I learned to do this with my FT991A, You talked about reasons to learn it, I just went to give you the reason I wanted too, and needed to learn it. My hunting cabin does not have cell service or any other means of communication other than air waves, my wife don't care nothing about ham radio, so putting a HT or a radio of any sort in her hand was never going to be an option. I can talk to my fellow hams through HF and through nearby repeaters. So the only way I can get a message to her being a non ham was to send an email through HF. It was definitely worth the learning experience. Not to mention working field day that was a good way to pick up some bonus points. Keep up the good videos. 73s KC4SOT
Similar system, similar reasons ... I live most of the year on a yacht. Whilst 3G/4G is usually available in coastal waters, often up to 20 miles out, we were effectively incommunicado during ocean passages. Unfortunately, this is when you really want weather information and wind data... or, just to let folks know everything is okay. Marine HF allows access to a volunteer service called sail-mail, which is effectively the same service for sailors who have taken the LRC (Long Range "HF" Certificate) ... it is a great alternative to satellite phones, which are still ridiculously expensive to operate. I can send an email to my computer at home, which reads it, extracts the coordinates, grabs the weather information (called a GRIB file), and mails it back to me on my sailmail address. My computer at home also has a 3G dongle as an internet backup... this also allows the computer to check any SMS messages and, when I send a sailmail saying "SMS?" it either sends back an email saying "NO SMS" ... or, an email with all my SMS messages and times. This is SO useful. It also includes any missed "voice" calls as a date/time + callerID... which lets me send them an SMS back so they don't keep trying to call me. This is great, because there's always people that don't know you're away. Sending an SMS works like this : If I send a "sailmail" email to my home computer saying "SMS {telelphone number} {message}" my computer relays it - so I can respond to SMS messages using the 3G dongle, just as though I was at home. Another useful facility _(and the last facility I added)_ ... friends can send an SMS saying "LOCATE" to my usual mobile number (the dongle attached to the PC), and it sends back my last status message, such as "Weather fine, should make landfall tomorrow" and a link to googlemaps showing my route and check-in locations. Again, this really helps friends and family relax when I'm making passage. The map is populated by me sending "LOCATION {time} {lon} {lat}" to my home PC, which then updates the googlemaps route. The final thing is emails... Whilst sail-mail can handle incoming and outgoing emails - I prefer to direct them through my home PC. People send me emails to my regular address and my PC only relays certain ones. It strips off any useless parts, like quotes and images, and sends the rest to my sailmail address, who will send it to me whenever I check in via HF. This is better than giving people unfettered access to my sailmail address, in case they forget the limitations and try sending me photographs. Return emails work the same way ... I email my computer which then forwards them... ... this prevents people learning my sailmail address, or accidentally hitting reply and sending huge attachments. I can also ask for a "digest" ... this is a list of all the emails it HASN'T sent me.... one per line. Showing only date/time/sender and subject. So I know I'm not missing anything urgent. So, my Sailmail solves the Email problem whilst at sea - and, with a little tinkering, you can get it to solve the SMS / Missed Calls problems too : ) Basically, it's an amazingly useful service, particularly when you're 1000 miles away from land : ) Of course, that's not the only reason to have an HF radio... The other thing HF gives me, besides emergency communications and access to oceanic nets of fellow yachties, are radiotelephone services, radiotelegram services and access to the weatherfax satellite images that are re-broadcast via HF land stations... which is also pretty much invaluable as a safety resource: ) People often wonder, why bother with radio licences when we have mobile phones... ... my answer? It's bloody cool... and it works even when everything else fails ; D
Thanks for putting this together! FYI, the "Winmor Winlink" selection no longer exists in the main screen dropdown. I believe you now need to select Vara HF Winlink.
This is the most useful video I have ever watched on Ham radio anywhere. I've been a Ham for almost 30 years and never even heard of this capability before. As you mentioned, this could have saved me major pain during Irma- the most serious natural pain in the ass I've yet experienced. I just installed Winlink five minutes ago, and am dragging out the Chameleon P-Loop now!
