Dieter. congratulations ! That is some going. My Whisper signal reaches DP0GVN in Antarctica almost every day of the week but it is not considered a QSO. about 200 milliwatt. However I can reach ZL2TNB almost every day from Ireland and have long QSO's with Terry out there. Amazing ! Am using a height compromised 80-10 Endfed with around 130 Ft (40) meters of wire. It all I have. But... being in the middle of nowhere sure helps. Albert. EI7II.

Yes. this has been there from the start.While not as elegant, another way would be to simply refuse for new text to be entered. mind you it forces discipline in not entering too much text ! Albert. EI7II.

Interesting. Better folks than me should reply here.... Gary ??? I run Whisper mode round the clock and whisper is strictly a one way connection, where the return is recorded on a universal database, Yes... a VARAC PING is an interesting situation, and instead of a signal report SNR values are exchanged, but it is indeed a twoway communication as i see it, but i would never count a ping as such. A bit like a JS8Call heartbeat Marek..... do read up on FT8, you might find it interesting. There are numerous YouTube vids on FT8. Some love it, some hate it. but you should be able to understand and operate it as a radio amateur. Enjoy VARAC, it is a wonderful mode, as are so many others. Albert. EI7II.

this is almost certainly a radio menu setting problem. if i screw up the settings on my ft991A i get exactly the same problem. the fact that it does not happen on ft8 means nothing. varac will require different settings. the xcg author is very very helpful and will be sure to help you out. Albert. ei7ii.

As Gary said. go for a reasonably fast rate. i run at 38400 over the last 3 years and that seems to be a good and decently fast rate. but remember: the program, whatever it is, and the radio rate MUST match. This is important when you move between different programs like js8call, varac, ft8. etc etc. good luck and enjoy the mode. try to connect to terry in new Zealand, i get him every day on 20meters via varac. look for his calll: ZL2TNB. Albert.

Highly recommend reading Pats absolutely excellent manual from cover to cover. You have (of course) installed varahf properly and set it up correctly? Both VARA HF and VARAC must be correctly configured for VARAC to be able to work correctly. It is a brilliant program, almost every day of the week I connect to ZL2TNB and exchange mail with him. Albert. ei7ii

thank you for posting this. i also have had long sessions with Terry ZL2TNB in New Zealand from him to me here in EI land. Verbose SNR is a great way of seeing what the path is like over time. Sadly my VARAC is up the creek... after years woring ok... I am being confronted by "!Modem is ignoring PTT requests". not been able to find out why. JS8CALL, Whisper, FT8, all are running ok, but VARAC is broke. Shame. Albert. EI7ii.

939fly & Gary JS8CALL is a great digital application. HOWEVER... Jordon does not seem to actively update JS8CALL anymore ?? ( as opposed to Irad, the VARAC author) and his bunch of helpers. There are 3 types of digital operators, as I see it: 1. Diehard folks like Gary and several others, they have real QSO's with others and probably run their station 24/7, are always there to help and advise others. 2. FT8 ops.... 5-9 QRZ Computer to Computer with a bit of human on the side. 3. People who want to have real QSO's but cannot do so for one reason of the other. ( I am in that category). See MY QRZ page for an explanation. Nutshell: working unpaid 80 hrs per week 52 weeks per year, running an animal sanctuary. Short of stopping eating..sleeping and going to the toilet, there is NO time for radio, last real holliday 1995, took grandchilderen to Disneyworld in FL. JS8CALL is a wonderful app, but as you notice with both JS8 & VARAC.. the beacon to CQ ration would be 90-1. In my case see (3) above for the reason. I now seldom beacon to avoid annoying folks. JS8CALL documentation is poor, compared to VARAC which is wonderfully documented. VARAC is feature rich... and continues to be enhanced by Irad at every opportunity. Do note that both modes differ in application...ARQ versus XXX... (can't remember name of other mode). Where JS8CALL shines is in it "Who has heard me" implementation. * Where FT8 and derivites shines (sadly) ... QSO after QSO with no effort. Suits many ops down to a T. Folks, this is my 2 cents worth, As our cousins may say: Your opions may differ. Albert EI7II.

Talk about going from strnght to strenght. Well done to Irad and team but i wonder what the winlink folks are saying? Albert. ei7ii.

