Contact Jose directly... be sure to include your call sign when requesting the information.
Email: nietoros@hotmail.com

73, Ken NB6S

Need to recover registration key for VARA.? Lost the email with the key.? Who/how do I contact?

Tom, WA9AFM

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Ehhh, no. Not to put too sharp point on this bit of trivia, but “bauds” is not English. It’s “Baud.” And not “baud rate” either. Any wireline communicator — a breed facing extinction, to be sure — ?understands that the term baud is defined as the inverse of the unit interval — in DC signals. Old Teletype veterans understand that a 75 baud signal is called that because the unit interval (minimum length of a Mark or Space) is 13 msec. Likewise, a 45.45 baud signal has a unit interval of 22 msec. This matters (or used to matter) because it was a way of expressing the maximum DC signalling speed a given communications path could support — to provide an acceptably accurate square wave (a rise and fall time of something less than thirty percent of the unit interval) required a bandwidth of roughly five times the circuit speed, useful data when designing multi-channel (Mux) radio systems. These days, not so much. Modern modulation techniques have rendered the term obsolete for all but the most devoted Teletype and Kleinschmidt fans?

You confuse bauds and bit Per seconds. Gaussiam error are for a given electrical change in the signal Per seconds. The goal of modulation like Vara is to put a maximum of bits in each electrical change. So the throuhput in bit Per second is a lot higher than the bauds rate

I use the Alinco DR-135T for my RMS Gateway station and it easily runs VARA FM Wide using a Masters Communications DR-50 interface.

Excellent!

One small errata and some speculation.

The mini-DIN on the FTM-6000 is a 10-pin connection.

I speculate that the FTM-6000 is built on the chassis and base radio of the C4FM/WIRES-X capable FTM-200 single VFO radio. The additional pins are used to control the FTM-200 when used in WIRES-X mode.

It would be interesting if those connections for frequency control (CAT control) and PTT were carried over to the FTM-6000. They are not documented that I can find, but I surmise their functions based on operating an FTM-200 as aWIRES-X node. Also, I don’t own an FTM-6000 but on the FTM-200/300/500 only the classic “1200 baud” pin is active for receive and 1200 or 9600 is a menu selection.

Yaesu sells a 10-pin to 6-pin mini-DIN adapter cable (CT-164) and a 10-pin mini-DIN to pigtail cable (CT-167).

73 de K3FZT/Steve
--
Steve Davidson K3FZT
Winlink Gateway K3FZT-10@... direct or via W3EOC-3
Supporting VARA FM Wide/1200bd Packet
1200bd Packet Node/BBS K3FZT-7@... mHz
WIRES-X Room #85218 “MARC-DARBY” 444.050 mHz
K3FZT@... FN20ja

--
73 de K3FZT / Steve

On Mon, Jun 17, 2024 at 12:20 PM, KA9CAR John wrote:

9600 packet it won't work due to Gaussian errors

Classic packet radio uses direct FSK modulation. The technology available at the time to the average ham, both in computer software or TNC hardware was quite limited, there were virtually no noise mitigation stategies available besides AF filtering. ,the%20radios%20and/or%20modems.

I've been working with my local RACES team to set up a prototype county Winlink net. A couple of use have both shack and mobile Winlink stations to research locations and digipeaters. We've played a lot with winlink recently, on a number of different rigs. Here's some of my discoveries after 30+ years of packet (Icom 28 mobile and TRS-80 laptop with a TAPR TNC-2 kit)...

In the last 40 years, the explosive demand for high-speed serial data over media like cable television, fiber, and even twisted pair led to rapid development of modulation methods that would combat gaussian noise by exploiting its randomness. This is still going on. Given Moore's Law (), there's been an exponential growth in signal processing power available to hobbists, driven by the commercial exploitation of this processing power. Modulation methods developed for cable television, cell phones, satellite communication and wi-fi are now well within the processing power of even a modest personal computer.

Quadrature Amplitutude Modulation has become the workhorse modulation method of the current digital world. (). Digital QAM is even more interesting because it implements a serious amount of parralellism to the data stream (,than%20just%20phase.)

