Winlink via Vara HF with Yaesu FT-710

November 6, 2023

A demo of a 250 mile Winlink via VARA HF connection with a Yaesu FT-710 radio pushing 15 watts. The antenna was a CHA MPAS (Modular Portable Antenna System) 2.0 with a 17 foot MFJ whip and a 60 foot single radial mounted on a short tripod about 2 feet off the ground.

Radio Settings:
7 Mhz Band (40 meters)
DATA-U (upper sideband – yes, that is correct!)

RMS Express Settings

Radio selected: Yaesu FT-991/A
USB Digital is selected
Serial Port: 11 (check your ports – it will be one or the other)
Baud is 38400
Enable RTS is checked…

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Our First Summit Activation

August 16, 2020

My wife Julie (KN6AOC) and I did our first summits on the air activation over the weekend at Strawberry Peak W6/CT-086 in the Twin Peaks area between Lake Gregory and Lake Arrowhead.   I logged 23 contacts and Julie got 17.  I also made my first summit to summit contact with K1BAA who was working the Table Mountain W6/CT-067 summit near Wrightwood some 23 miles away.  And for a bonus, I sent a WinLink message to Cerritos American Red Cross station KK6SMD-10, about 50 miles away.  My longest contact of the day was 100 miles away with station KI6YLQ in Ridgecrest.  …

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WinLink Workshops

October 7, 2020

Emergency Coordinators from all across the United States met for 12 weeks to learn everything that one could possibly need to know about WinLink.  Click on the links to view recordings of those meetings.  Thank you to Dan, K7REX for making these available to the public.

If you are involved in emergency communications, you may want to consider joining the ARRL SEC discussion group here: https://groups.io/g/SEC-ARES

WK1 – Winlink Basics: Initial Setup and Basic Operation
Presentation: https://vimeo.com/441219236
Documents: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fwaejzwx0zkcid0/AAAx9GnWhPs9XMBHFPttEG0ya?dl=0

WK2 – Winlink Basics: Peer-2-Peer Operations; VARA FM and UZ7H0 on VHF
Presentation: https://vimeo.com/443288476
Documents: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/x9uaq9zvdxi5jmu/AABhLhp-7JvqfzJZh1ciGRbxa?dl=0

WK3 – Winlink Advanced: Gateways; …

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