T&T: Winlink may be Dead in Dec. probably not

[bob Austin]

The blog which Mike refers to is one person's opinion.  I don't know all of
the facts at this point, but have asked for them from the admistration of
Winlink.   From what I have read so far, there is no evidence that cruisers
will be in for a "rude shock" or that Winlink willl cease to operate.

I think that the heading is quite misleading.  Even if there were a bandwidth
restriction on Pactor III in the US (Pactor III is used thruout the world, not
just in the US) there are alternate forms of packet transmission which are
within the 500 hz limit.  If you read the Blog--by a ham operator who seems to
have a bone to pick with Winlink for some time--it notes that Winlink will
still be abe to operate with Pactor II which is the underlying technology--and
all of the current modeums will still operate on Pactor II.  So what this
means is that if the Pactor III is not allowed in the US (don't have any idea
what other countries will do--and the majority of Winlink stations are
scattered thru the world) Pactor II will still be healthy and working as
usual.  The data transmission will slow down to what it was several years ago
before the Pactor III protocal was developed.

Winlink is digital communication (E mail) via ham radio packets of information
sent thru a computer program.   I am not at all sure what Mike means by
"legitimate ham use"--since ham radio is just about communications.  There are
only a fraction of hams who build their own gear in todays world--and much of
ham radio is chit chat and "contesting" where the ham tries to make as many
contacts as possiable in a set peroid--and has nothing to do with design of
radio etc.  Winlink was built by a series of ham operators, some were boaters,
some were not--and it is used by missionaries, emergency communications,
RVers, explorers etc thru out the world as a mode of communication--just as
voice on SSB or CW (morse code) is.  Interesting that no mention is made of
restriction of PACTOR III on Sailmail, which uses SSB marine frequencies, and
is a commercial service, for a fee, which uses many of the same stations as
Winlink (which operates with no charge).

There have always been a group of hams who seem to dislike Maritime Moblie
operators and those who like to help them.  This issue will not go away.
These rude operators who come on top of established nets with illegal power
and transmissions seem to continue, despite FCC sanctions--and unfortunately
have disrupted emergency communication traffic.
One has to realize that hams have many different goals and motivations.
Fortunately most of them are to help their fellow man.  The APRS (position
reporting system) involved with Winlink is a great facet of this system--so
anyone can go to the internet and see where any boat they has the system is at
the time of last transmission and track progress:
http://www.winlink.org/positions/PosReports.aspx  This show 332 boats
positions and short messages.  Only part of these boats have American call
signs.

Disclosure: I have been operating as KA6PKB for about 25 years and am biased
toward the very positive parts of Maritime Mobile Ham radio in the boating
community.   I have seen a number of boats and lives saved because of Ham
radio.

Bob Austin