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vmail outbox has many messages

sorry if this is a newbie question but i can't find it in the manual or searching this forum.

maybe i don't have a fundamental understanding of vmail. i understand it's not a mail server. but when i get a message from someone, i see an alert to remind me to pick it up. so why are there 9 messages in my outbox in the last 3+ weeks? is it something i'm doing wrong? are others not picking up their mail?

thanks very much, tom wa2uvc

22 comments

Comments (22)

NC3Z Gary

Mar 10, 2023

Look in your VarAC.log for entries like this:

02/03/2023 16:54:59 - Preparing to send a VMail relay notifiaction to 4Z1AC

02/03/2023 16:55:04 - Sending Async message: TO:4Z1AC FROM:NC3Z DATA:<SMP>

thomas cirillo

Mar 11, 2023

Replying to

i have received this message and retrieved vmails waiting for me. but your later response has me thinking: maybe i'm not sending enough beacons? do i understand the manual to say that the vmail message only goes out when the other station hears My beacon? maybe they never hear and decode my beacons? which is happenstance, isn't it. they need to be listening when i beacon

NC3Z Gary

Mar 11, 2023

Replying to

As the manual indicates, a VMAIL waiting Relay message only goes out when the beacon of a station with held VMAIL is decoded. This is sent out as a ASYNC @ SL5 as that is all VARA HF supports. beacons of course are done @ SL1. SL1 has about 10dB better SNR than a SL5, so take that into account too.

thomas cirillo

Mar 11, 2023

Replying to

i'm sorry to belabor this, but it seems i didn't understand the manual with my question. so what you're saying is that these 9 stations have not decoded my beacons, for whatever reason. and that it's not unusual to end up with a very full outbox for that reason, correct? (I'll now have to go learn about async @SL5/SL1. where can i learn about this?)

thomas cirillo

Mar 10, 2023

yes i have it enabled, and yes, i get notified that 'the following stations have vmail waiting for you'. so are you saying that these 9 stations do not have Relay (or whatever else i'm remembering regarding the vmail box) enabled? is that why they're not trying to pick up their vmails?

NC3Z Gary

Mar 10, 2023

Replying to

Look in your VarAC.log for entries like this:

02/03/2023 16:54:59 - Preparing to send a VMail relay notifiaction to 4Z1AC

02/03/2023 16:55:04 - Sending Async message: TO:4Z1AC FROM:NC3Z DATA:<SMP>

thomas cirillo

Mar 10, 2023

Replying to

i've scanned the log and find no such entries. i rechecked to see if i had vmail relay enabled and i do. what might be going on do you think?

NC3Z Gary

Mar 10, 2023

Replying to

As the manual notes, this only gets triggered when YOU decode a beacon from them. So test with a station that you decode frequently.

thomas cirillo

Mar 10, 2023

hi gary. i get that. but when a message is waiting for me, i get an alert. don't these 9 stations get an alert? or am i mistaking what i'm calling an 'alert'?

thomas cirillo

Mar 10, 2023

Replying to

ok, will do next time

thomas cirillo

Mar 10, 2023

Replying to

Relay turns red. and 'no new vmail' changes (to something i can't remember right now) to something else. when i see red relay, i try to connect with the sending station to retrieve the vmail

NC3Z Gary

Mar 10, 2023

Replying to

That is how it works.

NC3Z Gary

Mar 10, 2023

If you have a message for another station, or they have one for you, the only way to exchange them is to connect with that station. It gets passed no other way, this is not Winlink and VarAC is not competing with Winlink.