XPost: rec.radio.amateur.moderated

WB4SON

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RMS Packet Gateway WB4SON-10 Up

Posted: 29 May 2021 01:09 PM PDT
https://wb4son.com/wpblog/?p=4406


Ive been a Winlink Express user for many years.  Up until just a few days
ago, always on HF.  The interest in HF meshed with my believe that
disasters are mostly either local or regional.  Sure a hurricane or winter storm can take out the internet and power in a region, but it doesnt bring everything down everywhere.  You just need to be able to hop over the
impacted area.  HF is perfect for that, and I tested and used a Winlink Express client regularly.

For a long time, Ive been looking to try out a VHF Winlink connection, but there are very few gateways in the local area.  Yesterday my goal was accomplished when I was able to connect to N1ASA-10 on the other side of
the bay. Being used to the slow speeds of HF and old style packet, I was
blown away by the VHF connection speed.

Today the goal was to stand-up a RMS Packet station on my side of the bay
using VARA-FM in the wide mode along with a Kenwood TM-D710G and Masters Communication DRA-50.

I was immediately drawn to the RMS Trimode software and figured that was
the universal solution, but quickly discovered that was pretty much for HF use.  A process of elimination lead me to RMS Packet, which I installed.  After entering some information on myself, and discovering the checkbox to
use VARA-FM, I was up and operating!  Honestly it took perhaps 15 minutes including the time I fumbled with RMS Trimode.

Here is my RMS Packet software running (and I now show up on the Live
System Map for RMS):





Next step is to install the software on a dedicated miniPC and set things
up to run 24/7 (I have a 100 Ah battery that is charged by solar, plus a
gas generator runs for extended failures.  Even if I dont have local
internet, I can act as a relay outside the region to HF stations that are working.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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