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I took a drive west and north today to test the radio path between my car and the new VARA FM gateway at the 400' HHS site.

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The red arrows are places I stopped and sent an email to Tony & Ben using Winlink and VARA FM from a laptop in my car.

The antenna is a dual band mag mount w/ 3 dbi gain and the radio is running 25W.

The yellow dot in lower right corner is the HHS site.

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The lower right most is the Murdock beet pile on hwy #40.

Next to the left is Hwy 40/29 intersection.

Mid left is outskirts of Benson Hwy 9.

2nd from top is Rolling Forks cemetery on Pope county #19.

Topmost is west of Gilchrist Lake on Pope County #19.

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73

Mike N0QBH

On Tuesday I traveled to Elrosa (30 mi north) and sent an Winlink VARA FM email to Ben & Tony via N0QBH-10 in Willmar from my car in the church parking lot.

Prior to that I sent one from the Crow display in Belgrade (about 20 mi north).

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Then I attended a very productive Ham Radio club meeting!

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73

Mike N0QBH

On Friday I took a drive northeast to Paynesville to do VARA FM range testing.

I sent emails from the city airport (20.5 mi) then drove east on hwy #55 and went south on MN #4.?

About 4 miles south of hwy #55 I sent and email from the snow plow storage yard. (18.3 mi)
Next I went to Grove City's cemetery and sent another email from there. (16.2 mi).

Next week I plan to go further east and south.

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One thing I've learned doing VARA FM from the car - when in less than S9 signal range, narrow mode works best.

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73

Mike N0QBH

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Skip ahead a few days - I tested sending email from my car via Winlink using VARA FM further east and northeast from the Willmar gateway site.

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The first stop was next to the Starlite Drive In just outside of Litchfield. Successful on the second try.? ? (23.1 miles)

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Second was a great little history town, Forrest City.? I parked on the threshing fest grounds and sent another email.? ?(27.1 miles)

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Last email sent was north of Forrest City and south of Watkins on County #17 (not 24 like I said in the email :) )? ?(31.8 miles)

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Yup, in radio tall is good.

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73

Mike N0QBH

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A drive to my daughters presented a chance to try sending Winlink email from a bit further to the north and northwest of the HHS site.

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The first stop was in Brooten for a burger. The email went from my car to the HHS site with good signals.? ?(24.7 miles)

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The second stop was the small town of Terrace and again, I had strong signals.? ?(29.3 miles)

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It appears our original guesstimate of a 30 mile mobile range are pretty close.?

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73

Mike N0QBH

I took a drive southwest down hwy #23 today to test Winlink email sent via VARA FM from my car on 145.070 today.

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Stop number one was outside of Raymond at Bonnema Excavating.? Good signals.? (15.2 miles)

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Next was the truck stop south of Clara City at the intersection of hwys 23 and 7.? It took three tries due to local interference.? (22.3 miles)

Else signals were strong. The indicators for VARA are handy.

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Next was the old high school in Maynard. I still had good signals.? (27.4 miles)

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Last was the Heritage Hill threshing grounds east of Montevideo.? I still had good copy.? (33.2 miles)

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73

Mike N0QBH