But hey - that's still not all.
VarAC lets you move between frequencies... and the missing piece in that puzzle was always the antenna tuner.
???? Introducing: Auto Antenna Tuning VarAC can now trigger your RIG antenna tuner every time it moves between frequencies or only between bands (band-skip). This only works with supported rigs that has a CAT command that triggers the tuner.
And no, its still not all there is in V7.1.4.
Here is the full list of features and improvements.
A list of fixed bugs can be found in toward the end of this email.
New features
- Auto QSY recovery: in case one of the sides failed to QSY both sides will return the me main frequency. This is done by new QSY accept / reject tags. Both sides need to be on the latest version for this to work.
- Extended Alert tags: now searched in all broadcasts elements (FROM/TO/MSG), CQs and Beacons. You can now get alert for specific prefixes calling CQ/Beacon, set a Broadcast alert group etc.
- Granular Alert tags: Enabling/Disabling alert tags per element (Beacon / CQ / Broadcast / DataStream)
- Auto antenna tune upon frequency change. You can set to always or only during band skip. (works with CAT & FLrig with and only with supported rigs).
- TCP based CAT control (For all those modern SDRs)
- Frequency offset calibration - for those rigs with a drifted VFO
- VarAC Start CAT command. CAT file now has a new parameter you can customize "VarACStartCmd=". This CAT command will be executed upon VarAC startup incase you want to put your rig in a certain state prior to start using VarAC.
- "In QSO with" now shows the name of your QSO partner if already had a QSO with him in the past.
- For Developers - New SQLite tables (Find more info HERE)
- "qso" - all VarAC QSOs.
- "contact" - all callsigns you ever connected with.
- New VarAC.ini parameters (Only available by manually editing the INI file)
- ShowNoCatQSYPopup: Suppress QSY popups when no CAT control is available
- FrequencyListCustomFilePath: Set a custom frequency list file using a new VarAC.ini parameter
- SafetyPTTOffEveryMinute: enable/disable the safety mechanism of PTT OFF every minutes while idle
- VarACLogFileRetentionDays: How many days to keep entries in the VarAC.log file (default 30 days)
- PTTDisableAfterFreqChangeSeconds: Temporarily disable PTT for X seconds after frequency change (for those antennas that need a long tune cycle before TX)
Enhancements/Changes
- QSY Back now also prompts for user confirmation with Auto selection with a countdown timer.
- Incoming ping is narrated as "Ping from..." Instead of "Connected to..."
- Detecting misconfiguration where VarAC VARA modem type is not the same as the actual connected VARA modem.
- Changing "DISCO" gesture to "RING!" which will create a long phone ring to drag an op attention.
- "DING" gesture is now "DING!"
- Keeping Broadcast windows always on top while open.
- Forcing the use of VARA V4.7.3 or higher.
- "Callsign block list" feature not also applied to incoming broadcasts.
- "Callsign block list" now perform upper-case to all callsigns.
- Reducing the max time for QSO on CF to 4 minutes (now with auto-QSY there is no need for CF Long links)
- Disabled manual typing into the QSO-Log dropdowns RST-S, RST-R, BAND
- Disabling VARA monitor for VARA-FM.
To upgrade from an existing VarAC version:
- Download the VarAC Zip file.
- Unpack to a temporary directory.
- Copy ONLY the VarAC.exe file to your existing VarAC installation directory.
As always - we are always there for you on our
Forum, our
Facebook group, and also on our new
Telegram group.
I would like to thank our
Beta team for investing their dedication in contentiously testing and bug-reporting so you can gave a smooth VarAC journey. TU guys ????????
73,
Irad 4Z1AC & the VarAC team.
