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Posted: 11/12/2020 11:58:09 AM EDT
I've been playing with the VARA HF modem as an alternative to PACTOR and its been neat to watch it run. I did pony up and buy the full license. I was able to hit 4Kbps in a USB HF channel which is pretty impressive. I know you can do better in VHF FM but that's not the point.
 It really is amazing to see it in action. I've been testing in a peer to host mode but you can also run it in a direct P2P mode for email and file exchange. Obviously its slow even by comparison to a dial up modem and you need to keep your exchanges relatively small but there are applications for this technology. Its so much cheaper than a PACTOR modem too. 
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Posted: 11/12/2020 12:24:18 PM EDT
[#1]
Vara is good stuff. And waaay cheaper than a Pactor modem!
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Posted: 11/12/2020 12:28:39 PM EDT
[#2]
Other than bandwidth, is there any difference between VARA FM and VARA HF?
I'm thinking that if you had an appropriate HF radio, i.e. one that allows ESSB bandwidths, there is no reason that one could not use the VARA FM-wide waveform which requires a 5.8KHz channel. This should be much faster than VARA HF which is limited to 2.4KHz bandwidth. I guess I need to dust off and update my Winlink installation to use VARA. I have not messed with it in some time. |
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Posted: 11/12/2020 12:37:22 PM EDT
[#3]
Neat!
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Posted: 11/12/2020 12:40:42 PM EDT
[#4]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Other than bandwidth, is there any difference between VARA FM and VARA HF? I'm thinking that if you had an appropriate HF radio, i.e. one that allows ESSB bandwidths, there is no reason that one could not use the VARA FM-wide waveform which requires a 5.8KHz channel. This should be much faster than VARA HF which is limited to 2.4KHz bandwidth. I guess I need to dust off and update my Winlink installation to use VARA. I have not messed with it in some time. Excellent question I'm curious myself. I do not have a good test setup for VHF. Without a better understanding my guess is that VARA HF is optimized for a SSB channel and the FM is optimized for a wider FM carrier. ETA: aren't HF emissions limited to 2.4KHz bandwidth by rule? If you can positively answer that question I would love to know the answer. |
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Posted: 11/12/2020 12:42:35 PM EDT
[#5]
And just to add I'm not really a Winlink proponent just like playing with digital data transport modes.
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Posted: 11/12/2020 1:03:07 PM EDT
[#6]
Also @aa777888-2 if you want a nice test payload and don't want to create a bogus Winlink email I've been using the feature that updates the propagation list for the stations via radio. Basically you send a small request file wait a couple minutes and check again. The prop update is about 12k in size and makes an excellent download test. Not too big not too small.
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Posted: 11/12/2020 1:57:56 PM EDT
[#7]
Quote HistoryQuoted:ETA: aren't HF emissions limited to 2.4KHz bandwidth by rule? 47CFR97.307(a) "No amateur station transmission shall occupy more bandwidth than necessary for the information rate and emission type being transmitted, in accordance with good amateur practice." So if I want to transmit a 6KHz wide signal to double or triple my information rate then I can do so as long as I don't violate the (very stupid) symbol rate requirements of 47CFR97.307(f)(3). Doing so "in accordance with good amateur practice" is so vague as to be untestable in any logical or definitive way. A perfect precedent is the advent of ESSB. ESSB did not violate the rule, but many folks who happily accepted AM signals taking up 20KHz of bandwidth were not accepting of ESSB signals that used 4 or 5KHz of bandwidth. Ridiculous, of course, and eventually ESSB became "good amateur practice". 47CFR97.221 -- this is not applicable if the station is not automatically controlled (mentioned only for completeness). |
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Posted: 11/12/2020 8:02:17 PM EDT
[#8]
Never tried VARA before, but loaded it tonight. Pretty slick! $69 seems a bit much for a casual user like me, but for someone handling a lot of traffic, well worth it!
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Posted: 11/12/2020 9:11:21 PM EDT
[#9]
Never understood with the power that today's computers have that Pactor continues to sell modems, when all they really need to do is sell the software implementation of it - like VARA. Screw paying $500+ for a Pactor modem - VARA is just as good....the only downside is limited # of sites that host.
