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VarAC

Introduction

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“Preparedness starts at home—communication starts on your street.”

“You don’t need a vest or badge to make a difference.”

I have not found the one perfect program. Be versatile!

16 APR 2026

KH6OWL

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Menu

What are our options
VarAC
What can VarAC do
Calling Frequencies
Positives I Like
Dashboard
Beacons
Broadcast

Ping
Screen Layout
Send Vmails / Emails
Tips & Tricks
Resources
Questions / Demo
Comparison

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What are our Options

Winlink (email, SMS, FM nodes & Direct / Hops; HF Email and SMS)[Vara FM & Vara HF]
Vara Terminal
VarAC (Text, emails, send files to the person your connected to, photos, SMS, others can rely your email, ICS forms in EmComm Mode) [HF and 2m]
Vara Chat (HF or UHF/VHF) Connect to One Station at a time.
JS8 Call - JS8 Spotter, MSG Authenticator and JS8 SitRepNet Project, Commstatone
PSK31

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VarAC

VarAC is a point to point digital chat application the provides a modern chat experience to the ham radio operator.
Great speed under challenging SNR levels (beacons show SNR levels of other stations)
Ideal for QRP, Portable operations & EmCom
VarAC can be used on HF, VHF/UHF (FM) and also Satellite (QQ-100)
ARQ, error free protocol
Available modems : (same modem as vara)

VARA HF-Up to 1,543 BPS at 500Hz BW / 7,050 BPS at 2300Hz BW
VARA SAT-Like HF but with additional latency handling
VARA FM-Up to 12,750 BPS Narrow / 25,210 BPS Wide

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VarAC

Call CQ
Low power
Operators beacon
Vmail forwarding via others so can reach a lot of people
Vmail alerts if someone has a Vmail for you and the beacon was heard
Send text versions of forms & Send photos, Must use “Advance or EmComm” Mode to Access Sending Images, built in image resizer. Must use “Advance or EmComm” mode to access sending files. To Access VarAC Forms, you must be in Emcomm Mode.
Send broadcast to all or select groups/individual
Pathfinder mode to find someone that can see someone else beacon
Keyboard computer typing
Create Canned Messages
Modes: Simple, Advanced, EmComm

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What can VarAC do?

Call CQ
Beacon
Chat via Keyboard Text
Send messages to Groups (WH6ECG and others use this)
Store a vMail for later pickup with another station
Canned Messages
Send to regular mail address
Log calls
Alerts if someone has an email waiting to pick up for you

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What can VarAC do?

EmComm Function
Sending an emergency alert to all EmComm operators
Send emergency VMail without direct link to your destination.
Sending images
Group chat/check-ins of all EmComm operators
Live chat between stations with no direct link (through digipeater)
Find a path to an unreachable station
Send your current location using VarAC GPS integration
Act as a BBS
Muti Service Announcements
VarAC Academy

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VarAC BBS

Just select a directory on your PC, and every file in it can be discovered and downloaded by other stations.�
Want to share images? No problem.
Want to let others download the latest weather report you wrote? Absolutely.
Want to share simple TXT files like the good old bulletins? Go for it.
Under Settings, you’ll now find a new BBS tab.�There, you only need to define three simple things:

Which directory you want to share
Whether you want to limit access to specific callsigns
Whether you want to announce your BBS in your beacon (just like your Email / AI gateways)

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VarAC BBS

When someone connects to you, VarAC will automatically inform them of all the services you provide, including your BBS (Please note that both parties must be running version 13.2).
To use your BBS, they will first need to QSY away from the calling frequency,�If they click the new BBS button on the right, VarAC will query your shared BBS directory and display its contents on the remote side, including each file’s creation time and size.
Files that exceed the download size limit configured in their VarAC will be highlighted in red, indicating that the transfer may take a significant amount of time.
To download a file, all they need to do is double-click it and that’s it. The file transfer begins immediately.

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VarAC BBS

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VarAC BBS

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Introducing: Reactions (Likes)

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How many times have you found yourself wanting to simply “Like” a message from your QSO �partner instead of replying?
With V13.2, now you can. Next to every chat message in the data stream, you’ll see a small empty heart icon. Click it to send your QSO partner a Like, accompanied by a popping sound and a bright red heart indicator.

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Introducing: Multi Service Announcement

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Until now, you could only notify everyone that you run an Email gateway through your beacon. It can now announce any of the three services you provide, or all of them.
You can now choose for each service (Email gateway, AI gateway, and the new BBS) whether you want it to be announced in your beacons.
Each service is represented by a different icon, and when you hover over a beacon, you get a detailed list of the services available on that station. Please note that both parties must be running version 13.2.
Not only that, upon connection, even if you missed their beacon, the station will send a special tag that notifies your VarAC about the available services, so you know exactly what you can use.

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Introducing: Multi Service Announcement - Through Beacons

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Introducing: Multi Service Announcement - Upon Connection

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VarAC Calling Frequencies?

20m - 14.105 MHz (Primary day time)

40m - 7.105 MHz (Primary night time)

80m - 3.595 MHz

30m - 10.133 MHz

17m - 18.106 MHz

15m - 21.105 MHz

12m - 24.927 MHz

10m- 28.105 MHz

6m - 50.330 MHz

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What do I like about it?

