Hello.
Guess I'm a VarcAC'er now.
Had my first VarAC QSO today on 40M using my lab599 TX-500 with a DigiRig interface to a Win10 laptop. Power was 4W but since I live in a building and have a 100' run of coax to my 5 band vertical I have no clear idea of how much power makes it out. Anyway, had a 16 minute QSO with a station in TX (I'm in Colombia, South America) with perfect copy. Time was around 6AM.
In the past I've done almost all the digital modes but I like the ones I can chat on. This one fits my needs for human2human communication using an excellent digital mode. This is better than ROS which I supported way back and even got some friends to use.
Hope to learn more about this mode and use it when portable also. Best regards. Hope to contact you in the future.
73 de Guillermo - HK4KM
VARA-HF is written in Visual Basic. there are way to run this on Linux using WINE platform. there is a guy who posted on youtube this. look it up. I am sure it can be done with VarAC as well but I am not going to support it officially.
73s :)
Irad
Irad, keep doing what you are doing because this is a very neat thing you have created! Thanks for VarAC.
When I saw videos of hams using Winlink with VARA I thought: "If only there were a chat program similar to JS8 but better!" And this is it! The V3.4 was a game changer for me. Totally plug-and-play with my TX-500. I will be trying it with my other radios.
My wish for the future is to see a Linux or Mac version. I installed VARA HF in Linux using CrossOver but it did not work. I almost never use Windows unless I have to. So I use my Mac for logging and contesting (Rumlog) and Win10 to upgrade my radios. Linux for everything else. But I understand most people use Windows so, no problem. I like VarAC so much I will use Win!
Take care and carry on with this great project!
Guillermo
Thank you so much dear Guillermo. Your kind words fueled me with energies to continue and do what we do here. I, like you, is a digi-ham-radio... abdicated to digital modes. Like you I searched for a good chat mode. It was PACTOR, but due to the high price it has a small userbase. Then I saw VARA and I immediately noticed the opportunity. 5 months later and we have 2000 users and growing at a fast speed.
Thank you for your support and I hope to chat with you on the air soon.
Still no QSO with Colombia on VarAC :)
73s
Irad 4Z1AC