Once you have your Winlink account set up for Radio Only you are ready to send and receive messages. Just as you need to do with P2P mode, you have to select Radio Only when you create your message. At the top of the message form, set the “Send as:” field to “Radio-Only Message”. You will then create the message as you would normally, including using forms, and post to your outbox when done.
To send the message, you will need to open the appropriate session for your station: Pactor Radio-Only, or VARA Radio-Only. The Telnet Radio-Only option is for stations that can connect directly to a Hybrid RMS using a mesh or local area network.
You would then connect to one of your registered HF MPS nodes as you would any other stations on HF Winlink. Assuming your recipient is also registered to an MPS, your outgoing messages will be relayed to the proper MPS for them to download. You do not need to know what MPS nodes they have registered, the system will route it automatically.
For receiving messages, you only need to connect to one of your registered MPS stations. Any Radio Only message addressed to you will be downloaded. It does not matter which of the up to 3 MPS stations registered to your account you connect to. Once a message has been downloaded from one, the system will delete it from the other nodes.
Feel free to send a Radio Only message to KA0AZS to try it out.
NOTE: Radio Only messages can use a lot of resources for an RMS. You probably don’t want to use them for routine message use. Use it enough to keep your skills fresh for an emergency and use the standard Winlink messaging for normal use.