Position reports in Winlink Express are a setting, an outbox message, and a catalog query. He walks through all three from the house, as KE2DFQ, and he sends them with telnet so the radios stay quiet while the screen recorder is running.
Why Bother Reporting a Position
Two uses come up first. Contests can take a Winlink contact. He said Winter Field Day would let you complete a contact with a Winlink conversation. The other use is emergencies. Winlink is email over radio. In a hurricane that takes out ordinary communications, the way the recent ones did in North Carolina and other parts of the South, a gateway lets a ham reach people who are on regular email, and it lets hams message each other. The nearby-user list is how you find other Winlink stations in the area when you need a message to move. ARES, RACES, and some nets already have check-in forms. A position on the account fills in part of those forms for you.
Settings, Then Post Report
The path is Settings, then GPS position reports. He does not have people stuck if the computer has no GPS. He will show the override. His own GPS is on COM port 5. He tells you to check the port on your machine. The baud rate is 4,800. The screen said the GPS had stopped, and it showed the last good fix with the date and time. The latitude and longitude were already filled because he had used it before. A first run shows zeros, and zeros mean you are not reporting a place. Type the position in, then check the box at the bottom: no GPS, use this position report as the current location.
The stall was the computer, not Winlink. He thought the port might be off. Changing the baud rate and switching it back did not wake it. Clicking the button did. It took a fix and rewrote his latitude and longitude. He was in the house, so the numbers did not move. On a laptop in the field, this GPS rides with the laptop, not with the home computer.
The comment line is for contests. Whatever you type there shows up when someone reads the position report, so a Winlink message can carry the exchange. He clicks Post Report. The outbox gets one item, addressed to a special Winlink address, marked as a position report: this date and time, this latitude, this longitude, this comment.
He does not transmit it. The PC on camera is the PC the radios use, and a Windows machine in the middle of a transmission is a good way to wreck a recording. Telnet, built into Winlink, sends the same message over the internet at the house. He treats that as the stand-in for VARA HF or VARA FM. It is faster, and there is no propagation to wait on. He starts the session. It connects, sends, and disconnects.
A report of zeros, with nothing else, comes back as an error: you need a latitude and a longitude, or a comment, or both. A comment with no coordinates is allowed. Coordinates with no comment are allowed. A good post is acknowledged with your latitude, longitude, and comment echoed back. His acknowledgement said duplicate. He had not moved. That check is built in.
Under Settings, then Preferences, one checkbox includes your location in message headers. Every send and receive then carries the position. That is the one he wants for portable work and emergency work, when the station is not in the same place every time.
The Closest 30
The nearby list is a catalog request. Winlink catalog request, then Winlink 2K users in the left column if it is not already selected. The entry is WL2K nearby. He said it returns the closest 30 people to your position. Double-click it into the request box and post it. The outbox message goes to an account called inquiry. The subject is request. The code is WL2K nearby. He sends that one by telnet too.
The first reconnect has nothing waiting. He shows a reply he pulled earlier, at 1950 UTC, less than half an hour before. The date on the video is March 2. He is on the list at 0 nautical miles, with his comment, because he just posted a position. The next station is 108.5 nautical miles out, last updated February 23. The times are UTC. He knows there are more Winlink users near him than this list shows. A lot of them are not posting positions, and a lot of them do not know the feature exists.
The comments on that pull are people talking to themselves as much as to the list. Position report, reporting position, a note that a new GPS made them type the coordinates, one station marking the report as their home station, one catching up a backlog of net business and mentioning Winlink Wednesday, one dated as a February update. One from the same day is an operator he knows from YouTube as Mike. The call on the screen was not one he read out in full. Mike is usually much closer. The comment was about practicing with gear on the road, and Kevin had seen pictures the day before of that station out of town. He treats it as the right kind of test: send the position from somewhere else, with a comment, before the day you actually need it. Another comment used the report as a status line. Condition green, communications up, 26 February 2025, and a note that internet was up.
He connects again and the new reply is there. It matches the earlier one. Those are the closest 30 who have reported in the last 10 days. The empty space around his house is the point he keeps. People near him use Winlink and still do not show up, because they are not filing positions.
Transcript
This episode is Winlink position reporting. Why you would use it, how to configure it, how to send an update, and how to pull a list of users near you. He introduces himself as Kevin, KE2DFQ, and opens Winlink.
Contesting is the first reason. Some contests let you complete a contact over Winlink. He says Winter Field Day would allow a Winlink conversation to count as a contact. Emergency communications is the second. Winlink is email over radio. He does not check email at home and expect anyone to care. In a real outage it may be the only path. He points at the hurricanes that took out parts of North Carolina and other places in the southern United States, where amateur radio was the primary communication. A gateway lets you reach people who are not hams, through ordinary email, over the air. You can also message other hams. The feature he is about to open finds Winlink users in your area so an emergency message has somewhere to go. ARES, RACES, and some nets have check-in forms. A position on the account helps fill those fields in.
