If you couldn’t attend our August meeting, we missed you. Beforehand, the VE team administered license exams and there were five new Technician Class operators! See the minutes for more information about some of our discussions. After our meeting closed, there was an informative presentation by Ron Hambric, N5SBN and Jim Hanks, W5CYN. Ron set the stage for the importance of emergency messaging and communications and Jim gave us some details about how he maintains emergency messaging communications with his family and friends using Winlink. We’re grateful for Ron and Jim educating us about this specific use of amateur radio technology. Following are some web resources from Jim’s presentation:
Learn more about Winlink: https://www.winlink.org/
The KM4ACK YouTube channel to learn more about Winlink forms, Raspberry Pi in amateur radio and more: KM4ACK – YouTube
Th OH8STN YouTube channel to learn more about portable and low-power operations: OH8STN Ham Radio – YouTube
Need to know what carrier your friend or family use for their telephone service? You can enter their number here and find out: https://www.freecarrierlookup.com/
Then, you can send them text messages using WinLink or another email messaging service. Jim provided the email domains for many of the major US carriers:
| Mobile carrier | SMS gateway domain | MMS gateway domain |
| Alltel[9] | sms.alltelwireless.com | mms.alltelwireless.com |
| AT&T[10] | txt.att.net | mms.att.net |
| Boost Mobile[9] | sms.myboostmobile.com | myboostmobile.com |
| Cricket Wireless | mms.cricketwireless.net | mms.cricketwireless.net |
| FirstNet | txt.att.net | mms.att.net |
| Google Fi[11] | msg.fi.google.com | |
| MetroPCS | mymetropcs.com | mymetropcs.com |
| Republic Wireless[12] | text.republicwireless.com | |
| Sprint[9] | messaging.sprintpcs.com | pm.sprint.com |
| T-Mobile[9] | tmomail.net | tmomail.net |
| U.S. Cellular[9] | email.uscc.net | mms.uscc.net |
| Verizon Wireless[13] | vtext.com | vzwpix.com |
| Virgin Mobile[9] | vmobl.com | vmpix.com |
We learned a lot! If you would like to share something with the club that is related to amateur radio, let us know! We’d love to help you get a presentation scheduled.