I know I'm a year late to you here ^^^. I wish I had my butt in gear circa Irma. I just recently got my Tech License and now ready and waiting to take my element 3 test. Irma was what really got me thinking of coms. Down here in the Keys, living full time aboard a sailboat it is almost a must I learned. I went a long time with only a solar panel trickle charging the battery bank, 12v fan and a cooler full of lunch meat, beer and tequila and zero coms. No External Power, water, nothing. And I was solo for a week. I've always been a prepper of sorts but always seemed kicked the ham license down the street. Glad thats over with. I just bought a "Like New" 7300 for a steal, I'm still in the newbie learning mode so vids like these are priceless. I only have a Radioddity GD-77 DMR for the moment, and thats been a tricky learning curve so adding the Icom will be an interesting adventure! I pick it up down the Keys next week, can't wait!
Great video, finally got me on the air with Winlink on my new 7300. BUT - and I learned this the hard way - Set your DATA OFF MOD to MIC,USB. That way you can easily switch back and forth between the USB and microphone. When I set it up for DATA MOD OFF to USB, when I went to make a voice transmission there was no modulation, as it was looking or audio exclusively from the USB input. But thanks for the video, it was helpful.
On the connectors you want DATA MOD OFF set to MIC, then set DATA MOD to USB. in winlink tell it to switch radio to DATA MOD then when you exit program it will switch back to DATA MOD OFF which will allow you to go back to SSB VOICE. Saves time to have to go into and change it all the time, I just went through this. W5TMP.
Experience from Japan (March 2011) figure out which cell towers have backup generators... not all do. Have at least two or three weeks of nonperishable food and water stored. Use text messages to communicate instead of voice. Conserve battery life. Have a plan!
its an awesome email over RF program. if you have a radio and a computer, even as simple as a raspberry pi use it and get familiar with it. You never know when you might need it in an emergency. i have a portable radio and a PI 4 setup to do this in a pinch.
Thanks Eric! I completely support your opinion regarding accessibility of the cell towers or Internet in case of emergency situation or something else! Modern people think that Internet or mobile network are not destructible which is completely wrong, these will be the first things to be out of order in the event of emergency. UB4AEN, 73!
Thank you! I've been trying to figure out how to set that all up. I'm going to save this video for when I get a radio, but this is what I needed to get it installed (of course, without a radio for now).
great video I have been a ham since 1990 would like to upgrade to gen however after strokes have no short term memory so cant advance I do however have 10 meters keep up the great work
Used my IC-730 to check Winlink this morning (we have weekly net in Delaware). Hoping to upgrade to a IC-7300 after the pandemic is over. Will have to do a side-by-side IC-730 vs. IC-7300 video at some point.
This is great, Eric. Winmore has since been depreciated and is no longer an option. Are you using Vara HF Radio-only session? Also there has to be an easy way to move between settings on the 7300 without having to reprogram it from Data to CW/SSB and back depending on use. Possible to create settings profiles on the SD Ram card and load, rather than going through all the menus back and forth? W7MP
It would be nice to demonstrate this application with the Gettysburg address 275 words 1467 characters with spaces included. This would allow a more meaningful example. I would like to know how long it would take to send and receive. I have seen other demonstrations but most are less than 25 characters which I don’t consider as a test of the true power of this means of communication.
Oh my Yeasu 3000 it’s literally plug and play right from the radio to my computer with the addition of a driver from Yeasu and some software to send the email through! No big deal.
you should change the description to indicate that Winmore has been discontinued and replaced by VARA and ARDOP. current versions of Winlink express no longer offer winmore as a session option
Thanks for the vid. Haven't played with Winlink in probably over a year-- I should at least connect every so often to keep the list of HF nodes as current as possible. While it's mostly for fun now, if there's ever a scenario where the radio is for some reason the only way I can send an email, it would be bad to have a stale list full of nodes that have shut down or something!
Awesome video I'm very excited to try this out, got a 7300 and have the software loadee, can you guide me through pls, and do you have the radio dashboard all turned OFF like how you would operate on FT8, USB-D and the rest of the settings? I really appreciate and thanks for this great video.
