[Alexandria Radio Club Reflector] A First on Digital Net Night

Tue Jul 18 06:23:05 EDT 2023

That’s great to hear, Don!

I started experimenting with VarAC about last October. It is indeed a neat tool with lots of really cool features. Many “hidden” nice-to-have things like quick QRZ lookups of callsigns and such.

Definitely has a use case for emergency comms. And for fun QSOs. I see it as VERY different than FT8 and it should never try to compete there. Closest I’ve seen to VarAC is PSK31. And, with VarAC using VARA for its modem, it offers yet another tool to keep in our arsenals.

Happy to help you learn VarAC's features via QSOs, Don. Just let me know when. Same goes for everyone in the club.

Fun stuff, for sure.

Cheers,

Ken van Wyk
Armata Scientia

> On Jul 18, 2023, at 6:15 AM, don.ki4d at gmail.com wrote:
> 
> Ken, Jason, Ed - thanks for another great Digital Net!  I am sure we accomplished some ARC "Firsts" last night.  With some tutorage of Ken, we got VarAC up and running with VarAC digital QSOs on HF.  After my 10 Meter VarAC HF chat from Telegraph Road to Jason off of I-295 in DC, I was very happy.  I see a lot of EMCOMM possibilities with this tool, after becoming proficient with it.
> 
> 73
> Don, KI4D
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: don.ki4d at gmail.com <don.ki4d at gmail.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, July 11, 2023 6:51 PM
> To: 'Dennis W5DAG' <w5dag.usa at gmail.com>
> Cc: 'Kenneth R. van Wyk' <ken at vanwyk.org>; 'W4HFH' <alexandriaradioclub at mailman.qth.net>
> Subject: RE: [Alexandria Radio Club Reflector] FreeDV
> 
> Jason - would like to add my thanks for the net, as well.  As you know, I tried to get operational but could not make it in time - but I did learn a lot.  I will try again next time.
> 
> 73
> Don, KI4D
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: alexandriaradioclub-bounces at mailman.qth.net <alexandriaradioclub-bounces at mailman.qth.net> On Behalf Of Dennis W5DAG
> Sent: Tuesday, July 11, 2023 12:52 PM
> To: Rich Adamy <AlexandriaRadioClub at mailman.qth.net>
> Subject: Re: [Alexandria Radio Club Reflector] FreeDV
> 
> 
> I got FreeDV to work well with the USB dongles from https://www.rtl-sdr.com/.
> 
> 
>> On Jul 9, 2023, at 20:44, Kenneth R. van Wyk <ken at vanwyk.org> wrote:
>> 
>> Thanks for pushing forward with this, Jason! Sounds like fun.
>> 
>> I’ve never tried FreeDV, so that’s perfect too.
>> 
>> Question: Does Discord allow for screen sharing as well? That could be handy from time to time.
>> 
>> Either way, I’m looking forward to it.
>> 
>> 73 de K0RvW
>> 
>> Cheers,
>> 
>> Ken van Wyk
>> Armata Scientia
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>> On Jul 9, 2023, at 8:14 PM, Jason Palma <wa6mpr at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Good evening,
>>> 
>>> A few folks talked about having a digital net night. I’m going to try to kick it off on Monday (July 10th) at 8pm with FreeDV.  Eventually, having a rotation led by different club members hosting different modes is the goal. Thinking of doing JS8 Call, VarAC, RTTY, and whatever else we can think of. The plan is to use 10M and 6M for the digital net. That way Technicians can join the fun.
>>> 
>>> For tomorrow, we will start with FreeDV. FreeDV is an open source digital mode for HF. I’ve used it a couple of times and it works well. You will need a Windows, Linux, or OSX computer, HF capable rig with sound card and PTT capability, and a headset with microphone for your computer.
>>> 
>>> You can find more information (and the software to download) at https://freedv.org . There is also a site which monitors who is on FreeDV at qso.freedv.org <http://qso.freedv.org/>.  You can also check if you are getting out on PSK reporter by selecting the FREEDV mode.
>>> 
>>> We will start out on 28.330. I will also be on Discord voice chat via our voice channel “digital-net-night”. Just scroll to the bottom of our channel list to connect. I will attempt to answer questions about setup and use the discord voice chat as a “get well” location. Text chat will occur on the "digital-net-night” text channel.
>>> 
>>> I am also looking for digital pros to lead digital net nights. If you have a favorite mode - that allows for a digital rag chew - please let me know if you would like to host a digital net.
>>> 
>>> Hope to hear you tomorrow night!
>>> 
>>> 73,
>>> 
>>> Jason
>>> WA6MPR
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