APRS and other ham radio

Small but important update to VaraHF was released 13 April 2024. Version 4.8.7 brought changes more specific to VaraAC use, especially with a new Drivelevel command. Users of VaraAC were having issues with overloaded audio. But for APRS users, there was a bug with compressed messages that caused VaraHF to crash. Regular, uncompressed, beacons are…

There has been a lot of work going into PinPoint APRS lately, and the latest update really helps out with VaraHF. An issue that came up recently is the inability to beacon without a path; which is very common in HF. The lack of path would trigger a failure in VaraHF. Beyond that, the code…

So, there were a few bugs with 4.8.5 that were missed, and, funny enough, I was getting ready to post something on that subject. But, instead a new VaraHF 4.8.6 hits and resolves a lot of “hearing but not decoding” issues people have been having the last week. There are also a couple new features.…

There was a bug in 4.8.5’s first release that made VaraHF basically unusable for non-registered users. That has been fixed. Download it here. This only affects un-licensed users. So if you have the VaraHF license, then you wouldn’t have noticed an issue.

It is finally official, VaraHF4.8.5 was released after many days of work by EA5HVK and many testers. The long development time cause a bit of a rift around the world with APRS users operating on various incompatible versions at the same time. But, that is all behind with the 4.8.5 release today. If 4.8.4 has…

I get it. Really I do. You’re eager to take the dive into HF APRS and you want to use VaraHF. You get things setup and working (hopefully because of this blog) and the next thing you know, there’s an update to VaraHF. OK, fine, update and back up and running again And then there’s…

There was a time that you couldn’t even talk about Digipeating on HF APRS. Actually, those new to VaraHF powered APRS, but plenty familiar with HF APRS will still roll their eyes. I’ve even seen an “ALL” targeted message “No Digi on HF APRS!!” But there is a time a place. Is Digipeating, that is…

I’m of the opinion that if you have an internet connection, than you should be gating APRS. What is an iGate? An iGate, or Internet Gateway, shares APRS packets to the internet based APRS Internet System (APRS-IS) network. Connecting to the APRS-IS expands your local local, tactical real-time two-way communications system, and makes it world-wide.…

An important aspect of APRS is making you are on frequency. If you’re off, then there is not going to be anyone out there to decode your packet. All APRS activity is done on Upper Side Band (USB). Here are the most common frequencies used on HF APRS with the use of the Vara modem:…

PinPoint APRS is one of the most popular APRS clients in use on HF bands. Frank, AB0WV, made this software to be very easy to use. It is what I first used for HF APRS. Let’s look at setting up VaraHF on PinPoint. Tools > OptionsAt the top of the screen, click on “Tools” and…

Yet Another APRS Client (YAAK) is Java based client created by Andrew Pavlin, KA2DDO. It is a free and open-source software, so if you have some Java writing skills you can create your plug-in. There are a few listed on the website as well. APRS creator, Bob Bruninga, WB4APR, was a big fan of YAAK…

VaraHF is the go-between for your APRS client and the radio. The client sends the commonly used AX.25 APRS packet to VaraHF, Vara then converts the packet into a OFDM transmission, queues the radio and broadcasts. Likewise, VaraHF listens for ODFM transmissions over the air, picks up those packets, converts it back to AX.25 and…

APRSIS32 is an incredible APRS client. It has more features, I jokingly say, then the developer KJ4ERJ even knows about.  Just looking at the website you’re going to find a thousand pages of information, and that is not even fully complete. There is a lot to this piece of software and it can easily become…

A lot of ham radio operators are some pretty smart folks. If they can’t find something they want, they make it. This carries over to a lot of the software that is used on ham radio. These amateurs brought us a lot of great software over the years, not the least of which for this…

Conducted a bit of an experiment 31 January 2024 to check out tracking on HF APRS. I ran HF APRS at the same time I ran the standard VHF APRS and compared the results as shown on APRS.fi VHF is a FTM-400 with a roof mounted Comet CA-2x4sr, 50w HF is a FT-900 with a…