so ive been trying to get winlink working for about three weeks now and im losing my mind a little. background: im running a signalink usb into my ic-7300, pat as the client on linux (yeah i know, i know), and im trying to hit a local RMS gateway about 40 miles out on 40m. the gateway shows up in the winlink map and the RMS list, frequency is listed as 7102.0 USB, i set pat to dial up that freq and initiate a vara HF session but it just... sits there. no response from the gateway side. ive confirmed the audio levels look reasonable in alsamixer, the ic-7300 is definitely keying up because i can see the TX light and the ALC is moving.

what i cant figure out is whether the problem is on my end, the gateway is just offline even though the map shows it active, or if im doing something dumb with the pat config. the RMS list shows the last heard timestamp as like 6 hours ago which makes me think its probably still up. do gateways go offline randomly without updating their status? also do i need to be within a certain distance for this to work or is 40m supposed to reach 40 miles no problem during the day. im in the midwest so terrain isnt a huge issue.

any help appreciated, been at this too long

the 6 hour timestamp thing is actually pretty normal, the gateways dont update their status in real time, some of them can show as active for days after they go offline. i'd try a different gateway first just to rule that out — hit the winlink web map and find one a bit further away or on a different band. 40m during the day at 40 miles can be tricky depending on the time, skip distance and all that. you might actually have better luck with a nearby VHF gateway if theres one in your area, packet on 145.09 or whatever your region uses, just to confirm your pat setup is actually working end to end before you troubleshoot the HF side.

also with pat on linux make sure your vara HF license is sorted if you're using vara — the free tier has speed limits but it should still connect. if you're using ardop instead of vara that changes things too. worth double checking which modem you actually have configured in pat because i've seen people have the wrong one selected and wonder why nothing happens.

yeah what he said about the daytime 40m path, thats probably a big part of it. 40 miles on 40m in the afternoon is kind of a dead zone honestly, you're too close for skip and the ground wave at that distance can be pretty weak depending on your antenna. try it again around dusk or after dark and see if that changes anything. or honestly just use winlink via telnet through the internet first just to make sure your pat install and config is good, then worry about the RF path separately. eliminates half the variables right away.