Mitchell County ARES

Post 9/11 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recognizes Amateur Radio as a key element in Emergency Response Planning. MOUs exist between ARES and: Red Cross, Salvation Army, DHS, FEMA. ARES provides communication support in all major emergency events nation-wide (Hurricanes, Fires, Blizzards, Power Outages, Terrorist Attacks, Floods, Tornadoes).

Winlink 2000 Digital Messaging for EmComm By Steve Waterman, K4CJX Winlink 2000 Network Administrator, Winlink 2000 Development Team “Our primary mission is to provide Global digital communications for the benefit, safety and well-being of our user communities, anywhere at anytime.” International Boat Watch Network Friend Ships

Mirror image, redundant Common Message Servers (CMS) provide: –IETF RFC 2821 de facto between Winlink 2000 users and Internet Recipients over telnet, Web mail or Radio links. –Retrieval of Weather and other information available as files or URL pages from the Internet. –Position Reporting for Mobile applications. Winlink 2000 Topology IN and OUT Real-Time RMS access Real-Time TelNET access WX and other Info Position Reporting DHS HQ CMS PERTH CMS SAN DIEGO CMS HALIFAX CMS

Radio Message Servers “RMS” are always connected to the CMS System via the Internet in a star network topology, serving as radio nodes on the Winlink 2000 network. –RMS Pactor for HF provides short or long haul availability to internet . –RMS Packet for VHF/UHF “last mile” availability to Internet . –RMS Relay provides continual communications with the CMS system when no Internet is available to bridge the “last mile.”

RMS HF Pactor RMS VHF/UHF Packet To CMS’s (Round Robin)‏ RMS Gateways provides real-time access to the CMS system from many locations, worldwide. It actually bridges HF radio to the Internet. –The RMS systems are separated into “classes” such as the “Government” class, or the Amateur Radio class. –In each class, the RMS system nodes are all redundant, mirror images of each other. –Should an RMS Pactor Gateway be separated from the Internet, it will become invisible to the radio user. –Radio users understand that they may check in on any RMS Pactor Gateway within their licensed class, depending on propagation, and the RMS availability to the Internet. CMS Telnet & WEB browser

RMS HF Pactor RMS VHF/UHF Packet To CMS’s (Round Robin) Via Internet Two separate clients: –Airmail, a single application client. –Paclink MP, a single/Multiple user client with standard POP3 clients as a user interface. Contains automatic hierarchical routing, secure login, and “auto-precedence.” CMS Telnet

In today’s World, we cannot predict the size, nature or location of our disaster areas! We be must prepared. Local?Regional?Global?

Amateur Radio can provide to any served agency without the Internet within the “Last Mile,” across the Nation, or around the World. End-User Focus

Winlink 2000 Today… by the numbers Over 99% system availability since Nov, Full-time, Redundant, Mirror image, Common Message Servers (CMS) in Detroit, San Diego and Perth, all in hardened sites, providing excellent reliability, worldwide. More coming! 91 total Message Stations, worldwide, in 3 Service Classes. Public & EmComm Amateur, Army MARS, and UK Cadet Forces maintain separate service classes for their own operation. More EmComm Classes coming! Approximately 10,000 Weekly Radio users communicating with over 98,000 recipients, pushing an average of 150,000 messages or 280,000 minutes, monthly, with an average duration of 3.4 Minutes at 3,600 bytes/per message. The average time from message origination to pickup for delivery is approximately 3.5 minutes, regardless of distance. In the EmComm Amateur service class, there are 315 Active VHF/UHF “Local Area” message stations (including one in Mitchell County on Woody's Knob).

Welcome to the Power of Winlink 2000 ! Where in the World are you? It doesn’t matter!

Real-time Status VHF/UHF Telpac/RMS Packet: 346 Active shown MARS VHF numbers increasing (not shown).

Western NC RMS Packet Stations

Mitchell County RMS Packet Woody's Knob 4170' MHz Grid Sq EM85wv Backup power Internet provided by MAIN 50W, 6.7 dB ant.

A WINLINK 2000 HF LONG RANGE FIELD STATION Amateur radio High Frequency (HF) transceiver. Pactor capable modem: Pactor 800 bps bps. Highly recommended over Pactor 200 bps. ( Example: an 80 Kbyte file on Pactor 1: approx. 80 Min, On Pactor 3, approx 7-12 min.)‏ HF multi-band (mobile/portable) antenna, and an auto-coupler. Power source. Laptop Computer (Win 98, ME, 2000, XP) and Airmail for HF.

Winlink 2000 is an existing, proven, operational, redundant, secure, and reliable Amateur Radio messaging network. (However, each community of interest must put it in place.)‏