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Thoughts on VarAC for ARRL Field Day Contacts

With the ARRL’s Field Day event coming up at the end of June I was considering setting up a digital station at our Field Day event and running VarAC on HF. Understanding that VarAC is a connected mode, (Station to Station) what would be a good plan for using VarAC in a contest setting? Has anyone already been down this path? Is it worth trying to use VaraAC in a contest setting?

Would it make sense to use the very upper and lower slots above and below the CF for contacts with other stations?

Does the ARRL recognize VarAC as a digital mode that would count in the scoring of contacts?

I can kind of see calling CQ, Field Day with a Broadcast but I would think that doing that on the calling frequency would not be acceptable. Other than the very upper and lower slots, is there a frequency per band where freelance VarAC broadcast for contest contacts are acceptable?

In short, I really enjoy using VarAC on HF and would like to let some other club members get a taste of using VarAC on the HF bands but I do not want to be disruptive to other users of VarAC who are not participating in the Field Day event.

Any civil suggestions and comments regarding using VarAC on HF during a contest would be appreciated.

Keith

KN5g

6 comments

Comments (6)

KN5G-Keith

May 09, 2023

Thanks for the replies! I was aware that ARRL’s LoTW system does not have or recognize VarAC as a discreet mode “YET” but I was under the impression that we could log VarAC contacts into the LoTW system under the general heading of “Digital”, or something like that. I will have to dig a little deeper to make sure I understand how LoTW requires VarAC contacts to be identified and logged.

I also know that on the Field Day weekend the bands are in chaos and if you are not engaged in making FD contacts you may as well find something else to do until the contest ends on Sunday afternoon. Even with that in mind, I didn’t want to just assume what might be acceptable operating practice and wanted to reach out to the community to receive some feedback.

As I stated in the original post I really do want to introduce some of our club members to VarAC. Some use other digital modes but have been reluctant to adopt VarAC so I was hoping a little nudge would get them over the hump and encourage them to install and give it a try!

Thanks again for your comments!

Keith

KN5G

NC3Z Gary

May 09, 2023

Replying to

In LoTW your option is to log it as DATA but this does not conform to the ADIF standards. The ADIF Standards Committee did allow for this with

Mode=DYNAMIC SubMode=VARA HF

But for some reason LoTW does not want to conform to the ADIF standards that other loggers conform to.