WinLink 2000
So we're out in the desert, cut off from cellphone service, and we can't really justify a satellite phone. How can we send informational updates to the PSAS list, or communicate with our peers and family back home? Packet radio over HF!
There is an amateur radio system called <nop>?WinLink 2000 that provides amateur radio operators access to the Internet over HF digital links. HF (high frequency) aka Shortwave signals work over the earths horizon by bouncing off of the ionosphere. By using the Pactor protocol, which is very tolerant to the kinds of signal impairments found on HF, an amateur radio station can route email messages through another ham station acting as a "Participating <nop>MailBOx" (PMBO), who then forwards the email onto the Internet. The PMBO also routes messages from the <nop>?WinLink Internet system back to the ham in the field, so a two way email path is available.
See the [http://www.winlink.org[Winlink]] site for more information.
To use <nop>?WinLink you need to run an <nop>?AirMail client on your workstation. See http://www.siriuscyber.net/ham for information on <nop>?AirMail.