ok so ive been trying to get Winlink working for a few weeks now and i think im mostly there but im confused about a couple things. running Winlink Express on a windows 10 laptop connected to my IC-7300 via USB, using Vara HF for the modem side. i can see sessions happening and sometimes i actually connect to an RMS gateway no problem, got a few test messages through to my gmail which was pretty satisfying.

but here's where it gets murky for me. i set up a session template pointing at a specific RMS gateway callsign i found on the winlink.org map, and it works when that station is up, but sometimes it just times out and i dont really understand how to make it automatically try other gateways in my range. is there a propagation scanning thing built into Vara or do i need to set up multiple channel entries in Express? i've read the help docs but honestly they kind of assume you already know what youre doing.

also totally separate question but related — my club wants me to help set up an RMS relay for local VHF emcomm use. we have a TNC-Pi sitting around and a spare vhf radio. is RMS Relay the right software for that or is there something else people are actually using these days. feels like the documentation online is from like 2018 and im not sure whats current.

for the gateway scanning thing — in Vara HF you want to use the "Winlink Hybrid Network" session type in Express rather than locking to a specific channel/gateway. that way Express will actually query the network for active RMS stations near you based on your grid square and propagation guess. you can also set up a script channel list with multiple frequencies and it'll scan through them trying to connect. took me a while to figure that out too, the UI isnt exactly intuitive about it.

on the RMS Relay question for VHF — yeah RMS Relay is still the right answer, the TNC-Pi should work fine for packet on 2m as long as your soundcard/TNC config is dialed in. the software hasnt changed dramatically, the 2018 docs are mostly still accurate from what i can tell. one thing to watch is making sure your gateway is registered properly on the winlink.org site under the sysop section, and that your forwarding intervals are set reasonably so messages dont just sit there for an hour before pushing to the network. we had that problem at our repeater site for months before someone noticed the default polling was way too slow for actual emcomm use.

yeah the RMS gateway map on winlink.org also shows last heard times so you can get a rough idea of whats active before you even try connecting, worth bookmarking that. also if your 7300 is doing weird things with the Vara connection check your USB audio levels in windows, that thing is super sensitive to having the audio too hot and it'll just look like timeouts when really you're just overdriving the input. bit me for a solid weekend before i figured it out.