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Change Gestures to Require Opening "<" and Closing "<"

I was in a QSO today with a new user of VarAC. I was telling him about the QSYU and QSYD buttons and told him "Do not type a message with 'QSY U' or 'QSY D' (no spaces) in it." He sent the reply, "Does hitting the QSYU/QSYD buttons automatically send a QSY request?" Well, you can guess what happened! As soon as VarAC parsed the message, it saw "QSYU" and initiated a QSY up 750 Hz. While we were both using version 3.4, we were unable to re-sync our operating frequency so had to abort the QSO, go back to the calling frequency and call each other again! Then we deliberately QSY'd away from the calling frequency (which worked).

Wouldn't it be better if the Gestures had to be enclosed in an "escape" character? Tags already are, like "<NAME:xxx>", "<QTH:xxx>" and "<LOC:xxx>". Why not the Gestures? I'm sure people are tired of hearing three dings every time I tell them about the DISCO I went to last week! LOL.

Enclosing the Gestures in an escape character, such as "<QSYU>" or "[QSYD]" or "[HIHI]" would avoid accidentally sending regular text that is processed as a command.

8 comments

8 Comments

irad d

Apr 08, 2022

Released today on V3.5

jyunte

Apr 04, 2022

Sorry for confusing the name of the software in my video!

jyunte

Apr 01, 2022

One more thing...

Would it be possible to parse the <NAME:xxxx>, <QTH:xxx> and <LOC:xxx> tags so that the tag does not show up in the QSO?

Example:

Welcome Message: "Hello, this is <NAME:Joe">, located in <QTH:California>, <LOC:DM13>"

Would display as:

"Hello, this is Joe, located in California, DM13"

...but still propagate the receiver's log fields.

Makes for a cleaner QSO.

Same for other tags that do not necessarily need to be displayed (DING, DISCO etc).

irad d

Apr 02, 2022

Replying to

I see where you are going with this. Fact is one can send only some of the tags. not all. so the only reasonable things to do it just remove the "<", ">" signs and put it like this :

Name: XXX

QTH : YYY

Locator: ZZZ

But on the other hand - I want new user to see how it works so they will be exposed to the tagging system.

But my real vision it not using those tags in the canned message. it will be 3 fields you fill in the settings (name, qth, locator) and with a single click you can share it. I will code all in a single message and send and the other side will parse it. So this is the long term solution I am planning.

jyunte

Apr 01, 2022

Awesome! Thank you.

Also, see my new video on VarAC on the Ham Radio Outlet website: https://youtu.be/INjXXriezhA

Thanks for all your hard work!

irad d

Apr 02, 2022

Replying to

Thank you Julian ! Loved the video. Super professional. Thank you for your support.

Just a small thing for you to know - "VARA CHAT" is a termd used for the basic program EA5HVK created (see image below). It was the first tool I used before I decided to create VarAC as it has very basic and poor features.

My program is called VarAC ("Var Aey See").

73s!

irad d

Apr 01, 2022

I distinguish Tags from Gestures. QSY will be converted to TAGs

Guesters will remain as is for now.

irad d

Apr 01, 2022

Agree. the QSYU/D remained that way for some time with both options (with or without <>) to allow backward compatibility in the transition period. It was in purpose.

Now I agree its time to get rid of it and align it on the <QSYU>. <QSYD>

Will do it on V3.5