VarAC Email Gateway

Imagine this: Your internet is down, but you need to send a critical email. No problem! You hop on the CF and—BAM!—you spot multiple stations broadcasting in their beacon that they operate an email gateway. You compose a VMail, connect, relay, and receive a confirmation that your email has been delivered. This is how it works:

For Email gateway operator:

If you want to run a VMail gateway, here’s what you’ll need to do:

1. Set up an SMTP email account. You can use Gmail or any other provider. To keep things separate, consider creating a dedicated account just for SMTP forwarding. [See this guide for setup instructions.]

2. Choose whether to limit access by callsign or allow all users.

3. Decide if you want to announce your gateway via your beacon or keep it private.

Configuring an Email gateway

When your gateway relays a message, it will appear under the "SENT" tab with the VIA field showing your own email address.

And this is how your email gateway announcements will appear to others in your beacon:

For Email gateway users:

If you want to send a VMail to Email, here’s what you need to know:

•  In the email composing section, you’ll see a new "Send to Email" button—just tick it!

•  A new, user-friendly dropdown will show your recently contacted Emails/Callsigns for quick access.

•  Under Settings, you can enable automatic email sending whenever VarAC connects to an Email gateway station.

Inbound Emails:

VarAC empowers every user to operate their own bi-directional Email Gateway, allowing your station to seamlessly:

• Forward VMails from HF to Email, and

• Receive Emails and route them back into HF as VMails.

VarAC can retrieve new emails from your inbox, convert them into VarAC VMails, and place them as "Parked/Outgoing" messages in your VMailBox, ready to be transmitted over HF.

And yes—this works even with free email providers like Gmail (with proper setup). The gateway just became truly complete.

Here’s how inbound emails to VarAC works:

STEP 1: Configuring IMAP:

• Start by configuring your VMail Gateway to interact with your email account via IMAP. This can be done under the Gateway Settings tab.

• Use the TEST button to verify both IMAP and SMTP connectivity.

• Note: For services like Gmail, make sure to use the same “app password” for both SMTP (sending) and IMAP (receiving).

This step ensures that your VarAC station can not only send emails, but also fetch incoming ones and convert them into VMails for HF transmission.

Configuring IMAP in your Email gateway

Step 2: Choose Your Preferred Reply-To Method

When a station sends an email through a connected gateway, they now have the flexibility to choose how replies are handled:

• Reply via Email – The response will be delivered directly to their external email inbox (outside the VarAC network).

• Reply via VarAC Gateway – The response will be sent back to the gateway, where it will be converted into a VMail and made available for pickup via HF.

This gives the sender full control over how and where they want to receive replies—whether through traditional email or directly back into the VarAC ecosystem.

Setting a preferred reply-to method

STEP 3: The Redirection Mechanism

When a VMail is redirected to an external email, VarAC automatically appends a special tag at the bottom of the message:<RELAY_TO_CALLSIGN:XXXX>

This tag allows VarAC to track and route replies back to the correct operator.

Here’s how it works:

• When the email recipient replies, the message lands in the gateway’s email inbox.

• VarAC periodically scans the inbox, looking for emails that contain the <RELAY_TO_CALLSIGN:XXXX> tag.

• If the tag is found, VarAC converts the reply into a parked VMail inside the VMailbox of the specified callsign.

• This triggers a VMail relay notification, so the next time that callsign beacons, they’ll be notified of a new incoming VMail—even though it originally came from an email reply.

This smart tagging system closes the loop, enabling smooth and traceable communication between HF and the outside email world.

Fun Fact: "Live Email Gateway Chat"

If you send an email through a gateway and stay connected, and the recipient replies promptly—you’ll receive their reply live while still on the same active link!

We call this use case “Live Email Gateway Chat” — a clever way to carry out a near real-time conversation via the VMail → Email → VMail pipeline. It’s not quite instant messaging, but it comes impressively close, especially over HF.