I am a new user and when I go to stations several come up with distance information. I can connect with a friend who operates his own node via packet. I can not set up anyone else in our ARES group using packet, I can communicate with them using Telnet. There must be something in the set up that I am missing but I don’t know what.
When I try to set people up I can see them in the stations list but they do not have any distance populated next to there name.
This is difficult for me to convey in writing so I hope this makes sense to someone.
Stations are “email gateways” that volunteers set up and operate. You reach them over RF using the modes and frequencies they choose to support.
Each station maintains its own internet connection to the central Winlink CMS, which then delivers messages to any Winlink recipient (by callsign or tactical callsign) as well as to standard internet email addresses.
Unless you are trying to establish a direct peer-to-peer connection with an ad-hoc station, you generally do not need to create station entries yourself. Instead, simply favorite stations from the list that are reachable from your location using the mode you’re operating (for example, VHF packet).
When you connect to one of these stations, any pending email is exchanged and routed to its intended recipient.
Let me know if I’ve misunderstood what you’re trying to accomplish.