New Winlink CMS rules

All,

If you are a US-licensed station that routinely connects to a foreign gateway, or a non-US-licensed station that connects with a US gateway, you may be affected by new CMS behavior. The Winlink CMS now will enforce US Third-Party Message rules. 

Because Winlink is being severely criticized for allowing US client and gateway operators to violate US amateur radio third-party traffic rules, we are today starting to test automatic enforcement of these rules. Part 97.3(47), 97.115 and 97.117 apply.

If you attempt to send or receive a third-party message between a US-licensed station and another station the US does not have a third-party communication agreement with, you may receive a service message saying the message will violate the applcable rules and that the message is refused (if you're sending) or being held at the CMS (if you are receiving). Alternative means to successfully send or receive the message will be explained. The US has treaties with most countries in the North and South America, but not most European, Asian and Pacific countries. 

If you are a US-licensee, you should have no trouble sending and receiving to/from internet addresses if you connect with another US-licensed gateway, or one licensed in Central or South America — as long as the US has a third-party agreement with the licensing country. 

If you are a non-US licensee, you should have no trouble sending and receiving to/from internet addresses if you connect to non-US licensed gateways.

We wish this was not necessary, but we have relied on US client and gateway operators to know the rules and obey them—and most have ignored them, unfortunately for all of us. In order to clean up the violations we are taking these measures to keep US Winlink operators legal. All licensees have an obligation to study, know, and obey the Amateur Radio Rules. 

New monitoring and enforcement measures are coming into play with the establishment of a new Volunteer Monitor Program, now being set up by the ARRL at the request of the US FCC. We're doing this to make it easier for US operators to avoid loosing their licenses!

We will be tweaking the behavior of this new mechanism to make it as friendly and informative as it can be. Please bear with us as we make changes. 

Thanks and 73,

Lor W3QA
Winlink Development Team

RFSM2400 and WinLink Winmor

Today I did some tests focused on the file transfer speed using two soundcard modems.

RFSM-2400 receiving test

RFSM-2400 is a freeware client program which can transfer files  over a radio channel, using MIL-STD-188-110A standard (300Hz to 3.3 kHz-2400 baud).

Winmor TNC, is a donationware program with a modulation scheme that resembles very close with the one used on PACTOR modems. The speed is bandwith related and is adaptive between 200 Hz and 2000 Hz.

RFSM 2400 can't be used to send files to internet servers but the Winmor is widely used with RMS Express to connect to various iGates around the world to send e-mails.

For tests I used a FT-991 connected

Winmor TNC receiving test

to RMS Trimode and to RFSM-8000 (can act as a server) and a IC-7300 connected to the RFSM-2400 and RMS Express with Winmor TNC.

I sent a jpeg file in size of 56.0 KB (57,344 bytes or 448.000 bits) with RFSM-2400 and with RMS Express via Winmor TNC.

The radios were set on 51 MHz, on dummy loads at 5W with a distance of about 1 m between them.  Both were on Wide and the signals on S-meter were peaking S3-S5. The modulation was set to not activate the ALC.

The results were astonishing! Via RMS Express, I sent the file in about 20 minutes.
Using RFSM-2400 the same file took less than 4 minutes...

So, the quick and dirty test have some conlusions:

1. When e-mail is important, Winlink + Winmor TNC is the one. There are many iGates on HF and is impossible to miss one, especially if you use the VOACAP tables to estimate the best channel for the given day and hour.

RFSM-2400 receiving private file (mail)

2. Do not try to send big attachements via Winlink! Instead, focus on smaller files, plain text or, if attachements are mandatory, use a good compression software.

3. If ad-hoc networks are the scope, RFSM is the best! You can define a FTP directory and  mailboxes  for the radio stations and each station can upload emails download their own. The FTP is very usefull for sharing files from one station to another. Good for a regional or national Emergency network.
A plus for RFSM-2400 is the chat and beacon mode!