Directed or non-Directed Messages
It is conversational
Relays & store-and-forward messaging (think EmComm)
Query Messages
Can be Passive
It is perfectly happy with low-power/weak-signal and very noisy conditions
A lot to offer
Predetermined & well-documented (but non-mandatory) “meeting frequencies”
Beacons, CQ, SNR
Broadcast to All or specified Call signs
Pathfinder - See if anyone can hear a specific call sign
low power, high noise and long distances

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Dashboard

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Beacons Rec’d

CQ’s Rec’d

Select Advanced or EmComm

Broadcast Sent/Rec’dd

MSG Type area

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Beacon

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Send A Beacon

Press to start then timer counts down after that to auto send if set up

Acts as internet gateway

Set Away

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Beacons

A word about the Beacons

Essential to the network. All operates set a beacon to fire every X minutes on an agreed calling frequency. (Can be Passive)
Shows propagation and who can hear whom
All Operators can see each other on the “Last heard beacons” with the latest timestamp
Digipeaters can be used to extend reach
You don’t have to be in front of your radio to send a beacon, Set Away button
Send Vmails or Emails and store them on other ops systems
Be part of network - settings
If no one sends a Beacon, you would have to look at PSK reporter to make sure someone is on
Letting people know you are “Online”
Great for propagation analysis (Spots also uploaded to PSK Reporter)
Minimum beacon interval: 15 minutes
Beacons fires only if the frequency is clear for at least 30 seconds

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Broadcast

Broadcasts do not have a “delivery guaranteed” mechanism like a VARA link and they may not be received (it depends on received signal strength)
You can send a broadcast to a specific callsign or to all
Right mouse click in the Broadcast screen open another window with next info

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Broadcast Button

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Broadcast

Broadcasts do not have a “delivery guaranteed” mechanism like a VARA link and they may not be received (it depends on received signal strength)
You can send a broadcast to a specific callsign or to all.
Right mouse click in the Broadcast screen open another window with next info

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Ping

Pings are short QSO for the purpose of reports exchange only.
Pings are great to check the link between two stations.
Select that Call and then right mouse click for “get report”.

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Ping

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Screen Layout

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VarAC email

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You can send Forms in EMCOMM mode

Serves as internet Gateway

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VarAC Connect & Vmail

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Click Send Vmail
Fill out Vmail or email place
In outbox
Double Click Callsign to connect
QSY to a slot

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Vmail Alerts

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VarAC Email or Vmail

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Email or Vmail?

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Operations Basics: Tips & Tricks

Set AGC & Noise Reduction to Zero/Off
Use abbreviations/prosigns - but not so as to hide the meaning of the msg
This protocol is 100% Duty Cycle - 25 watts is fine
Use “pings” to check propagation
Broadcast to support the network
Be patient when calling CQ as VarAC is not yet as popular as FT8
Keep messages to 3 or 4 cycles, to reduce transmission times

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Resources

VarAC

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14U4xTZk9Ez6SFvC9rqpw-5Q4tW3lCl2x?usp=sharing Link to shared drive with all documents https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14U4xTZk9Ez6SFvC9rqpw-5Q4tW3lCl2x?usp=drive_link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prAN5ZOt5CQ&t=2399s

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Slide 2: Menu

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Questions

Questions / Demo

Updates

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V13 Updates: VarAC AI Gateway assistant - called ACie

Path Analyze lets you explore the SNR reports stored in the VarAC database and answer questions such as: What is the average SNR per hour? Per band? What is the best time of day for me on 20M? What is the average SNR I receive from a specific Grid locator on 40M throughout the day? I want to chat with my friend Irad 4Z1AC — what is the best hour and band to reach him? What are the activity times of NC3Z on each band?

Broadcast Inquire: You can now send a broadcast using some of the Inquire tags and retrieve this information without being connected to the other station. More Inquire features for Broadcasts will be added in upcoming versions. Please note: Inquire requests can only be sent to a specific callsign — sending to "ALL" is not supported.

QSY Notification: In the broadcast window, you’ll now see a new 'QSY' dropdown on the right. Just pick a frequency from the list, and VarAC will automatically send out a notification.

Show my Beacons/CQ:

For all Email Gateway operators: Until now, only Gmail was supported. Now, you can use any SMTP/IMAP service by configuring both your username and password.

Many of you use GPS—or at least share a fixed GPS location when Inquired. We’ve added a neat enhancement: GPS tags are now clickable! When a GPS location is shared, clicking it will open Google Maps at that exact spot.

Path Finder Focus – Callsign box is auto-focused and ready for typing.

Database Fixer – under Tools → Database Fixer to repair VarAC database issues.

QSL Default Message – Customize your default QSL message (Settings → Misc. → QSL).

Broadcast Narration – Separate narration settings for incoming and outgoing broadcasts.

Alert Center – Added “Delete All” button for archived alerts.

Clickable Links – Links in VMails are now clickable.

IMAP Username – Configurable IMAP username for non-Gmail gateways.

CAT Command Wait Time – New parameter DefaultPortWaitTimeMs for rigs with slow baud rates.

Reply Button Visibility – “Reply” button shown only in Inbox and Sent folders.

Alert Tags – Increased from 10 to 20 configurable alert tags.

Last Frequency Load – Works even without rig frequency control.

New Theme – Added appearance theme “Alister.”

Updated Tags – <UTCTIME> → <UTCDT>, <MYTIME> → <MYDT>.

New Time Tags – <UTCT> for UTC time only, <UTCD> for UTC date only.

RING! Attention – Brings VarAC to the front and shakes window for visibility.

DXCC Prefixes – Added new prefixes (TG, TE...).

Callsign Tags – New menu item to edit your tag list.

Grid Locator – Locator now mandatory in “My Information” settings.

CQ Slot Sniffer – Extended duration to 8 seconds.

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Comparison

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Mode	Off-Grid	Ease of Use	Store MSG	FWD MSG	SMS	Email	Forms	Photos
JS8	2	2	2	2	2	0	1	0
VarAC	2	2	2	2	2	2	1	2

Higher is better

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Classes at EARC Meetings

Meshtastic: 18 SEP 25
Stay Connected: 20 Nov 2025
VarAC: 16 Apr 26

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