Connecting to Winlink stations

[phorvati]

After a while of being dormant i reactivated my winlink account and I am in the process of setting up email over ICOM710 and Pactor II(514k).

M710, AT-130 and Pactor II worked on my old boat. now i am setting it up on my current boat. It has dynaplate and AT130 appears to be well grounded to it, and so is ICOM M710.


I made new DIM8 cables and I can confirm connectivity to Pactor from windows 7 PC on the boat.
In command line mode i get FW revision and i can run modem commands. I am at FW 3.6. and winlink express bitches as it wants FW 4.0 or later. So i resorted to airmail.



I installed airmail3.4 and i am able to control the modem and subsequently M710 radio. i bought this radio new and i was using it for ham frequencies on my prior boat so it was setup correctly.

I am having hard time connecting to stations. I am using the propagation table to see which stations have highest likelihood of connection. (green). It doesn't look like I get a clear audio to discern if station is busy or no. 10 years ago i remember that on my old boat i was getting a clearer chirp when station is busy, and i could tell not to bother trying to connect which it sounded like it has pactor traffic.

I remember that i would wait for a what was the ending of Pactor transmission and was often successful in jumping on new channel as soon as pactor transmission ends.



Ive tried about a dozen times over the last two days and i keep getting station occupied.



I don't have internet on the boat and cell phone has no connectivity either so i cant double check the settings via telnet .



i know that at home on a PC I was able to install airmail 3.4 and setup winlink so that I can telnet and get emails. i got one grib file request email to work so i know my password is setup correctly.



On the boat i am pretty sure i am using the same settings on Airmail.



Should I be looking into grounding and trying to ensure signal bounce is good or keep trying new stations?

Any other tips on how to proceed next?
Are winlink stations that much more occupied as opposed to 10 years ago?

[stormalong]

I don't know about Winlink stations being busier than in the past but there has been an emphasis on Winlink for emergency prep so that could be a cause for increased traffic.

The bigger issue right now is that we are on the very bottom of the sunspot cycle so being able to connect is a problem. I have noticed that stations I could easily connect to a few years ago with 5 watts seem impossible to connect to right now, even with 100 watts. My example is connecting to stations just 30 to 50 miles away from a home station, for emergency prep exercises. And this is with far better antennas than any boat installation.

We are planning a two month trip through British Columbia and Alaska next year and I am concerned that Winlink will not be a reliable communications option.

[phorvati]

It looks like modem is not switching the radio to desired frequency. Doesn't look like it's fully controlling M710.
In airmail, when i select a station in HF terminal window, should M710 screen switch to show that frequency automatically? Mine is not. It's staying at whatever station was there before. And when I hit the green button, TX indicator is on at M710 screen, but channel/frequency displayed has not changed and is different from airmail HF terminal frequency selected.
I know tuner works bc as I select different frequency on manual dial in M710 and press tune button on M710, I hear relays clicking on AT-130.

[AA3JY]

Where are you presently located..and what winlink stations are you trying to connect with?

[phorvati]

In RI and trying several stations
W10N
VE2AQF
KQ4ET
...etc see pic
I try any one of the green frequencies.
I definitely think my issue is that M710 is not tuning to those channels.

I did try manually to tune to those channels on M710 and as I press tune, i do hear the pactor chrip. I am not sure if those are simplex or duplex frequencies. I tried tuning tx and rx to listening frequency listed. I tried finding one that does not have a chirp before trying to connect.

[AA3JY]

Try KQ4ET @ 3587.5 USB before sunrise

[AA3JY]

Side note: on occasion I’ll monitor my PACTOR signal with another radio for any distortion

[Brian.D]

If on winlink you select a different station, the winlink CAT should switch the frequency on the radio. You indicate that it is not doing that. Check the configuration in the winlink program for the correct radio, correct baud rate, correct comport on the pc. Not sure if the 710 has any like configuration for remote operations.


What is the m710's remote port speed? 4800? 9600?

[phorvati]

Originally Posted by Brian.D

If on winlink you select a different station, the winlink CAT should switch the frequency on the radio. You indicate that it is not doing that. Check the configuration in the winlink program for the correct radio, correct baud rate, correct comport on the pc. Not sure if the 710 has any like configuration for remote operations.


What is the m710's remote port speed? 4800? 9600?

I know PTT is connected as TX works. Switching frequencies is not working. I am going to order new control cable. I dont remember if 10 years ago i needed another control cable. i believe i only had RS232 from PC to Pactor and a 8pin DIM from pactor audio to ACC1 on M710.

Now i am reading that you can add control cable and ICOM M710 can be controlled via 3.4mm jack or via DB9(RS232) connector on the back.

