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 - Packet Winlink

Since this post is about packet radio focused on vhf that is how we are going to continue. If you are wanting to us HF this is we go our separate ways. In the top row we need to select Packet Winlink from the right most drop down. Next go ahead and click open Session just to the left of that drop down. A new windows should open labeled Packet Winlink Session. From the menu bar on this new window we need to select settings to setup winlink to use the sound modem software. The only thing I had to change was for Serial Port you need to Select TCP. I also used the browse button to go find soundmodem.exe so every time I open the session it launches sound modem for me. Go ahead and select update at the bottom. Next we need to tell it what winlink station we want to connect to. Use the channel Selection button at the top of the screen. You will probably have to use the Update table via internet button at the top of the new window. Once that is complete you  will see a list of packet radio station that you can choose from. Here in Hagerstown we do not have one that I can talk to directly but we have a trick up our sleeve which we will get to in a moment. The most reliable one I have found is WM3M-10 for use in Hagerstown MD. You can double click on the one you want to try. If you can not directly connect to a station you may be able to do it via a digipeater. to use a digipeater you need to change your connection type from direct to digipeater. Then in the Via box enter the digipeater you want to use. I like to use W3CWC-10. One important not is the the digipeater and the station you are trying to connect to must all be on the same frequency. For the ones I choose that would be 145.090. Make sure your radio is set correctly. You can now test your setup by hitting the Start button in the top bar. IF all goes well you should see some text start showing up in the Packet Winlink Session window. If the process doesn't complete try another station and digipeater combo. Hopefully you can find a combination that works.

Step 6 - Send your first email

Now you can close the Packet Winlink Session Window and compose your first email. Once your email is written you can open a new session and send the email via packet. If you don't know who to email you can always participate in Winlink Wednesday. More information can be found at https://winlinkwednesday.net/ 

 

 

 

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Ham at the Hagerstown Aviation Museum FARC and Friends 2 Meter QSO party 2-15-25