<div dir="auto"><div>That is great news. Sadly I feel like the proprietary windows only nature of a lot of these modes is why they never really take off as much as they should.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">With modes that have an open source implementation it can be much easier to properly setup igates as well as have reassurance that it will be properly maintained and able to run on modern hardware well into the future. If APRS had used a proprietary encoding from the start it never would have taken off the way it has.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">-Jess</div><div dir="auto">K5LLI</div><div dir="auto"><br><div class="gmail_quote" dir="auto"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Mon, Jan 9, 2023, 6:19 AM Stephen H Smith via aprssig <<a href="mailto:aprssig@lists.tapr.org">aprssig@lists.tapr.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div>
<p><font face="Arial">After spending nearly the entire New Year's
3-day weekend twiddling TCP/IP settijngs, serial port emulators,
sound card drivers, etc, I now have the VARA high-performance
HF soft-modem working with the UIview and APRSpoint APRS
programs. <br>
</font></p>
<p><font face="Arial">I am using a stack of components from "VSPE"
(Virtual Serial Ports Emulator) to create a serial-to-TCPIP
bridge to connect the serial-only KISS output of UIview to the
network (TCP/IP) KISS connection provided in the VARA
soft-modem. <br>
</font></p>
<p><font face="Arial">For nearly 40 years, HF APRS has used classic
300-baud 200-Hz-shift HF packet (mostly on 30 meters) as it's
transmission method. However, packet is a horrible mode on HF
with poor immunity to noise and HF selective fading. </font><font face="Arial"> I've been using the "UZ7HO Soundmodem" soundcard
"soft TNC" (arguably the best HF packet TNC - hardware or
software) for this purpose. However, it still falls far short of
modes like MFSK16 or PSK63 for weak-signal data operation. <br>
</font></p>
<p><font face="Arial">For about two years, I have been experimenting
with using FLdigi as a KISS modem for HF APRS on both 30 and 60
meters. 60 meters tends to be a noisy band, putting a premium
on data modes that can perform error-free at low signal-to-noise
ratios. My web site about this is here:</font></p>
<p><font face="Arial"> <a href="http://WA8LMF.net/FLdigiAPRS" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer"><http://WA8LMF.net/FLdigiAPRS></a><br>
</font></p>
<p>Over the weekend of the 6th and 7th of January , I conducted a
road test comparing the performance of APRS over traditional HF
300-baud AX.25 packet vs APRS using the VARA modem on 60
meters. This was a 500-mile round-trip from central Michigan
(East Lansing area) to west suburban Chicago and back. VARA was
overwhelmingly superior - by least an order of magnitude! <br>
</p>
<p>The full details, including a brief background on VARA, are on a
new page on my web site at:</p>
<p> <a href="http://WA8LMF.net/APRS_VARA" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer"><http://WA8LMF.net/APRS_VARA></a></p>
<p><br>
</p>
<hr width="100%" size="2">Stephen H. Smith wa8lmf (at) <a href="http://aol.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">aol.com</a> <br>
Skype: WA8LMF<br>
EchoLink: Node # 14400 [Think bottom of the 2-meter band]<br>
Home Page: <a href="http://wa8lmf.net" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">http://wa8lmf.net</a><br>
<br>
-- APRS over FLdigi Modes --<br>
<a href="http://wa8lmf.net//FLdigiAPRS/index.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer"><http://wa8lmf.net//FLdigiAPRS/index.htm></a><br>
<br>
60-Meter APRS! HF NVIS APRS Igate Now Operating<br>
<a href="http://wa8lmf.ddns.net:14447/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer"><http://wa8lmf.ddns.net:14447/></a><br>
<br>
Flying Digipeater!<br>
<a href="http://WA8LMF.net/FlyingDigi" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer"><http://WA8LMF.net/FlyingDigi></a><br>
<br>
11 Copies of UIview in Action on One Computer! <br>
Live Off-The-Air APRS Activity Maps<br>
<a href="http://wa8lmf.net/map" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer"><http://wa8lmf.net/map></a><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><font face="Arial"> </font></p>
<p><font face="Arial"><br>
</font></p>
<p></p>
</div>
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</blockquote></div></div></div>