Winlink Wednesay is Back! Winlink Wednesday #1

[Chris Sullivan]

Welcome (back) to the York Region Amateur Radio Club Winlink Wednesday Exercise. A new exercise will be released each week, except for weeks when a “Winlink Thursday” or  semi-annual drill exercise is conducted by the EmComm Training Organization, in which you are encouraged to participate. Our goal is to improve our proficiency with Winlink and how it can be used for reliable emergency communications

Past participants are listed here. Please address all messages to this group unless otherwise stated. This message is being addressed to a wider audience who will not necessarily receive notice of subsequent exercises. If you want to be included, please participate in this exercise, or reply to this email stating that you wish to be included.

K7AOZV; VA3AG; VA3BOF; VA3BXG; VA3DXZ; VA3FUZ; VA3KES; VA3LLT; VA3MCT; VA3MGN; VA3NH; VA3NPW; VA3OMW; VA3PYC; VA3QT; VA3RYC; VA3VWX; VA3WAH; VE3ANC; VE3CGR; VE3CYU; VE3EB; VE3ECI; VE3EMA; VE3EZ; VE3HIS; VE3LRK; VE3MUU; VE3NKL; VE3NRT; VE3NY; VE3ORE; VE3QAD; VE3SMF; VE3XBI; VE3XOE; VE3YCL; VE3YX;

We are also resuming our Wednesday night general technical help virtual meetings at 7PM, starting on Wednesday, September 4th. These sessions are being hosted by our Assistant Emergency Coordinator, Benny VE3MUU and will provide technical assistance for any amateur radio issue, including Winlink. The URL for this meeting is: https://meet.google.com/bcw-rtnu-ukd

On Thursdays, starting on September 5^th, also at 7PM, Benny will host a Winlink-specific virtual meeting. To provide everyone with the greatest opportunity for success, we will hold Winlink Wednesday submissions open until the end of day on Fridays, so that you can take advantage of the evening help sessions. The URL for this meeting is: https://tel.meet/bcw-rtnu-ukd?pin=6997612603968

 

You do not need to be a member of the York Region Amateur Radio Club to participate in Winlink Wednesday or the virtual meetings. We will also run the exercise from Wednesday to Friday so that you have time to work through and/or get help with any problems you may encounter. We want you to succeed.

This week’s exercise

To get everyone warmed up, please install Winlink Express on your computer. Linux/Mac users can try running Winlink Express under Wine or try using  “Pat” software as an alternative to Winlink Express, although it may be more difficult to get help on those alternative approaches.

If you haven’t already done so, you will need to create an account on Winlink.org. Check out this video on installing and setting up Winlink on a Windows computer.

Then use Winlink to create and send a message to the group. To create the message, select “Message->New message” on the menu bar. Paste the call signs you see above in the To field and enter “YRARC Winlink Wednesday” as the subject line.

In the body of your message, please include any relevant training you have received (or can provide) for Emergency response or communications, such as Incident Management System (IMS) training, first-aid, heavy urban search & rescue, etc.

For new users, the simplest way to send a message is to use the Telnet client, which sends the message to the Winlink network via the Internet. Next to “Open Session” on the menu bar, select “Telnet Winlink”, then click “Open Session” to activate the Telnet window. When you see the “Ready” message, click “Start” to send you message and receive any that were sent to you. Once that’s done you can exit the Telnet window.

Advanced Practitioners

If this is old hat to you, use RF to send your message. Make a note of the RMS systems you connect to, which bands & modes you used, the signal to noise ratio, and how well the connections worked.

What is Telnet?

The Telnet protocol was developed to allow computer terminals to access host computers over TCP/IP networks like the Internet. Winlink uses it as a basis for sending email messages over the Internet. It is not used for radio messaging and only requires a wired or wireless connection to the Internet to connect to the Winlink messaging system.

That’s it for this week. I’m looking forward to see your messages come in on my Winlink Client. Don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

73,

Chris VE3NRT
pres...@yrarc.org

[Chris Sullivan]

The correct Thursday evening Winlink Technical Support Virtual Meeting link is  https://meet.google.com/bke-xaxc-nia

Thanks Benny VE3MUU for pointing that out.

73,
Chris