Announcing,,,, another net! We’re naming it the Four Corners Winlink Net it’s the brainchild of myself, Randy Buxton- W4IFI, Al Massaro- KF5SMH, and Chip Ferron- N0WKR. The three of us are Emergency Coordinators for our respective regions. Me for CO ARES Region 7, Al for NW New Mexico EmComm Group, and Chip for CO ARES Region 9. Hence, the net is geared for amateur radio operators who deal with emergency communications.
With the introductions out of the way here’s how we’re going to kick this off. Starting simple with a Winlink check-in message. As we get more proficient, or bored, with it all we’ll bump it up a notch and work in the peer-to-peer and post office features to the mix. The net control operator, for now, that’s me, will send a reply by Winlink to all participating stations after the net concludes. A roster and map of participating stations will be posted on the swcoloradoares.org website.
Here are the instructions for our first go at the Four Corners Winlink Net:
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FOUR CORNERS WINLINK NET (4CWN)
- Weekly from 1000 Wednesday to 1000 Thursday (Mountain Time)
- Send your check-in message to any RMS by radio. Do not use Telnet.
- For proper mapping ensure you’ve entered your station coordinates
on your Winlink GPS / Position Report settings.
Enter your Winlink Message using this format:
To: W4IFI;
Subject: 4CWN
Message Body: Callsign, First Name, County, State, Band
The message body is typed as a single line separated by commas.
Use two digit abbreviation for the state (CO, NM, AZ, UT)
Enter HF, UHF, or VHF for Band.
UNCHECK the Request message receipt box before posting your message.
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Anyone interested in being net control for the 4CWN send me a Winlink message. Understand that you would be tasked with doing everything I described in the second paragraph. I will be soliciting for operators to be peer-to-peer stations at a later time,,,, I know we’ll get to that stage pretty quick. Al- KF5SMH has already offered his station for P2P ops.
That’s all I got for now. I hope this Winlink net turns into all that we can imagine it could be. 🙂 Please forward this email far and wide (but not wider than the four corners states) to all your emergency comms inclined ham friends or foes and I hope to see a big turn out for the first net on Wednesday, June 17th starting at 1000. (Early check-ins are frowned upon 🙁)
Randy Buxton, W4IFI
ARRL Colorado Section
Southwest Region Emergency Coordinator
(540) 272-7976
w4ifi@arrl.net