If you were so inclined to travel to Indiana to enjoy the colors of autumn you most likely would visit the parks in the southern part of the state. Where I live in East-Central Indiana is never part of the leaf-peeping conversation, but this season nature is just downright showing off for us. The colors are spectacular and though I’m no expert, I would guess that we are at, or very close to peak colors here. Simply gorgeous and a terrible pity it can’t stay this way for about six months each year.

I’ve gotten into the early morning habit of listening to the radio while the coffee is brewing. This morning while waiting on the first Cup of Joe I snagged BG0CAB on 15 meters using FT8 (1200z). He confirmed via LoTW 30 seconds later. Yeah, I know, FT8 will eventually kill ham radio, but hey, long before that happens Vlad the Insane is going to nuke the planet. So eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die and can stop fretting about the evil mode and it’s long-term impact on ham radio…

Speaking of HF digital, I stumbled into VarAC yesterday. Not sure how. One minute I was reading about it being a “modern HF P2P real-time chatting application” and the next minute it was installed. Five minutes later I made my first contact. I managed a few more before deciding it might be useful to read the manual. It helped that I already had the Vara HF modem installed from a seldom used WinLink installation. The only problem is that I don’t see where LoTW supports the VarAC mode so I’m not quite sure how to handle QSLing. Otherwise, impressive software!