Winlink is obviously the most robust choice here but there are linuxish options (and ARM support) listed on the client programs page. Outpost, Pat and Paclink might be fun. It even looks like some folks have had winlink run through WINE (good luck). I have never had windows play nice with my 7300, always disconnects or locks up or kicks my audio out of the computer speaker after a little while. The kids run windows for gaming but my radio room has a linux box and my daily driver is a chrome book. Anyway, I just wanted to share that there are lots of options for os minorities. hams and hac...umm "experimental computer hobbyists" are practically the same things, right? VA7VAF
I wish the FCC would let us have the Cell Phone Autopatch capabiity that the Austrailians have. Autopatching on the Cellphone would be much more efficient in emergencies.
Just one question. Are there Winlink nodes around the Globe? I am not in US, so if they do exist in Europe, it's something that we all have to know and try. Thank you for sharing 73s de SV1SLB
Winlink is... ...a worldwide radio email service that uses radio pathways where the internet is not present, and is capable of operating completely without the internet--automatically--using smart-network radio relays. www.winlink.org/
Eric thanks for video, I have a icom 7200 and for many years, had it working good with both Pactor 3-4 on the dragon dr-7400 and Wimmore .About a year ago got a 7300 . does not seem to work as well as well as the 7200 could you do a video showing the ALC levels that you use. I have got conflicting info as to the amount of ALC you should have on a ICOM . I have of course tried almost none to about 50 percent . Can not seem to get as many connections with the 7300 and when I do connect not as fast as when I use the 7200. Same power levels and same antena thoughts? ve6vac
I followed your video using my windows 10 machine and ic 7300 and when it connects to the station, it first shows a solid green bar but I hear a click in the radio and the green bar drops down to almost nothing. When I hit start, it fails to connect and I see "Timeout in T>R Latency measurement in the soundcard tnc window.
Ok so a ham can send and recieve e-mail over winlink. Is it possible for a non ham to send e-mail to me? Sounds like they can if they use the winlink e-mail you used to send msg to them and it will be on the winlink system for you to get later??
Hello Eric, I realize this is a 2-year-old video but I downloaded Vara for winlink and when I tried using it it tells me that it's missing the drivers do you know what's going on with that? and can you help KG5ZLO thanks
I would really love to see a video that shows more about the other options for Winklink - including ARDOP or VARA. Those are supposed to have PACTOR III speeds without buying a PACTOR modem (which is around $500 on eBAY I think). There are definitely more PACTOR nodes out there than either of those. I wish the developers of those 2 modes wouldn't charge for them. I think that if they really are that much faster than WINMOR then their use would take off, considering the cost of PACTOR modem.
Winmor is going to be discontinued. Use Ardop or Vara instead. Ardop is actually a little faster and a little better than Winmor. Vara is better yet but I believe you have to pay for Vara. Also when using DX stations check to make sure you are still in the USA band plan. 73 W0JW
Interesting that GigaParts has featured this video, yet they also had a video highlighting N9NB who pretends he represents all of NYU and is trying to make this illegal.
I learned to do this with my FT991A, You talked about reasons to learn it, I just went to give you the reason I wanted too, and needed to learn it. My hunting cabin does not have cell service or any other means of communication other than air waves, my wife don't care nothing about ham radio, so putting a HT or a radio of any sort in her hand was never going to be an option. I can talk to my fellow hams through HF and through nearby repeaters. So the only way I can get a message to her being a non ham was to send an email through HF. It was definitely worth the learning experience. Not to mention working field day that was a good way to pick up some bonus points. Keep up the good videos. 73s KC4SOT
Similar system, similar reasons ...
I live most of the year on a yacht. Whilst 3G/4G is usually available in coastal waters, often up to 20 miles out, we were effectively incommunicado during ocean passages. Unfortunately, this is when you really want weather information and wind data... or, just to let folks know everything is okay.
Marine HF allows access to a volunteer service called sail-mail, which is effectively the same service for sailors who have taken the LRC (Long Range "HF" Certificate) ... it is a great alternative to satellite phones, which are still ridiculously expensive to operate. I can send an email to my computer at home, which reads it, extracts the coordinates, grabs the weather information (called a GRIB file), and mails it back to me on my sailmail address.
