FYI-
From the Sept 17th ARES E-Letter:
Mexican Amateurs Support Winlink for Disaster Response Communications
A three year program to fund Winlink gateways in Mexico was completed
recently with the installation of XE1CRG. Mexico is a diverse country
where HF communications plays a role in disaster recoveries and
during emergencies. While Mexico's infrastructure is complete and
modern, there are areas where Internet connectivity does not exist.
And so Mexican amateurs who provide support to local Protection Civil
offices and other agencies have had a history of using HF voice.
We conducted a demonstration for officials in 2011 of various HF data
modes. Victor Pinilla, XE1VP, from the University of Mexico was
impressed with the portable Winlink HF station and easy delivery to
Internet-based email recipients. This started a planning and funding
process to install four complete Winlink gateways. To date, four
systems at a cost of $20,000 have been established at reliable sites
with local area support.
Each system is configured with an ICOM 7200 and SCS Dragon
Mike Burton, XE2/N6KZB, tests new Winlink Gateway. (photo courtesy XE2/N6KZB)
Pactor modem. The sites are secure with local battery back-up. All
gateways run Pactor and WINMOR 1600. The sites also have packet radio
ports for training and local use.
Since Mexico is allowed auto-forwarding and Pactor 4 operation, all
the gateways participate in the Winlink Hybrid Network, offering
radio-only message transport in the event of Internet failure, and
MPS (Message Pickup Station) delivery. One site near the Guatemalan
border, XE2EOS, loses Internet connectivity from time-to-time but
with HF auto-forwarding, email continues to reliably flow.
This commitment by Mexico's amateur community is also supported by
the Federacion Mexicana de Radio Experimentadores
(<http://www.fmre.org.mx/>FMRE, Mexico's IARU member-society).
Technical and financial support has come from many local amateurs:
XE2SI XE2GF XE1RZ XE2EOS XE1BRX.Winlink has proven reliable and
robust for the remote email and peer messaging needs in Mexico. These
systems are open to the worldwide amateur community and are actively
exercised by US amateurs and many foreign visiting boaters and
voyagers on the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. The comfort level for
officials for emergencies provided by these gateways is a testament
to the dedication and hard work of many, to include the Winlink
Development Team. -- Mike Burton, XE2/N6KZB, reprinted from the
Winlink website <http://www.winlink.org>www.winlink.org with permission
73,
Ben WB2RHM
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