[Ham-Mac] Winlink on A Mac?

[Richard Rucker]

On Jun 8, 2006, at 12:03 PM, K4CJX wrote:

> Winlink 2000 is not for the end user and is more of a server
> application.
>
> Steve, k4cjx
> Winlink development team
>

Thanks, Steve, for your prompt reply.  Putting your comment with this  
from <http://homepage.mac.com/rrucker/chapter91.html>:

================
"There are 3 full-time, redundant Common Message Servers (CMS)  
located in secure facilities near Chicago, San Diego, and Perth,  
Australia. Each CMS is connected to all Participating Message Box  
Office (PMBO) stations worldwide and to each other via the Internet.  
Any CMS can handle the message load for the entire network, so if one  
or two CMSs go down temporarily, the network remains in operation.

"PMBOs are there 24/7 to provide wireless connectivity via PACTOR for  
the various users of WL2K. To connect, you use your WL2K station to  
log into a PMBO within radio range. Once logged in, that PMBO knows  
who you are and checks to see if you have any mail waiting on one of  
the servers. If so, it forwards that mail to you.

"It also checks to see if there are any messages waiting to be sent  
in your station's out-box. If so, each outgoing e-mail message is  
forwarded to one of the servers and is redundantly stored on all  
three. From there, your outgoing message is forwarded either via the  
Internet to its intended destination, or if the addressee is another  
WL2K user, to the PMBO that most recently had contact with that user."
===============
I interpret your reply this way:  Winlink 2000 (WL2K) software is  
used to form the network consisting of the 3 servers and the PMBO  
stations, but does not include end user software; in particular,  
Airmail.  That seems to fit with what Jim Scott told us about getting  
set up and configured as an end-user of Winlink:

=====================
"A Winlink user station consists of an HF radio, Pactor controller, a  
computer running Windows, and the AirMail application. To put it into  
operation,

     * install Airmail on your computer
     * connect computer and controller, either USB or serial
     * connect controller to HF radio (ICOM 706 is a favorite)
     * launch Airmail and configure (easily) via a dialog box"
=====================
So, what a Mac OS X user, or Linux user, might want is, say, a  
version of Airmail that uses the APIs of the host OS and that is  
compiled to run natively on the target machine.

> Airmail will work with a MAC. See Jim Corenman, the author of  
> Airmail about this.
>

Recall my quote that

"Jim Corenman, KE6RK, developed a client application for Winlink/ 
Netlink called Airmail. Rick Muething, KN6KB.. later took over the  
programming effort that KE6RK has started."

This leads me to believe that Jim Corenman is no longer an active  
developer of Airmail.   I just googled on his name and found some  
dated documents, such as

"A Pactor Primer
Getting Started with Ham Radio Email
©1997, 98 Jim Corenman KE6RK
Revised 16 Jan '98 15z"

but nothing recent.


I also googled for "Airmail Macintosh" and found only a posting from  
March 1999 entitled "USING AIRMAIL WITH APPLE COMPUTERS" written by   
"Tom MacNeil- KB7WIK of Yacht Robin" and he writes in part:

"Your Mac must be capable of running one of the windows 95 emulation  
programs. I am using Virtual PC by Connectix (Any Powerbook after the  
3400 and all G3 Macs..."

This suggests that Airmail was never developed to run on any Mac OS,  
and nothing has emerged to run on the most recent versions of Mac OS X.


IMHO, to be a viable solution for Mac and Linux users who don't want  
to have to buy a Windows machine nor run Windows NT from Microsoft  
on, say, BootCamp or Parallels , there is not yet a satisfactory end- 
user solution.


> You are also welcomed to develop a system with open architecture  
> that will
> run on the MAC. I know the Amateur community would appreciate it.
>
> Steve, k4cjx
>

I hope that Don Agro, VE3VRW, of Dog Park Sofware, and Chris  
Smolinski, N3JLY, of Black Cat Systems --  to name just two competent  
Mac developers -- have read your invitation and are giving it serious  
thought, if they haven't already.

While we're on the subject of Internet-compatible email for wireless  
operators, what about end users who want to use computers running  
either Mac OS X or Linux and who want to transmit Internet-compatible  
email with attachments using  VHF, UHF, or D-link transceivers,  
rather than HF transceivers?

My interests lie in the latter domai since my current operating focus  
is on local connectivity in support of emergency operations, where  
the link distances can be kept short, but and higher data rates are  
needed.  Ideally, the e-mail application used by one of these  
wireless end-users should work essentially the same, regardless of  
the frequency, bandwidth, and modulation details of the physical  
links that each user might have available to him.

Dick Rucker, KM4ML