Posted: 11/1/2016 9:23:13 PM EDT
| Anyone use it? How does it work? |
| I use Winlink (albeit rarely), which supports WINMOR. Works great. Getting it setup and running is not super intuitive, but once you have the process down it's pretty easy. I usually write up a little cheat sheet for myself because I inevitably forget something between uses. |
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OK, this is easy. Winlink is a system comprised of a bunch of volunteers who set up radio stations, so called "Radio Mail Server", or "RMS" stations, to act as radio gateways to what is otherwise a fairly ordinary distributed email server system. Send a message to an RMS station and it is forwarded to whatever email recipients you want. If somebody sends an email message to your Winlink address, you'll get it when you connect to an RMS station. One caveat, and that is you must follow the rules here to ensure that mail is forwarded.
RMS stations can exchange messages using one of two protocols: WINMOR or PACTOR. WINMOR is a free, software defined, "sound card" mode. Setting up for WINMOR is very similar to setting up for such things as PSK, Olivia, JT65, etc. PACTOR is a hardware based modem that costs real money, and a lot of it. WINMOR is slower but free. PACTOR is much faster but costs money. RMS stations support one or both modes, depending on what the volunteer owner of the station has set up. See here for a list of who's got what, where. To use Winlink most people use Winlink Express software. It comes with WINMOR and supports an external PACTOR modem if you have one. It's a bit complicated to set up but there are plenty of youtube videos to follow. Both WINMOR and PACTOR are so-called "ARQ" modes, which stands for the very poorly termed "automatic repeat request". This is a lossless, packetized mode. You send packets and the outstation sends acknowledgments. If the acknowledgment is "negative" then the software sends the packet again until it gets through. Vice versa for packets coming to you. This is very different than one way protocols like Olivia or PSK. When you first try a contact it will quickly become clear to you how this works. Both WINMOR and PACTOR require reasonably good propagation to work, particularly at the higher speeds. This is NOT Olivia or JT65. If you can't make contact with an RMS it's probably because propagation is bad, not because your station or the RMS is not working. This is the most common compliant among Winlink users, i.e. "Why can't I connect?" Let's face it, HF is NOT a reliable means of commo, at least not with the power and frequency limitations associated with the amateur radio service. Finally, RMS station info is downloaded into Winlink Express. If the S is HTF'ing you'll want an up to date RMS list before that happens. So use it early and often, practice makes perfect, and all that. |
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Both WINMOR and PACTOR require reasonably good propagation to work, particularly at the higher speeds. This is NOT Olivia or JT65. If you can't make contact with an RMS it's probably because propagation is bad, not because your station or the RMS is not working. This is the most common compliant among Winlink users, i.e. "Why can't I connect?" Let's face it, HF is NOT a reliable means of commo, at least not with the power and frequency limitations associated with the amateur radio service. Finally, RMS station info is downloaded into Winlink Express. If the S is HTF'ing you'll want an up to date RMS list before that happens. So use it early and often, practice makes perfect, and all that. Yup... I have read some prepper lit where the guy suggested using QRP winmor as a secure message system... My first thought was. Aha here is someone that has never actually used it... To be fair its great when it works well, but there have been times recently where i have struggled to make links using 100W much less 5w... |
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Anyone use it? How does it work? I've used it a few times - we have statewide exercises that use WINMOR peer-to-peer with NVIS antennas on 40/60/80. I've had the same experience twice now: - 60m is a valuable band despite the wonky channelization. I need to print out a cheat-sheet with the channels and the "dial frequencies" for running WINMOR over them (or get rig control working again...) - I run QRP on these drills, not because it's a good idea (it's a terrible one) but because it's all I have. I have yet to accomplish the stated goals of the exercise, and despite having a correctly tuned crossed dipole for 40 & 80m, have yet to talk directly to net control who is only 50 miles or so away. I have always been able, however, to make rock solid contact with an established RMS 350 miles away. With 10w. Propagation is huge with WINMOR. Antenna selection and deployment, also huge. But, if everybody has their shit together, the bands are up, and folks have practice? You can move a ton of info. I will also say that I'm distantly hopeful that ARDOP is implemented smoothly/ever. It's similar to WINMOR in that it is a sound card mode (no modem needed) that works natively in Winlink Express (The Artist Formerly Known as RMS Express) but is cross-platform. I would greatly enjoy a solution that allows me to use linux on the computers needed to run this. |
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Great comments above. A thought on propagation. One of the reasons i like using it, is even if propagation between me and the station i'm trying to hit is bad, propagation is generally not sooo bad that you cant get to someones RMS station somewhere in another direction. As such, if you can get an email into the system, and the buddy that you cant reach directly, can get into another station somewhere else, he can still retrieve that email. werks pretty good!
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Sounds like a television commercial for a casino. 
I think ecope mentioned that uses it on a somewhat regular basis. Perhaps for MARS. Might shoot him a PM. I try to use it pretty often. Getting it to run with a KX3, It can be a challenge. I'm currently off the air as Windoze 10 did an automatic update and for the life of me I cannot make my microphone settings stay turned on. |
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I try to use it pretty often. Getting it to run with a KX3, It can be a challenge. I'm currently off the air as Windoze 10 did an automatic update and for the life of me I cannot make my microphone settings stay turned on. Quoted:
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Sounds like a television commercial for a casino.
I think ecope mentioned that uses it on a somewhat regular basis. Perhaps for MARS. Might shoot him a PM. I try to use it pretty often. Getting it to run with a KX3, It can be a challenge. I'm currently off the air as Windoze 10 did an automatic update and for the life of me I cannot make my microphone settings stay turned on. Why is the KX3 an issue? I haven't had any problems with mine when running digital. And yeah, I'm having decode problems lately due to the Win 10 update. |
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Why is the KX3 an issue? I haven't had any problems with mine when running digital. And yeah, I'm having decode problems lately due to the Win 10 update. The setup of sound levels to effectively run the various winmore winlink settings were different than the settings for other digital modes I ran from DM780 or JT modes. I found that writing all the various settings down assisted greatly when swapping between those. |