[phorvati]

I think this is my problem, this is from airmail help page, text in bold suggests DB9 RS232 cable is not wired like a typical RS232 cable. Ive been trying typical RS232 cable and I think I need to double check and alter the pinout or order this custom cable from Farallon. What bothers me is that i dont remember having to go through this 10 years ago. Using 8pin DIN Audio cable only actually worked and Pactor was controlling the radio frequencies.


"The Icom M710 (and M710RT) includes both a TTL-level (0-5 volt) "Clone" jack which can be used for remote control, as well as a RS232-compatible "REMOTE" NMEA connector. The TTL-level jack is a 1/8" mini-phone jack which can be directly connected to the "remote" connector on a PTC-II or PTC-IIpro modem, using a specially-wired cable (see PTC-II/M710). The 9-pin "REMOTE" connector looks like a RS232 connector but is not wired the same, and requires a specially-wired cable to connect to a computer serial port (see Com Port Control) or the PTC-IIpro's "remote" connector (using RS232 mode, see PTC-IIpro/M710)."

[Pizzazz]

Most likely your Pactor II cannot control the radio. For example, I have a Pactor IIex and there are certain radios that work and certain others that do not work.

Best bet is to order a usb to serial dual cable with two serial ports, one for the modem, one for the radio. Make sure that the modem still controls PTT as you have it now. If the cable connectors do. It match you can cut the cables and connect them as needed.

[waterman46]

I recommend you set up the frequency and sideband manually if that is possible in your tranceiver. I always have to do that because frequency is not programmable on my old Kenwood. The "dial" frequency and sideband to use, should show at very bottom of your WinLink program window on the PC after you select your station in the program. The frequency there is what should show on your transceiver as it includes the necessary offset and sideband selection from the nominal frequency in the station list.

The newer modes used in Pactor sound different than before. Pactor II had a friendly chirping sound but the higher modes sound more like noise due to the higher data rate.

And yes, 10 years ago propagation was better, but even then not so hot most of the time. When I sailed to Tahiti in 1990, I could talk to my father in northern CA on 10 meters most of the way. Today its all noise above 20M.

[Marathon1150]

The possibility of the cabling and other technical issues that you comment on not withstanding, I can add that we switched to Sailmail about 2 years ago because of our sailing plans to cross the Pacific to French Polynesia. A friend who did the same trip the year before reported that it was very difficult to connect to Winlink stations. This was a contrary experience to his previous two crossings to New Zealand and back, twice, during which he used Winlink without difficulty.

Good luck with solving the problem.

[Auspicious]

Originally Posted by phorvati

I know PTT is connected as TX works. Switching frequencies is not working. I am going to order new control cable. I dont remember if 10 years ago i needed another control cable. i believe i only had RS232 from PC to Pactor and a 8pin DIM from pactor audio to ACC1 on M710.

Now i am reading that you can add control cable and ICOM M710 can be controlled via 3.4mm jack or via DB9(RS232) connector on the back.

Correct. There is one cable between your computer and the modem. There are two cables (audio and control) between the modem and the radio. I think you have now figured that out.

Originally Posted by phorvati

After a while of being dormant i reactivated my winlink account and I am in the process of setting up email over ICOM710 and Pactor II(514k).

In my opinion Airmail is head and shoulders above Winlink Express for cruisers.



When you take control of the radio (HF Terminal window) there should be a big REMOTE illuminate on the radio display and the frequency will change. That happens over the control cable.



It is also worth noting that for older modems and newer radios you need a serial to USB adapter and some of those are much better than others. I much prefer the Keyspan usa-19hs.



Once you have the radio control working be attentive to noise. Somewhere you said you have grounded both the tuner and the radio. Three are also two ground connections between the radio and the tuner (the coax shield and the ground cable in the tuner control cable). This can lead to RF noise from the ground loop. With the radio on, try disconnecting the ground on the radio. If the frequency gets quieter leave it off.



In addition there is some newish 3rd party traffic enforcement on Winlink that is troublesome. There was discussion on one of the Winlink email lists but nothing on the Winlink website. I'll try to get some elaboration. Regardless you should still be able to connect even if you can't pass traffic.

[phorvati]

Fixed. It was the control able I was missing. Pin 3 GND and pin 6 ICOM NMEA of the Pactor II control connector had to be connected to Small audio jack or clone jack on ICOM M710. Instead of waiting for custom cable I took one of the audio cables and soldered the ground and signal wires to pins inside the modem. Ideally it should be Mono audio cable. I had stereo, but i soldered the two channels together so that the two inner sections of audio jack were together. Outer section on audio jack was ground.

Now when i pull up HF terminal on Airmail3, Icom M710 displays REMOTE and I am tuning it via station drop down menu in Airmail HF window.

And I am able to Listen for pactor traffic. After few minutes i heard the end tones of someone else's transmission end and i was able to establish connection. Unfortunately I fat-fingered my test email address, instead of @gmail.com I had @gmail.vom. I ended up seeing it as Email was going out. In the end I am good here. Ground bounce and antenna look to be good.