September 21, 2023

Local Winlink Node - Explained!

(By Keith, KN5G) As most of you already know the Rusk County Amateur Radio Club has a WinLink, VHF Gateway on the air so that local Amateurs can access the Global WinLink Network and send and receive messages through the International WinLink messaging system.

For the newer club members the Gateway station is located in downtown Henderson at the old Jail Building on the west side of the Court House. The antenna is on the tower there at what is presently the OEM Office, along with the County Commissioner’s repeater.

The Gateway is on 145.010 MHz., and supports both Packet WinLink Sessions and the newer and faster VarAC protocol for VarAC Sessions. The Gateway has a good range and can also be used as a digipeater using the alias HENDER.

There are a handful of us who have VarAC stations set up at our home QTH and we enjoy a good VarAC ragchew with each other from time to time. The VarAC mode allows for unconnected Broadcast from