.? I am new to Vara and the digital modes, but very interested.? This helps.

My husband was communications in Nam 1966-1969.? Sadly he didn't survive his agent orange exposure. He was very private about his time there but I have his photos.? The photos on your website are very interesting.

73,

Patricia, WA4WSZ

If you have seen my website, you probably now know I was in Viet Nam between Apr 1968 to June 1970.??

My first year there, I was a "professional amateur", running a MARS station in Bien Hoa, about 40 miles NE of Saigon.? Like all MARS stations at the time, we ran civilian Collins "S-Line" ham gear to place phone patches from US bases in Viet Nam to stations in the US.? (There was no civilian phone service in Viet Nam outside downtown Saigon at the time - all calls home from troops there went by HF radio.)? We were lucky - the peak of the US buildup in VN coincided with the 1968-1969 solar max - 10 meters was open VN<-->stateside about 12-14 hours a day, and 20 meters was open nearly around the clock.

My final six months were with AFVN - American Forces Vietnam Network radio-TV.? I literally lived the real-life "Good Morning Vietnam" in the engineering dept.? The look and feel of the movie is incredibly close to the real thing.? The only detail Hollywood screwed up on in the movie was the jeeps. They used Korean-war-vintage Kaiser jeeps in the movie,? instead of the Ford-built M-151s we actually had in VN.?

AFVN was not some toy 10 watt campus FM station - it was like major market AM-FM-TV broadcasting in the states. At the peak of the war, the network had 7 TV stations and 10 radio stations up and down what was then South Viet Nam.?? AFVN AM 540 in Saigon was a 50,000 watt monster - it was the loudest AM signal anywhere in East Asia at the time.? Helped by a full-size 1/4-wave antenna stick (460 feet at 540 KHz) who's ground system radials were 6" under salt water at high tide.? You could hear the thing 140 miles away in the day time on a cheap pocket radio. At night, it was heard EVERYWHERE in Asia.? We routinely got reception reports from India, Australia Taiwan, Indonesia, New Zealand, Singapore, etc.? On my R&R I would hear it at night on a portable radio in Tokyo.

AFVN's AM signal was so outstanding that the Air Force used it's signal for navigating B-52s and AC-130 gun ships all over South-East Asia,? in preference to the usual aviation non-directional beacons.

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I am interested in using and joining this mode of operation but fail to fully understand the basics of operation.

I have used and currently have installed Winlink RMS client software and have completely operational. I access my local RMS VARA high speed Vara FM and also use VarAC HF mode. I also have have FLdigi latest version installed and using for sitorB monitoring and other modes. Can someone please explain to me what use does APRS and fundamental operation use do (other than location) and explain thoroughly give example of all software combined actually do? How are messages sent? What SW are you using? FLdigi? I like to utilize 30 meters but fail to find others who use this band for much of any mode other than FT8, which I have no interest in whatsoever.??

APRS (the Automatic Packet Reporting System) was originally conceived of by the late WB4APR (Bob Bruninga - an EE professor at the US Naval Academy ), as an all-purpose system for distributing? information of interest to hams over the air.?? Unlike most digi comms, APRS has no two-way hand-shaking logical? "connection" between stations. It uses the "unconnected information"? a.k.a. "UI-Frame" beacon mode of packet radio to send one-to-many broadcast-style messages.?? [APRS was patterned on the battle-field "situational awareness" messaging systems being developed by the Army and Navy at the time.]

In addition to the well-known position reports from vehicles, APRS is used to send reports from unattended weather stations, announcements of events like ham fests and swaps, coordinate search-and rescue efforts, etc.? APRS can also exchange short one-liner cellphone-style-SMS text messages between specific callsigns, and even to/from internet email addresses.?

For over 40 years, APRS has been conducted with 1200-baud VHF packet and 300-baud HF packet on HF.?? The earliest use of APRS was to report positions of boats in U.S. Naval Academy yacht races on Chesapeake Bay in the 1970's.

Originally an exclusively RF-based activity, connections between RF and the Internet were added to APRS in the mid 1980s.? APRS "igates" (Internet GATEways) can connect RF activities in areas far too distant from each other to communicate directly on RF alone.? (This is similar to the Internet "worm holes" created by EchoLink, DMR, Yaesu C4FM, D-Star etc.)? It can also connect people with radios to people with just an Internet connection, such as a smart phone).

VHF packet-based APRS is done all over North America on the same VHF channel -- 144.390 MHz. As a mobile, you drive into and out-of the range of hundreds of base station "digipeaters" and "igates" as you travel, each of which will automatically retransmit your beacons and messages over the local area on RF -- and pass your beacons to the "APRS-IS (APRS Internet System). The APRS-IS is a inter-connected? system of dozens of Internet? servers and mapping websites world-wide.?

Traditionally, APRS was done with hardware radio modems a.k.a. "TNCs" - "Terminal Node Controller".? These would be connected via an RS-232 serial port to a computer running APRS "client" software for messaging and mapping position reports.?
??? Today, APRS is overwhelmingly done with soundcard-based packet "soft modems" like the "UZ7HO Soundmodem" or "DireWolf" linked via TCP/IP to APRS client applications like "UIview" or "PinPoint APRS".? These "soft modems" use the same kind of "sound card interface" as most other digi modes.

