Printing the manual for easier review, notetaking and placement of page tabs for quick reference proved invaluable in understanding some of the fine points. It appears that the unwanted PTT was due to the VOX on the transmitter being on. An oddity of my installation is that some programs require that VOX be enabled and it was left on from one of those. With some time to play I believe I will master the program. Thanks for the help!

Hopefully I managed to attach a screenshot this time. I noticed that the VOX was turned on at the radio and changed that. I will have to look back but it may be that my system proved to require it on to allow transmit with VARA. I cleared the screens before turning the radio back on and no PTT has been observed and one CQ was seen. System is a Kenwood TS-950SDX with a DRA-36 soundcard interface. The station has licensed VARA installed and works properly with the local Winlink gateway station that bears my call and I share SYSOP duties with.

Reviewing the manual I thought that what was shown was different from what I see on my display. Turning on Full Screen I realize I was looking at a truncated display and now it matches and I see more information to better understand what is in the windows.

Not the greatest with computer skills but I hope I succeeded in attaching a screen shot above. I now note that there are SN CQ and BU entries in the VARA commands window but I don't recall discussion of that in the manual. I have reviewed it in its entirety but will do so again and look for discussion of that window. The Send Beacons is not selected. I turned off the radio as it was starting to activate PTT every few seconds even with disable PTT selected. No power out was seen so I presume no audio was associated with the transmit. Thanks for patience!