Greetings from K0RvW RadioMail friends,
FYI, I've been testing the RadioMail beta on my iPhone for a few days now. I'm a fan of the Transceive app, so when I saw RadioMail I quickly agreed to be a tester.
Quick background - I'm relatively new (2 years) to amateur radio and have my General license. I'm brand new to Winlink, but it's been on my "to do" list for some time, so this was the push I needed.
I have VARA HF and VARA FM running on a Windows (ptui!) virtual machine under Parallels on my Macbook Pro. I got HF running easily enough, but FM took me quite a bit more fiddling, but it works now.
Living in northern Virginia, we have many RMS gateways on various bands and modes, so it's good to have choices.
With the hamlib rigctld software, I now have VARA HF + rigctld + RadioMail up and running and have sent/received a few test messages via my iPhone.
I encountered quite a few gotchas along the way, and I'll write those up here in the next few days. Meanwhile, if my experiences can be helpful for others, please holler and I'll chime in.
Oh, I should add my radio / antenna setups:
For HF, I'm running an Icom IC-7200 with its soundcard interface over USB cable to my laptop. I use various digital software apps in both MacOS and in Windows (ptui!) with this. Antenna is a simple "octopus" set of hamsticks attached to my deck behind the house. (I live in an HOA-controlled area in northern Virginia.) I generally have 40, 20, and 10 meters on the octopus, and can quickly add another band from my small collection of sticks.
For FM, I'm running an Icom IC-7100 in my "shack". Again, USB cable to the same laptop running MacOS and Windows (ptui!) VM. (Seriously considering a Raspberry Pi for rig control and remote operation...) I have 2 antennas for the 7100 currently. Both are 2m/70cm Yagis up in my attic. One is aimed towards my wife's office (for emergency simplex comms) and, conveniently, at my local club's repeaters. The other points to the west to a massive 2m repeater at 1800 feet elevation on the Blue Ridge Mountains. That repeater, "Bluemont" covers a vast area of northern Virginia. I have about 5 Winlink 2m RMS gateways to choose from on any given day.
More to follow re how I got RadioMail working here...
73 de K0RvW