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Posted: 11/12/2020 9:30:07 PM EDT
[#10]
VARA isn't quite as good as PACTOR low SNRs but it's damn close. So for $70 you can get 90% of a $3500 PACTOR modem.
Honestly I don't really have a use for it but I appreciate the technology and I have no problem tossing a few bucks at a team making these kinds of things possible. VARA compared with PACTOR |
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Posted: 11/12/2020 10:02:57 PM EDT
[#11]
If we'd get a vhf or uhf gateway here I'd upgrade my tnc so I could take advantage of VARA FM. There is one gateway 20mi away and on the other side of a ridge and none of us on this side can hit it... I do like the hf version and use it if the local vhf gateway is busy when I sit down for Winlink Wednesday.
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Posted: 11/12/2020 10:51:50 PM EDT
[#12]
If you have a network of friends in VHF range you can use the peer to peer mode to exchange radio email and files directly. There is also a thing called vara chat which emulates text messages but its a tremendous amount of overhead for simple text traffic. we already have superior performance keyboard to keyboard modes.
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Posted: 11/13/2020 11:09:02 AM EDT
[#13]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Absolutely not. This is a very common misconception. The only rules that apply to bandwidth in the data sub-bands specified in 47CFR97.305 are:47CFR97.307(a) "No amateur station transmission shall occupy more bandwidth than necessary for the information rate and emission type being transmitted, in accordance with good amateur practice." So if I want to transmit a 6KHz wide signal to double or triple my information rate then I can do so as long as I don't violate the (very stupid) symbol rate requirements of 47CFR97.307(f)(3). Doing so "in accordance with good amateur practice" is so vague as to be untestable in any logical or definitive way. A perfect precedent is the advent of ESSB. ESSB did not violate the rule, but many folks who happily accepted AM signals taking up 20KHz of bandwidth were not accepting of ESSB signals that used 4 or 5KHz of bandwidth. Ridiculous, of course, and eventually ESSB became "good amateur practice". 47CFR97.221 -- this is not applicable if the station is not automatically controlled (mentioned only for completeness). Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted:ETA: aren't HF emissions limited to 2.4KHz bandwidth by rule? 47CFR97.221 -- this is not applicable if the station is not automatically controlled (mentioned only for completeness). |
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Posted: 11/13/2020 12:12:54 PM EDT
[#14]
Quote HistoryQuoted: What limits HF digital comms rate is the regulation on baud rate. 300 for HF frequencies. What VARA does is chop up the bandwidth into multiple 300 baud slices. UHF frequencies have higher limits. easy to get "dial up" digital speeds on FM. I understood that already, but thank you 
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Posted: 11/13/2020 12:16:49 PM EDT
[#15]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Never understood with the power that today's computers have that Pactor continues to sell modems, when all they really need to do is sell the software implementation of it - like VARA. Screw paying $500+ for a Pactor modem - VARA is just as good Damn straight about screw paying for hardware. Pactor is a huge rip-off that way but they owned the market for a long time. Nice to see them getting some competition. |
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Posted: 11/13/2020 2:16:05 PM EDT
[#16]
What's the reasoning behind the 300 baud limit?
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Posted: 11/13/2020 4:55:26 PM EDT
[#17]
Quote HistoryQuoted: What's the reasoning behind the 300 baud limit? Once upon a time, in the dark ages, before it was easy to create complex modulations like QAM and OFDM on your garden variety PC, common methods of achieving high data rates often led to relatively large bandwidth requirements. Combined with the fact that when 47CFR97.307(f)(3) was originally written, the idea of being able send faster than 300 bits/sec over an HF channel was considered very difficult, and therefore seemed like a reasonable rule. However, it is a very stupid rule. The rule should be written in terms of maximum permissible bandwidth, assuming there even needs to be rule at all, given the provision of 47CFR97.307(a). |
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Posted: 11/13/2020 5:00:02 PM EDT
[#18]
Meanwhile, I just freshened up my Winlink installation, including VARA HF. Wow, I am impressed at how smooth, slick and quick just making a connection is! I haven't tried moving any real traffic yet, I'm waiting for my registration code to arrive.
