“Winlink is fun and all, but it would be useless in an emergency. It’s email. Email won’t work when the grid is down.”
Ever hear that from another ham when the topic of Winlink is brought up? On the surface, the nay sayer’s logic checks out, but they are not seeing the forest with that big ol’ tree in their face.
I have been a big advocate of Winlink as a very useful emergency communications tool that amateurs should have in their radio tool kit for several reasons.
Winlink provides you a way to communicate from the field or in a “grid down” area with your amateur radio kit to hams and non-hams alike. This is key to me. I can talk to pretty much anyone anywhere. I would be able to only communicate with a small percentage of people with amateur radio alone. I would be able to communicate with pretty much anyone I would need to reach with Winlink.
Winlink offers an option for asynchronous communications. This can be more useful than some realize. Whether you’re in the filed enjoying your time camping, volunteering for a public event like a long distance race, or in a true “grid down” scenario; being able to communicate asynchronously can be incredibly useful.
You can receive vital information while you’re away from your station taking care of camp chores, or critical tasks. You can pass along important, yet non-critical to Net Control while they are handling a higher priority need via voice modes.
Dispelling the myth of email would be useless when the grid is down.
As I mentioned above, that is the tree opponents to learning and using Winlink have firmly pressed against their nose, not allowing them to see it’s true benefits.
For whatever reason, they think that in a bad situation, from moderate natural disasters to what ever flavor of apocalypse their imagination prefers, that there will be no internet any where. I’m not sure where this idea comes from. I may be wrong, but I cannot recall a single time that the internet (as we know it today) has been down world wide, nation wide across the United States, or even down for an entire state.
Often times the internet is down in locally or regionally. And this is what makes Winlink shine as an emergency communications tool. You can get an email out and receive email into an area with no access to the internet.
I can send an email from a remote backpacking location to non-ham family and friends to check in and let no I’m okay, without them needing to use specific apps or look me up on a website.
I can also let the same important people in my life know I’m okay if where I live is the focal point of a disaster like a tornado, wildlife, etc.
If working in an ARES/RACES capacity I can provide information to services outside of the disaster area to non-ham entities like the Red Cross, National Guard, State emergency management, etc. Information like number of misplaced people needing shelter, medical supplies needed, images of damage, maps of effected area, etc. Easy, fast, efficient and with potentially errors than by voice.
In my opinion, Winklink is a must know for those serious about emergency communications with amateur radio.