Hello Meir Nice to hear from you. Sure, we can try. I see on QRZ that you are using an end-fed wire antenna. In my experience, this is a problem but we can try. 17m should work from about 0400 - 0600 UTC, according to VOACAP. 73 Dieter

Nice to hear from you, Phil. I found that for example 12m is now the best band for me to link with a friend in Missouri US. We had a 3h link recently. Well, I am on 17m daily from 08:00 UTC. 73 Dieter VK3FFB

Sorry to hear. I am sure someone in the forum can provided help.

Thanks for your response Irad. The Vara HF modem derives the SNR from the BER, assuming there is a constant noise level. The S-meter signal levels were s9+ and the noise was very low (less than S1). So, the SNR was in the order of 30...40 dB. Both sides have good antennas over 10m above ground. In-between us is however a large TV and radio broadcasting site on a 600m high mountain. The broadcast antennas are known to passively reflect ham radio signals at VHF/UHF and maybe also 10m. In that case we would get multipath signal distortion. In principle, such distortion affects the BER. Whether this is the case over the given short distance, I can't say. 73

Thanks. You can be proud. A lot of the robustness comes not only from the HF modem but also from VarAC, I would think. Good protocol.

Not sure whether this is resolved already but the 7100 IF filters are set by pressing the filter selector on the top center right of the LCD screen (FIL1, FIL2, FIL3). Long press enables adjusting the filter parameters.

Done.

Well, the modem must have the data because it is displaying it at the end of the transmission of the distant station. The AFC "meter" is located to the left of the S/N "meter" on the modem screen. I am not sure whether the AFC data is shared in any way. We may need to ask Jose.

OK. 10m is still one lambda for 28 MHz. That still splits up the vertical radiation pattern into 2 lobes each side. My power level is set to 60W (1 dB below yours 😎).

Hi Gary, I once had just a trapped dipole with one end towards some power poles at our road. The noise level was unbeareable. I then changed to a 40m delta-loop in the backyard and that made a huge difference. Closed loops are usually "quiet" antennas because there is no E-field peak at an open end. Loops have no open ends :). If a delta-loop can't be accomodated, a folded wire dipole may be a good choice. 73 Dieter

Very good. End-fed horizontal antennas are very popular but due to their unsymmetrical nature, they usually pick up more local noise than symmetrical antennas. Dipole antennas are low-noise antennas, if they are at a reasonable height above ground, away from power lines and if they are fed via a proper balun symmetry transformer. Dipoles may show an OK SWR but have increased Rx noise pick-up unless a proper balun is used. Good feedpoint symmetry ensures that a lot of local noise cancels out in the balun. Collins baluns can be home-made with ease using coaxial cable (no need for ferrite). Directional antennas reduce the Rx noise substantially due to their directivity (no noise pick-up from the back and a narrow aperture in front). 73 Dieter, VK3FFB

Thanks. So, there is hope! Great. You mean VarAC or Vara HF limits to 7 characters? Locator, etc. can be exchanged in a QSO. A QSO can't happen if the CQ call has timed out. 73 Dieter

Pls see my post of 7th April. Beacons are linked to chatting. 73 Dieter

From the VarAC main page: https://www.varac-hamradio.com/ This is information related to the discussion about the purpose of VarAC beaconing.

I replied to this msg via direct e-mail to Irad.

Well, may I say that beacons are perhaps not intended as a QSO request but are in actual VarAC practice sometimes used as one. I do it and I know that others are too.

Thanks for all your interest in this and for valuable comments. VarAC is a fine piece of software - a real HF digimode game-changer. Like all other man-made things it can always be made a little bit better. This morning I looked at the VarAC beacon list and connected (callsign double-click) to 3 stations in Europe on 20m short-path. The first connect to a G-station did not work out and the 2nd (SP9) got me an AWQ. Then I connected DL4MN from the beacons list and had a nice 10-minutes chat with Marco who was there live at his shack-desk. If we had indicators for the availability of operators (live) we could make targeted connection attempts, avoiding getting AWQ when what we want is a live chat. How often do I get Vmails saying "hope to catch you live soon" ! Well, hope is good but a systematic approach would be better. 73 Dieter, VK3FFB

I don't think that negative speculation is a good guide for innovation. When I chaired industrial innovation meetings, this was an absolute no no. For good reasons. Many a good idea would otherwise be talked dead and never come to fruition. Moreover, I would certainly grant Vara users a bit more discipline and responsibility sense. Dieter

I addressed your concern in my message above: "Old "L" entries would need to be detected, like auto-cancel after 30min or so. We may have forgotten about the "L" - no big problem." have you had your morning coffee ? Dieter

It does strongly depend on the location. VK is a prime candidate for the need for multiple CQ calls, especially on the DX bands. EU and VK could not be more different in terms of CQ calling. I hope, VarAC is not becoming too Euro-centric 😄