I was able to also set up VARA FM. It will transmit over HF! I'm very curious how a peer-to-peer VARA FM WIDE (6KHz) connection would work. I would need to be able to connect to someone who can support a 6KHz ESSB channel. |
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Posted: 11/13/2020 6:02:39 PM EDT
[#19]
I with they had a setting between narrow and wide, the popular Signalink won't support wide.
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Posted: 11/13/2020 6:21:35 PM EDT
[#20]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Meanwhile, I just freshened up my Winlink installation, including VARA HF. Wow, I am impressed at how smooth, slick and quick just making a connection is! I haven't tried moving any real traffic yet, I'm waiting for my registration code to arrive. I was able to also set up VARA FM. It will transmit over HF! I'm very curious how a peer-to-peer VARA FM WIDE (6KHz) connection would work. I would need to be able to connect to someone who can support a 6KHz ESSB channel. The code is delivered by email. It goes to your PayPal email address. It really impressed me. I can't do a 6KHz test with my signalink and 897D but if you want to try peer to peer on a standard channel I'm up for an experiment. |
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Posted: 11/13/2020 6:21:52 PM EDT
[#21]
Double tap
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Posted: 11/13/2020 6:33:14 PM EDT
[#22]
Got my code. Sent a short message. [borat]Very nice![/borat]
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Posted: 11/13/2020 7:09:49 PM EDT
[#23]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Got my code. Sent a short message. [borat]Very nice![/borat] Do a propagation update over radio. It's roughly a 12kb file. |
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Posted: 11/13/2020 10:28:47 PM EDT
[#24]
How long does it take to receive the key?
I paid, and there was a message saying it would be emailed, but nothing seen yet. |
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Posted: 11/13/2020 11:14:51 PM EDT
[#25]
Quote HistoryQuoted: How long does it take to receive the key? I paid, and there was a message saying it would be emailed, but nothing seen yet. Pretty fast but it delivers to your PayPal email address so watch spam folder. |
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Posted: 11/14/2020 12:41:45 PM EDT
[#26]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Do a propagation update over radio. It's roughly a 12kb file.  Attached File |
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Posted: 11/14/2020 12:48:01 PM EDT
[#27]
Quoted: How long does it take to receive the key? I paid, and there was a message saying it would be emailed, but nothing seen yet. I think it took mine almost 2 days to arrive, maybe a day and a half. I guess it depends on how busy Jose is. |
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Posted: 11/14/2020 6:00:50 PM EDT
[#28]
Got my key. Had a play with it this morning, bouncing email between my Internet email and Winlink Express.
As always, my biggest problem is finding a good gateway. Most of those in the list just never reply (offline??) - pretty sure that they should be accessible if they were listening. Those that are online and good SNR (mostly on 20M) are slammed, can never get in. About the best throughput I saw was 180bps on the graph. 372 bytes/min for an email. Better than Winmodem, but not $69 worth better  .Probably going to be better mid-week, when I can get into one of the better gateways, and get an SNR more like the image in the first post, rather than hovering in, or just above the yellow. As an aside, I gave up with Signalink. Maybe it was only the (relatively) early ones, but it generated a lot of low frequency noise, which you could sort of fix by swapping some capacitors. That put me off, then I got my IC-7600 with built-in USB interface(s) - the only problem with that is that there is no adjustment on the level coming from the 7600, either in its settings, or in Windows, so everything is slightly overloaded. When I got my KX3, I thought about dusting off the Signalink, but then decided to try out a cheap USB sound card - this one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IRVQ0F8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Works perfectly. |
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Posted: 11/14/2020 6:42:30 PM EDT
[#29]
One of the reasons for an apparently non-responsive RMS station is because it is busy on another band. Many of the stations are scan bands, and if it is servicing someone on another band it will appear dead on the band you are trying.
