One of the problems I’ve noted on the net is poor equalization of the audio for many stations.Case in point was last nights net control station. His signal was very strong (S9 plus 20 dB) at my location, yet he had all his energy in the first 300 Hz of the audio pass band.
He was not the only station with that problem. With a splattering station located at 3870 kHz the weaker highs were obliterated much of the time, and intelligibility suffered.
I authored a two part article with K5PA in the now defunct CQ magazine about how to best set up your SSB transceiver or transmitter to improve communication and intelligibility. Here is a link to part 1
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](https://www.k5pa.com/Ham%20Radio/Downloads/Mics%20Part-1%20W5GW%20K5PA%20Jan2022%20CQ%20Magazine.pdf)
Id like to know if there is a template to use to winlink check in to the HF net or just compose an email to send ?
Louis Binder, O.D.
346-701-4029
Fax 281-516-7536
MannEye Institute
14079 Farm to Market 2920
Tomball, Texas 77377
There hasn’t been any standard form required; a simple message is enough. HOWEVER - I stress to all the groups that I work with to get experience using the forms that we, as EMCOMM volunteers, may be called upon to use. Such as the ICS-213.
There is also a ‘WinLink Net Checkin’ form that you can use.
Weather ‘Boots on ground’ report
Hospital Bed Availability report
And such…
WA5LEE
Lee Glassman, ARRL VE, COM-L, COM-T, AUXC,
**RADO, ITSL, NREMT #**E3525310
Tomball, Texas
https://wa5lee.com
Pronouns: Him/He
HCOHSEM AUXCOMM
There hasn’t been any standard form required; a simple message is enough. HOWEVER - I stress to all the groups that I work with to get experience using the forms that we, as EMCOMM volunteers, may be called upon to use. Such as the ICS-213.
There is also a ‘WinLink Net Checkin’ form that you can use.
Weather ‘Boots on ground’ report
Hospital Bed Availability report
And such…
As it has been noted, there is not a standard template for the check in. If you are like I was at first, then you may be wondering “then what do I do?”. To try and help I will tell you what I do, and then folks can comment how it should be and we may get closer to an answer.
I send a message that contains the following:
Subj: RF Digital Check-In | Texas ARES Net
Callsign: KJ5EFO
Location: BRYAN, TX
Grid Square: EM10TR
Digital Mode: VARA FM
Winlink RMS Gateway: N5BRZ-12
Frequency: 145.070
Obviously, change the information to reflect you and your information. I made this a message template in Winlink:
(Messages>Template Manager>Add>paste the above modified with your info>Save).
(attachments)
It is also possible to set up your own templates. For more information: https://winlink.org/content/create_your_own_templates_html
About 4 or so years ago, when the use of Winlink and VARA was first pushed there were some Zoom sessions that included a format to use for checkin messages. The one from KJ5EFO pretty much matches that format. If I remember properly this was driven by some folks in either SW or NW parts. I do not think was ever District wide but should be in my mind at least.
Also discussed was what options should be used for sending messages, Telnet, VHF including Packet Winlink and VARA, UHF and HF. A total of 6 possible. I sometimes hear numbers like 10 etc being reported.
A good District training session seems overdue in my opinion.
Chris Luppens - KG5BBF
Different ARES groups have different sets of guidelines when sending Winlink check ins. Here in Fort Bend County, originally we sent messages on a one per band/mode combination, so there would be 4 local including Telnet, VHF VARA. UHF VARA. & VHF Packet, and then 30 for all of the HF bands + 6 meters for VARA, ARDOP, and Pactor. All of the HF connections depends on what bands a given station can work, what modes the gateways support , and which gateways can reached at the time of attempt. At one point we decided to just make as many Winlink check ins as possible, so being me I made 53 on two days. Its good to see which gateways we can reliably connect to on a regular basis, because propagation changes, and even local gateways sometimes go offline. I typically make about 12 to 19 Winlink check ins for our ARES net each week. The efforts are probably similar in other ARES groups, so that may be why you have heard some stations making 10 or so Winlink check ins. Above all of this, we encourage everyone to at least make one Winlink check in per week.
I made one Winlink check in on 20 meters through a gateway in Australia, and even though it was fun to see that happen, I felt that it was unnecessary or beyond the point of making Winlink check ins.
73
John Denison
KD5YOU
