[drats_users] D-RATS and Winlink 2K

[Les Rayburn]

Someone mentioned the possibility of "bridging" D-RATS to the Winlink e-mail system. Today, I've noticed discussions about using gmail as the desired provider of POP3 e-mail accounts. 

While I'm sure there are merits to both ideas, I'd really like to suggest considering bridging to the Winlink.org system. It seems to me that this offers a lot of advantages, especially as it pertains to EMCOMM. Winlink already enjoys a robust HF system, and being able to interconnect the two systems would be desirable. At the local county EMA for example, we can already connect to Winlink via our HF radio to send and receive e-mails in the event of loss of Internet connectivity during an incident. 

With D-RATS and our installed IC-2820H, we could also provide that same capability via D-Star. It provides redundancy and as Martha Stewart likes to say, that's always a "good thing" in my world. 

Once the bridging was completed, any licensed amateur radio operator could obtain a Winlink.org e-mail address by simply sending an e-mail within D-star. 

Are there other issues or problems with this that I'm not considering?

73,



Les Rayburn, N1LF
ARES Alabama Section Emergency Coordinator
NCS-SHARES NCS-047
---------------------------------------------
121 Mayfair Park
Maylene, AL 35114
(205) 253-4867
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://intrepid.danplanet.com/pipermail/drats_users/attachments/20080925/4db23546/attachment.html