Airmail/Winlink

[smslavin]

I'm relatively new to this forum and HAM in general (currently studying for my test). Larry has been graciously answering many of my questions on another board but I think now I really should posting over here.

This morning I've been digging around some info on APRS and AirMail/Winlink. The posts about the Indian Country trip piqued my interest. I found the AirMail and Winlink websites, a fairly decent PACTOR primer and an in-depth look at the PACTOR protocol. Being a software engineer, I kept looking for screen shots but instead found archaic references to installing AirMail on Win95. To be totally honest, the AirMail site positively frightened me. Please please tell me there's a client for more modern operating systems. Maybe I'm not looking in the right places? I did find the Yahoo Group.

So, the way I understand it, AirMail is a client for the Winlink backend and the Winlink guys have also developed a client. Are most folks running the AirMail client? If so, how's the functionality? Can anyone share a screenshot or two or three?

Paclink, going by what I've read, seems a bit more up to date in that it integrates with several currently available email clients. Is anyone running this one?

Now, for the zinger question, does anyone know if there's a Mac client??

Thanks

[DaveK]

I'm relatively new to this forum and HAM in general (currently studying for my test). Larry has been graciously answering many of my questions on another board but I think now I really should posting over here.

This morning I've been digging around some info on APRS and AirMail/Winlink. The posts about the Indian Country trip piqued my interest. I found the AirMail and Winlink websites, a fairly decent PACTOR primer and an in-depth look at the PACTOR protocol. Being a software engineer, I kept looking for screen shots but instead found archaic references to installing AirMail on Win95. To be totally honest, the AirMail site positively frightened me. Please please tell me there's a client for more modern operating systems. Maybe I'm not looking in the right places? I did find the Yahoo Group.

So, the way I understand it, AirMail is a client for the Winlink backend and the Winlink guys have also developed a client. Are most folks running the AirMail client? If so, how's the functionality? Can anyone share a screenshot or two or three?

Paclink, going by what I've read, seems a bit more up to date in that it integrates with several currently available email clients. Is anyone running this one?

Now, for the zinger question, does anyone know if there's a Mac client??

Thanks

smslavin:

Welcome aboard!

The Airmail references in the Indian Country trip thread related to email messages, with pictures, which I sent from different locations during our trip. I will post more information in my trip report, but I can tell you that because Airmail works by using HF frequencies, there was no location during our trip where I could not connect to an MBO (shorthand for a fixed mail box station) and we were in some pretty remote areas.

The Airmail program has been around for many years and this probably accounts for the references to W95. Believe it or not, there are still a lot of Hams that rely on W95 as their OS and the Airmail software continues to support them. Don't let this throw" you off as it also supports all of the current crop of offerings from Mr. Gates. For my field computer, I have elected to not "downgrade" to either Vista or the earlier flop from MS and I still use XP. Regardless of your OS, they will work.

Paclink, like Airmail, is client software for radio email users. Both acomplish the same end objective of allowing email transmission and reception, with atachments. Features distinguish the two but Airmail, by far, is the more popular program. I suppose when time permits, I will wring out Paclink to see what it offers. At the moment, I have no criticisims of Airmail. It worked very well and performed flawlessly.

I have found two exceptional sources of technical support for Airmail - 1) Gary Woods of Farallon Electronics (authorized distributor of the SCS Modem which you will need to use the system) and 2) the Yahoo talk group, you mentioned.

Post up if you need more information.

[smslavin]

Thanks for the info Dave. I'll have to dig out some old XP images to use. Still studying for the test but I'm trying to get a handle on everything. Looking forward to getting out there and if there's a way to check in with home I'll definitely score some brownie points.

I'll be sure to post up more questions as I have them. Pretty sharp group over here.