VarAC and Emcomm/Disaster comm applications
At the suggestion of N3CZ Gary as this forum v. the VarAC HF Forum be better suited for my subject, I've moved my post here. I ask readers indulgence if some of my content might/has been fragmentally covered elsewhere previously in this sub-forum.
For those for whom this piques interest, I recommend first starting with the few comments to my post in the VarAC HF forum.
What follows is my post to the FaceBook VARA HF group re VarAC, EmComm, and Vmail/Email
Branching here from my earlier query about auto-disconnect function for sending Vmail/Email. My intent is to begin a discussion on:
How many users view VarAC as a tool in the emcomm tool box and in what context: short, medium, and/or long haul connections.
How useful can the "Send File" feature be for Emcomm.
How useful an auto-disconnect feature for Vmail/Email composed both on-line (an existing feature) and off-line (does not presently exist.
I'll kick it off with some ideas (none of which are sacred, BTW!):
For its function as a kb2kb chat design, I can see its use for routine and poss urgent traffic. It might be very useful for medium and long-haul traffic management for such disasters as hurricanes and major earthquakes. I can further see its use to pass H&W traffic in direct behalf of disaster victims, esp since the Red Cross no longer uses amateur radio for the purpose. Rather it uses the cell networks for that resulting in long latency times when the networks serving shelters are OOS.
The ability to send files can be useful to send lists of volunteers to ad hoc community-based volunteers (e.g., Cajun Navy? CERTs?). Also, if useful to public response agencies for field intel, e.g., reports of disaster damaged and undamaged areas).
Useful for sending Vmail to on-the-air stations and as text messages to cell phones. Also for Vmails and Emails composed off-line, then sent through a single gateway and auto-disconnecting when done. Useful for reducing band width in the time domain, thus helping to mitigate channel congestion.
My hope is perhaps this might consolidate the subject matter into a single post and thereby be a potential source of suggested and/or wished for features to be added. Hopefully all features would be consistent with the growth goals Irad has envisioned for VarAC.
-- n6med (find me in QRZ)
It is a good tool, we already had local drills using NVIS propagation - 2. SendFile/Vmail/Email/BBS seem to be good also for EmComm, we are planning to have a drill on these soon. - 3. AutoSending could be also good for - minimizing the time on CF and - QSY to free slot to send - and return.