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.Â* Up until just a few days
ago, always on HF.Â* The interest in HF meshed with my believe that
disasters are mostly either local or regional.Â* Sure a hurricane or winter
storm can take out the internet and power in a region, but it doesnt bring
everything down everywhere.Â* You just need to be able to hop over the
impacted area.Â* 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.Â* 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.Â* A process of elimination lead me to RMS Packet, which I installed.Â*
After entering some information on myself, and discovering the checkbox to
use VARA-FM, I was up and operating!Â* 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.Â* Even if I dont have local
internet, I can act as a relay outside the region to HF stations that are
working.