I'd like to revisit my earlier post about ping sent versus received values. See https://www.varac-hamradio.com/forum/varac-hf-discussion-forum/ping-sent-vs-received-values.
I recently got bored and went back to the JS8 mode. Also went briefly back to FT8. I don't recommend this due to emotional distress. 😏 JS8 is based on FT8 except that one station can send many frames in sequence rather than an even odd sequence. I found in both modes SNR values both sent and received were much more equal compared to VarAC.
My radio and computer hardware is identical with both JS8 and VarAC. I have to believe there's something wrong with my VarAC settings. Earlier responders concluded it's my high noise is due to being in an urban area, that I don't hear the other station as well as they hear me. If this were the case, then I'd experience same the results on JS8 as well.
Often the other station sends as a slower speed than I do likely because my impaired reception causes VARA HF to throttle the speed down. I'm considering trying out WinLink to see if the same issue exists there. It also uses VARA HF.
Sorry to keep repeating this topic. But my comparison with JS8 is leaving me unconvinced that my issue is my high noise environment.
de Steve N6VL
For comparison here is a QSO I had on 17M, east coast to west coast QSO, like ours.
Here is our 30 min QSO. Path was 2350 miles
I usually narrow down the rx bandwidth to 600 Hz when the signals are marginal. I didn't narrow the filter is this case.
Okay here are a couple screenshots. This time I was hearing the other station better. The Mine text box was -09 meaning I had a 5 dB advantage on receive. Usually the opposite.
For the fun of it can we see a VARA HF screenshot when you are in a Connect?
Not sure how you could mess up VarAC. You noted you have the VU at mid scale, which is good. A wider RX bandwidth (such as what you need for FT8) is not going to make any real difference either.
How stable does your VU meter stay?