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Posted: 11/14/2020 6:49:56 PM EDT
[#30]
Quote HistoryQuoted: That seems like a good test. I tried this a couple of times with a very good connection on 80M this morning. I could not get it to go over speed level 9 (2300 mode). It tried a few times to advance to speed level 10, but it was always a NACK. It took about two minutes each time to get the file. https://www.AR15.Com/media/mediaFiles/16697/Capture_JPG-1684038.JPG I tried pretty much the same thing this afternoon. Used the N5TW gateway down north of Austin on 80 meters. It’s about 50 miles south of me so pretty much NVIS. I used my 72’ end fed wire, now my main antenna, up about 25’. I got a pretty good connection with about half scale SNR. I also got to level 9 for a while, but I got some noise and QSB toward the end and it dropped down in speed. Still, got the full download in just under 3 minutes. I can’t complain about that. I will play around some more at night and try some other bands. It’s nice to have that sort of standard download to experiment with. |
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Posted: 11/14/2020 7:29:20 PM EDT
[#31]
Finally managed to get a semi-decent connection, and saw it switch to 4 carriers and the speed run up above 500bps.
So I can believe that with a good connection/SNR this thing is going to fly. Pretty amazing for HF (and staying within a single SSB-width channel). |
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Posted: 11/14/2020 7:50:45 PM EDT
[#32]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Got my key. Had a play with it this morning, bouncing email between my Internet email and Winlink Express. As always, my biggest problem is finding a good gateway. Most of those in the list just never reply (offline??) - pretty sure that they should be accessible if they were listening. Those that are online and good SNR (mostly on 20M) are slammed, can never get in. About the best throughput I saw was 180bps on the graph. 372 bytes/min for an email. Better than Winmodem, but not $69 worth better .Probably going to be better mid-week, when I can get into one of the better gateways, and get an SNR more like the image in the first post, rather than hovering in, or just above the yellow. As an aside, I gave up with Signalink. Maybe it was only the (relatively) early ones, but it generated a lot of low frequency noise, which you could sort of fix by swapping some capacitors. That put me off, then I got my IC-7600 with built-in USB interface(s) - the only problem with that is that there is no adjustment on the level coming from the 7600, either in its settings, or in Windows, so everything is slightly overloaded. When I got my KX3, I thought about dusting off the Signalink, but then decided to try out a cheap USB sound card - this one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IRVQ0F8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Works perfectly. When you run that little sound card dongle are you getting the full audio bandwidth? In my OP you can see how my signalink USB does not pass the full bandwidth. The right side is significantly attenuated. I'm curious if you get the whole thing with that little guy. |
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Posted: 11/14/2020 8:28:05 PM EDT
[#33]
Quote HistoryQuoted: When you run that little sound card dongle are you getting the full audio bandwidth? In my OP you can see how my signalink USB does not pass the full bandwidth. The right side is significantly attenuated. I'm curious if you get the whole thing with that little guy. I'm running the built in soundcard in my Yaesu FTDX3000 and it has about the same audio spectrum response yours shows. It seems to roll off in the upper part of the audio passband no matter if I set the IF bandwidth wider or put the 6 kHz roofing filter in. Is it the VARA modem program itself causing that roll off? Because I don't think it's the radio soundcard. |
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Posted: 11/14/2020 8:31:49 PM EDT
[#34]
Quoted: I've been playing with the VARA HF modem as an alternative to PACTOR and its been neat to watch it run. I did pony up and buy the full license. I was able to hit 4Kbps in a USB HF channel which is pretty impressive. I know you can do better in VHF FM but that's not the point. It really is amazing to see it in action. I've been testing in a peer to host mode but you can also run it in a direct P2P mode for email and file exchange. Obviously its slow even by comparison to a dial up modem and you need to keep your exchanges relatively small but there are applications for this technology. Its so much cheaper than a PACTOR modem too. https://i.ibb.co/58xJNwZ/vara1.jpg What band and node were you using to get that spectrum and speeds in your OP? I've never seen my SNR needle that high, nor those speeds. |
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Posted: 11/14/2020 9:24:07 PM EDT
[#35]
