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. 73 Keith KN5g

I spend a good deal of time using VarAC on two meter FM, in QSO’s with other local Hams in the area. We seldom have a need to QSY away from the Contact Frequency and if we do most will have to do it manually because most of our 2 meter, FM radios do not support CAT control. However, we do use the CQ Call function often, and when doing so have to click through the Slot Control Screens before the CQ Call is executed. Not a big deal, but it becomes annoying to have to do this every time you want to call CQ. Especially on 2 meters FM where there are only a few local users and operating on the Contact Frequency isn’t the issue it is on HF where you have dozens if not hundreds of users on the same frequency at the same time. There is already a Disable PTT check box on the display. Perhaps a second check box labeled “Slot” could be added to the right of it and when this checkbox is enabled, the program would skip over the Slot Control subroutine and immediately transmit the CQ Call on the current frequency. When the Slot checkbox is unchecked the Slot Routine would execute as normal and present the Slot control Windows for the operator to select a desired slot to listen on for a reply. This is a minor inconvenience but I wanted to suggest it as a future enhancement to the application if it is easy to implement. Keith KN5G

Occasionally I will attempt to send a file to another station and then realize that it is taking too long to complete the transfer. I would like the ability to abort the file transfer, (from either station, sending or receiving), while maintaining the underlying connection between the two stations. I have tried to do this with the current ABORT button, but it appears to always drop the connection rather than just stop or abort the current file transfer. Keith KN5G

I am enjoying the VarAC application quite a bit, but I miss having the Panadaptor Display the SDRPlay and SDRUno provide. I'm using a Yaesu FTdx-3000 with the SDRPlay taking its signal from the FTdx's IF output (or maybe it is the Antenna Receive Output) but with the SDRPlay, SDRUno, Ham Radio Deluxe, OmniRig and a virtual serial port emulator I am able to run both Ham Radio Deluxe and SDRUno at the same time and have full control of the transceiver from either HRD or the SDRUno's Windows on my computer. VarAC has options for running with OmniRig so I thought it might be able to share the FTdx-3000's com port with the other applications in some fashion so that I can have all of these programs running and talking back and forth to the FTdx-3000 at the same time. Has anyone undertaken figuring out how to do this, assuming it is possible? Thanks, Keith KN5G