Hi Bob, The Winlink 2000 system has advantages for emergency communications because it tries to make it simpler and more transparent for the end user and it has many access points This means that there can be VHF and HF connections depending upon what equipment you have, the propagation available at the moment, and how large an area of the internet is inoperative.
With PSKmail, there are no current servers in place, so you would have very limited access depending upon whether it becomes more commonly available. The main advantage that I see to PSKmail and similar servers, is that they are totally decentralized (like regular ham radio) and the loss of one individual server doesn't cause any problems to the system since they separately connect into the internet. Winlink 2000 has several additional layers of servers (although with some redundancy) that must be operational for the system to even work. For a true emergency network, you would insure that if the internet was not possible to connect to, there would be alternative routes. Those of us who have participated in emergency communications for many decades, and who happen to be amateur radio operators, are supportive of using amateur radio as a possible alternate pathway. At this time there really is no system that does this, but I have heard that the Winlink 2000 owners are planning to add this capability at some future time. 73, Rick, KV9U [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > I am interested in the possible application of something like PSKMAIL > to emergency communications. I realize there is always VHF packet but > the learning curve seems to be steeper than the average ARES member > wants to deal with. The same for WinLink2000. > > Am I barking up the wrong tree looking for an application like this? > > Bob N0BHC > Need a Digital mode QSO? Connect to Telnet://cluster.dynalias.org Other areas of interest: The MixW Reflector : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/themixwgroup/ DigiPol: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Digipol (band plan policy discussion) Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digitalradio/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
