The KAM+ or KAM98 work in binary using Pactor I only.

The SCS PTC-II or PTC-IIe work in binary using Pactor II. (Approximately

The Timewave/AEA PK-232 (which is in Chapter 11 and will never be

A much more stable and internet friendly system, especially considering

Much more reliable operation with 6 to 8 times faster transfers than the

File attachments to e-mail including color WX reports and attached

Coming soon: pickup and drop-off of messages from a universal database

Posting of position reports and comments from mobile hams which are

Dear Trawler World Listers The following article appeared in the Winter 2000 edition of Scuttlebutt, the quarterly news letter for the Waterway Radio and Cruising Club. It is reprinted here for the benefit of Trawler World List hams and wannabe hams. Thanks to a handful of dedicated, volunteer hams, WinLink 2000 and AirMail provides a free e-mail and position reporting/message service for mobile amateur radio operators, especially those aboard vessels traversing the high seas and in remote locations world wide. ------- WinLink 2000 Comes On-Line by Steve Waterman K4CJX WinLink/NetLink, the HF radio e-mail service provided by a handful of dedicated ham "SYSOPS", is being overhauled. In fact, the new WinLink 2000 transforms the entire operation to better serve the mobile ham. A little history: Vic Poor W5SSM, originally designed ApLink to communicate with a land station from his cruising sailboat. WinLink was soon developed and Vic gave his creation to the amateur community as a gift. As the internet e-mail system was introduced, I saw a good opportunity for mobile hams to access this powerful internet communications tool and I looked for someone with programming skills to integrate WinLink and the internet e-mail. Jim Jennings W5EUT, a former cruising ham and current avid RVer who loves a challenge, agreed without hesitation to "kludge" an interface to the existing WinLink code. He did a great job, but WinLink, which was being constantly improved by Hans Kessler N8PGR, was not designed for internet integration. Hans wanted to create a WinLink/NetLink merger that would use the best technology available. About a year ago Vic Poor W5SSM (the original author of both ApLink and WinLink), Hans Kessler N8PGR (the continuing author of WinLink) and Rick Muething KN6KB (a retired cruising ham) and myself, K4CJX (a WinLink SYSOP), met at my home to contrive a new WinLink/NetLink concept facilitating the rapid transfer of information between internet e-mail and the mobile ham. The result is WinLink 2000 which is now up and running at K4CJX in a production/test mode. Minimum computer requirements for the mobile ham using WinLink 2000 are Windows 95/98/NT (DOS and Windows 3.1 will not work) with a 486 or faster processor running AirMail 2.x. (AirMail, written by Jim Corenman KE6RK, is a backward compatible, WinLink 2000 client which may be downloaded free from http://www.airmail2000.com/down.htm) WinLink 2000 requires a TNC (Terminal Node Controller which functions as a radio modem) operating in compressed binary. This may require a TNC upgrade for many hams. The KAM+ or KAM98 work in binary using Pactor I only. The SCS PTC-II or PTC-IIe work in binary using Pactor II. (Approximately 55 percent of WinLink e-mail users currently use Pactor II which is an increase of about 21 percent over a year ago.) The Timewave/AEA PK-232 (which is in Chapter 11 and will never be upgraded) and the current MFJ TNCs operate using ASCII only and will not work with WinLink 2000. There are no plans to enable ASCII mode in WinLink 2000; sorry about that. For those hams who do not conform with the WinLink 2000 compressed binary TNC requirement, some WinLink/NetLink MOBs (MailBOx) will continue providing the current service for at least another year, though the coverage will inevitably decline as more stations switch to WinLink 2000. Some WinLink 2000 enhancements are: A much more stable and internet friendly system, especially considering that the current WinLink system incorporated NetLink as an after thought. Much more reliable operation with 6 to 8 times faster transfers than the present system. File attachments to e-mail including color WX reports and attached data/photo files such as DOC, XLS, JPG, GIF, BMP, TIF. Coming soon: pickup and drop-off of messages from a universal database accessed by every participating WinLink 2000 MOB: your message will be there no matter which MOB you use. Posting of position reports and comments from mobile hams which are available to any internet e-mail user. The position report function of the AirMail client software allows mobile hams to upload their latitude, longitude, speed, heading and a short comment. Anyone may query this position report database by using internet e-mail and receive back an automated e-mail response which will look something like the simulation below: Automated Reply Message from WinLink 2000 Position Report Processor. Processed: 11/20/99 08:55:36 callsign Fri 19 Nov 1999 21:38 UTC 17-54.93N 087-57.62W At anchor San Pedro, Ambergris Cay, Belize; beautiful day in paradise! Received by WinLink: Fri 19 Nov 1999 21:43 UTC. callsign Thu 18 Nov 1999 17:52 UTC 17-53.92N 087-58.23W 5.14 KTS 193 CRS Underway Cay Chapel to San Pedro, Belize. Wind on the nose - must tack! Received by WinLink: Thu 18 Nov 1999 18:06 UTC . As you can see, this has tremendous value to cruising hams and will certainly calm the nerves of worried family and friends. When the "gurus" coding WinLink 2000 give the "OK", additional WinLink 2000 stations will come on line. K4CJX is presently scanning its normal frequencies with the production/test version of WinLink 2000. You are enthusiastically invited to use it, but I strongly urge you to read about WinLink 2000, its use and regulations on my WEB site at http://winlink.org/k4cjx/ before going on-line. Come give it a try! -------- Membership in the Waterway Radio and Cruising Club is open to anyone with a valid amateur radio operators license. The club has more than 1,000 members. Membership applications may be printed at: www.jstorm.com/wrcc/WRCCappl.html. The club meets every morning at 0745 ET on 7.268 MHz LSB. If you have a radio, listen in for SW North Atlantic & Caribbean weather and waterway news, but do not broadcast unless you have a General Class Amateur Ticket or above. John A. Knauth, Editor of Scuttlebutt, and Ilona Forgeng October, a Willard 40 at her home dock PO Box 4, Oriental NC 28571-0004 Tel:252/249-3131 Fax:252/249-3257 E-Mail: kf4oip@amsat.org ---------------------------