Sunday Winlink Net

DeKalb ARES runs a weekly Winlink practice net. It is a digital net that runs all day Sunday: send your check-in any time from 12:00 AM until the net closes at 8:15 PM local. Checking in is simple: send a Winlink message to our WD5EMA-10 station at WD5EMA@winlink.org. The point is to practice moving a message over radio, the same skill we would lean on during an activation when the internet is down, so we encourage members to check in over an RF path rather than Telnet whenever they can.

There are three good ways to get a check-in into the net. Pick whichever matches the gear you have on hand.

1. RMS Express (Winlink Express)

Winlink Express (still widely called RMS Express) is the standard desktop Winlink client. For a net check-in, use the built-in Winlink check-in template so everyone submits the same fields and Net Control can tally the log cleanly.

1. New Message, then Select Template.
2. Open Standard Templates → General Forms → Winlink Check In. Fill out the HTML form (callsign, name, location, status, comments) and click Submit. The form fills in the To, Subject, and Body for you.
3. Set the recipient if the template did not already. In Winlink Express you can address it to just the bare callsign WD5EMA (Winlink treats a bare callsign as a Winlink user), or use the full WD5EMA@winlink.org. Then Post to Outbox.
4. Open an RF session and click Start to send: VARA FM to WD5EMA-10 on 145.530 MHz (Stone Mountain), or Packet to WD5EMA-10 on 145.590 MHz (DeKalb Fire/Rescue HQ).

→ Install Winlink Express (PDF) · → Winlink setup and check-in videos (KK4ODA)

2. VarAC email gateway

VarAC is a keyboard-to-keyboard chat client that runs over VARA HF or VARA FM. Its VMAIL feature can hand a message off to a VarAC email gateway station, which relays it out as email. Since our net address is an ordinary email address, that gets your check-in to WD5EMA@winlink.org. This procedure follows the model of the long-running VarAC Wednesday net.

1. In VarAC, click VMAIL, then check Send as email.
2. In To, enter WD5EMA@winlink.org. You can add a comma and your own email address to receive a copy.
3. Fill in a reply-to address, and set the Subject to route the message into Winlink: //WL2K DeKalb ARES Sunday Net check-in.
4. In the body, give your callsign, name, city, county, and whether you are on HF or VHF. Click SEND to place it in the VMAIL outbox.
5. This is the step that matters: your message only goes out through a station that is advertising an email gateway. Watch the beacon list and pick a station whose beacon shows the email-gateway icon. An ordinary station will not relay email. Connecting to a non-gateway station, or simply QSYing, does nothing for your check-in.
6. Connect to that gateway station (QSY to its slot and open the VarAC connection). Once you are connected to a gateway, it relays your queued VMAIL out as email automatically. Disconnect when the transfer finishes. Your own install does not need to be a gateway; you are using the connected station's service. Requires VarAC v11.0.7 or newer.

→ VarAC Wednesday check-in instructions (the canonical procedure) · → VarAC install and setup videos

3. APRSLink

APRSLink lets you send a Winlink email from nothing more than an APRS-capable radio, by messaging the WLNK-1 service over APRS. Locally your packets reach the network through the W4BOC-1 iGate on Stone Mountain on the national APRS frequency 144.390 MHz. Two one-time prerequisites: you must already have a Winlink account (APRSLink cannot create one for you, so establish it first from any Telnet or RF session), and your APRS station must have beaconed its position at least once so the gateway can message you back.

Unlike a Winlink Express or VarAC session, APRSLink makes you log in first, and it does so without ever sending your password over the air. It uses a challenge-response instead:

1. Start the login. Send any short APRS message to WLNK-1. It replies with a three-digit challenge (for example 425), which names three character positions in your Winlink password.
2. Answer the challenge. Reply to WLNK-1 with the password characters at those positions, plus three characters of your own choosing, in any order. Example: if your password is AbC123 and the challenge is 425, the characters at positions 4, 2, and 5 are 1, b, and 2, so a valid answer is something like 1b2Qz5. The three extra characters mean the same answer is never sent twice.
3. Compose the check-in. Once logged in, send an APRS message to WLNK-1: SP WD5EMA@winlink.org DeKalb Sunday Net check-in
4. Send it. Send a second APRS message to WLNK-1 with just /EX to complete and transmit the email.
5. New to it? Send H or ? to WLNK-1 and it replies with the full command list.

→ APRSLink documentation (winlink.org)

← Back to Nets & Frequencies