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VARA FM over KISS TNC?
4
Greetings, Recently a handheld radios known as VERO VR-N76 (with two siblings sold as BTECH UV Pro and Radiooddity GA-5WB) received a firmware upgade, which made a KISS TNC available over Bluetooth to user applications. This move makes all transformer / optoisolator coupled interfaces redundant. But the application needs to be Bluetooth / KISS protocol capable. It seems to me that VARA FM does not support such interface. If I am wrong, would somebody please guide me towards proper settings for VARA CHAT, Winlink / VARA etc. Best regards, Marek SP5ISZ
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VARA APRS on 40 meters, specifically operating on 7.083.50 USB, has proven to be an outstanding mode for digital communication, offering unmatched coverage and reliability since our establishment just over a year ago. While we have tested other bands such as 30 meters and 20 meters, none have provided anywhere near the same consistent performance as 40 meters. The combination of VARA's efficiency and the favorable propagation characteristics of 40 meters ensures exceptional coverage and reliability over a wide area. This past year of experimentation and operation has firmly established 40 meters as the backbone of our network on HF in the PNW and outlying areas.
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USB2RIG - Vara FM
4
Anyone have experience/suggestions for using a USB2RIG ? Fellow club member has obtained one ; the correct mic and spkr options come up for the sound card settings but having difficulty bringing up a comport for it. Has checked device manager but no new comport showing up. Is this a driver issue or maybe something else with this unit ?
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Vara hf and Icom 718
7
Does anyone have a setup guide for vara hf with an Icom 718 and signalink?
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Will Digirig work?
9
I am really confused as to what radio facilities have to be within VHF reach in order to use a Digirig thru an HR to send email with Winlink. What frequencies will I need to use and how can I rest ahead of buying the Digirig or a TNC? Is there a map of DigiPeaters? -- Bernard Shuford KT4BCS
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Basic UPS Config
7
Hey guys, Using my Alinco DM-330MVT and one or more of my lifepo4 or lead acid batteries, would I be able to safely configure a basic UPS to give my gateway battery backup in the event of an outage?
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I have a Win11 laptop, Winlink Vara HF working fine with a Yaesu FT DX10 via the inboard soundcard. I recently bought a new FT991A for use in my sailing boat. I could configure it also for Vara HF (same Vara HF radio settings as for the DX10 except choosing "FT991A" instead of FT DX10. Using correct enhanced com port. I can make it send on Vara HF, USB Data, use the tune function to set it to 1/3 ALC, 40W power, CAT works, but when trying to connect to a gateway that usually always works for me via the FT DX10, I can never connect to the gateway. I can see & hear the rig sending its Vara call to the gateway, 15 times in a row before ending, never a return. Tried many times, different moments of the day. For the CAT to work, I have to set the FT991A Function 33 to DISABLE. F071 Data PTT Select to DAKY (as it also is for the FT DX10). F065 Other Shift (SSB) is set to 1500 Hz (default is 0 for the FT991A but it is 1500 Hz on the FT DX10). (this sets the carrier point in Data mode). F064 is left a 0 Hz (no similar function on the FT DX10) F062 Data Mode set to OTHER If I set F065 Other Shift (SSB) to 0 Hz then I get a narrow RX signal (like max 800-1000 Hz) on the Vara HF waterfall, pushed to the left, and a very "narrow" RX sound. I've tried tweaking most of the relevant functions, to no avail. I am under the impression that with the aforementioned settings, I have some kind of frequency offset in USB Data mode. Any ideas or clues? Thanks, Jan ON3ZTT
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2 Winlink Applications
8
Just wondering if I can have Winlink on one computer for running Vara HF and another application of Winlink on a different computer for running Vara FM. Will Winlink allow this if I have the same info (call sign, email, address ¡) in the set up portion for each application. I have tried it but with no success so far. Mike VA1KMA
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A user recently posted his "BUSY" light being illuminated all the time preventing his transmission. He showed his waterfall and I asked why he had a notch filter in the middle of his pass band. When he eliminated the notch filter he was able to transmit because the "BUSY" indication would go out. So, my question is: Why would a notch filter inside the pass band cause a "BUSY" indication? I experimented and found that if I turn on my notch filter outside the 800Hz bandwidth and slowly tuned it toward the VARA 800Hz pass band it would trigger the "BUSY" indicator. See the attached screenshot of my VARA waterfall. I slowly tuned the notch from the high-side of the pass band until the "BUSY" lit up. Mostly curious for my own benefit on signal processing that is going on. If this is not the correct forum, please indicate where this question needs to be asked. Mark / https://www.qrz.com/db/W7EAZ