Quote HistoryQuoted: What band and node were you using to get that spectrum and speeds in your OP? I've never seen my SNR needle that high, nor those speeds. Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: I've been playing with the VARA HF modem as an alternative to PACTOR and its been neat to watch it run. I did pony up and buy the full license. I was able to hit 4Kbps in a USB HF channel which is pretty impressive. I know you can do better in VHF FM but that's not the point. It really is amazing to see it in action. I've been testing in a peer to host mode but you can also run it in a direct P2P mode for email and file exchange. Obviously its slow even by comparison to a dial up modem and you need to keep your exchanges relatively small but there are applications for this technology. Its so much cheaper than a PACTOR modem too. https://i.ibb.co/58xJNwZ/vara1.jpg What band and node were you using to get that spectrum and speeds in your OP? I've never seen my SNR needle that high, nor those speeds. K0SI node. 40m daytime propagation. I live in eastern Nebraska and its roughly a 350mi path so relatively short. There's another node in IL I frequently use during the day its a touch under 500 mi. I can't remember it off the top of my head. I've had my best sessions/SNRs on 40m during the day. At night I'm lucky to just complete a session. Also please remember that this was as I stated my personal best and is not typical. I consider 2kbps sustained to be usable for real traffic. I hit 2 frequently but this 4 was unusually good. |
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Posted: 11/15/2020 1:56:50 AM EDT
[#36]
Quote HistoryQuoted: When you run that little sound card dongle are you getting the full audio bandwidth? In my OP you can see how my signalink USB does not pass the full bandwidth. The right side is significantly attenuated. I'm curious if you get the whole thing with that little guy. Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: Got my key. Had a play with it this morning, bouncing email between my Internet email and Winlink Express. As always, my biggest problem is finding a good gateway. Most of those in the list just never reply (offline??) - pretty sure that they should be accessible if they were listening. Those that are online and good SNR (mostly on 20M) are slammed, can never get in. About the best throughput I saw was 180bps on the graph. 372 bytes/min for an email. Better than Winmodem, but not $69 worth better .Probably going to be better mid-week, when I can get into one of the better gateways, and get an SNR more like the image in the first post, rather than hovering in, or just above the yellow. As an aside, I gave up with Signalink. Maybe it was only the (relatively) early ones, but it generated a lot of low frequency noise, which you could sort of fix by swapping some capacitors. That put me off, then I got my IC-7600 with built-in USB interface(s) - the only problem with that is that there is no adjustment on the level coming from the 7600, either in its settings, or in Windows, so everything is slightly overloaded. When I got my KX3, I thought about dusting off the Signalink, but then decided to try out a cheap USB sound card - this one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IRVQ0F8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Works perfectly. When you run that little sound card dongle are you getting the full audio bandwidth? In my OP you can see how my signalink USB does not pass the full bandwidth. The right side is significantly attenuated. I'm curious if you get the whole thing with that little guy. Haven't tried it with this mode, but with other digital modes it appears to give the full bandwidth of whatever filter is in use. |
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Posted: 11/15/2020 2:03:53 AM EDT
[#37]
Quote HistoryQuoted: I'm running the built in soundcard in my Yaesu FTDX3000 and it has about the same audio spectrum response yours shows. It seems to roll off in the upper part of the audio passband no matter if I set the IF bandwidth wider or put the 6 kHz roofing filter in. Is it the VARA modem program itself causing that roll off? Because I don't think it's the radio soundcard. Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: When you run that little sound card dongle are you getting the full audio bandwidth? In my OP you can see how my signalink USB does not pass the full bandwidth. The right side is significantly attenuated. I'm curious if you get the whole thing with that little guy. I'm running the built in soundcard in my Yaesu FTDX3000 and it has about the same audio spectrum response yours shows. It seems to roll off in the upper part of the audio passband no matter if I set the IF bandwidth wider or put the 6 kHz roofing filter in. Is it the VARA modem program itself causing that roll off? Because I don't think it's the radio soundcard. One thing I have noticed with at least Icom radios is that you don't want to use the mic/headphone in/out. They include audio filtering. I use the AUX in/out which bypass the filtering. The KX3 in digital modes turns off audio filters. You get exactly what the rf filtering gives. |
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Posted: 11/15/2020 10:46:39 AM EDT
[#38]
Apparently Tigertronics DID make changes to improved audio pass. Signalink USBs made after June 2018 have new transformers that make VARA wide possible.