My computer at home also has a 3G dongle as an internet backup... this also allows the computer to check any SMS messages and, when I send a sailmail saying "SMS?" it either sends back an email saying "NO SMS" ... or, an email with all my SMS messages and times. This is SO useful. It also includes any missed "voice" calls as a date/time + callerID... which lets me send them an SMS back so they don't keep trying to call me.
This is great, because there's always people that don't know you're away.
Sending an SMS works like this : If I send a "sailmail" email to my home computer saying "SMS {telelphone number} {message}" my computer relays it - so I can respond to SMS messages using the 3G dongle, just as though I was at home.
Another useful facility _(and the last facility I added)_ ... friends can send an SMS saying "LOCATE" to my usual mobile number (the dongle attached to the PC), and it sends back my last status message, such as "Weather fine, should make landfall tomorrow" and a link to googlemaps showing my route and check-in locations. Again, this really helps friends and family relax when I'm making passage. The map is populated by me sending "LOCATION {time} {lon} {lat}" to my home PC, which then updates the googlemaps route.
The final thing is emails...
Whilst sail-mail can handle incoming and outgoing emails - I prefer to direct them through my home PC. People send me emails to my regular address and my PC only relays certain ones. It strips off any useless parts, like quotes and images, and sends the rest to my sailmail address, who will send it to me whenever I check in via HF. This is better than giving people unfettered access to my sailmail address, in case they forget the limitations and try sending me photographs. Return emails work the same way ... I email my computer which then forwards them...
... this prevents people learning my sailmail address, or accidentally hitting reply and sending huge attachments.
I can also ask for a "digest" ... this is a list of all the emails it HASN'T sent me.... one per line. Showing only date/time/sender and subject. So I know I'm not missing anything urgent.
So, my Sailmail solves the Email problem whilst at sea - and, with a little tinkering, you can get it to solve the SMS / Missed Calls problems too : )
Basically, it's an amazingly useful service, particularly when you're 1000 miles away from land : )
Of course, that's not the only reason to have an HF radio...
The other thing HF gives me, besides emergency communications and access to oceanic nets of fellow yachties, are radiotelephone services, radiotelegram services and access to the weatherfax satellite images that are re-broadcast via HF land stations... which is also pretty much invaluable as a safety resource: )
People often wonder, why bother with radio licences when we have mobile phones...
... my answer? It's bloody cool... and it works even when everything else fails ; D
Thanks for putting this together! FYI, the "Winmor Winlink" selection no longer exists in the main screen dropdown. I believe you now need to select Vara HF Winlink.
This is the most useful video I have ever watched on Ham radio anywhere. I've been a Ham for almost 30 years and never even heard of this capability before. As you mentioned, this could have saved me major pain during Irma- the most serious natural pain in the ass I've yet experienced. I just installed Winlink five minutes ago, and am dragging out the Chameleon P-Loop now!
The Concept is really clever.
I know I'm a year late to you here ^^^. I wish I had my butt in gear circa Irma. I just recently got my Tech License and now ready and waiting to take my element 3 test. Irma was what really got me thinking of coms. Down here in the Keys, living full time aboard a sailboat it is almost a must I learned. I went a long time with only a solar panel trickle charging the battery bank, 12v fan and a cooler full of lunch meat, beer and tequila and zero coms. No External Power, water, nothing. And I was solo for a week. I've always been a prepper of sorts but always seemed kicked the ham license down the street. Glad thats over with.
I just bought a "Like New" 7300 for a steal, I'm still in the newbie learning mode so vids like these are priceless. I only have a Radioddity GD-77 DMR for the moment, and thats been a tricky learning curve so adding the Icom will be an interesting adventure! I pick it up down the Keys next week, can't wait!
Great video, finally got me on the air with Winlink on my new 7300. BUT - and I learned this the hard way - Set your DATA OFF MOD to MIC,USB. That way you can easily switch back and forth between the USB and microphone. When I set it up for DATA MOD OFF to USB, when I went to make a voice transmission there was no modulation, as it was looking or audio exclusively from the USB input. But thanks for the video, it was helpful.
