sysop

Worldwide, the Hybrid system has had much success, both off and on the ham bands. The only place in the entire world that we had restricted the radio-only process without human intervention was in the United States even though it is legal here via Part 97.221. We restricted radio-only with expectations of there being more digital space in the US than was currently available.

We have made changes to the written Sysop Guidelines that constitute a clarification of the Operating Policy of the Winlink System. Recent confusion and complaints from users about gateways using BPQ32 software have made this necessary. Unfortunately, the Sysops of the offending stations have configured their gateways in ways that place unexpected requirements upon users in addressing messages, caused changes in the gateway/login protocol, or generally caused confusion among users who attempt to use these PUBLIC gateways. As a consequence, we must insist that gateway sysops conform to the newly-published guidelines. They are published here. Please read them and make any necessary changes to your station, if affected, as soon as possible. Thanks!

--The Winlink Development Team

We are fortunate to have generous gateway station sysops that provide equipment, technical expertise, utility costs, and everything else it takes to keep RMS gateway stations on-air and on-line 24/7/365. All sysops deserve a note of thanks from users who frequent their stations.

There are a few guys who stand above the crowd--a few whose loyalty and generosity are on-going after starting at the beginning. These are sysops who deserve extra-special thanks. They each have been on-air and online as HF gateways since back when we called them PMBOs, at the birth of modern Winlink 2000--in 1999! All are "baked into" the history of Winlink. Today, they are among the most-used and reliable gateway stations (sysops!) in the whole worldwide network.

Thank you, and congratulations to
Grady Williams, K6IXA, Atwater, California
Eric Simmons, KB6YNO, Petaluma, California
Neil Hughes, VE1YZ, Halifax, Nova Scotia
San Diego Yacht Club Amateur Radio Group , W6IM, and Rod McLennan, W6MWB, San Diego, California
John Burke, W7BO, Woodland, Washington
Bernie Zindell, WG3G, Trinidad

All sysops can be reached at their [callsign]@winlink.org.