From the Tigertronics support page. Update - August 29, 2020 We just completed some "real world" testing of VARA WIDE across our local valley (~10 mile path - QRM free) and are happy to report that it worked very well. Our test setup consisted of two stock (unmodified) SignaLink USB units (both with the newer SMT transformers and JP3 enabled) connected to the Data Port of a Kenwood TM-V71A and a Yaesu FT-8900R. Power was 10 watts (2m VHF) into a short mobile whip on one end, and a moderate gain vertical on the other. With this configuration we were able to consistently achieve speeds between 22,000 bps to 25,000 bps with no issues. Even while driving (safely of course!) we were consistently right at 20,000 bps. We are also happy to report that we have received feedback from other users that have been able to achieve speeds of 19,000 to 20,000 bps in various urban environments using the stock SignaLink USB (newer SMT transformers) and other radios. One user also reported speeds of up to 20,000 bps using the SignaLink USB with the older through-hole mounted transformers. Prior to this, the max reported speed using the older transformers was ~15,000 bps. It should be noted that our testing was done with both radios underdeviated. We used the VARA program's Auto Tune feature to set the TX level both ways, but regardless of the adjustments we made (both TX and RX levels were experimented with) we always ended up with a deviation of approximately 1.5KHz. Since the recommended deviation is 2.5KHz, we plan to do some additional testing to see what affect deviation has on throughput, and what might be done to get the Auto Tune mode to actually set it there. We would also like to note, that as previously mentioned, some Kenwood radios appear to need more audio than the stock SignaLink USB can provide to reach the recommended 2.5KHz deviation. This is the case with the TM-V71A that we are now testing with. However, when we use a SignaLink USB that has been modified for more output and is capable of driving the radio to 2.5KHz deviation (TX modulation was verified to be clean and undistorted), the Auto Tune feature still lowers the level back down, and the resulting deviation is around 1.5KHz. We will be looking into this too so that we better understand what is happening, but as noted from our testing, the lower deviation still works very well. SignaLink USB Audio Transformers and Other Changes We have been shipping wider bandwidth surface mount (SMT) isolation transformers (click for a picture) in the SignaLink USB since ~June 2018. The .25db bandwidth of the transformers is 200Hz to 4000Hz. The normally specified 3db bandwidth of these transformers and the SignaLink USB as a whole, actually extends out much further than 4Khz and will be updated shortly. If your SignaLink USB is an older model with the red colored "through hole" transformers (see above link to confirm), then please note that the 3db bandwidth is narrower (~300-3300Hz) and it may not support the fastest speeds that VARA WIDE offers (see testing notes above). For those asking about the possibility of upgrading their current SignaLink USB, please note that the SignaLink USB circuit board was redesigned to fit the new surface mount transformer. The new transformer will NOT fit the old circuit board. It should also be noted that other improvements were made to the circuit design including better filtering of the USB power bus and internal bias voltages (this may lower the noise floor on some systems). A change was also made to the more readily available PCM2906C sound card chip (same family as the previously used PCM2904) in early 2017. |
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Posted: 11/15/2020 12:32:35 PM EDT
[#39]
Tried downloading a propagation update last night OTA. Started around 175bps, but settled in around 42bps. lol...gave up before long. Lots of RTTY a-holes last night; had multiple sessions interrupted by QRM.
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Posted: 11/15/2020 12:49:32 PM EDT
[#40]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Tried downloading a propagation update last night OTA. Started around 175bps, but settled in around 42bps. lol...gave up before long. Lots of RTTY a-holes last night; had multiple sessions interrupted by QRM. My night sessions suck. Try during the day. |
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Posted: 11/16/2020 9:28:32 AM EDT
[#41]
Quote HistoryQuoted: My night sessions suck. Try during the day. Was finally able to get a solid 175 bps connection. One thing I noticed is that on two different stations, it would just stop mid-transfer. The file transfer would get around 1/3 to 1/2, and the remote station would just stop responding. Everything was working fine on my end. Eventually found a station that seemed to work fine. Odd. I think someone else mentioned that many stations monitor multiple frequencies. I think I noticed a sign of this. After 3-4 connection requests on several machines, I'd notice a carrier like someone was tuning, then the RMS station would respond. Kind of gee whiz, but makes sense....the station would detect a connection request, tune up on freq, then respond.