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I have been monitoring/igating 40-meters APRS-over-VARA for about two weeks now. [The WA8LMF 40-meters APRS-over-VARA igate/mapping webserver is now monitoring 7.083.5 USB full-time 24/7/365 .] Most of the 40M activity has been long-haul at night from the west coast. In the daytime, when the useful range on 40 is typically 500 miles (800 km) or so, I have seen few if any stations in the mid-west (my QTH is in central Michigan). This is now slowly changing.... Today I am copying a short-haul NVIS station on 40 for the first time. N5AMD-1 near Battle Creek, MI is only about 50 miles (80 km) from me This screencap is from my 40M APRS-over-VARA igate, taken just now at 12:36 EST (1736 UTC). (You are seeing UIview32 running in a virtual machine on a Win7 host running on an Acer E3-111 "netbook" 11.8" mini-laptop.) You can see this map display anytime at: <http://WA8LMF.net/map> Choose the 40 meters APRS-over-VARA link. Stephen H. Smith wa8lmf (at) aol.com Skype: WA8LMF EchoLink: Node # 14400 [Think bottom of the 2-meter band] Home Page: http://wa8lmf.net New 30 Meter APRS-over VARA Frequency As of 1 Jan 2025. Details Here: <http://WA8LMF.net/VARA/NewFrequency.htm> - APRS over VARA -- <http://wa8lmf.net/VARA/APRSoverVARA> "Studio B" Ham Shack on Wheels <http://WA8LMF.net/Aliner> -
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VARA-HF Decoder SWL?
3
Hello everyone, does anyone here use the VARA-HF Decoder (https://rosmodem.wordpress.com/) as SWL? What settings do you have to make just for the receiver? Thanks and 73 Josef DE3JGA
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Hey guys, I¡¯ve rummaged through the forums, read the tutorials on winlink¡¯s website and watched a thousand YouTube videos but I am at a loss. I recently set up an RMS gateway for VARA FM at my QTH. Equipment is a Yaesu ft-2980, diamond x50 at 35 ft (170 total above sea level). Interfacing with PC using a DigiRig lite and DigiRig r12 cable. I¡¯ve tried all different VARA level adjustments, radio level adjustments with no luck. I¡¯m including a few pictures of my results. Connections seem relatively reliable with the station using my ic-705 and comet mobile antenna but the S/N I get from my station is horrible and I can¡¯t figure out why. S/N and VU from the 795 to my gateway is excellent. Physically listening to signals coming through, everything SOUNDS perfect. I know it¡¯s been covered, but nothing seems to work. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!
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I noticed my VARA FM RMS was not receiving connections. I checked the settings and all seemed OK. I went into Settings/SoundCard and clicked "Tune" in order to check the output audio level. The system locked up and would not stop transmitting when I reclicked the "Tune" button. I tried this with the radio off to see if it was an RF issue and had the same lockup. I reinstalled VARA FM--It's v4.3.8. The Left channel is selected. It still locks up. The computer is a Window 10 machine and the sound card is a Masters Communications DRA-45. All was working before. Any suggestions? Jim Price KO6GM
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Major Updates Changing Sound Device Sort Order
6
For us Windows users, I discovered that one software developer seems to have figured a way to minimize the issue of major Window Updates reordering the OS's internal list of sound devices. I was building a laptop to work with VARA FM and Packet to act as a temporary Winlink Digipeater for a local exercise. I experiment a lot with this laptop and don't always rename my sound devices from the default on this machine or label what cables have been plugged into which port or regularly uninstall unused assigned devices. Unlike which I do with my Day to Day digital mode computer that has all the cables labeled and USB port label to match the cable. As well as remove no longer used Serial Ports and keep the port numbers contiguous as I install new serial port devices. Anyway, after several false starts a few quick changes I got it working working with VARA FM and using DireWolf for Packet. Seeing their was a Windows update that had been downloaded I renamed the sound devices to unique names so I could know which where the Digirig Lites device versus the Signalink and DRA devices I regularly have attached to that machine. Then it let do the update knowing I had time to fix things the next day which I had scheduled with others to do some testing. Not to my surprise when I started up VARA FM, I saw it had the wrong sound devices and since I had renamed them, it was easily to apply the changes to VARA FM. Later on that day I took the system out to my shop test it as a digipeater. All