so ive been trying to get Winlink going for a few weeks now and i think i mostly have it working but im not 100% sure im doing things right with the gateway side of things. my basic setup is a Kenwood TS-590 and im using Winlink Express with a Signalink USB for the soundcard connection. i can hit a few RMS gateways on HF without too much trouble, 40m has been pretty reliable for me to get into a couple of the east coast gateways.

my actual question is about how the message handling works. like when i send a message through a gateway, does it just sit there until someone retrieves it or does the RMS push it to the recipients email right away? i sent a test to my gmail and it showed up pretty fast so maybe it does go through quickly but i wasnt sure if thats always the case or just depends on the gateway traffic.

also been thinking about maybe running my own RMS relay or even a full gateway someday but i have no idea what that takes. do you basically need to be on the air 24/7 or can it be part time? my antenna situation isnt great right now (dipole in the attic, landlord situation) so full gateway is probably a pipe dream but still curious how it all works on the backend.

the message handling is pretty much immediate once the RMS gateway uploads it to the CMS (the Winlink central mail server). the gateway itself isnt holding your message, it just acts as the RF to internet bridge. once the transfer is done and the gateway checks in with CMS, your email goes out fast. the delay you sometimes see is just propagation and whether the gateway is actively listening or you caught it mid-cycle.

on the gateway thing -- running a full RMS gateway isnt as crazy as it sounds but yeah you do need a pretty reliable setup. the software is free (RMS Relay or the full RMS Trimode package depending on what modes you want to support) and you basically leave it running and connected to the internet. a lot of guys run them on old laptops or even raspberry pi setups now. the part time thing is technically possible i guess but sysops are really expected to keep uptime high or your gateway just doesnt get used much because Winlink Express will skip gateways that look unreliable in the channel selector. attic dipole is probably fine for local coverage, people run modest stations as gateways all the time.

yeah same boat here when i started, the message flow confused me too. one thing that tripped me up was not realizing the gateway and the CMS are totally seperate things. i kept thinking the gateway WAS the server. once that clicked it made a lot more sense.

the Signalink setup is solid btw, i ran that exact combo for a while before switching to a RigPi type setup. only thing id watch on the 590 is your audio levels, winlink is pretty picky and its easy to overdrive the input and get garbage packets. the waterfall in Winlink Express is your friend there, keep the signal clean and youre usually good.