Priority: LOW I'm running VarAC V8.0.6. It appears that the beacon frequency is hardcoded at 15 minutes. There have been many posts requesting shorter intervals, and I understand Irad's resistance to doing this. However, I tried to increase the interval, for instance to 20 minutes. When I "Save and Exit" and then reopen the settings, it is back to 15 min. I also tried editing VarAC.ini. However, VarAC rewrites the file setting it back to 15 minutes on startup. Thus, it appears that there is no way to move the interval from 15 minutes. If this is intentional, I think that the configuration parameter should be removed from the file and from the Settings interface. I don't really want to set the interval to 20 minutes. I really wanted to set it to 10, but when that failed I tried 20 and found the above behavior. I understand and accept not allowing it to be less than 15, and I know how to force a quicker beacon by turning them off and back on. 73, -Al WA1TYB

I sent a broadcast to a broken call, KF%ZHW. VarAC put the radio into transmit for what appeared to be a normal time for a broadcast, and then put the radio back into receive. However, the program never came out of Busy mode, so no further broadcasts could be made. Restarting the program cleared the program. This is reproduceable for me. 73, -Al WA1TYB

If this has already been discussed I couldn't find it, please accept my apologies. I would like to be able to use a fixed set of messages in my broadcasts. I can write them in a text editor and keep that window open for copy/paste into the broadcast dialog, but it would seem to be easier to use canned messages. Currently the F keys do nothing when the broadcast dialog is open. When it is not, the F keys put the canned text into the new message area. Thanks for consideration. -Al WA1TYB