The VARA wide modem status display looks a lot like a Digital QAM Constellation:
(). I think it's at least based on Digital QAM concepts. I think of it as 64 ft8 QSOs in parallel without trying so hard to dig down into the noise.

Given that, Amateur FM radios have long used simple analog deemphasis to increase the perceived signal to noise ratio for human voice frequencies. The "9600 baud" ports on rigs simply bypass that filtering. This deemphasis is only on FM mode on RX. Some rigs without the tradtional 6-pin connector have the deemphasis selection in a menu.

If an amateur FM rig does not have a "data" port on it, it almost certainly applies the deemphasis in the output audio chain, and would have trouble with 9600 and up.

I've used an ICOM IC-208H (25 years old), a Yaesu FT-817nd, Yaesu FT-897D (both 20 years+), and a Yaesu FTM-6000R (current) on VARA WIDE with great success on a 14-year old Windows 10 box, and on a new Win 11 laptop. I've seen above 10k baud on all of them on VARA wide to my closest RMS (Thanks, Steve)

BTW, the FTM-6000R has a new, perhaps proprietary, 11-pin DIN on the back. Works great, more expensive, and one wonders why other than profit. I eagerly await a commercial rig in the 5-10 watt range with a PD USB-C connector with all charging, Internal sound card, data, and CAT ports for a couple of hundred dollars.

Hope this helps.
73,
Jeff kn8a

I just tested a Yaesu FT-2980 & Signalink USB, and I got 16,932bps send on a test message and 14,144bps receive. Its not VARA Wide's higher speeds but its still decent for a cheap 2 meter radio.

73
John Denison
KD5YOU

It hard to find VHF radios that have the ability to run VARA FM WIDE.?

Right now there are two ALINCO dr-150T radios on Ebay.
This radio was released prior to 2000, and as packet was still common, it has a "9600" connection.
I have been using one on VARA FM Wide for several years.? It will pass Vara FM up to ABOUT 10,000 bps. The book says if you exceed 9600 packet it won't work due to Gaussian errors.

The connector on the back is a1/8 stereo, tip transmit, ring receive.? You have to use the MIC ptt terminal for ptt.
Note that one of the radios has no Microphone.? ONLY the original EMS12 mike (not available) will allow direct frequency entry, but any Alinco / Kenwood microphone works for Voice and DTMF.

--
KA9CAR

Hi Bill,
Just to add a little to this thread. ?I had been running WE/VARA HF using Parallels and Win 11 (ARM) on an M2 Apple laptop. ?Recently I noted that after several assorted upgrades, the Signalink would no longer key/Xmit even though I had a clear waterfall
Ventura 13.6.7
WE 1.7.16.0
VARA HF 4.8.7
Parallels 19.4.0

I have been using a UNI USB-C to USB dongle. ?I checked out the cabling and connections using my old Intel MacBook Pro and also a PC laptop. VARA HF connections played fine. ?Figured it was either the dongle or a software/setup issue. ?Since the dongle worked in the past, started looking for a software/setup cause. Did some digging and found info on the signalink site for Win11 configs:


Setting the parameters as per the tech note and adjusting the Volume slider in Sound properties was the fix.
Hope this helps.

How does the "Random Negotiated" part work? How many random characters are given? Do you have any information on this?

How can I access version 4.3.6 of VARA HF? Also, I am curious about the experiences of those who have tried the encryption in VARA HF. One thing I noticed is that a user with encryption can communicate seamlessly with a user without encryption. What do you know about this topic?

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I wish we could get you to join us on 40m. We've been doing it since November. We've tested every which way and it's amazing stuff.?

I'd say all your previous tests pretty well shows what works.

_._,_._,_

---

?

At the moment, I only have mono-band hamstick-type antennas for 60 and 30 meters for the dedicated APRS-HF (AX.25 & VARA) radio in the mobile. I am considering investing in a pair of 40M hamsticks. One would be used on the car for mobile, and both would be used as a mini-dipole on "Studio B" (my radio trailer) at halt.??? (I'm using pairs of the 60M and 30M sticks this way now.)?? I am departing on the great road trip later today, and don't have time to acquire 40 sticks.

