WICEN Vic: WICEN Digital Playground Sessions

[Mark Hudson]

Good morning,

Many thanks to those who were able to attend Friday evenings Winlink Emcomm Training Exercise. There were some interesting lessons learned. One that comes to mind was we found VARA HF Chat is less practical as a message handling tool as compared to a VARA P2P session which we had running concurrently on VHF FM.

Over the past few days several members have been further experimenting and this coming Thursday evening @ 2000hrs well open the digital playground up again.  On Thursday evening we’ll be playing with VARA FM as a digipeater.  Now you can’t run VARA FM through the current packet digi repeaters on 145.200 however you can run a station as a digi repeater. Rik VK3EQ will operate his station as a Vara FM digi. Rik has kindly provided below instructions on how to set your station as a digi and also how to send a message through a digi station.

So please join us via Zoom Thursday @ 2000hrs and we’ll see just how VARA FM behaves as a digi with those that can access Rik’s station sending messages to others. A good example is both Don VK3SP and myself can connect to Rik’s stations. Don and I have a poor path direct between our stations and have not been able to hold a successful connection. So I should be able to send Don a message via 3EQ. Thursday night we’ll see just how it all works.

So join us if you can this Thursday evening even if it’s just to catch up with other members. Remember Rik’s station is on the air if you wish to ping it and from a previous email from Rik  he is also available if you have any questions.


Topic: WICEN Digital Playground
Time: Sep 16, 2021 20:00 Australia/Melbourne

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82921546634?pwd=cU1OMXoyZFhmMnhmZTlnR2ZOekt2Zz09

Meeting ID: 829 2154 6634
Passcode: 324016


Setup at the digipeater station

  *   Download and install v4.0.1 start Winlink** and in Winlink open a VARA FM P2P session. In the Vara Modem box (the one with the gauges) click on Settings, Vara Setup and put your callsign in the box titled Digipeater, click on  CLOSE. That’s it, your station is now a Vara FM digipeater. Make sure your radio is on the correct frequency and follow the band plan please. Keep the squelch turned to zero and volume turned down to a level you like.
Passing traffic

  *   Use a Vara FM digipeater to pass traffic to another Vara FM station that is out of my simplex range? Step number 3 above should not have anything in the digipeater box at the initiating station. In the Vara FM peer to peer session box on the second line from the top where it says connection select digipeater, then in the next box type in the stations callsign your want to pass traffic to. After that is the word VIA and after that type in the digipeater station callsign that you would like to connect.
  *   Turn the volume up on the radio and listen for other traffic, if the frequency is not in use. Perform the drive level calibration and use the digipeaters call sign. Make sure you get a reply back from the digipeater station.
  *   In the Vara peer to peer session box….Click on START
·         All 3 stations must be on the same frequency. And all must be in Vara FM P2P mode.
·         ** Digipeaters don’t need open Winlink Express necessarily. You only need VARA FM, the FM Rig and the computer to create a Digipeater.
·         Digipeaters can pass P2P traffic or Winlink traffic messages indistinctly. Using digipeaters you can connect with distant VARA FM Gateways too.
·         The digipeater doesn’t require a VARA license, but, you need a VARA license to connect via digipeaters.


Cheers,

Mark


Mark Hudson
State Ordinary Member & Membership Officer
WICEN Victoria
Mobile +61 409 500 414 <tel:+61%20409%20500%20414>

Email vk3mdh at gmail.com <mailto:vk3mdh at gmail.com >

Website www.vic.wicen.org.au <http://www.vic.wicen.org.au/>


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