Configuration starts at Settings, then GPS position reports. No GPS on the computer is fine. He will show the override. His GPS is on COM port 5. Check your own machine for the port. Baud rate 4,800. The screen says the GPS has stopped, and it shows the last good fix with the date and time. Latitude and longitude are already there because he has used it. The first time through, those fields are zeros, and you are not reporting a position. Type the location and check the box: no GPS, use the position report as the current location.
He changes the baud rate and switches it back to see if the GPS will answer. The failure is the computer, not Winlink. He may have had the port turned off. Clicking the button wakes it. It gets a fix and fills in latitude and longitude. He is in the house, so nothing moves. In the field this GPS is on the laptop, not on the home computer. The comment line matters in a contest. Put the exchange there so anyone reading the report knows you are in it, and you can still pass the rest in a Winlink message. Without a GPS, type the numbers, check the box, and post.
He hits Post Report. The outbox has one item. It is his position, to a special Winlink address, labeled as a position report: this date and time, this latitude, this longitude, this comment. He will not transmit it. The computer he is recording on is the computer the radios are plugged into, and he does not want Windows in the middle of a transmission while the video is rolling. Telnet, built into Winlink, sends it over the internet at the house. He says that is no different from sending it with VARA HF or VARA FM, just faster, with no propagation in the way. He starts the session. It connects, sends, and disconnects.
If the report goes out as zeros and there is no comment, the reply is an error. You need a latitude and a longitude, or a comment, or both. A comment with empty coordinates is allowed. Coordinates are allowed on their own. A clean report is acknowledged with your latitude, longitude, and comment sent back. His comes back in seconds and says duplicate. He has not moved. The system noticed.
In Settings, then Preferences, a checkbox includes your location in message headers. Every message you send or receive then carries where you are. He wants that for portable work and emergency work, when the station keeps moving.
The nearby list is next. Settings is not the path this time. He opens a Winlink catalog request. On the left, Winlink 2K users. The line he wants is WL2K nearby, the closest 30 people to your position. Double-click it into the box and post the request. The outbox message is to an account called inquiry. The subject is request. The code is WL2K nearby. He runs telnet again. One message sent, then disconnected.
A few seconds later he reconnects and nothing is waiting. He shows the inquiry he pulled earlier, at 1950 UTC, a little under half an hour ago. The date is March 2. He is on it at 0 nautical miles, with his comment, because he posted a position. The next person is 108.5 nautical miles out. Their last update was February 23. Those times are UTC. He knows more Winlink stations live near him than this. They are not posting positions, and many of them do not know the feature is there.
The comments are a mix. Position report, reporting position, someone who had fun with the wording, someone who typed latitude and longitude because of a new GPS and left themselves a note, someone marking it as their home station, someone with a backlog of net traffic dated day 54 and a mention of Winlink Wednesday, a February update. One posted the same day is Mike, who has a YouTube channel. He is normally much closer. The comment says to practice with your gear on the road. Kevin had seen pictures the day before of that trip. He calls it the right habit. If you do not test it, you will not remember it when you need it. Portable operators should be doing this on a schedule. Another line is a status report: condition green, communications up, 26 February 2025, internet up.
He connects again and the new reply is in. It looks like the one he just scrolled. Those are the closest 30 who reported in the last 10 days. The gap around home is the lesson. People near him use Winlink and still do not appear. He recaps the why, the configuration, the manual update, and the nearby list, and he closes the video.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is the position screen?
Settings, then GPS position reports. His GPS was on COM port 5 at 4800 baud. The screen shows the last good fix with the date and time. A comment box is there for contest notes. Post Report builds the outbox message.
What if there is no GPS?
A first run shows zeros, which means you are not reporting a position. Type the latitude and longitude by hand and check the box for no GPS, use the position report as the current location. Sending zeros with no comment returns an error. A comment alone is allowed. Latitude and longitude alone are allowed.
Why did he use telnet?
The computer recording the video is the computer the radios are on. He did not want a transmission to glitch the recording. Telnet over the internet at the house was the stand-in for VARA HF or VARA FM. He said the message is the same either way, only faster, with no propagation in the path.
How do you get the list of nearby stations?
Winlink catalog request, Winlink 2K users on the left, then WL2K nearby. He said that returns the closest 30 people to your position. Double-click it, post the request, and it goes to an account called inquiry with the subject request. His reply matched a pull from about 30 minutes earlier, 1950 UTC, on March 2. The list is stations who reported within the last 10 days. He was 0 nautical miles from himself. The next one was 108.5 nautical miles, last updated February 23. The times are UTC.