PiGate Emergency Email Server

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Lewis Maxwell

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Jul 16, 2017, 9:20:22 PM7/16/17

to HamRadioElPaso

There are two PiGates in El Paso County now. Warren, KE5APX and myself, KB5HPT has a PiGate. The PiGate can be taken into a disaster area along with an FM radio or a Pactor TNC and an HF radio and setup in a shelter and let the residents of the shelter send email messages to their friends and family letting them know that they are alright. The PiGate will connect to a Winlink 2000 packet RMS and the email will be delivered anywhere in the world. The residents connect to the PiGate using their Smartphone, tablet or laptop via WiFi and compose the email and send it. The system operator will approve the email and allow the email to be sent.

The PiGate consists of a Raspberry Pi 2 or 3 Model B computer. It has a Pi TNC sitting on top of the RPi connecting to the Pi GPIO header. The Pi TNC connects to the radio via a RS-232 cable. If an Internet connection is available the PiGate will go directly to the Internet and connect to the Winlink 2000 CMS (Common Message Server).

The regular Winlink 2000 system uses a packet RMS which is connected to the Internet and send email to one of five CMS servers. In the event a regular Winlink packet station can not communicate with the local packet RMS the PiGate can be used. I have just completed construction of a PiGate RMS. The PiGaate RMS has to have an Internet connection just like the regular packet RMS does. It will function just as the regular RMS will.

For more information on the PiGate and PiGate RMS go to http://www.pigate.net. This is a valuable addition to the EMCOMM toolbox.

Lew

AG6IP

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Dec 3, 2018, 8:13:28 PM12/3/18

to HamRadioElPaso

Hi, I was wondering if you have time to see and check if your pigate works with another non ham user that you created. I built one few days ago and seems like email only goes out if its a legit winlink call that signs on. So, if I log on with my callsign an email gets sent and is received no problem but if I simulate a new user and log on and send an email with the new user login seems like the email doesn't go out. Let me know. Thanks.