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Slot Gets Confused

Using VarAC 11.2, Windows 11 (native), CAT for Icom 7800. Start at slot 1 and the slot space is empty. Use the slot slider to browse up or down, and eventually it gets confused. On 20 meters VarAC thought slot 1 was 14.105075. The only to correct the sequence error is to select the proper frequency from the dropdown for bands. Not that this is significant, but I only discovered this behavior when one of the OTH radars was active and I needed to know which slots were clear.

The real culprit appears to be the slider still processes up and down requests while a previous move has not fully completed.

If you need debugger logs on this please let me know what to switch on. I think I can reproduce this on demand without much trouble.

Doug / N3JXB

3 comments

3 Comments

irad d

May 30

Thanks Doug for the clarification and detailed information. I tried to simulate it while playing very rapidly with the <- -> keys and was able to to reproduce. So I would need some additional information to try and get to the bottom of it.

When that goes out of sync as the screenshot shows - when you now go -> it adds 750 hz as if Slot 1 is not 14.107.250? or revert back to 14.105.750
When it goes out of sync - what does the CF textbox shows as a CF when you now move a slot up ?
Can you simulate it again and send me a debug log file ? enable the debug under Setting->Misc.
Yes/NO: Do you have Rig control in place and do you have READ FREQUENCY every 2 seconds enabled ?

Thank you

Irad

irad d

May 27

Hey Doug. If I understand you correctly - then this is by design and not a bug. Let me explain just to make sure we are on the same page and LMK if this is what you are experiencing.

By design - a CF is any frequency you decide as your starting point. Meaning that you can start your own calling frequency. Many EmComm groups for example set their own CF and use the slot systems around it.

Slots 11 for example is not hard coded as 14.105.750. It is CF + 750Hz.

This allows flexibility of having multiple CFs while slots re-arranged themselves around any frequency you pick.

So if your starting point is 14.103.000, this is your CF. and Slot 11 will be 14.103.750.

Therefore - if you want to follow the official VarAC slot system you should always tune first to the CF.

I hope it clarifies

73s

Irad

esunetdude

May 29

Replying to

Hi Irad,

Your explanation is helpful, especially for operations where people are not on the primary / preset frequency for a given band. But that is not what I am encountering.

I park on 14.105, and nearly always select it from the band drop-down. I then click on the slot mover. By using the keyboard left and right keys to move around the slots. But what I can accidentally create is by doing this, the slot area goes empty, meaning VarAC believes it is on center slot. But the frequency is not 14.105 anymore. It could +/- one slot or more. And by using the keys, sometimes I get back to the slot being clear and theVFOis 14.105. Other times the only way to sort it is by choosing the frequency from the drop-down again. It's not so broken that it happens readily. But by going up and down the slots with the keyboard, it eventually gets out of sync. I was able to reproduce it as I was going through the steps to write this up. And I am attaching a screenshot of the error. Keep in mind I never touched the VFO, only left and right arrow keys.

Now here is an important piece to the puzzle. Today there is a strong solar storm and the bands are quieter than usual. When the band is quiet, the problem was difficult if not nearly impossible to reproduce. But when there was traffic and things were being decoded, beacons updated, CQ windows updated, then the error seemed easier to trigger. And this is not an underpowered PC, AMD Ryzen 5700 CPU with 16GB RAM.

I hope that helps explain this. Once the bands go back to normal busy traffic, I can probably grab some logs.

Doug / N3JXB