Don VA7QU, I also haunt 14.105. I just looked through the beacon list and do not see any calls from the west end of the continent so propagation E<->W may not be favorable. My antenna system is an eighty meter full wave loop fed with 450ohm line to a 4:1 balun and mfj auto tuner. I have a 4BTV that I may have to try. When 20m dies I will usually head for 7.105. I check WWV on the 2.5, 5, 10, 15, and 20 mHz to get an idea of what is happening. 73 de w8nsi Jim

John VA7PX, I guess we are at the point where one mans fun (propagation research) is anothers continued confusion. So you do not understand beacons. Okay. Of the very few rare cqs you have heard did you answer and enter a qso with any of them? Maybe they do not copy you. Or are you still trying for initial VarAC contact? I see you are an auto-mode no qso FT8 operator. Is that satisfying? Just curious. Not trying to be insulting.

Don VA7QU, Which bands? Times? Are you hearing and copying beacons and cqs? I will listen for you. I would love to make a connect to a magloop station on the far side of the continent. 73 de w8nsi Jim [EN73eb]

A beacon can serve to show where signals can be coming from. This can be useful information to some people. If you do not hear any signals, do you know if your antenna is hooked up? 😎

NICE chart. I just printed it out. So now we can see the other staked out frequencies. Thanks. 😎 73 de w8nsi Jim

Sounds to me that everyone has carved out a "Don't Touch Me/Reserved" frequency somewhere so that this tower of babel will keep everyone from talking across boundaries. Then it will be said "Why don't I hear anyone else?" Simple: They are all on different frequencies because of "DTM/R" frequencies that do not coincide. 😎 As new kid on the block, there will be interference no matter where we try to land. Choose a freq and use it. There are NO reserved frequencies in amateur radio.

The SHAred RESources (SHARES) High Frequency (HF) Radio Program, administered by the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) National Coordinating Center. It was previously using exclusively P3 and P4 pactor. EXTREMELY expensive which limited how many users were available. With VARA more members can participate.

VARA is a very robust modem. SHARES is recognizing that as it is now using Vara-hf as well as Pactor now.

I have mine set to 5357.00 dial freq. The US channel 3 where all of the FT8 is.

14,105 seems to also be a Winlink frequency which can add to the congestion, but mostly it seems to be VaraC that I hear.

I also have most previous versions saved on my hard drive, in case I need to roll back.

I went back and re-read your complaint. Seems you are missing the VarAC_Frequencies.conf file. That should be located in the folder with the Varac,exe program. It is a simple sequential listing of frequencies to use for VaraC. Here is mine: 1.849.750 1.850.000 1.850.750 3.563.500 3.594.250 3.595.000 3.595.750 5.330.500 5.346.500 5.357.000 5.371.500 5.403.500 7.104.250 7.105.000 7.105.750 10.132.250 10.133.000 10.133.750 14.104.250 14.105.000 14.105.750 18.105.250 18.106.000 18.106.750 18.107.250 18.108.000 18.108.750 21.104.250 21.105.000 21.105.750 24.926.250 24.927.000 24.927.750 28.104.250 28.105.000 28.105.750 50.330.000 A simple copy and paste to a text file then save as "VarAC_Frequencies.conf" saved into your VARAC folder should solve the problem. 73 de w8nsi Jim

On VaraC top line of Varac, go to settings then "Rig Control and Vara Config". When that opens, on the right is where you specify the location to find the VARA modem. I placed mine at C:\VARA\VARA.exe then next is port 8300 Locate where yours is and enter it there. Now when you open Varac it will open the modem for you. 73 de w8nsi Jim

Whether you are able to communicate is dependent on: [1] Propagation Conditions, [2] the Antenna, [3] the Radio If propagation is not there, numbers 2 and 3 won't make any difference. If you have great propagation, you can work the world on a bedspring antenna and a couple of watts. But generally speaking, you will need conditions allowing your signal to travel some distance. You will need the biggest antenna that you can place up in the air. You will need a radio with a decent receiver and enough transmit power (generally in the 100 watt class) to reach out to others. With items 1, 2, and 3 plus your ham radio license, you should be talking to the world. Low power is fun for enthusiasts but newbs do not need frustration at the beginning. Get busy studying for your license now.

Is anyone using a frequency on 160m? I am currently set up on 1830 kHz usb.

Hi Pat, I have 3.2.1 installed. If there is a 3.3.1 it is not linked at the download page here on the forum. 73 de w8nsi Jim

I have not heard any consensus on this. I have 10,130.750 for center (10,130.000 and 10,131.500 for QSYD and QSYU) set in my station but I have never heard or worked a VaraC contact of 30 meters. The trouble seems to be that differing countries have slightly different allocation. 🙂

irad d, I think that VaraC would be improved if it at least reported the current version to the other end somewhere in the handshaking for an internal log. I spotted WA5YZD from his beacon and connected. What you see in the transcript at the start of this sequence of messages is the full contact. No qsy was attempted during or prior to the connect with WA5YZD. I do not know what version VaraC he is running. I have VARA 4.5.7 and VaraC 3.2.1 here.

To KB3PCY good connect sigs good but them it faded and disconnected.

I am running the most current VARA-HF and VaraC releases. Rig is a TS-480.