I have configured RadioMail between my Windows computer and my IC-7300 using varanny.
Works great and have sent a few emails.
My one complaint is that RadioMail will QSY to a frequency and immediately start to transmit without checking to see if the channel is busy.
I don't know if there is a way for RadioMail to check and not transmit if the channel is busy (Winklink express does this).
Or QSY but require the user to listen to see if the channel is busy and if the channel is clear click a button in RadioMail again start the transmission.
RadioMail issue PTT cmd to the rigctrl agent when it receives a PTT ON cmd from VARA itself indicating. that VARA is ready to transmit. Presumably VARA, as the modem, is monitoring the channel for free/busy but maybe that's not the case.
Have you witness such case when transmission occurs on a busy channel?
As a general rule of good radio practice, I listen to the frequency to confirm that it is open before transmitting, no matter the mode.
When I used Radiomail and the radio started to transmit immediately after QSY, I cancelled the transmission so I could listen and then restarted the transmission.
Prior to Radiomail I used Winlink Express. It does have a “Channel Busy” indicator. I didn’t know if that data came from Winlink Express or Vara. But I have seen when the channel is marked as Busy by Winlink Express when it is just QRN/QRM. It will let you transmit, but asks you again if you are sure.
In my opinion, I would have Radiomail QSY to the frequency immediately after selecting the desired station from the list. That gives the operator the opportunity to listen and confirm the channel is clear. I feel more comfortable if the human (rather than the software alone) had the opportunity to confirm the channel is clear. The human is the one ultimately responsible for not interfering with other operators.
If the channel is clear the human can click the Connect button in Radiomail and the transmission can start.
It is the same number of clicks from the human.
It is more efficient as you can check multiple channels quickly when looking for a clear channel.
It helps prevent unintentional interference to other operators.
Overall I really like the app. It is a clean and modern app. (Winlink Express is so Windoz 95)
I like the ability to create different profiles for the various radios
I like the way the directory and favorites are organized
I like the ability to select “Send & Receive”, “Send Only”, and “Receive Only”. This is a huge time saver.
I have not explored the digipeater option, but if I can get that working for Vara, it will be huge for 2 meters.
Overall the app is great!
Thank you for developing this.
Thanks for the thoughtful suggestion. VARA does have a BUSY feedback to the app, so perhaps that's what Express uses. I should experiment with that.
One way to work around this is of course to manually QSY the radio first, but who wants to do that
I'll have to play around with this some more. I must confess I had not put too much thoughts on busy channel. This is probably due to the fact that operating from an island, there isn't that much traffic so that use case was not something on my mind. I can see how that could be more of an issue in other places/situations.
