Winlink for Emcomm

[@JohnMDiLiberto]

A very edifying presentation for a ham -- like me -- just getting into Winlink. Thanks for recording and posting. 73 de AB3ZI, Luzerne County, PA, ARES member

[@mlstanley1956]

Nicely done! Thank you! ~ Matt, Lake Oswego, OR, KK7MLS

[@jeromeloftonjr]

Just came across this today. Great video John! Thanks for posting.

[@bruceenterpriseriskservice9752]

Outstanding session. Thanks! 73, Bruce VA7BDC

[@markthienes4730]

Fantastic job, ARES member from Indiana

[@johnstrunck3659]

Thank You from a new Winlink user!

[@stephengoble9083]

The theory of having email over radio is a great idea, but in my personal opinion is Winlink is a terrible option for EMCOMM, and I have no idea who would have chosen something with basically no standardization in regards to protocol, with such a high level of complexity to set up, and which (depending on protocol) requires expensive hardware that you're not going to find in a reasonable amount of time in an emergency, much less set up quickly. I've heard many radio operators speak out that it's a bad decision to use this for EMCOMM. Almost nobody I've ever talked with that has tried to set this up actually got it working correctly and could communicate between various stations. They were lucky if they could communicate with even 1 station. If there is no internet 99.9% of people will be incapable of knowing how to (re)configure their station, or find information on what protocol other stations are running, what frequencies they are on, etc. Relying on Telent Winlink defeats the entire purpose of email over radio, which is communication during infrastructure failures. If the internet works, just send a email. It sounds cool, but it's an awful choice that's getting significant reluctance from a very large number of radio operators.

[@flashover52]

So what do you suggest as an alternative if this is such "an awful choice?" If typical communication paths are knocked out, how would you run the communications group for a city or county? More importantly, have you been involved in an EOC where multiple modes were used and if so, what was the preference coming from the Comms-L? I only ask because I have heard just the opposite. A group running voice on the radio in an EOC basically shut down their operations and handed stuff to the folks running Winlink. So I am curious on the experience that your opinion is based on. I think much comes down to practice and experience.