Larry. Same age as you, so fully understand. I do not belive that this is fixable without a major change to the interface. As i see it: FT9 requires no real input from the user, apart from re-enabling the transmitter. it appears to me that this is all people want. yes, some diehard folks are neck deep into ft8's more advanced modes, but many are not. simple as that, for them it is a method of fast clocking up qso's. Speech to text might indeed be anwer here? Irad would have to comment on whether this is feasible, to be implemented over time ? Larry, I can only speak for myself, but time is my mortal enemy, see my QRZ page and you will understand. 80+ hour weeks, 52 weeks per year, unpaid !, year in year out. Granted, my situation is very unusal, but i just cannot free the time for a lenghy keyboard qso. Irad is making VARAC going from strenght to strenght but even he cannot put more hours into the day. In summary.... the real qso rate will not much improve (irrespective of the amount of users we have on the system, unless MAJOR changes are considered. Sadly.... there are only so many hours in the day and even Irad can't fix that. THANK YOU for taking the time to share your thoughts with us. Albert. EI7II.

Mark. Thank you for taking the time and effort to create this useful document. It is appreciated. Mark, might i suggest that this is included in the varac user documentation as an appendix, of course with Irad's and the document creator)s) permission. there is will be available for permanent reference and will be more likely to be consulted ?> Albert. EI7II.

Gary, i would love to see a "CLEAR ALL" entry, but i very much appreciate Irad's problem... "real estate" is becoming precious. Albert. EI7II.

Mark.. 200 bps is crawling. many a time i am hitting far over 4000 or more, with WINLINK/VARA, connecting to HB9AK in Switzerland about 1200 km away from me. RADIO IS A YEASU ft991a. but.... your SNR values must be very good to get near that. i've been much higher but those occasions are very rare. max 60 watts on a Endfed l/w antenna, it is all I have for HF. Albert

Markus. Gruss Gott. What I tend to do is get an idea about sppeeds first. If good, I get WINLINK to update the stations settings VIA RADIO. That is about an 11K file. I have had that update come down in QUAM 32 mode like a bat out of hell ! Agree, that very very seldom happens and you need a near perfect SNR. I have never send large files from VARAC.. so you will know much more about that than I do. Verzeiung.. mein Deutch sehr slecht. Albert.

Mark.... Irad has hit the nail on the head: PROPAGATION is ULTRA important. Remember... VARAC is an ARQ mode and will demand PERFECT copy, unlike JS8CALL that will insert a few .... where it can't copy that particular bit of text.. As IRAD says: Audio levels have to be set correctly for high speed and yes, While I never run more than 60 watts... I know of people that run 500 watt into their Antennas ! But ultimately Mark, , the propagation Gods have the last say. All else being equal, they will be the deciding factor. Albert.

Marie, While I cannot help you as I run a very different set-up I wanted to congratulate you on your efforts. Yes, at 75 learning is a bit harder. Don't I know it... I will be 80 this year. Marie.... PERSEVERE. There must be folks out here that run a similar set up to you and will be able to help. While I do not run either of them... I hear great things about Omnirig and FLDIGI and it should be easily possible to get your set-up working. TO ALL OUT THERE: ANYONE CAN HELP Marie with his setup ? Should be relatively straight forward. Many thanks. Albert. EI7II.

Victor On Win11. press the WIN key TOGETHER WITH THE SHIFT KEy and while HOLDING THEM DOWN, press the S key A very small window will open at the top of your screen. Forgetting the X, click on the one next to the X, or the one next to that one. That will copy EITHER the WHOLE VISIBLE SCREEN to the Clipboard, OR the window that has the FOCUS. ( and not the whole screen). JUST EXPERIMENT... You CANNOT BREAK ANYTHING. One you have what you "clipped" on the Clipboard, you can use PASTE to PASTE IT into whatever you want, be it a msg you are writing here, or a document you are working on. Again..... you cannot break ANYTHING, go and have a play.. YOU GET PASTE TO CLICK YOUR >RIGHT< MOUSE BUTTON and from the menu that opens when you do that? simply select PASTE. Victor.... Iam about 80. If I can do it.... SO CAN YOU !!!! . Albert. EI7II.

Dieter, can you comment on Irad's reply ??? Albert

Gary has already explained this to you so just keepon connecting. IF you are VERY LUCKY and condiitions are very good you might be lucky and get a 32 QAM connection. It does happen, but it is very rare. When that happens, VARA will truly run like a bat out of hell ! You can'yt miss it...as Gary mentioned, you will have 32 little blocks in that window !!! Good Luck.. and do not feel bad about asking.... I had no idea when i first started what all those colors and weird blocks meant. Albert EI7II.

I think this is a good idea. Low priority perhaps, but still a good idea. Anyone else commenting ? Albert