okay so ive been trying to get Winlink going for a few weeks now and im at my wits end with this. running Winlink Express on a windows 10 machine connected to a Yaesu FT-857D through a SignaLink USB. the gateway connection works sometimes, like ill get a full session in and messages come through fine, but then maybe 30 minutes later ill try again and the RMS node just drops the session partway through the handshake. doesnt matter if i switch to a different gateway either, same behavior.

my AX.25 packet settings are probably wrong but i honestly dont know where to start looking. baud rate is set to 1200, using Vara HF mode not packet, forgot to mention that. the frequency matching looks right to me — im hitting the gateway on whatever it lists in the RMS gateway list. audio levels i thought were dialed in but maybe not.

also slightly confused about the difference between a Telnet session and an actual RF session in Winlink Express because when i do Telnet it works every single time no problem. is that just going over the internet and bypassing radio entirely? i want to do this over RF obviously since the whole point for me is emcomm backup comms when internet is down. if anyone has actually set this up end to end and has advice on where to look first id appreciate it.

yeah Telnet is just internet, has nothing to do with RF. so that working perfectly is kind of expected and doesnt tell you much about your radio path. the fact that it drops mid-handshake with VARA HF sounds like an audio level issue to me almost every time ive seen that symptom. VARA is pretty sensitive to overdriven audio — if your SignaLink drive knob is even a little hot it'll corrupt the VARA tones and the RMS on the other end will time out or just boot you.

what i'd do first is pull up the VARA modem window and watch the ALC indicator while youre transmitting. it should not be pinned. a lot of guys coming from SSB voice will have the drive cranked way up and VARA hates that. try dropping your SignaLink TX knob down a good bit and see if sessions stay connected longer. also make sure VOX delay isnt cutting the tail of your transmissions off, thats another classic one with SignaLink setups.

had almost the exact same thing happen when i first set mine up. turned out one of the RMS gateways in my area is just flaky — some of them are run by guys who dont always have their node up consistently and the gateway list doesnt always reflect real-time status. try connecting to a few different ones and see if any of them are rock solid. the ones run by larger ARES groups or clubs tend to be more reliable in my experience just because someone is actually maintaining them.

also this is probably not your issue but worth mentioning — make sure your system clock is accurate, like within a few seconds. Winlink does a timestamp check and if your PC clock is way off it can cause weird session failures. sync it to NTP if you havent already.