Winlink Setup

So you want to get started with sending email over the radio waves. Well you are not the only one. This is my experience getting setup assuming you have no knowledge about packet radio to successfully sending emails. Now like everything else with ham radio this all starts with some hardware. Below is the hardware and software that I used 

Now I want to just state that this is my experience and my experience alone. As with most things there is more than 1 way to do this but this is the route that I followed. You may also being asking yourself how I came up with the software and hardware listed above, and for the hardware it was simple for me. It was what I had. I recently purchased the FT100D and it came with the signallink sound card so it was a no brainer for me. If you are wanting to get into this your self I would suggest you do your own research, talk to some elmers and come up with what will work best for you. 

Now when it comes to the software I used WinLink express seemed like the logical choice to do winlink but Sound Modem was something that good old google suggest to me. To use packet radio you need to have some sort of TNC or terminal node controller. My radio does not have one of those and the one I attempt to build is still not quite operational yet but that is a post for another day. Since I did not already have a functioning hardware TNC and I want to try this in the moment software was the answer. I wanted a simple software interface that just worked and so far for me Sound Modem has been just that. Well enough of me rambling let get on with how to set everything up

Step 1 - Hardware

Lets get our radio setup to talk to our computer. Now you can do winlink over multiple different frequencies. As of writing this I do not have an HF antenna setup so I will be focusing on VHF so if all you have is your technician license, do worry you can do this to. From my understanding any radio will work just fine for this, even the cheap 5 watt hts as long as they can reach the packet nodes. There are a minimum of 3 connections that you will need with 4 being preffered in my opinion. GND, Audio Out, Audio In, and PTT if you don't have VOX on your radio. For my setup since it was used and digital had already been done it was a matter of plugging in the signal to my radio. You can do this with the built in sound card on your computer and vox enabled on your ht though. Dont be afraid to try new things, that is what amateur radio is all about. There are to many different combinations of radios out there for me to cover them all so I suggest you google your equipment and figure out how to get it setup. Find someone in your local club who has some experience with digital and ask them for help

Step 2 - Software Download

You may think the hardware is the first step but I think getting your computer setup and ready to go is probably the better starting point. If you are following in my foot steps you will want to download WinLink Express - https://downloads.winlink.org/User%20Programs/ and Sound Modem - http://uz7.ho.ua/packetradio.htm. Once you get them downloaded go ahead and get them installed. 

Step 3 - SoundModem Setup

Now I do not know if I go super lucky or if this is how it goes more most people by SoundModem basically just worked out of the box and it was absolutely wonderful. But, there was 1 setting that I did change. With SoundModem open lets open up the device settings you can do this by clicking on "settings" in the top left corner of the window then "Devices". In here there are a few things that you will need to make sure are setup correctly. First is the "output device". Make sure that this is set to the device that is hooked up to your radio. Next is your "input device" most likely is the dame device as the output but your mileage may vary. It is also important to make sure nothing else on your system is using this output or you will be transmitting random noises  our your radio. The other item I had to check was to enable the KISS Server by checking the enable box. It defaults to port 8100 which is fine but you are welcome to change it if your heart desires. Once you hit okay you will have to restart the software for changes to take effect so go ahead and do that

Step 4 - Winlink Setup

Like so much of our software today you are going to need an account. If you have not gotten ahead of me yet then go ahead and open winlink. Now I dont remember doing this exactly but according to their website "With an internet connection, fill out the form presented on first startup. Be sure to include a password and password recovery address. Click 'Update'. Winlink Express makes the process easy. Your account is created!" So open the software and follow what it tells you. Once you have your account created I believe it auto fills in your information but just to be safe lets go ahead and check a few things. Go to "settings" then "winlink express setup" from the top left corner of the window. This should popup a screen. The only information I have in there is my callsign, password, recovery email. Grid Square, Name, and Non winlink email. Everything else I left blank or at its defaults. 

Step 5 - Test your settings

Now you may consider this cheating but I like to test everything in steps to keep me from having to figure out where the problem is. So lets go ahead and create an email to send to yourself. To the right of the "settings" drop down we used a minute ago is the "Message" drop down. Go ahead and click "new message". Put your non winlink email in the to box and give it a subject. Next click the "Post to Outbox" in the top left corner. Now to cheat, the first email we send will be via the internet not via packet, but again this is just to test the software. A little past the middle of the window at the top is a button that says "Open Session:" and to the right of that is a drop down. Chose "Telnet Winlink" then click open session. A new window will open and a few seconds later it should say "**** Ready" right below exit. Go ahead and click "Start" from the menu at the top of the window. This will connect you to the email server using a telnet connection and send that email to yourself. After a little bit you should see a message that says Disconnected. If all went according to plan you should have an email from yourself in your non winlink email. Close the Telnet Winlink Session Window

Step 6 - Time for Packet

Now assuming everything is working so far it is time to send an email over rf. We need to go back to that drop down menu that we selected Telnet in and change it to  "Packet Winlink" Then go ahead and click Open Session" again. Now this time we can just click start we have some settings we need to change first so go ahead and click settings. Below is a list of things that you will need to set

  • Packet TNC Type - KISS - This is coming from sound modem and if you remember we enable a KISS server
  • Packet TNC Model - Normal
  • Serial port - TCP - Now if you are like me this is a little confusing because we are not actually using a serial port so I don't like their wording but it is what it is
  • TCP Host/Port - 127.0.0.1 and 8100 - Now 127.0.0.1 is the loopback address so it is just saying the computer you are on. Technically you could have your radio on a different computer on your network but that is outside the scope of this initial setup. 8100 is the port that sound modem uses unless you changed it than use that one

With those settings changed you can hit the update button at the bottom of the screen. Now we need to pick a packet node to talk to. Click on "Channel Selection" at the top of the window. Next Click on "Update Table Via Internet" at the top of the screen. This will list all of the packet notes near your grid square. For my initial email I Went with the closest node but your mileage may vary. Before you make your selection go ahead and change your radio frequency to that of the node that you are going to use. Double click on the node you want to use. Hopefully your node is closet enough to you that your connection type can be direct, we will come back to that in a minute. Before we click start why don't you go reply to the email you sent yourself earlier, the sorter the better in my opinion. Once that is done go ahead and click start. This is going to take longer than doing it over telnet so just let it does its thing. Hopefully you will see some text that says Connected. After a little delay hopefully you disconnect and you have your email in the main window. 

Now if you cant directly connect to your a node local to you it is possible to use a digipeater to get better coverage. These are just like repeaters you may use to talk to your buddies locally but they are for packet. Now from what I can tell Winlink does not know about these so you may need to talk to someone in your club to find out if they are there but the most important part about trying to use them is for them to be on the same frequency as the node you are trying to talk to. The ARA has tWo packet digipeaters and both are on 145.09. Their callsigns are W3CWC-7 or 10 depending on the site. To setup the use of a digipeater I go to channel selection again, Pick a node on 145.09. Double click on it. Then on the Session screen change Connection type to "Digipeater" Then go ahead and hit the start button and this time you should be connecting through the digipeater. Now because this is through another device the process is going to take longer. 

Outcome

If everything went according to plan that you had a successful winlink session. on the "Packet Winlink Session" you should see some text showing information about the connection and hopefully any messages in your outbox get sent and if you have something waiting you should download it.

If you have any questions about this feel free to reach out to me at kc3tdc@antietamradio.org and I will do my best to answer your questions

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