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Jason Tremblay, VE3JXT
For immediate release | October 8, 2024 

Jason Tremblay, VE3JXT
RAC Community Services Officer

Radio of Amateurs of Canada has received a request from the Winlink Development team to issue the following statement about Hurricane Milton:

“The Winlink Development Team from the United States has requested that all non-essential traffic on the Winlink system be suspended, including tests, weekly nets, etc., until after Hurricane Milton. They are still experiencing high volumes of traffic from Helene, so please keep the gateways open.”

Due to the FCC part 97.221 American Amateur Radio regulations, the band restrictions limit the frequencies that are used to transmit and receive Winlink traffic.

Specifically:

  • 28.120-28.189 MHz,
  • 24.925-24.930 MHz,
  • 21.090-21.100 MHz,
  • 18.105-18.110 MHz,
  • 14.0950-14.0995 MHz,
  • 14.1005-14.112 MHz,
  • 10.140-10.150 MHz,
  • 7.100-7.105 MHz,
  • 3.585-3.600 MHz 

Considering that our occupied bandwidth for protocols used is between 2.3KHz and 2.75 KHz, and that we share these segments with others, we don’t have much wriggle room!

Lastly, a US end-user may also use RMS gateways from other countries that will appear outside these segments since they are present as a control operator (not under automatic control). This would include the RMS gateways in Canada, Mexico, ITU sponsored gateways in Central America and the Caribbean.’

Please respect that gateways will be operating at their best capabilities, but overuse of non-essential traffic may impact their ability to provide support to storm-affected areas.

Thank you.

Jason Tremblay, VE3JXT
RAC Community Services Officer