Call For Check-Ins:

Every Sunday the Net Control shall make their best efforts to post a Call For Check-Ins Winlink Email.  As a participant, you have until midnight of the following Friday to respond with you check-in.  Currently there is only one Net Control for this and as we all know, Stuff Happens, and there may be a week were the Call for Check-ins is sent late, please be patient.  A reminder will often be provided on the Monday night YCARES net, on the W7YAM UHF repeater at 441.800 MHz with the standard UHF offset and PL tone of 114.8 at 7:30 PM local time.

Response:

All forms of Winlink Sessions will be accepted as a check-in.  In the attempt to prevent the check-ins being just a mechanical, routine reply, a specific format for the check-in response is requested.  If you do use a reply vs. creating a response from a new Email document, Please do not use a Reply All.

Subject Line:

For the Subject Line on the email please include the phrase "YCARES Winlink Net Check-In", as it will help with identifying the Check-ins from other Winlink messages I receive. 

Check-In Content:

 A fully qualified check-in via an internet mode like Telnet and WebMail will consist of the call sign of the participant, the Winlink Session mode, the participants current QTH County and State.  A telnet check-in from me would look like:

W7OWO, Telnet, Yamhill, OR

For Radio based modes a fully qualified check-in will consist of the call sign, Winlink Session mode, the RMS station call, RMS Station Frequency, the participants current QTH  County and  State.  A UHF Packet check-in from me would look like:

W7OWO, Packet, W7YAM-12, 441.050, Yamhill, OR

If RMS station name and frequency is not provided in the check-in content, the check-in will be logged with the Winlink mode provided, but it will be treated as a Telnet check-in in the map.

The Net Control will provide their check-in information following their name and within the Call for Check-Ins message sign-off.

Check-In Reporting:

Periodically throughout the week, the Net Control will gather the Check-In Responses.  These will be logged, and a map will be generated showing the current known check-ins.   The map a marker for the responding QTH, and for radio modes a marker for the Winlink.org reported location of the RMS station.  A Great Circle arc is drawn between the QTH and RMS station for radio mode check-ins and hovering over it will show the names of both the RMS station, the Participant and the distance in miles.  The markers are color coded by the mode, even discerning VHF from UHF Packet.  Hovering over either a participant or RMS station marker will display the call sign and mode.

On Saturdays I will compile a roster of the check-ins and present some statistics of that weeks modes.  The Particpant with that had the longest distance between their QTH and the RMS station will be listed.  There is also a list of the in order of the number of their check-ins for those with over 100 checkins. 

ICS-213 Week:

Winlink ICS Templates: On the third week out of the month the check-in response will be requested to be via an Winlink ICS-213 templated form.  It should be USA standard ICS-213 Standard template, but other local ICS-213 templates or plain text ICS-213 forms will be accepted.  A few months out of the year, I will send the Check-In request within an ICS-213 and I will expect the response to be within the reply section of the form.  While just the one-line check-in response is expected the other weeks, ICS-213 or other forms are OK. 

Becoming a Participant

All are welcome,  it only requires you to have a Winlink Email Account.

If you are already signed up within the Winlink Global Email system, just send a Winlink email to [email protected]  asking to be added to the list of participants.   Please include your first name, call sign, and the Grid Square you usually send from, or if you want accuracy, the Latitude and Longitude of your location.   The Net Control will take your information and add it to the weekly Call for Check-Ins email and consider you checked-in for the current check-in period. 

Not signed up to use the Winlink Global Email system?  Go to https://winlink.org/ and locate the heading "How To Get an Account" near the bottom of the page in the far left column.  Read the instruction first, then follow them.  This basically consists of down-loading a client software (Winlink Express preferred for this net), installing the software, and then providing your account information on the setup screen following the instructions provided.  You will then use this client to send a message to the system.  Your password will be sent to you in a Winlink email.  You will need to retrieve this email by starting a Winlink Session.  The Telnet Winlink session is recommend for this.  Once you have your password, enter it into the setup screen.