Today, I'm only going about 90 miles to my sister's farm in Kalamazoo, MI. The "real trip" begins tomorrow [Sunday] - 60 meters between Kalamazoo and Cedar Rapids, IA. On Monday, I will depart Cedar Rapids with the 30 meter setup going for the rest of the trip.

---

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? --
??

?

I wish we could get you to join us on 40m. We've been doing it since November. We've tested every which way and it's amazing stuff.?

I'd say all your previous tests pretty well shows what works.

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We ran the "live" test today - a simulated emergency based on an actual one 5 years ago with all the public safety services involved.

?
?This time, we had a 3 element Yagi instead of the J-Pole used previously at north, with the same 3 element Yagi at south. We found that voice communications through that system went from a bit scratchy to full quieting with the new antenna. This was all at about 9:30 AM.

This just conforms what I said in a previous post -- that FM voice comms must be fully hard-quieted before data is going to work decently.? Signal levels with hiss or "popcorn" on them, that remain intelligible on voice,? just won't work for data.? At least for high-speed data.??? 300-baud HF-style packet or VARA-HF run over VHF/FM radios can tolerate a bit of noise but will be VERY slow.

I have actually experienced this.? Several years ago, I was experimenting with APRS tracking for an event in Evergreen Colorado.? Evergreen is located in an L-shaped canyon in the Front Range of the Colorado Rockies, with mountains thousands of feet higher all around it. VHF radio is a nightmare of non-line-of-sight paths with massive amount of multipath reflections, even on strong signals.? 1200-baud packet APRS failed miserably, even on paths of only a few miles.??? On a hunch, I tried switching my UZ7HO Soundmodem soft TNCs to 300-baud HF-style packet.??? BINGO!?? Things worked perfectly even on noisy non-quieted multipath-riddled paths.? Over TEN TIMES as many posits succeeded compared to the 1200 baud built-in TNC of the Kenwood D700.????

For passing substantial amounts of traffic, the speed hit might be a problem, but in my case I only needed to pass compressed position reports.? Even at 300 baud, they were only about a second each.

On the issue of paths working in the morning but failing later in the day, this is quite normal for marginal horizon-grazing non-line-of-sight. paths on VHF & UHF.???

Beyond the optical horizon, VHF propagation depends on refraction (bending of the wave front).? In turn, this refraction depends on air masses of non-constant density. ? In the morning, when the ground is rapidly heating from the sun, temperatures near the surface rise faster than a few thousand feet up, creating a layer of less-dense air near the ground.? This bends VHF signals beyond the horizon.? By noon, when the air has heated more uniformly up to several thousand feet, the refracting effect is far far less - signal levels can drop by 10-20-even 30 dB on non-line-of-sight paths.??

At sundown, when the solar heating of ground & air stops, the same thing happens.? Signal levels in the early evening shoot up when air near the ground doesn't cool off as rapidly as air higher up.? By several hours after sunset, when air has cooled off more uniformly at all levels, signal levels drop off again, until the next morning's sunrise.?

The key to reliable paths is to have enough excess signal level (power plus antenna gain) that even with 20 dB or so loss, you remain hard-quieted at the receiver.?

---

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? --
??

?

?

Chris et.al. Congratulations on a job well done!

The observation that the VHF path deteriorated as the sun came up is normal VHF line of sight propagation. This effect is also seen on VHF repeaters where it is possible to get into far away repeaters in the morning, and then the path deteriorates over time and the link is lost until the evening.

Lots to still learned from focusing on all the factors of Effective Radiated Power (ERP).? This includes RF power, Coax type (loss), coax length, antenna gain and antenna height above ground.?

You also raise some of the issues of "The Last Kilometer" communications and the placement of the longer range VHF Winlink station and RF control by ARDEN Mesh.? This is an area that needs more research and solutions.? We have access to all the tools.? Just need to package it into a easily deployed solution.?

