I am a strong supporter and user of VarAC which I believe to be the right solution at the right time.
I have been a user of conversations digital modes like Olivia for a long time. As a retired electronics engineer, I am particularly attracted to the intersection of personal computers and radio which has drawn me to digital modes and SDR radios.
Many of my VarAC QSOs have been with first timers and/or younger hams. Many are FT-8 users looking for more than a log entry.
Using other digital modes can be challenging for new users. What mode am I hearing? What mode should I use to make a contact? What frequency should I use? VarAC takes away a lot of the guesswork and answers all of those questions.
Using a single calling frequency per band is a key feature but care must be taken to protect that frequency. Adding the automatic QSY after CQ feature in the last release is an excellent example of addressing this issue.
I suggest a modification to the beacon procedure for two reasons. First, as the use of VarAC continues to gain momentum, repetitive beacons will make finding an opening on the calling frequency more challenging. If you do the math, the number of beacons sent with a 15 minute repetition to completely block the calling frequency is not a large number. Second, HF propagation changes rapidly. Posted results of a beacon sent in the past don't indicate current propagation.
Sorry for the long setup to a very simple suggestion. Remove the repetitive option for a beacon. Allow only one beacon to be manually triggered.
First - thank you for your kind words about this project. I truly appreciate it.
And thanks for your input about Beacons.
I have given this a lot of thought in the early stages of designing VarAC.
Indeed, pure math shows that 180 beacons are possible if they are fired back to back in 15 minutes (beacon = 5 seconds).
However, the beacon mechanism has a characteristic that naturally balance the traffic based on volume.
VarAC only fires a beacon ~30 seconds after the freq is free (I say ~30 as there is a random time addition). meaning that the busier the frequency is, the more time your station will wait to fire the next beacon.
Add to this equation the fact that not all stations can hear each other due to distance and propagation, and you got yourself a scalable system that can go way beyond the 180 concurrent users.
And this is all on a single band. while we have many more bands to play with.
Bottom line, we are very far from the limit, and if the CF will ever get there, the beacon mechanism algorithm will open up bigger gaps naturally (bigger then 15) to balance the load. so you may end up firing a beacon every 30 minutes or more.
I am afraid that the alternative you suggest will kill the experience... you will end up seeing only a fraction of what you see now... No one likes to start dancing when the dancefloor appears to be empty.
73s!
Irad