so ive been trying to get Winlink working for probably three weekends now and i think im close but something is still off. im running Winlink Express on a windows 10 box connected to my IC-7300, using vara HF for the modem side. i can see the waterfall, VARA is making noises like its doing something, but messages just sit in the outbox and never actually send.

my question is basically about how the RMS gateway piece works. like i understand in theory that the RMS gateway is a node that connects to the Winlink CMS servers on the internet, and i connect to that gateway over radio, and then my message gets forwarded through. but im not clear on whether i need to configure something specific on my end or if i just point at the gateway frequency and let it rip. ive tried a couple of the gateway stations listed in the RMS list and got what looked like a partial connection once but it dropped.

also not sure if this is a baud rate thing or a timing thing or what. using 7.101 MHz LSB, which i thought was one of the common Winlink frequencies in the region. any pointers welcome, this has been driving me nuts

few things to check here. first, VARA HF has a free version that limits you to like 300 baud max throughput, which can cause sessions to time out if the gateway is expecting the full speed connection — not sure if you have the licensed version or not but worth knowing. second, 7.101 is correct for Region 2 generally but the specific RMS gateway you're trying to connect to might not be on that exact freq, some are offset slightly. you want to pull up the Winlink gateway list in the software and actually look at the frequency listed for that specific station, dont assume theyre all on the same dial freq.

the path thing you're asking about — yeah you basically just connect to the RMS gateway and it handles pushing to the CMS on the backend, you dont have to configure any routing yourself on the client side. if you got a partial connection once you're probably close, could just be propagation or the gateway was busy. try a different time of day and maybe a different gateway thats geographically closer to you.

this is pretty much exactly where i was like a year ago. one thing that tripped me up forever was that Winlink Express has separate session types and i was mixing up the Telnet sessions with actual RF sessions in the log and thinking i was testing over radio when i wasnt. dumb mistake but check that you're actually initiating a VARA HF session and not accidentally clicking telnet to do a test send.

also the RMS gateway list in the software has a "update" button that pulls a fresh list from the Winlink servers — the default list can be pretty stale. once i refreshed that and sorted by distance i found a gateway like 200 miles away that i had solid contact with almost every time. the one i was originally trying was apparently not super active. propagation on 40m is also going to matter a lot depending on time of day, ive had better luck in the evenings personally.