Hello, this is my first attempt at using a Digirig Lite, Winlink and Vara FM. I am using a Tyt Th-350 HT.
I followed the setup videos and documents and was successful in making a connection, sending and receiving email via Winlink and Vara FM. I was very happy!
However, out of about 8 different Vara FM nodes that I tried to connect to I was only successful in connecting to one of them. I was wondering, do the mic and speaker levels have anything to do with being able to make that connection with the node? Or do the sound settings only impact being able to successfully operate the PTT? In other words, will experimenting with the sound levels help me improve connecting with the Vara FM nodes? Or is that impacted only by my radio and antenna capabilities? Thank you in advance!
I don’t have your radio, but in my experience with HTs and a mobile radio, as long as idling sound level is in the “green region” and the TX audio level can qualify at least one node, the performance depends on the antenna and line-of-sight to the RMS Vara FM node.
the sound settings do impact but when using speaker and microphone connections, there is a generous sweetspot.
best S/N is always the goal but you may be there already.
as noted above, if you’re connecting ok to one gateway but not another, take a look at your geographic relation to the gateway.
it takes a quality signal path to work vhf/uhf FM data reliably.
lastly, if you’re using the digirig lite vox ptt, you might try using the gpio ptt instead.
that way, any changes you make to the audio drive will not impact the ptt function.
Thanks for the advice all. I went through my setting and videos again and realized that I didn’t set my squelch to “0”. I also adjusted the VU (by the way, what does VU stand for?) to the 1 o’clock position. I was able to hit a couple more nodes after these changes. I then hooked up a roll up j-pole in place of the rubber duck and was able to connect to an additional node. Thanks again!
Yes, VU is volume unit. It is a relative measure and is nice for eyeballs. Given that nothing in the signal chain is calibrated, there is no point in attempting to measure or display “actual” values.