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Posted: 11/16/2020 2:33:08 PM EDT
[#42]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Was finally able to get a solid 175 bps connection. One thing I noticed is that on two different stations, it would just stop mid-transfer. The file transfer would get around 1/3 to 1/2, and the remote station would just stop responding. Everything was working fine on my end. Eventually found a station that seemed to work fine. Odd. I think someone else mentioned that many stations monitor multiple frequencies. I think I noticed a sign of this. After 3-4 connection requests on several machines, I'd notice a carrier like someone was tuning, then the RMS station would respond. Kind of gee whiz, but makes sense....the station would detect a connection request, tune up on freq, then respond. It's possible that your SNR on the other end was poor. If the other station can't hear your ACKs it goes into a recovery mode and after a while it kills the session. |
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Posted: 11/16/2020 2:35:07 PM EDT
[#43]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Was finally able to get a solid 175 bps connection. One thing I noticed is that on two different stations, it would just stop mid-transfer. The file transfer would get around 1/3 to 1/2, and the remote station would just stop responding. Everything was working fine on my end. Eventually found a station that seemed to work fine. Odd. I think someone else mentioned that many stations monitor multiple frequencies. I think I noticed a sign of this. After 3-4 connection requests on several machines, I'd notice a carrier like someone was tuning, then the RMS station would respond. Kind of gee whiz, but makes sense....the station would detect a connection request, tune up on freq, then respond. Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: My night sessions suck. Try during the day. Was finally able to get a solid 175 bps connection. One thing I noticed is that on two different stations, it would just stop mid-transfer. The file transfer would get around 1/3 to 1/2, and the remote station would just stop responding. Everything was working fine on my end. Eventually found a station that seemed to work fine. Odd. I think someone else mentioned that many stations monitor multiple frequencies. I think I noticed a sign of this. After 3-4 connection requests on several machines, I'd notice a carrier like someone was tuning, then the RMS station would respond. Kind of gee whiz, but makes sense....the station would detect a connection request, tune up on freq, then respond. I wondered why 15 attempts to connect. Seemed way excessive to me. However, after playing a bit, I never see a connection established in the first three attempts, and a significant number only towards the end of the attempt sequence. It's a bit frustrating that you have to plow through quite a lot of the list of stations before finding one that responds, and then, more often than not, the quality bears no relation to the predicted quality. Watching an existing session on the waterfall doesn't help much. You have no idea if the strong signal is the gateway or a client. Being able to monitor the data exchange would help a lot. |
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Posted: 11/16/2020 2:57:58 PM EDT
[#44]
So, w/ a good connection, y'all can hit 2 kbps? That's not bad.
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Posted: 11/16/2020 5:14:06 PM EDT
[#45]
Slightly sarcastic....but not entirely....(i.e. this is not an approved or staff vetted group buy post).
...group buy? I saw a post that they offered a volume discount ($55 ea with 10 people, $50 each with 50 people). http://montrosehamradio.org/?p=10873 |
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Posted: 11/16/2020 6:15:24 PM EDT
[#46]
I can hit a VARA FM gateway 60 miles away at 1098 bps.
VARA HF, nowhere near that speed, and that after having the paid version for 9 months and trying different gateways every week for our Winlink Wednesday net. |
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Posted: 11/16/2020 9:59:24 PM EDT
[#47]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Slightly sarcastic....but not entirely....(i.e. this is not an approved or staff vetted group buy post). ...group buy? I saw a post that they offered a volume discount ($55 ea with 10 people, $50 each with 50 people). http://montrosehamradio.org/?p=10873  That thought occurred to me.  I had no idea there would be interest at this level or I would have suggested it. |
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Posted: 11/16/2020 10:03:31 PM EDT
[#48]
Quote HistoryQuoted: That thought occurred to me. I had no idea there would be interest at this level or I would have suggested it. I added my info to the doc in the link. Worst case, they tell me it's over or club members only. Best case, I get it a little cheaper.
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