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It is beyond the purpose of this Presentation
to explain the technical aspects of electronic communications. However, the
following points should be remembered:
A digital Modem is needed to translate communications into digital format. Winlink supports the Pactor protocols. Pactor is considered by far the most reliable, best error-correcting and fastest mode available. Pactor has been improved over the years: Pactor I, by today’s standards, is extremely slow (at 200 bps) and is no longer supported by quite a few PMBOs; Pactor II (at about 800 bps) was a vast improvement and is probably used by most Winlink Users; and finally, Pactor III with speeds that have more than quadrupled over Pactor II is the preferred mode for Winlink. This is because it requires less radio transmission time and thus saves battery power for the mobile Winlink User and leaves more on-air radio time for other Users. Winlink encourages and in most cases requires PMBOs to have fulltime broadband Internet access. Winlink refers to these as Express PMBO. The effect of this is that a radio message sent by distant travelers is almost instantaneously forwarded via the CMBO to the addressee. This is vital during emergencies. For a message to get from the sender to the recipient can thus be measured in minutes rather than hours or longer. Winlink’s average time for moving a message – worldwide - from a sender to its destination is 2.1 minutes. Winlink also supports VHF and TelNet operations. However, these additional refinements are not covered in this presentation. Those interested can get the information from Winlink. Go to Slide 11/16
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