Thanks to all for chiming in.? ?I am? delighted that I have finally managed to be clear enough that I'm making SOME sense to Ashhar!
This is difficult stuff, which took the ham radio community > 2 decades to build.? ??
John Wiseman, G8BPQ also manages a? daily blog where he answers the wildest questions about his BPQ code.? ?He implements a very simple RMS (Radio Message Server) in c language which runs on Raspberry Pi.? ?As a result, I have studied HIS code to understand how Winlink works, because his code is open source.? ?Interestingly, he is almost a member of the Winlink Development Team!? ?And an incredibly nice guy, who loves SAILING, and he has often personally answered MY stupid questions as I tried to understand this stuff 5-7 years ago.? ?I run his code on several deployed VHF gateways and digipeters throughout our County.? ? His code is normally excellent.? ? ?However, he does NOT implement the more difficult parts of WINLINK -- the "radio only" automatic routing that will (slowly) move traffic even in the complete absence of the Internet, all under computer control all over the world.? Nor do? ANY of the 3rd party systems (to my current knowledge).? ??
The magnitude of the challenge may not be obvious.? ?I said the genius of the WINLINK system is NOT in their code, it is in their base of VOLUNTEERS.? How many of you are willing to turn your station COMPLETLY over to being a gateway, and it must be up 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every day of the year without fail.? ?Mine has been up for > 6 years, and I actually have TWO in my same house.? ? Each gateway scans approximately 5 frequencies 24 hours a day.? ?Through hurricanes, thunderstorms, no matter what, my system is UP if my antennas survive.? ?Out of 500 units, how many are going to be willing to GIVE UP THEIR STATION for this kind of volunteeer service??? ?It is a daunting task.? ? To have built a world wide network of unpaid and completely volunteer stations -- and to update their software seamlessly many many times per year, all automated, and never failing in several years (it did fail a few times before that, to great gnashing of teeth on my part).
I don't know about the lawsin India.? ?There are no WINLNK servers in India.? ?That may be due to telecommunications taxes or laws.? ? That would need to be investigated.? ?
Recognize there are two parts to this:? SERVER code and USER (client) code.? ??
I'm happy for the sBitx community to recreate a newer, better version of WINLINK....but I want you to understand the magnitude of the task.? ?Their external interfaces are WELL described (Ihave put them in FCC documents, hundreds of pages)? ?and were based on bulletin board code developed over decades, and they extensively used code from a Frenchman (whom I gave proper citation to).? ??
Here is a map of the VARA HF 24/7/365 servers centered on India:? as you can see, there ARE servers in that part of the world, but they are quite a distance from India, which may explain how strange all this appears to Farhan:
[you can also use this map to see the potentially tens of thousands of VHF servers, by clicking a different button; I run several of those also]
John Wiseman has a github repository and also web pages etc.? ?He is a wonderful fellow.
His documentation....well there might be slight issues there, it is a HUGE task he has been doing for decades
Incidentally, I see that he has a repository for ARDOP there, too -- this will run on a raspberry pi and is free for the using.? ?The setup can? be slightly confusing to newbies....but like all the modems in WINLINK, it is socket based,so? you folks will instantly know how to use it, far faster than ME.
So there is a lot to digest here.? ?thanks for your interest on behalf of advancing ham radio worldwide!
Gordon Gibby KX4Z