Note that APRS DOES NOT use software like WinLink, VarAC or FLdigi -- APRS is a completely different activity that just happens to be able to exploit the KISS-over-IP connection present in the VARA modem software.

300-baud HF packet-based APRS has been used for over 4 decades at the very top end of the 30-meter band for long-range APRS in locations without 2-meter APRS coverage. The actual RF frequencies of the two-tone 200-Hz-shift FSK transmissions are 10.149.200 MHz & 10.149.400 MHz. Typically this is done by tuning the radio to 10.147.600 MHz USB "dial frequency" which will yield the 1600 / 1800 Hz audio tones most classic hardware packet devices respond to.

Classic AFSK-based 1200-baud packet radio works well on VHF-FM, but classic packet is a HORRIBLE mode for HF.? It is absolutely intolerant to the QRM, noise, selective fading and multipath distortion common on HF. There is no forward-error-correction like most modern digimodes, often requiring transmissions to be repeated over and over again to get through.

In the last few years, far superior data-transmission modes for HF use have appeared.? The VARA soundcard soft modem is orders of magnitude better at "getting through" than classic packet on HF.? With data wrapped? in? two layers of forward error correction, it can provide error-free copy on signals so weak they can literally cannot be heard in the radio speaker!? On the other hand, with a strong noise-free signal, it can automatically increase speed to exceed the throughput of a 1200-baud VHF packet modem in a 500 Hz CW bandwidth on HF.

For about two years now, I have been advocating using VARA for APRS activity as a VASTLY superior replacement for classic packet on HF. ? I have tested it for this purpose over 10s of thousands of miles of mobile operating on 30 meters.? I have even done three-way shoot-outs comparing 300-baud-packet vs VARA va FLdigi in MFSK16 mode on road trips.? APRS-over-VARA is now beginning to take off --? about a dozen stations around North America are now active on the mode regularly. I am routinely hearing and being heard by G4HYG in Scotland on the APRS-over-VARA mode.? Several stations are now running APRS-over-VARA igates 24/7. ?

Because of VARA's incredible weak-signal capability, it is practical for a mobile or RVer to be tracked and to communicate almost anywhere with low power and modest antennas; i.e. Yaesu FT-818 "porta-luggie" and a 30M HamStick-type whip or random wire. During my 6300-mile round-trip from central Michigan to Los Angeles and back this October, mu mobile was being heard and gated to the Internet almost constantly using a FT-891 transceiver with Quicksilver Radio "QuickStik" mobile whip connected to my mobile Panasonic Toughbook mobile laptop.? I had numerous two-way messaging contacts over the same setup as well.

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I have been promoting the change-over to the new 30-meters APRS-over-VARA channel for several weeks now.?? I had previously proposed the switch-over for New Years Eve UTC.???

However, I am already seeing numerous stations on the new 10.148.200 MHz USB channel.? And virtually no one on the old 10.147.600 MHz channel.

Should I consider this migration a "done deal" and move the WA8LMF APRS-over-VARA main igate and UI-mapping-webserver infrastructure over to the new channel early?

View of the new 30M APRS-over-VARAchannel as I write this...

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Hi

?

Has anyone setup a FTM-7250 on VARA FM 4.3.8?? If so, which Yaseu model did you select for PTT? And is either of the RTS or DTR boxes checked?? I have a Soundlink that I would like to configure with it.

?

Thanks and Happy Holidays

Doug Friedt

N8FRJ

_._,_._,_

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This radio has no provisions for computer remote control a.k.a. "CAT".?? Thus selecting a specific radio model in VARA (or any other soundcard program) is irrelevant.

You will have to use the generic radio-agnostic RTS or DTR pins of a serial port on the computer for PTT. ? Or use an interface device like a SignaLink that has an internal VOX-like PTT keying system. ?

The FTM-7250 is a poor choice for data modes, especially VARA,? since it lacks the rear-panel mini-DIN "data port", forcing you to use the MIC jack and SPEAKER jack for digi-modes. ? [The min-USB port on the rear panel labeled "DATA" is only for updating the radio's firmware, not the alternate audio input/output + PTT needed for sound card digi modes.]? ?

Without the dedicated mini-DIN data port, you will NEVER be able to achieve the higher data rates that VARA can deliver.

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? All:

Noticed at least one DX station on 30M VARA APRS today (see attached). There used to be quite a few Europeans on Robust Packet APRS, but those numbers have dwindled to a handful of stations and a few I-gates.?

?

G4HYG is my "co-conspirator" in the migration to the the new APRS-over-VARA ;channel.?? He pioneered another non-packet mode for APRS transmission two decades ago.??? The program "APRS Messenger" sent APRS packets over PSK63 or MFSK16.? [At the time, before FT-8 exploded onto the ham radio scene, PSK31 was the hot weak-signal DX mode.]??

The frequency 10.149.700 MHz was the center of the actual APRS Messenger RF channel in the 1990's & early 2000s.? We are now trying to migrate APRS-over-VARA to the same channel center -- this is done by setting the radio dial frequency to 10.148.200 Mhz USB .

Here is what I am seeing this morning on this frequency with my TS-2000 and G5RV-type 105' dipole:? Note the "Wall-to-Wall" DX from the US west coast to Scotland UK at the same time.

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