So ive been trying to get Winlink Express working for a few weeks now and im at the point where im just going to post here because ive read the documentation three times and something is still off. Background: im running a TNC-X connected to an IC-7300 and trying to hit a local RMS gateway on 2m packet. The gateway shows up in the RMS list and the frequency is correct, im getting audio out, the TNC is keying the radio, but i never get a connection. The Winlink Express client just times out after a few tries.

I know the RMS node is active because another guy in the club hit it last week with pretty much the same setup. My SSID is set, callsign is in there, i double checked the init strings on the TNC. One thing i noticed is my receive audio seems maybe a little low - the green bars on the waterfall barely move when the gateway is beaconing. Could just be a red herring though. Anyone dealt with this before? Feels like something stupid i'm overlooking.

Receive audio being low is probably your actual problem, not a red herring. The TNC-X is pretty sensitive to proper audio levels - if you're not decoding the gateway's beacons correctly you're never going to get a connection established because the handshake just falls apart. I'd pull up a packet monitor in something like AGW or just watch what Winlink Express is actually decoding (if anything) when the gateway beacons. If you're not seeing the beacon come through in the log then yeah, it's a receive level issue before anything else.

Also worth checking if your discriminator tap is set up right if you're feeding audio that way, or if you're going through the headphone jack you might need to back off the volume on the radio itself and let the TNC work with a cleaner signal. The 7300's audio out can be a bit hot depending on how you have the menu settings dialed in.

did you check that your TNC actually has the right HBAUD set for whatever that gateway is running? Some 2m RMS nodes are still on 1200 baud and if your TNC init is set to 9600 it'll key up and transmit something but nobody's gonna understand it. Probably not your issue but worth a look before you go too far down the audio rabbit hole.