Just tested for Tech so I found this searching around and really found this very informative
Many thanks - totally new to Winlink and just got the IC-7300 - I was sending and receving emails via HF in no time ! Great video !
On the connectors you want DATA MOD OFF set to MIC, then set DATA MOD to USB. in winlink tell it to switch radio to DATA MOD then when you exit program it will switch back to DATA MOD OFF which will allow you to go back to SSB VOICE. Saves time to have to go into and change it all the time, I just went through this. W5TMP.
" in winlink tell it to switch radio to DATA MOD then when you exit program " ....dang if I can find this setting in WinLink
Experience from Japan (March 2011) figure out which cell towers have backup generators... not all do.
Have at least two or three weeks of nonperishable food and water stored.
Use text messages to communicate instead of voice. Conserve battery life. Have a plan!
its an awesome email over RF program. if you have a radio and a computer, even as simple as a raspberry pi use it and get familiar with it. You never know when you might need it in an emergency. i have a portable radio and a PI 4 setup to do this in a pinch.
Thanks Eric! I completely support your opinion regarding accessibility of the cell towers or Internet in case of emergency situation or something else! Modern people think that Internet or mobile network are not destructible which is completely wrong, these will be the first things to be out of order in the event of emergency. UB4AEN, 73!
Thank you! I've been trying to figure out how to set that all up. I'm going to save this video for when I get a radio, but this is what I needed to get it installed (of course, without a radio for now).
great video I have been a ham since 1990 would like to upgrade to gen however after strokes have no short term memory so cant advance I do however have 10 meters keep up the great work
Used my IC-730 to check Winlink this morning (we have weekly net in Delaware). Hoping to upgrade to a IC-7300 after the pandemic is over. Will have to do a side-by-side IC-730 vs. IC-7300 video at some point.
This is great, Eric. Winmore has since been depreciated and is no longer an option. Are you using Vara HF Radio-only session? Also there has to be an easy way to move between settings on the 7300 without having to reprogram it from Data to CW/SSB and back depending on use. Possible to create settings profiles on the SD Ram card and load, rather than going through all the menus back and forth? W7MP
Excellent. I must try this
Please do a video on how to send emails via VHF - HT. Thanks.
Good video Eric. Keep up the good work, 73, WA6TWJ Dave Mauldin
Really good video. It gives me incentive to try it. Thanks!
Thanks for this vid. I tried Pat (Winlink cross platform client) but no Winmor or ARDOP success yet from Ireland. Will keep trying though -great fun
It would be nice to demonstrate this application with the Gettysburg address 275 words 1467 characters with spaces included. This would allow a more meaningful example. I would like to know how long it would take to send and receive. I have seen other demonstrations but most are less than 25 characters which I don’t consider as a test of the true power of this means of communication.
Oh my Yeasu 3000 it’s literally plug and play right from the radio to my computer with the addition of a driver from Yeasu and some software to send the email through! No big deal.
Thank you!
you should change the description to indicate that Winmore has been discontinued and replaced by VARA and ARDOP. current versions of Winlink express no longer offer winmore as a session option
Thanks, Eric! This is helpful. We are using Winlink in our ARES/RACES group as part of our emcomm preparedness program.
Same here.
Thanks for the vid. Haven't played with Winlink in probably over a year-- I should at least connect every so often to keep the list of HF nodes as current as possible. While it's mostly for fun now, if there's ever a scenario where the radio is for some reason the only way I can send an email, it would be bad to have a stale list full of nodes that have shut down or something!
Is there an updated version of this tutorial? Seems Winmor doesn't exist anymore
Did you have a chance to look at Vara for HF? Very good and will be replacing WinMore soon.
Something I will need to look into too!
Awesome video I'm very excited to try this out, got a 7300 and have the software loadee, can you guide me through pls, and do you have the radio dashboard all turned OFF like how you would operate on FT8, USB-D and the rest of the settings? I really appreciate and thanks for this great video.
