[aprssig] Another APRS-over-VARA Road Trip About to Start

Sun Jul 19 13:44:20 EDT 2026

I will be departing Tuesday afternoon (21 July) on my annual road trip to the 
Evergreen Jazz Festival <https://evergreenmjazz.org> in the Colorado Rockies 40 
miles/64 km  west of Denver.    I will, once again, be testing APRS beaconing 
over VARA en route, and at the festival.

Depending on propagation, I will be either on 30 meters or 40 meters.   The 
mobile setup will be my "VARAtrack" device, a Yaesu FT-891 and mono-band 
Quicksilver Radio "Quicksticks" on a ball mount on my Jetta TDI.

*HF    APRS-over-VARA  Frequencies
   40M   7.083.5  USB       30M   10.148.2  USB
*

As in previous years, I will be beaconing on both 2 meters, and on HF VARA.

*WA8LMF* (no SSID)     is the two-meter beacon

*WA8LMF-3*    is the HF VARA beacon, either on 30M or 40M

Unlike previous years, I will NOT be HF beaconing on classic 300-baud AX.25 
packet.APRS.  Traditionally, I have used WA8LMF-2 for this mode. Over several 
years now, VARA has shown to be so overwhelmingly superior to AX.25 that I have 
decided that the added hassle of dual-mode beaconing isn't worth bothering with.

You can follow the trip on the usual websites, or on my own RoadTrip Tracker on 
my website at:

<http://wa8lmf.net/RoadTrip/Tracker/index.htm>

This displays a composite of what my off-the-air receiver at my home QTH is 
hearing on HF, along with 2-meters from the APRS-IS.

  Once I get into Colorado (some time late Thursday afternoon), my "Special 
Events" page (which normally covers hamfests, swapmeets, Dayton, etc) should 
start showing me heading west on I-76.   The default page is currently set to 
show the greater Denver/Front Range area of Colorado, with a second page 
showing the detail of the Evergreen, CO area.

<http://wa8lmf.ddns.net:14445/>

More links and info:

This page contains links to details on the VARA high-performance soundcard 
soft-modem,   how to use VARA with APRS clients,  and my lightweight 
"VARAtrack" tracker device based on a cheap "stick PC".

      <http://WA8LMF.net/VARA

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stephen H. Smith wa8lmf (at) aol.com

Live APRS Mapping on HF & VHF
<http://WA8LMF.net/map>

"Studio B" Ham Shack on Wheels
<http://WA8LMF.net/Aliner>

-- APRS over VARA  --
<http://wa8lmf.net/VARA/APRSoverVARA>