To test this feature, visit your live site.

Edited: Nov 12

No decode from Vara HF to VARAC -- SOLVED

Greetings All!!

I am trying to get VARAC to work over HF.....

Seem to have everything working EXCEPT that there is just no decode whatsoever, and nothing in any other posts seem to suggest why...

VARA HF and VarAC seem to talk to each other just fine -- I can see for example where VarAC polls VARA HF and gets its version number, I also tried to call cq and was able to see my transmit data (cq de kd7isf) on the VARA HF window...

Another oddity is that if I select monitor mode on the VARA HF window, its just a blank black box...

The waterfall nearly fills the waterfall box, well beyond the two red lines...

I can see (and hear) lots of varac data on the radio itself -- no way I'm the only one listening on 20m for an entire day!

the VARA HF VU meter bounces more or less with the s meter on the radio...

I have ensured windows firewall is not blocking communications between VarAC and VARA HF...

I can even see the BUSY indicator along with the BUSY ON (and then BUSY OFF) log entries in VarAC every time the s meter starts dancing (and I hear the varac tones)...

But VarAC will simply just NOT decode and show me ANY KIND OF RECEIVED DATA.....

Can anyone help figure this out?

I even tried changing the 08-03 and 08-04 menus to 1500 as suggested elsewhere -- and again, no change...

Setup is as follows:

win 10

Yaesu FT 891

FLrig 2.0.05

VARA HF 4.8.9

VarAC 10.2.1

Cat is connected by direct USB (virtual comport from factory embedded controller)

Audio/data is connected from rear din 6 to a generic usb audio card.

this same physical setup has worked for other modes -- just not this one.....

It seems really strange to be able to tx, but not get ANYTHING for rx despite a very nicely dancing waterfall...

Pls let me know if any logs or screenshots would help -- this is the sort of thing that just shouldn't happen.....

Thanks!!!!

Ray

KD7ISF

16 comments

Comments (16)

NC3Z Gary

Nov 12

Confirm the 891's menu items 08-02, 08-03 and 08-04 are set to 1500

NC3Z Gary

Nov 12

Replying to

OK, so I sort of lost track of which issue we are working on. You should not be having to put an offset in varAC settings. For your TX issue, is it the radio will go into TX but send no audio, or is it that it will not PTT?

NC3Z Gary

Nov 12

Replying to

My 891 settings for FLRig, VarAC and the 891 itself. It is one of the easier radios to get setup,

KD7ISF

Nov 12

Replying to

Ok, in a QSO now WITHOUT the offset. Looks like with the 891 the key is to have your data mode set to "others", NOT "PSK".

That was the one setting I had different from yours.

So, for all reading here -- make sure to set menu 8, items 2,3,and4 to 1500, and set item 1 to others.

This would seem to be the solution...

So, for a recap, and easy reading for someone looking for the same answers I was:

Go to menu 08 in your FT891

Item 01 in Menu 08 should be set to "others". I had mine set to "psk" and this would seem to have been the cause of the offset. It turns out that "psk" is for the internal psk modem in the 891. Any other data use should be set to "others" -- this includes if you are using varac and even if you are usig psk of some kind via a sound card. Again, set this item to "others"..

Item 02 in menu 08 affects how the rx audio is sent into the receving device (sound card in our case). Set this to 1500 to get the rx data to line up correctly on the waterfall. This was the cause for that part of the problem.

Again, set this item to 1500

Item 3 and 4 also need to be at 1500 for varac / vara hf to be happy. Not sure why, but it works.

Hope this helps someone!

Thanks to all who helped me figure this out!!!

Edited

KD7ISF

Nov 12

Ok, so the mismatch is absolutely CONFIRMED.

And its BOTH tx AND rx

If I tune 1khz up, I can successfully have not just rx, but a full QSO..

BUT, I have to roll my vfo up 1khz every time VarAC does a QSY.

For example, calling freq is 14.105, I have to roll to 14.106.... Slot 15 is 14.108.750, I have to tune to 14.109.750 to make it work...

Seems like VARA HF is working 1khz low.. Not sure how to correct this..

Any help is appreciated...

Edited

KD7ISF

Nov 12

Ok, so update..

There would seem to be an RX freq mismatch.....

I manually jogged my vfo back and forth a little -- and when I hit 14.106 (1Khz ABOVE the intended 14.105) I suddenly started receiving beacons...

Looks like everything is off by 1khz...

My radio is usually dead on, usually within a few hertz -- any guesses what is going on here?

And more importantly, how do I make the software compensate for this?

Thanks!!!

NC3Z Gary

Nov 12

Can you send a screenshot of what your VARA HF screen looks like when running, it will go a long way with TS.

NC3Z Gary

Nov 12

Replying to

Nothing looks out of place, lets see a screenshot of VarAC now.

KD7ISF

Nov 12

Replying to

Sure, but like I said above, the original problem is solved -- cause is a frequency mismatch. Somehow VARA HF is working 1Khz low -- both tx and rx -- see my screenshot with both VarAC and FLrig showing. VARAC -- and thus VARA HF -- think I'm at 14.105, but I'm actually at 14.106.... Any ideas what would cause this?

Edited

KD7ISF

Nov 12

Replying to

And here is a very nice graphic of this very strange problem...

I took the liberty of narrowing down my rx band pass to 500hz, which SHOULD in theory clip anything outside of the 500hz vara hf is listening to inside the red bars.

As you can see, VARA HF is actually listening about 1khz higher...

Now the challenge is to figure out why...