[Elecraft] K2 w/ Winlink 2000?

[Charles Greene]

Steve,

I can comment on the use on WinLink for use by maritime motile stations, 
which is a different use from what you are considering, ie, EMComm 
use.  Most of the WinLink operation heretofore has been by maritime mobile 
stations.

I helped a new ham outfit a station this spring on his 44 ft sailboat for a 
trip to the Caribbean.  He was planning to use a IC706 for WinLink and for 
his Marine SSB, but I advised him to keep the old SSB and switch his 
antenna to the 706/tuner for ham use.  The 706 or K2 will not cover all the 
marine SSB frequencies anyway.  The 706 has better DSP NR than the K2 which 
may be important as many marine diesels are very noisy.  I used my 706 car 
mobile as a Maritime mobile this spring, and I keep 14300 in the ship's SSB 
for an occasional check-in to the to the maritime mobile net, but I have 
never used WinLink.  However, I use other digital modes with my K2 and 
K2/100 which works fine; there's no reason they would not work well on 
WinLink.  Probably better than most ham transceivers.  You use r or r rev 
on the K2 which was designed for digital use, and cut back power to about 
30 watts on the K2/100 or 5 watts on the K2.  I use a home brew 
interface.  You need a propriety modem for Pactor II for WinLink which 
costs in the 400-700 dollar range, I don't have the exact price.  I think 
that also applies to WinLink 2000 which you are considering, but I might be 
mistaken.  If so, please correct this impression if I am wrong to set the 
record straight.  I need to read up on the ARRL proposal to use WinLink 
2000.  Some software designers have tried to incorporate Amtor into their 
digital software but have timing problems with Windows in the ARQ 
mode.  Pactor II is proprietary so they cannot offer software using Pactor 
II.  If they could offer Pactor II as a Windows program they may have the 
same timing problems in the ARQ mode.

If you just want e-mail from a ship, we have found a better plan is to buy 
a satellite system.  We now use a satellite system while at sea which 
really works FB.  The cost of the particular satellite system we use is 1/3 
to 1/2 that of a WinLink system, and works much better.  This particular 
satellite system uses LEO  (Low Earth Orbit) satellites of which there are 
about two dozen to give coverage 90+ % of the time, and it operates at 9600 
baud.  It transmits on about 149 MHz and receives on about 132 MHz.  It can 
use the ship's VHF antenna on a time shared basis, but a dedicated VHF 
antenna is advised.  The satellite system also gives WX, will convert a 
digital message to voice and forward to any voice telephone as a voice 
message, will send a distress message, and has a few other bells and 
whistles.  It connects to the e-net and will do Yahoo, etc, and there are 
ways to avoid Spam, 100%.  There is a monthly fee which is very reasonable 
for a trip or for a commercial vessel.  It is useful any distance from 
shore, worldwide.   My advise for a ship sailing offshore is a SSB that 
covers the international life boat frequency of 2182 KHz, normal marine 
VHF, if you want e-mail, a LEO satellite system and a ham transceiver is 
you want to chat on the maritime mobile nets.  If anyone wants more details 
on the satellite system, e-mail me off line.

I'm  not really pushing any particular method of e-mail use for maritime 
motile stations, and I realize it is off-topic, but satellite communication 
heretofore has been out of sight price wise using stationery birds, but I 
feel the price break-through and superior performance over HF using VHF and 
the LEO satellites is worth mentioning to hams who are considering a 
maritime mobile WinLink station.  (I should put this in a letter to QST).

73,  Chas, W1CG

At 01:00 PM 8/29/2004, you wrote:
>Has anyone used a K2 with Winlink 2000?
>
>Winlink 2000 is being pushed by ARRL for EmComm use and I'd like to
>experiment using it with my K2 especially with the SET coming up in
>October. Here in the MDC section the SET is geared around proving Winlink
>2000 as a usable method for passing traffic from the field.
>
>If anyone is working Winlink, please share any comments or suggestions,
>modems used, interface to K2, results, etc. Offlist may be more
>appropriate. I know little other than what I've read doing some web
>surfing and have not operated any digital mode on HF before.
>
>For those who haven't read about it, Winlink 2000 basically is standard
>email, but replaces the Internet connection with a radio link, primarily
>HF. The emails can contain certain preapproved (by design) attachment
>types like maps, lists, jpegs, etc. for EmComm use. You use a standard
>POP3-compliant email client and some special amateur software, and of
>course a radio. The K2 would seem to be perfect for portable operation in
>a disaster situation.
>
>Thanks ... Steve WA3SWS