Winlink 2000 – An Update Victor Poor, W5SMM / AAA9WL Winlink Development Team 1282 York Circle Melbourne, FL 32904 vpoor@cfl.rr.com Abstract A lot has happened in the evolution of Winlink 2000 (WL2K) since the paper I presented at the Des Moines DCC in 2004. That paper presented the then current architecture as well as the plans for changes. Skip Navigation Help; Help for this Page; About PowerCampus Self-Service.
- WINLINK 2000 with Southern New England (SNE) packet information by Phil McNamara N1XTB - November 2007 portions provided by Steve Waterman, K4CJX (help from Loring Kutchins, W3QA) Winlink 2000 Network Administrator, Winlink 2000 Development Team LORING A KUTCHINS.
- Winlink Global Radio Email®️ is an all-volunteer project of the Amateur Radio Safety Foundation, Inc. (ARSFI), a non-profit public benefit corporation with no beneficial owners. Please give to ARSFI if you use Winlink radio email or correspond regularly with someone who does.
How to Send a RMS Express VHF Packet Message
How to send a peer to node (PTN) email such as via W5AUY-10 or AI6A-10 on 145.070 MHZ to an email address:
1. Select “Message”
2. Select “New Message”
3. Prepare the message as a WINLINK message, not as a peer to peer (PTP) message.
4. Use the email address of who you are sending to such as This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
5. Select “Post to OutBox”
6. Select 'Open Session' as 'Packet WL2K'.
7. For 'Connection Type' select 'Direct'.
8. Input the call sign of the node you are sending to such as W5AUY-10 or AI6A-10.
9. Click on 'Start'.
How to send a direct peer to peer (PTP) message to another local ham:
1. Select “Message”
2. Select “New Message”
3. Prepare the message as a Peer-to-Peer message, not as a Winlink message.
4. Use the ham call sign of who you are sending to such as W5AGM.
5. Select “Post to OutBox”
6. Select 'Open Session' as 'Packet P2P'.
7. For 'Connection Type' select 'Direct'.
8. Input the call sign of the local ham you are sending to such as W5AGM
9. Click on 'Start'.
How to send a PTP message to another local ham (digipeat) via W5AGM-10 or AI6A-10 on 145.070 MHz:
1. Prepare the message as a P2P message, not as a Winlink message.
2. Use the ham call sign of who you are sending to such as W5AGM.
3. After posting the message do 'Open Session' as 'Packet P2P'.
4. For 'Connection Type' select 'Digipeat'.
5. Input the call sign of the local ham you are sending to such as W5AGM
6. Input the via call sign of the ham that you will be digipeating through such as W5AUY-10 or AI6A-10 on 145.070 MHz.
6. Click on 'Start'.
How to send a PTN email message via a digipeater such as to AI6A on 145.070 MHZ via W5AGM-10 when Keith is not connected to the internet:
1. Prepare the message as a WINLINK message, not as a P2P message.
2. Use the call sign of who you want to send the message to such as AI6A, W5JLF, KG5BDT or W5AGM.
3. After posting the message do 'Open Session' as 'Packet P2P'.
4. For 'Connection Type' select 'Digipeater'.
5. Input the call sign of the station you want to reach such as AI6A.
6. Input the call sign of the station you are going via such as KF5AGM-10.
7. Click on 'Start'.
How to send a message to Tom Pegues (AD5DJ) using Keith’s W5AGM-10 system and call sign so that the next time Tom checks in (as Keith), your message will be automatically forwarded to him (Tom). This assumes that the internet is down and Keith or Tom has configured the W5AGM-10 system for Store and Forward.
1. Prepare your message as a WINLINK message, not as a PTP message.
2. Use the call sign of the person that you wanto to leage a message for. For this scenario that would be W5AGM (not W5AGM-10 since Tom is acting as Keith.
3. After posting your message do “Open Session” as “Packet WL2K”.
4. For “Connection Type” select “Direct”.
5. Input the call sign of the station you are sending your message to. In this case that would be W5AGM-10.
6. Set your radio to 145.070 MHz.
7. Click on “Start”.
8. When asked by the system, click on “Connect to this server”.
How to send an email message to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. via W5AUY-10 digipeating through AI6A-10:
1. Prepare your message as a WINLINK message, not as a PTP message.
2. Use the email address of who you want to send the email message to, in this case This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
3. After posting your message do “Open Session” as “Packet WL2K”.
4. For “Connection Type” select “Digipeat”.
5. Input the call sign of the WINLINK node that will be processing your message, in this case W5AUY-10. Than input the WINLINK node that you will be digipeating through (the “via”), in this case AI6A-10.
6. Click on “Start”.
For someone who likes playing with technology I’ve got this fear of impending doom that as a species, the more we become reliant on technology, that bubble will eventually burst and we will either be returned to the state of hitting rocks against things to make sparks to light fires or we will be hunted down by Schwarzenegger sized robots suffering from terminal acting syndrome!
Lets be honest the worlds financial systems now run in the construct of computer systems rather than in paper ledgers. When the power gets switched off that there ledger wasn’t such a bad idea!
As such I’m still a strong believer in engines without electronic management systems, mechanically wound watches and oil filled compasses!
Where’s this going you may ask yourself? Good question! Everyone loves being able to surf the net, send email, shop online etc etc. But what happens when the Internet gets switched off? Not such a silly question when you consider that a bloke in a JCB can put the scoop through a bundle of cables running up your street and cause havoc, a fire at the local telephone exchange can wipe out the internet for an entire city or a DOS attack on an ISP can level things at a national level!
This is where fall back systems are the best thing since sliced bread. Before the internet (and that wasn’t that long ago!) there was radio and people were doing some very clever things which have fallen out of mainstream fashion since the internet took off.
One of those things is packet radio and all of the embryonic systems which have become mainstay of the modern internet – mailboxes, email, bulletin boards.
Winlink 2000 Linux
I’m not going to regurgitate other peoples sites just to fill a page but have a Google and see what’s out there.
In short if you’ve got a radio and a way of connecting a computer to it you can in effect unplug the network cable and still achieve global communication via email without the internet. Having all of the required ingredients for this I delved into the world of Winlink and created an account.
http://www.winlink.org/ is a good place to start and a radio with a SignaLink USB can readily utilise WINMOR as a protocol without having to buy a hardware TNC, everything being done in software.
If you’ve got a few minutes the following video does a much better job at explaining how things work without being technically heavy.
As such with Winlink up and running amateur radio enthusiasts have a redundancy system which has a whole host of applications, least of all a means to let people know you are safe and well if you’re afloat on the ocean or if a civil emergency is declared and infrastructure is disabled by either them or us!
Just to prove it worked I sent myself an email!
Winlink 2000 Download
Somewhat pointless people may argue but getting an email from A to Z via a series of other people’s radios is rather neat!