WC-ARES Meeting September 12, 2013

ARES Winlink Overview with Radio Only Emphasis Agenda: - Brief review of May 12, 2012 radio only exercise - New Winlink extension for radio only operation - Central Texas Winlink strategy versus situation - October exercise specific training - Task Force operation

ARES Think back to May 2012 RF Only Exercise ARRL West Gulf and Delta Divisions Participating

Texas ARES Winlink – Before the outage Texas EMCOMM Winlink HF Servers ARES

Texas ARES Winlink – After the outage N5TW RMS PACTOR station designated as overall Texas message hub ARES

South Texas ARES Winlink South Texas ARES Winlink Regional Hubbing Strategy HospitalEOC POD Shelter VHF Winlink server in RF only mode Local agencies can exchange using RF only mode. ARES

South Texas ARES Winlink South Texas ARES Winlink Routing Mail outside the local Area – the Direct approach VHF Winlink server in RF only mode HF Forwarding capable Direct HF forwarding requires PACTOR 2/3 SOC N5TW RMS Pactor server with VHF and HF capability ARES

South Texas ARES Winlink South Texas ARES Winlink Routing Mail outside the local Area – through local liaison HF Liaison used VHF Packet to receive traffic and used Pactor to forward VHF Winlink server in RF only mode HF Liaison With Pactor 2/3 N5TW RMS Pactor server with VHF and HF capability SOC ARES

South Texas ARES Winlink South Texas ARES Winlink Routing Mail outside the local Area – through local liaisons VHF Winlink server in RF only mode HF Liaison with WINMOR N5TW RMS Pactor server with VHF and HF capability HF Liaison used VHF Packet to receive traffic and used WINMOR to forward to a central Texas station also equipped with Packet and WINMOR Plus: Added bandwidth Plus: WINMOR much more common Minus: More complex and error prone Peer-to-peer SOC ARES

South Texas ARES Winlink South Texas ARES Winlink Routing Mail outside the local Area – through local liaison VHF Winlink server in RF only mode HF Liaison with WINMOR / Pactor N5TW RMS Trimode server with VHF and HF capability HF Liaison uses VHF Packet to receive traffic and WINMOR or PACTOR to forward directly to N5TW Plus:Less complexity Minus: Lost added HF bandwidth N5TW now running RMS Trimode adding WINMOR capability SOC ARES

South Texas ARES Winlink South Texas ARES Winlink Routing Mail outside the local Area – through local liaison SOC VHF Winlink server in RF only mode N5TW RMS Trimode server with VHF and HF capability HF Liaison with WINMOR / Pactor Additional N5TW RMS Trimode server located at NQ5L HF Liaison uses VHF Packet to receive traffic and WINMOR or PACTOR to forward directly to N5TW at N5TW or NQ5L locations Plus:Less complexity Plus: Added HF bandwidth regained Plus:Added Redundancy ARES

South Texas ARES Winlink South Texas ARES Winlink Routing Mail outside the local Area – through local liaison VHF Winlink server in RF only mode N5TW RMS Trimode server with VHF and HF capability HF Liaison with WINMOR / Pactor HSMM-Mesh Future extension: Link to additional site then connect to HSMM-Mesh Plus:Even more HF bandwidth possible Plus: Much faster traffic with MESH clients Plus:More VHF bandwidth available Additional N5TW RMS Trimode server located at NQ5L SOC ARES

New Winlink Feature for Routing traffic in RF only Scenario The Message Pickup Station (MPS)  Selection of MPS in RMS Express - Used for routing traffic in RF only case - Routing information passed to MPS stations in advance - Recommended for HF users or users local to MPS - Recommend just one MPS selection to avoid extra forwarding traffic - N5TW is recommended MPS for Texas - MPS operator does forwards to other MPS stations as required. - Radio only testing is actively underway - Users should setup their MPS selection now - Implications for October SET unclear ARES

Central Texas Winlink Strategy: - Geographic diversity - Redundant servers - Redundant radio only hubs - Frequency diversity Long haul: WC Travis Close in: WC WC Travis ARES

Central Texas Winlink Strategy: -Normal mode: Each facility uses Telnet to save VHF bandwidth for areas with outages RMS Packet server to help sites without the Internet - Local outage mode: Take down RMS Packet server Use RMS Express Packet page to send traffic to another server - Area or total Internet outage: Take down RMS Packet server Use RMS Express Packet page to send traffic to N5TW server FOR THE OCTOBER EXERCISE – USE N5TW FOR SENDING TRAFFIC EXCEPTION: Traffic for CTECC should be deposited there via: W5TQ (Preferred if you can hit directly) W5TQ (Via AUSRLY1) ARES

Central Texas Winlink Strategy: -Normal mode: Each facility uses Telnet to save VHF bandwidth for areas with outages RMS Packet server to help sites without the Internet - Local outage mode: Take down RMS Packet server Use RMS Express Packet page to send traffic to another server - Area or total Internet outage: Take down RMS Packet server Use RMS Express Packet page to send traffic to N5TW server FOR THE OCTOBER EXERCISE – USE N5TW FOR SENDING TRAFFIC EXCEPTION: Traffic for CTECC should be deposited there via: W5TQ (Preferred if you can hit directly) W5TQ (Via AUSRLY1) ARES

Central Texas Winlink Strategy: -Normal mode: Each facility uses Telnet to save VHF bandwidth for areas with outages RMS Packet server to help sites without the Internet - Local outage mode: Take down RMS Packet server Use RMS Express Packet page to send traffic to another server - Area or total Internet outage: Take down RMS Packet server Use RMS Express Packet page to send traffic to N5TW server FOR THE OCTOBER EXERCISE – USE N5TW FOR SENDING TRAFFIC EXCEPTION: Traffic for CTECC should be deposited there via: W5TQ (Preferred if you can hit directly) W5TQ (Via AUSRLY1) ARES

Central Texas Winlink Strategy: -Normal mode: Each facility uses Telnet to save VHF bandwidth for areas with outages RMS Packet server to help sites without the Internet - Local outage mode: Take down RMS Packet server Use RMS Express Packet page to send traffic to another server - Area or total Internet outage: Take down RMS Packet server Use RMS Express Packet page to send traffic to N5TW server FOR THE OCTOBER EXERCISE – USE N5TW FOR SENDING TRAFFIC EXCEPTION: Traffic for CTECC should be deposited there via: W5TQ (Preferred if you can hit directly) W5TQ (Via AUSRLY1) ARES

Winlink Exercise Review:  Open blank ICS-213 Form with MS Wordpad ARES

Winlink Exercise Review:  Edit form and do SAVE AS in RICH TEXT with a unique name. ARES

Winlink Exercise Review:  Edit form and do SAVE AS in RICH TEXT with a unique name. ARES

Winlink Exercise Review:  Create a New Message in RMS Express as shown below: ARES

Winlink Exercise Review:  Create the message and click on the Attachments tool: ARES

Winlink Exercise Review:  Click on Add: ARES

Winlink Exercise Review:  Browse for the correct file and click Open: ARES

Winlink Exercise Review:  Note file is attached. Click on Post to Outbox to be ready to send. ARES

Winlink Exercise Review:  Open a Packet WL2K session if one is not open: ARES

Winlink Exercise Review:  Click on Channel Selection if the proper station is not selected: ARES

Winlink Exercise Review:  For this radio only exercise, select one of the N5TW stations: ARES

Winlink Exercise Review:  Listen for a quiet frequency and click Start: ARES

Winlink Exercise Review:  The message was sent and another received at the same time. ARES

Portable Winlink Response Team ARES

Texas Winlink Local VHF/UHF Servers ARES

Questions ARES