June 13, 2008

In order to establish a unified working WinLink 2000 network for Wisconsin ARES/RACES, the following standards have been developed for the operation of a WinLink 2000 RMS Node with packet radio.

Registration

All WinLink RMS Packet Nodes must be registered on the WinLink web site, and should have a SSID of -10.

Frequency

Initially all of the RMS Packet Nodes in your area should be on the WI ARES/RACES Packet Frequency of 145.610 MHz. After one or two RMS Packet Nodes have been established, secondary nodes should be setup on your local packet LAN Frequency.

Beacons

RMS Packet Nodes should also beacon every 15 minutes. Beacons should also contain the nodes position in long/lat along with the RSGB APRS symbols for a WinLink RMS Packet Node, city, state, and frequency. An example of this beacon format is below;

=4304.35NW08800.50WaKB9MMC-10 WinLink RMS Node, Milwaukee WI 145.610/144.930 MHz

The idea behind using the location in the beacon is, if your community ever needed help from the outside. Persons using the AGW Packet Engine with their PacLink setup could also monitor the Telpac Node beacons using an APRS program like UI-View or AGW Tracker (in the receive only mode) and find who's on the air and where they're located relative to their own position. They can also look to see if any of the nodes operates on more than one frequency.

AGW UI-Digi

All WinLink RMS Packet Nodes in Wisconsin should also have installed at their site AGW UI-Digi. In addition all digi-peaters co-located at an RMS Packet site should have an SSID of –2.This allows users to connect to a distant WinLink RMS Packet Node in the event your site looses its Internet connectivity. It also allows WI ARES/RACES to do local asset tracking using APRS on the same frequency WinLink messaging is taking place in the event of a disaster.