worked fine, but then I realized even though I had not adjusted DireWolf, it worked fine. Bringing it back in to my home I saw it was using the correct sound devices. I was puzzled, but didn't give it much thought until today. I am on the DireWolf groups.io page as well as others. This morning I read something to from the developer of DireWolf, WB2OSZ, that made me realize why it had no issues with the reorder. Rather than pick from a list to select the sound device, DireWolf request you specify it is position in the list, or provide it by name in the config file. His recommendation was that users of DireWolf use the full names or the Substring of the name for the audio device configuration parameter (ADEVICE). So rather than ADEVICE 1,2 if you have renamed them you could use either ADEVICE "Digi UV5R Mic" "Digi UV5R Spkr" or if they differ only by "Mic" and "Spkr" you can use ADEVICE "Digi UV5R". So despite Windows reordering the list when compacting the known devices list for the new release it still will pick the correct device. Not trusting my typing, I had copied and pasted the names from the Sounds Dialog to use in the config file,so: ADEVICE "Digi UV5R Mic" "Digi UV5R Spkr" was used for the config parameter. This leads me to believe all the other developers are tracking the order in the list rather than the name we selected from the drop down. If possible, it would nice to see both VARA FM and VARA as well as other digital software vendors maintain a persistent value between executions of the program of the name selected for the audio devices so if a Windows update reorders the list, it picks it to match the name not the previous execution's position. If the named device no longer exists, it seems a popup message could alert the user to fixing the issue. Brian - W7OWO
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Basic Introduction
15
I am relatively new at using APRS (mostly Aprsdroid for public service tracking) but have experience using VARA on HF for Winlink and the DTN. Is there a basic introduction to APRS with VARA on HF that I could read to get started? -- Reiner Dieg N2PEZ FN12 USA
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No Output from VARA HF
6
I have a setup on my PC (Win 10) that works. I have another PC (Win 10) that I am setting up. All settings on the second system are the same (except comm port). And I have checked that the drivers are the same on both machines. Im talking to an IC-7300. When I use the 1st system, no problems. But when I use the second system there is no output. Im unplugging the data cable from the 1st machine and plugging it into the second machine. Note that input works and Im can set the input level to 1PM for the VARA HF View Meter. When I try to "TUNE", no output. I can switch the output device to the speakers and hear the tone. HELP Mr. Wizard!
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New LOCAL Winlink CMS Gateway for VARA RM on 145.060 #VARAFM,#CMS Gateway
3
Hello, I have just setup a temporary CMS Gateway on 145.060, Simplex, 1200 Baud ( Narrow) for the local area. It is located in the RV Park at 4313 FM 2004, La Marque, TX 77568 and the antenna is mounted at about 12 ft above Ground Level (AGL) So the range is unknown. This is a temporary setup while we are in the local area. Since I join the 2 PM ragchew and use the same radio Winlink will not be available from 14:00-15:30. Please let me know via email if you have problems connecting and I will try to assist. 73 NB5C
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Transmit Problem on VARA FM Modem Using Ubuntu and WINE
10
I am running Winlink Express and VARA FM using Wine 9.0 on Ubuntu 24.04. VARA FM shows signals on the waterfall, and triggers PTT on my Yaesu FTM-400 using either a SignalLink (using VOX), or a Digirig Mobile (using a COM port). Since the SignalLink performs PTT using VOX I know there is audio coming in/out to the radio (there is 40W coming out but I have no easy way of checking the FM modulation.) The problem is that no Winlink station responds to my transmission. If I switch the Linux laptop for a Windows PC then a local station immediately responds using VARA FM, so the problem is on the Ubuntu laptop, not with the cables, Signalink, or Digirig. FYI, VARA HF works fine on the Linux laptop using the USB cable from an ICOM 7300. Any direction on where to start is greatly appreciated. Ron/K2RAS
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1) May I try out mobile 40m VARA APRS on your West coast network? 2) APRS client is Pinpoint APRS. If you folks do not mind me trying this out on the West coast network, what beaconing interval would you allow or suggest to not perturb the network? Just messing around at home, it has been impressive to say the least.
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VarAC
3
Other than using VaraHF for Winlink, I am new to using Vara for VarAC. I cannot find a group for VarAC, so is this group for info and questions on the AC software? Kevin, K3VIN
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Image Name
Sat 8:39am
Sat 8:39am