Winlink is obviously the most robust choice here but there are linuxish options (and ARM support) listed on the client programs page. Outpost, Pat and Paclink might be fun. It even looks like some folks have had winlink run through WINE (good luck). I have never had windows play nice with my 7300, always disconnects or locks up or kicks my audio out of the computer speaker after a little while. The kids run windows for gaming but my radio room has a linux box and my daily driver is a chrome book. Anyway, I just wanted to share that there are lots of options for os minorities. hams and hac...umm "experimental computer hobbyists" are practically the same things, right?
VA7VAF
What's your thoughts on the Ranger RCI69ffb4...i have to do mobile ...where i live can't have a base...am studing for my license
Would repeaters go down sitting a power outage? Or hurricane like cell towers?
Is it possible to retrieve the node list and propagation predictions over the air?
Does the unit support QPSK/16/32/64 and QAM/16/32/64
I wish the FCC would let us have the Cell Phone Autopatch capabiity that the Austrailians have. Autopatching on the Cellphone would be much more efficient in emergencies.
Just one question. Are there Winlink nodes around the Globe? I am not in US, so if they do exist in Europe, it's something that we all have to know and try.
Thank you for sharing
73s de SV1SLB
Winlink is...
...a worldwide radio email service that uses radio pathways where the internet is not present, and is capable of operating completely without the internet--automatically--using smart-network radio relays.
www.winlink.org/
So if the internet is down, how would one "Update Table Via Internet"?
👍
Eric
thanks for video, I have a icom 7200 and for many years, had it working good with both Pactor 3-4 on the dragon dr-7400 and Wimmore .About a year ago got a 7300 . does not seem to work as well as well as the 7200
could you do a video showing the ALC levels that you use. I have got conflicting info as to the amount of ALC you should have on a ICOM . I have of course tried almost none to about 50 percent . Can not seem to get as many connections with the 7300 and when I do connect not as fast as when I use the 7200. Same power levels and same antena
thoughts?
ve6vac
Hi Eric, will this work on the IC 7100 this will be new for me have never tried it will have to, Thanks
I followed your video using my windows 10 machine and ic 7300 and when it connects to the station, it first shows a solid green bar but I hear a click in the radio and the green bar drops down to almost nothing. When I hit start, it fails to connect and I see "Timeout in T>R Latency measurement in the soundcard tnc window.
Winmor has been depreciated.
Eric. and 2m packet, though short range..few hundred miles, baud rate is 2400 thru 9600 bps with error correction..?
kb8qlZ in Mich
Ok so a ham can send and recieve e-mail over winlink. Is it possible for a non ham to send e-mail to me? Sounds like they can if they use the winlink e-mail you used to send msg to them and it will be on the winlink system for you to get later??
Hello Eric, I realize this is a 2-year-old video but I downloaded Vara for winlink and when I tried using it it tells me that it's missing the drivers do you know what's going on with that? and can you help KG5ZLO thanks
how`s the satellite tracker coming Eric
Waiting on my 3rd GPS module to arrive because I destroyed the first 2 :(
cam jones I was wondering the same.
There is no winmor available in my drop down menu
I would really love to see a video that shows more about the other options for Winklink - including ARDOP or VARA. Those are supposed to have PACTOR III speeds without buying a PACTOR modem (which is around $500 on eBAY I think). There are definitely more PACTOR nodes out there than either of those. I wish the developers of those 2 modes wouldn't charge for them. I think that if they really are that much faster than WINMOR then their use would take off, considering the cost of PACTOR modem.
Ill try to get a video on it
Where can I download Winmore?
WINMOR is deprecated.
"WINMOR | Winlink Global Radio Email" winlink.org/tags/winmor
7300 vs 7900 I need an answer .. to make a putcase
Winmor is going to be discontinued. Use Ardop or Vara instead. Ardop is actually a little faster and a little better than Winmor. Vara is better yet but I believe you have to pay for Vara. Also when using DX stations check to make sure you are still in the USA band plan. 73
W0JW
you cant be doing his. The bands are dead. LOL :)
Interesting that GigaParts has featured this video, yet they also had a video highlighting N9NB who pretends he represents all of NYU and is trying to make this illegal.
Do you have a brother doing TH-cam videos?
umm, why do you ask HAHA
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I think winmor is no more.
14:17 like in Ukraine I suppose...
you might want to blur out your password, just incase in case :)