For interest, I will attach some images from an exercise we did this spring providing radio communications for a Scouts Canada event (Rideau Challenge Journey) in an area without complete cell service near Ottawa.? For this two day exercise for my vehicle (1986 VW Vanagon Westfalia pop-top hippy bus) I used a trailer hitch mounted mast consisting of five (5) sections of four (4) ft aluminum military portable mast sections with an Arrow dual band VHF/UHF j-pole antenna.? This was approximately 20 ft of mast plus the length of the J-pole which provided excellent coverage of the area of operation.?

This exercise was conducted over two days.?

Ref:

?

Image 1: ?Rideau Challenge Journey 2024 Checkpoint 14BA

?

Image 2:? Rideau Challenge Journey 2024 Arrow J-Pole VHF/UHF antenna on 5 x 4 foot masts mounted on rear hitch of vehicle.? Power supplied by 1000 watt Honda Generator feeding 120 VAC to variable DC power supply.? This used a PwrGate to operated VHF transceiver and charge a nominal 13.8 VDC deep cycle battery.? All power system on Anderson Powerpole connectors.?

?

?

Image 3: ?Rideau Challenge Journey 2024 Close-up of Arrow J-Pole VHF/UHF antenna on top of military mast sections. This antenna has a low angle of radiation and great characteristics for this work.?

?

?

I have used this portable stations for many public service events such as the Rideau Lakes Cycle Tour where I was positioned at the last station of a multi-operator chain of stations.? When mobile administration vehicles with? 5/8 wave antenna passed through or stopped at my location, they would not be able to communicate with Net Control Station (NCS) who was operating on a regional repeater in Ottawa. This portable station was usually full quieting into net control. As noted above, it is normal for the VHF signals to drop from the peak in the early morning.? With this I was always able to communicate into the NSC.?

My recommendation for this sort of work is to work on creating robust antenna masts that are safely deployed, use of VHF antenna with low angle of radiation, and run at least 40-50 watts RF.? The mast sections should have the capability to support multiple guy ropes. Practice, practice, practice.?

?

Have fun & be safe!

Cheers!

Stuart VE3SMF

We ran the "live" test today - a simulated emergency based on an actual one 5 years ago with all the public safety services involved.

We were handed several files on a USB stick to send. Most were photographs with resolutions of a 1.3 to 4 MB. Another was a floor plan in PDF format about 1.2MB. We used Winlink to shrink the photos to 100 to 300K, without meaningful loss of quality. I converted the PDF to JPEG (I happen to have Adobe Acrobat DC pro on my laptop) and we shrunk it to 300K.

All transmitted in reasonable time, with the 300K files taking 8 minutes, going from north to south. I think we could have shrunk them further. This time, we had a 3 element Yagi instead of the J-Pole used previously at north, with the same 3 element Yagi at south. We found that voice communications through that system went from a bit scratchy to full quieting with the new antenna. This was all at about 9:30 AM.

At 11:30 AM, south was given a 1.2MB .doc file to send. No compression was tried. We had noticed the communication path deteriorating with the passage of the day, and I think propagation conditions had changed. We noticed the same thing on Wednesday. To make matters worse, we believe that the metal buildings not only obstructed our signal, but caused multipath problems which explains the lower performance (50%) of the south to north path through the day. Sending the large file both direct and through west were unacceptably slow, levels? m1-3, with lots of retransmission. One building was directly in our path, another directly behind and others to the side.

So we have a bit of work to do. We will need to see if we can use Wi-Fi technology to remote the VARA-FM station from any obstructions or reflectors. We need to try antennas with higher elevation and/or gain. We also need to look at ways to make files smaller without meaningful loss of fidelity.

The chief was happy with our performance despite the issue with the last file and wants to continue working with us, so overall a success for getting a job done and success for learning and understanding the issues we face in point-to-point portable terrestrial communications, which are changing propagation, obstructions, reflections, file compression and separation of the document injection point from the transmission site. The other good point was our ability to set up in less than 10 minutes. I owe him a report.

We noted that whilst we've been practicing Winlink with an emphasis on ICS forms, the requirements in this case - a simulated chemical fire - were primarily the transmission of photographs, floor plans and documents in image formats from the field (wherever that may be) to the EOC (we have 14 of them in our region,).

73,
Chris