I'm holding off on a couple of potential bug reports because I now realize I may not correctly understand the various signal strength reports that appear in the VarAC UI and in the logs. In recent tests using FM, we had inconsistent broadcast reception, and QSOs were disconnected seemingly at random. In the UI, my partner was seeing the SNR(dB) Last and Avg of my signal around +16. I may have mis set expectations from FT8, where I expect solid communications down to -10 or so. If I look at N7SHM's VARA FM log I'm seeing: 2023-03-23 17:04:11 Monitor: WA1TYB -> N7SHM S/N: 19.2 dB 2023-03-23 17:04:45 Monitor: Weak Incoming signal (Unknown) S/N: 15.9 dB 2023-03-23 17:06:31 Monitor: WA1TYB -> N7SHM S/N: 17.5 dB 2023-03-23 17:07:21 Monitor: Weak Incoming signal (Unknown) S/N: 10.8 dB I thought that 10dB would be quite a strong signal, so I'm unsure what is being reported here I'm also seeing: .2023-03-23 17:10:38 Connecting to WA1TYB... 1/2 2023-03-23 17:10:40 Connected to WA1TYB 2023-03-23 17:10:42 <-SN 2023-03-23 17:10:45 <-SN 2023-03-23 17:11:11 Poor conditions. Disconecting... 2023-03-23 17:11:12 WA1TYB disconnected TX: 11 Bytes (Max: 566 bps) RX: 19 Bytes (Max: 566 bps) Session Time: 00:32 2023-03-23 17:13:34 Connecting to WA1TYB... 1/2 2023-03-23 17:13:36 Connected to WA1TYB 2023-03-23 17:13:38 <-SN 2023-03-23 17:13:41 <-SN 2023-03-23 17:14:26 Poor conditions. Disconecting... 2023-03-23 17:14:27 WA1TYB disconnected TX: 45 Bytes (Max: 566 bps) RX: 19 Bytes (Max: 566 bps) Session Time: 00:51 2023-03-23 17:15:01 <-SN 2023-03-23 17:15:01 WA1TYB connected S/N: 26.4 dB 2023-03-23 17:15:01 <-LINK REGISTERED 2023-03-23 17:15:31 Poor conditions. Disconecting... 2023-03-23 17:15:33 WA1TYB disconnected TX: 45 Bytes (Max: 566 bps) RX: 19 Bytes (Max: 566 bps) Session Time: 00:32 Unfortunately, the VARA FM Log doesn't record a S/N for the poor conditions. But looking at that period in my (WA1TYB) traffic log at 17:13:43 I get a signal report of +23: 23/03/2023 17:10:39 - CONNECTED TO N7SHM 23/03/2023 17:10:46 - WA1TYB> de WA1TYB <R+02> 23/03/2023 17:10:47 - N7SHM> Second "23/03/2023 17:11:12 - QSO SUMMARY: Frequency: 145.050.000 (2m) Duration: 00:00:32 23/03/2023 17:11:12 - DISCONNECTED FROM N7SHM 23/03/2023 17:13:35 - INCOMING CONNECTION REQUEST. Still don't know who that is. 23/03/2023 17:13:35 - CONNECTED TO N7SHM 23/03/2023 17:13:42 - WA1TYB> de WA1TYB <R+01> 23/03/2023 17:13:43 - N7SHM> Second "New message" test de N7SHM <R+24> 23/03/2023 17:14:27 - QSO SUMMARY: Frequency: 145.050.000 (2m) Duration: 00:00:51 23/03/2023 17:14:27 - DISCONNECTED FROM N7SHM 23/03/2023 17:15:02 - INCOMING CONNECTION REQUEST. Still don't know who that is. 23/03/2023 17:15:02 - CONNECTED TO N7SHM 23/03/2023 17:15:32 - QSO SUMMARY: Frequency: 145.050.000 (2m) Duration: 00:00:29 23/03/2023 17:15:32 - DISCONNECTED FROM N7SHM And in his (N7SHM) traffic log I send him a +02 and a +01: 23/03/2023 17:10:40 - INCOMING CONNECTION REQUEST. Still don't know who that is. 23/03/2023 17:10:40 - CONNECTED TO WA1TYB 23/03/2023 17:10:42 - WA1TYB> de WA1TYB <R+02> 23/03/2023 17:11:12 - QSO SUMMARY: Frequency: 0 () Duration: 00:00:31 23/03/2023 17:11:12 - DISCONNECTED FROM WA1TYB 23/03/2023 17:13:36 - INCOMING CONNECTION REQUEST. Still don't know who that is. 23/03/2023 17:13:36 - CONNECTED TO WA1TYB 23/03/2023 17:13:38 - WA1TYB> de WA1TYB <R+01> 23/03/2023 17:14:02 - N7SHM> Second "New message" test de N7SHM <R+24> 23/03/2023 17:14:27 - QSO SUMMARY: Frequency: 0 () Duration: 00:00:50 23/03/2023 17:14:27 - DISCONNECTED FROM WA1TYB 23/03/2023 17:15:02 - INCOMING CONNECTION REQUEST. Still don't know who that is. 23/03/2023 17:15:02 - CONNECTED TO WA1TYB 23/03/2023 17:15:33 - QSO SUMMARY: Frequency: 0 () Duration: 00:00:30 23/03/2023 17:15:33 - DISCONNECTED FROM WA1TYB All of these disconnects were the result of "Poor conditions" at the N7SHM end. When he's giving me +24. There is something I'm clearly not understanding. Where am I going wrong? I've uploaded the six logs as a zip attached to this report..

A suggestion for people who want to run VarAC on both VHF-FM and HF-SSB to accommodate two frequency lists. I know that the frequency list is editable, and I could add my VHF frequencies in with the HF ones, but that is cluttered. I've seen another post here in the forum by KP4AJ where he simply uses two complete VarAC directories. If the path to the frequencies file were a configuration item in the .ini, all that would be needed is a second file.

Possibly / probably user error, but I can't figure out how. VarAC 7.0.8, VARA FM 4.2.8 A local ham and I were trying VMAIL for the first time. We had +20 signals both ways. We each tried to send to the other and got two different behaviors. - We each entered a message when not connected. Each got the "Message queued... will be sent when connected." message. - We then connected. - My message sent, but remained in the outbox. It was resent on each subsequent connection. - His message was not sent, but remained in the outbox. - After the first connection, he correctly got the red New VMAIL button. Mine remained No new VMAIL. - After 3 connections, he had three (duplicate) messages in his Inbox, and one message in his Outbox. I had only the message in my Outbox, and nothing in sent. Are we missing a step somehow?