VarAC - FM discussion forum

Thanks Irad and Gary for all of your help so far...

So.. running a FT-991A. Trying to establish a 2m FM presence here.

Assumptions:

VARA FM should be set to wide

VarAC on FM is simplex.

The 991A can be a real pain at times. I discovered this morning that it was using an offset and transmitting on a freq other than 144.950. I manually set that in the radio to simplex, but the 991A has a mind of its own sometimes. I am looking at the VarAC_cat_commands.ini file at the FT-991A section. I also have the Yaesu FT-991A CAT manual open. It says the CAT command is:

When starting VarAC for VHF my Cat control sets my radio to 144.950 USB and I have to switch it manually to FM. I changed the setting on the Rig tab under the antenna tuner to FM and it sets the FM mode on startup.

If I switch to a SSB frequency with this setting I now have to set the USB mode manually (which I prefer since not much USB is on VHF)

I have been trying to get VarAC to work for about two weeks. When I CQ I hear my packets on a HT, to monitor my transmissions. I will recieve a occasional packet but Vara FM doesn't decode. There is a digipeater close to me found here https://winlink.org/content/gateway_locations. I select Vara FM which gives a applicable digipeaters on that page. I try the frequency of that VARA FM digipeater as well as the 144.950 and give a good amount of time between transmissions before changing frequencies. I am using a digirig, and a Yaesu 7250d. With this set up I am able to get packets as far south as Modesto, ~250 miles, using direwolf for my APRS IGATE. Of course I do not run VARAC and my APRS IGATE at the same time. I have confirmed I do upload data to APRSFI and I can see all the pack…

Hello all,

I am looking to start using vara fm with Winlink for 2m and UHF.

I have two radios that I can use, FT-8800 and a IC-7100.

Does the modem that I use with the FT-800, using wide mode make a difference? I.E. what brand I use as long as it will let me run both narrow and wide?

Also is anyone running a IC-7100 with the built in sound card and able to get it to work for both narrow and wide on the VHF/UHF freq's?