Too Complex for me

[Gwen Patton]

I haven't upgraded to any of the 2.x versions because I don't it's almost too complicated to begin with. Is there going to be -- or is there -- a new, updated setup guide for this new version? The set of pictures that constituted the old guide was hard enough to understand for me, and was almost no help at all.

If it's more complicated now, I'm probably at my limit unless the documentation gets a lot better. Otherwise, I'll have to keep bugging Craig all the time, and I don't want to do that 

Heck, I don't even know what all the current capabilities are, and what the apps even do. What the heck IS "Vara", anyway? I know what WSJT-X is. I don't know what half the rest is, how to set it up, or why I would want it. Maybe if it's all described, I might say "hey, that would be useful" and set it up. But so far, I'm just head scratching.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Confused,

Gwen, NG3P

[Bruce Robertson]

Hi, Gwen --

Here's a shot at explaining VARA, etc. within the context of Digipi.

You remember those phone modems we used to use to turn the computer's data into sounds suitable for transmission over phone lines? Well, Vara is a modem too, but it isn't a box (hardware), it's a modem done in software. It turns a computer's data into sounds suitable for transmission over radio, either HF or VHF.

Just as back in the day the modem wasn't enough (you also needed your email program or file transfer program, or web browser), so, too, with radio modems, you have applications that make use of the modem. So 'Pat' is a sort of email client that does that, working in a framework known as 'Winlink'.

Now Vara is apparently very efficient, but it is, I understand, closed source and windows based. So many folks, including Craig and I, prefer the open-source alternative, ARDOP, for HF. It, too, is a software modem, so all you need is to find a 'server' station that also has an ARDOP modem and you can talk to it. VARA servers are perhaps more common, but you'll find an ARDOP one that works.

ARDOP doesn't use the full bag of tricks that Vara does. Folks have dreamed therefore of a modem that is both open-source AND as good as Vara. As it happens, a team is working on just such a modem, called Mercury. When it is proven stable and well optimized, my guess is that many ARDOP-based server stations will switch to it. Craig recently mentioned that he's working on adding Mercury to Digipi. How cool is that! (Sometimes people complain about hams having too many alternatives. To my mind, the alternatives show that we are doing what we're supposed to: experimenting with radio!)

If you used packet radio with the same computer that you surfed the web with, you know that you didn't need that dial-up modem to do your packet radio. The same is true in Digipi: for APRS or packet, you don't turn ARDOP on, you turn on the APRS or packet switches. 

I've found it helpful to treat my digipi as a quick way to get all the little configuration files, etc., working. Then I can explore stuff in greater detail, like 30m APRS, which I'd probably never have explored otherwise because I would have blown at least one of the config files. In other words, you can learn by researching a bit and by doing stuff. I've found that Chrome's Google AI knows about digipi and can give good guidance once you do a general search.

73, 

Bruce VE9QR

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[Gwen Patton]

Thanks, Bruce, that helped a LOT. Really. I appreciate that thoughtful answer. 

I'm doing my best with this stuff. I'm going through a lot lately, and I'm glad for amateur radio, to distract me from the grief of my wife going Silent Key in May. 

That's why I'm a bit less "with it" , and ready to just Google it and did through the -- sometimes less than well-written -- docs on the program's website.

I looked at the Winlink, Vara, and Pat websites, and they were not written for ease of understanding. 

That's why I posted my question. Your reply helped. Thanks.

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73,

Gwen, NG3P

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