Hay Hey don't shoot the messenger here!! But the fact that you say it's unproven is a total falst statement. The system is highly reliable and has been utilize for several years now.
I just love it when the winstink lap dogs get upset because a BETTER, MORE CAPABLE system is has been developed.
Post AT&T building bombing in Nashville, much of TN and North Alabama where I live was without cellular and internet connection over the last 2 days. I used Winlink on HF several times to get messages to family out of state as to why they hadn't heard from me over Christmas and why any incoming calls go to voice mail. Winlink worked.
Not false - already posted why in another thread earlier this year. UrgentLink technology as developed for ARINC has been proven to work OK in its original role in the aviation industry. However the point now is its new purveyors are attempting to s-t-r-e-t-c-h and extend its APPLICATION, recover more NRE expense, through clever marketing, into a user realm, local public services, that the product and its new customers, are just not prepared or sophisticated enough, if ever, to handle well. This happens when the original ARINC company gets on a merry-go-round of acquisitions & mergers; sold to Rockwell, gets split up, some to Booz-Allen, some to SAE, some sold again to UTC, then xferred over to Collins, etc. They gotta find someway to milk more from all that financial card-shuffling, and especially since 911 all USA governments EMCOM customers are big gullible compliant cash cow prey, aka flush "low hanging fruit"; sales pitch - "if it costs more then volunteers it must be better" --------------------------------------------- 2019 - LA Communications and Fleet Management Bureau (CFMB) relies on DCS (the HAMS) to operate the HF radios (including UrgentLint) Just more under-cooked eggs in their basket thanks to Taxpayers. So much for the hype,
I've used both systems. As a civilian and Military contractor. Early on Winlink Global had the first good HF email program, developed in the 1990s But Sir there is a night and day difference between what AIRINC developed and the old antiquated Winlink. Saying that Rockwell/ Collins/AIRINC Aerospace is not a stable company is a completely stupid and almost a slanderous statement. (UTC legal staff is top notch) United Technologies and Raytheon are total Giants in Defense Contracting and Aerospace with 250,000 employees and over a Hundred Billion dollars in assets. Making Billions a year in Revenue. AIRINC alone does a Billion a year and is known worldwide as the BEST at what they have been doing for the last +80 years. Their worldwide HF network has infact saved my ass a few times over the years. Because of security issues no Federal government agency would use Winlink. Move into the 21st century. Sorry but there are newer protocols which are much more frequency efficient and secure
I apologize to Juilan and his followers for the thread diversion. Lets try to steer it back now. Admittedly I fell for the bait. Another attempt to denigrate WINLINK to hams by promoting UrgentLink just because USG porkbarrelers have recently fallen for it. Glad to see agreement. Nothin' wrong for most hams on 1990's technology, which continues to evolve. Some of us still like to use Morse code CW too. There are many and, thankfully, a growing number of radio amateur outdoor adverturists, "preppers" and others practicing for life "off grid" or in remote locations. They are simply trying to use amateur radio & information systems integration knowledge to create and practice methods for staying connected from the field via email. Using WINLINK still seems a wise & prudent choice for that. Having operators with gear and skilled in such systems available for being called into sevice for EMCOM is a bonus for everybody. Arguments that WINLINK (like Morse Code) is no longer as "state of the art" as is a commercial product like UrgentLink won't ever go very far with that crowd. Since WINLINK does work, usually pretty well for their purposes too, ham users don't care much about that. Considering the price of any commercial alternative, any suggestion for hams to switch over to UrgentLink fails too. Doubtful preppers will ever become UrgentLink clients. Anti-WINLINK discussions unfortunately often deviate into minutiae of FCC regs, commercial service alternatives versus the "basis and purpose" of the Part 97 ARS, blah, blah, etc. IMO, any suggestion that amateur radio regs do not support such self-education and remote field operations is preposterous. FYI - as pointed out previously in this thread post #3, WINLINK is not a "protocol", it's a communications system, using MANY varying protocols, and integrating lots of other components. And @OH8STN has made great progress putting that all together for field operations and educating others about it. 73, HNY, John, WØPV OUT
Well I spoke too soon...... Winmor was removed from all Winlink software in all the beta releases today. As soon as the public releases are out, that's it, it had a nice run....
Winlink isn't a protocol, you should know that. I'm still waiting for you to share the more effective protocols available to Hams that involve a working system better than Winlink that you are hinting at.
Great info, specially for new hams like myself. Lots of people prep but don’t think about the small details. I’ve been a prepper for about 11 years. I can stay home without going outside for anything for about 5 months and stay comfortable and having enough calo support my needs and if I ration everything it will probably add another 2 more months. I got everything starting from water to gas mask to laundry detergent. Having an option to communicate it’s a must for everyone specially people that are preppers. With the current political climate everyone should be making an emergency plan to deal with civil unrest, disruption of basic services like power and water, 73.
