@@J.R.1111 you need a license to transmit on the ham bands.

So you need a HAM license to transmit a email message that only one person can read?. That would seem trivially irrelevant to the FCC, I would think Second question, can you only send DigiRig emails over the licensed HAM bands, buy not over other license free bands, like MURS or FRS?

Such a helpful tip @i8BBQ4Lunch thanks for learning with us!

Glad it was helpful!

My favourite sitrep tool is the New South Wales government's "Hazards Near Me" app.

@vk2sky I discover I posted the wrong link, sorry correcting that. Yikes and ZL, doh! Apologies

@@WaveTalkers No worries Chris, I'll tell my friends at the Australian embassy to stand down. 😛

@@vk2skyoh that’s a relief. The page has been updated at cq.wavetalkers.com/dashboard

@@WaveTalkers One other very minor detail: Down Under, what you guys call wildfires, we call Bushfires. 🙃

thanks for learning with us!

Glad you found it helpful @kathyaustin8608

Thanks for learning with us @dougbas3980

Hi @bdinnocenzo, great question. The need for HAM radio in an emergency has never been greater. Yes, there is an obvious tie to Winlink using amateur radio and passing of voice traffic over the air, but it goes much further than that. Amateur Radio and the skills we learn as HAMs truly are the foundations on which nearly all modern communication systems are built. It is the foundational skills and our ability to translate those skills to additional domains that make us so incredibly valuable during an emergency. For example, over the past year I’ve personally supported several events and participated in multiple full-scale exercises. In each case it was my basic skills as a HAM that allowed me to find a working solution to the problem we were facing. In one case it was using knife edge refraction to link two repeater sites across nearly 50 miles of desert, allowing the linking of Dispatch in one city to mobile field medic stations and roving ambulances that communicated on VTAC frequencies. For that event (Baker2Vegas 120-mile Relay Race across Death Valley from Baker CA to Las Vegas NV) our field techs on the Medical Radio Network (MRN) were all volunteer HAMs that supported the medic stations at each stage, the ambulance drivers, and med base all linked back to dispatch. Our HAM communications backbone was all Amateur Radio and ran parallel to the commercial frequencies used by the first responders we were volunteering to support during the race. In one capacity we helped the professionals establish their network by setting up the antennas, emergency power systems, linked the repeaters, and testing the MRN across nearly 10,000 sq miles of desert. That portion of our mission leveraged our ham skills but not amateur radio frequencies. Once the race started, my team of MRN Ham volunteers provided the trouble shooting for various field stations solving basic antenna, power, and connectivity issues, and served as an additional backup to the backup should we be needed. For that role we did use our ham frequencies for our own coordination constantly testing our communications in the event we were needed to pass life safety traffic. Even with all the modern communications, Telcom, satellites, etc., it was basic HAM skills that got the job done in support of the larger mission. Check out Episode 66 for a more detailed walk through of that event and how we supported it. In two of the full-scale exercises, I participated in, it was the fundamentals of antennas that allowed for the IC to communicate with the rest of the exercise field including off site evaluators and participants across the exercise field. Was I using HAM radio to do those things? No, I was leveraging my skills a HAM radio operator to contribute to the success of the mission. However, in one of those exercises, we utilized AREDN MESH to create an ad hock wireless network to push live video across the exercise grounds and feed that video into a common video switcher that then pushed those feeds out to a live Zoom meeting to allow the command staff, off-site evaluators, and other players to see and hear what was going during the exercise. The AREDN portion was over amateur radio and filled a critical gap when needed and where appropriate. This allowed us as HAMs to seamlessly integrate and volunteer our skills and equipment where appropriate in support of the mission. In that case in particular, the professionals were blown away at what our small team of hams were able to accomplish and contribute to the exercise. Ham radio is so much more than just talking on the radio. We truly are communicators with advanced technical skills that we develop in the normal practice of ham radio operating but can translate our experience to supporting our communities, first responders, cities, states, federal and international needs.

