SPARCS Ham Radio Emergency Communication

CHARRO COOKOUT & WINLINK SHOW A GREAT SUCCESS!

At least 100 were in attendance at the CHARRO Amateur Radio Club semi-annual cook-out and WinLink Seminar on Saturday January 26th with 37 hams attending the WinLink Seminar after everyone else finished lunch. Just before the WinLink Seminar there was an opportunity to tour the Texas Pack Shrimp Process and Packing Center, hosts of the 2008 cookout event.

Starting at 2 p.m. N5TW Tom from Austin (Georgetown) and KC6CNN Gerald from Harlingen Police Department kicked-off the SPARCS WinLink Seminar, one of the more interesting Ham Radio presentations I’ve seen in 31 years of hamming and featuring Ham Radio WinLink Station AE5R provided by Harlingen Police and their communications division. WinLink is the process of using personal computer programs such as “Airmail” to control the PC and ham radio equipment synchronized together to send and receive email messages to and from the Internet. VHF and HF Internet “nodes” are connected in strategic areas around the State as well as the nation. These nodes are called “TelPac” on VHF and “PMBO” connections or gateways on HF. What it means is that in almost all Hurricane strikes along the coast as well as in other disaster scenarios email can and will survive as a ham radio communications offering. WinLink is a highly valuable capability for ham radio emergency communications and it should be the number one priority for EOC and Incident Command Posts everywhere and certainly in the field. It’s ability to reach out by HF Radio in the affected area to an automated WinLink node hundreds of miles away to send and receive email in real time across the Internet has heads turning in the right direction for amateur radio operators.

After Gerald KC6CNN presented captivating photos and diagrams from HPD operations Tom N5TW then gave his updated and attention-grabbing presentation he made at the ARRL National Convention last August in Huntsville, Alabama.  Also covered was the “Radio Message System” or “RMS” that is replacing the existing “CMS” technology using the CMS “Central Message Servers” currently operating across the nation and which upgrades have begun. The RMS upgrade will allow faster message process and quicker delivery of emails with fewer layers through various hubs and networks. It was very interesting to see the growth from when WinLink began to grow in Houston, then Austin-San Antonio and finally around the U.S. and especially in the State of Florida. An area destined to be developed as soon as possible is Louisiana which hasn’t had the WinLink development and growth seen in other States coast to coast. Finally, Tom spent time covering D-Star and it’s operation which Gerald and the Harlingen Police Department have slated for development during 2008 in addition to their recent WinLink project carried out in 2007. SPARCS remains on top of WinLink and it’s continued process and development in Texas and the tremendous work and accomplishment by Tom Whiteside N5TW. Tom also announced a new backup TelPac K5RAV-10 that will assist the AE5R-10 local VHF TelPac when necessary.

Those who made the cookout enjoyed coffee and donuts on Saturday morning provided by CHARRO and of course plenty of fish, shrimp and chicken with “charro beans” and all the fix’ns free for hams and their better half. Above all, the CHARRO event reflected the warm and friendly Texas ham radio culture, fraternity and friendship expected among ham radio operators especially in the Rio Grande Valley and for which CHARRO stands proud and tall.  For more photos and additional stories by N5SLI and WA5ZIP please visit SoTexasHams and W5RGV.NET