The 22 Tasks we covered in this episode were developed for an AuxComm operator supporting an Agency Having Jurisdiction, and thus were all geared such that a well-trained AuxComm HAM operator could work toward completing these tasks. Amateur Radio could be used to complete all the Winlink related tasks, participation in the Voice nets and traffic handling, operation under emergency power, Antenna Tuning / Station Power Output, DMR Digital Voice, Use of common ICS forms in Winlink or via traditional paper forms, leveraging the relationships between an Amateur EmComm group and served agencies such as a local hospital or EOC, and much more. The use of Winlink as a tool for EmComm is continuing to grow at an incredible rate and the transport of that traffic is largely handles over two primary RF paths: Amateur Radio and SHARES if the internet becomes unavailable. Hams that are supporting EmComm at all levels need to have good foundation in the operation of Winlink to pass the types of traffic that many of our served agencies need and are expecting. For example, in the Los Angeles area our ARES teams provide direct support to Hospitals in the area and regularly pass the hospital status and bed availability forms between the hospitals and the main Medical Dispatch Center (MAC) in the Region. That traffic used to be passed exclusively via voice by our HAMS, but the MAC now wants all those data submitted via Winlink, so they are able to process the data more efficiently. We still have voice as a fall back, but our operators will utilize a combination of existing HAM Winlink gateways, Tactical Winlink Gateways we establish on the fly, Digipeating, or even Winlink P2P to deliver that traffic across our region. In this episode we talked about the P.A.C.E. plan and noted that while the Emergency level may fall back to voice traffic (what many of us think of first when they think of HAM radio), higher rungs of the ladder are likely to include digital traffic such as data passed via Winlink and more specifically Winlink Forms. The data on these forms is completely independent of the transport layer being utilized such as RF via Amateur Radio / SHARES, or more traditional transport via commercial or emergency internet paths. In our WaveTalkers Winlink courses we emphasis first learning to operate Winlink for all operators and then add in the RF transport layer. This RF transport can and does take place largely via Amateur Radio using VHF/UHF FM or via AREDN MESH at the local level or via Amateur HF to pass traffic outside of the disaster zone. In California in particular, our Agencies have been adopting SHARES and are passing the exact same type of traffic using the same Winlink tools that we are using on the Amateur side. This allows Amateurs familiar with Winlink to seamlessly integrate into ICS structure when asked. The fundamental tools and skills are the same the only real difference is the frequencies used change and sensitive information can be encrypted on SHARES as opposed to on the HAM bands. Furthermore, skills we practice as HAMs supporting EmComm such as operating on Emergency Power, Antenna Tuning, ensuring our stations are putting out full power, operating on digital voice modes such as DMR, submitting accurate location information, providing ground proofing information, etc. were also included in the tasks. What I personally found so interesting about this particular exercise is that over those 22 Tasks for the AuxComm operator supporting an AHJ, the range of skills that were utilized from basic voice traffic, EmComm net participation, Basic to Advanced Winlink traffic handling, use of a variety of Winlink Forms, use of the Winlink Catalog, leveraging of relationships with served agencies, challenging instructions that needed to be followed to complete a task, to the basic practice of logging significant events really tested an Amateur's abilities. There really were tasks in this exercise for all levels of HAM operators. Plus keep in mind that we didn't even touch on the MSEL that were targeted at the Agency operators or professionals, we only focused on the MSEL for one type of AuxComm operator. As a HAM supporting EmComm, having a better understanding of the landscape of emergency communications helps us better integrate and support a mission when asked. HAMs certainly do not need to know all these skills, but being familiar with the landscape, terminology used, and standard procedures followed by the agencies and organizations we support allows us to be better able to take pieces of this larger puzzle and be more helpful when asked. 73 Chris W6AH

Curious to know how this conclusion was drawn? Signed one of many hams the participated in this exercise.

Hi @siddharth4662, absolutely. Winlink RMS can support Packet on the UHF/VHF frequencies in addition to VARA FM. On the HF side Winlink RMS can support Pactor, VARA HF, Robust Packet, and ARDOP. Check out the next few episodes 59-62 for some of the other options.

@@WaveTalkers thank you very much for the insights!

Great question, AREDN does not require the internet at all. It uses the same TCP/IP protocols as the internet but it is a complete standalone network. In fact at a recent event we used AREDN to move video data around but didn’t have an internet connection at all. The nodes once set correctly auto detect each other and begin talking and running the services that each is offering.

No, there is no encryption allowed on the ham bands. All messages must be sent in the clear. Compression that is open and freely decoded is allowed, think sending Morse Code, that is compressed and encoded for each letter, but it is not encrypted. Encrypting the body of the message would obscure the meaning and thus not be permitted.

Glad it was helpful!

Thanks @LoganKD6LLB

Thanks @roydugger7303, you are absolutely right as a long term solution an HT does not make good choice for a Gateway but in the Tactical Gateway scenario we walk through we think it makes a lot of sense to get on the air quickly as you work to improve your station. Chris W6AH

Thanks @kathyaustin8608 appreciate you!

Love it, sounds like a great portable station for Winlink. 73 Chris W6AH