Sentinel Core
In active development · free & open source Gateway

Winlink email over the air, on your iPhone and Mac.

Gateway is a Winlink client for iPhone and Mac. Pick a gateway on the map, tap it, and Gateway tunes your radio and sends and fetches your email over VARA, with no internet needed. It can also swap messages directly with another station, open a packet BBS, and put you on the Winlink map.

Source on GitHub Screenshots How to build it
Gateway is being actively built. New features are landing all the time, so expect changes and rough edges. Everything up to the radio has been tested: the Winlink protocol against the test cases from Pat (wl2k-go), email and P2P between two real xara VARA modems, and tuning against a simulated FTDX3000. A real over-the-air session with a Winlink gateway hasn't been made yet, and it isn't on the App Store or TestFlight yet. Ideas and problems: open an issue or tell me.
What it does

Your shack's Winlink station, in one app.

Winlink email

Inbox, Outbox, Sent and Drafts. Write to any email address or call sign, add attachments, reply and forward. Your Winlink password stays on the device and is never sent.

Every gateway on a map

About 1,400 VARA gateways on a map and in a list, by distance from your grid square and filtered by HF/FM and band, with each channel's dial frequency and hours. It works offline, and can update itself daily from Winlink.

Tap to tune

Gateway finds your radio by itself through RigHelm (any of its 32 radios) or hamlib's rigctld. Tap a channel and the radio moves to it in data mode. Connect tunes, calls and keys the radio when the modem transmits.

VARA through xara

Talks to the xara modem on the same phone or Mac, or anywhere on your network. On a Mac, Gateway starts xara for you.

Station to station (P2P)

Call another ham directly and swap messages with no gateway and no internet, or leave Gateway listening for P2P calls. Only mail addressed to the other station goes over the air.

Terminal: BBS, node and chat

Connect over VARA and type: packet BBSes, a BPQ node's BBS and chat, or keyboard to keyboard with another operator.

Position reports

Put yourself on the Winlink map from your grid square, typed coordinates or the device's location, with a short comment.

iPhone and Mac

The same SwiftUI app on both, all native Swift with no third-party code. The Winlink protocol is ported from Pat's wl2k-go. Telnet to the Winlink servers works too, when there's internet.

Screenshots

What it looks like.

Gateway on a Mac: the Stations tab, a map of VARA gateways across North America and Europe
On the Mac. The Stations tab: every public VARA gateway, filtered to VARA HF.
The Stations map on iPhone: VARA HF gateways across North America
Stations. Find a gateway on the map.
A gateway's sheet: grid square, last heard, and its 80 m and 40 m channels; the 40 m channel shows it is tuned
Tap to tune. The radio moves to the channel.
The Connect tab: gateway AA0RC, VARA HF 2300 Hz, and the radio at 7.101.000 DATA-U with Set frequency and Tune buttons
Connect. The radio's frequency, mode and TX.
The Connect to menu: RMS gateway, Station P2P, Listen for P2P calls, Terminal for a BBS, node or chat, and Telnet
Ways to connect. Gateway, P2P, listen, terminal.
Settings: call sign, Winlink password, and Radio control on Automatic with a rigctld found on this device
Radio control. Found by itself.

Screenshots from the iPhone Simulator and a Mac, with RigHelm's simulated FTDX3000 behind hamlib's rigctld standing in for a radio.

How it connects

Gateway, modem, radio.

Gateway (iPhone or Mac)→xara VARA modem→Audio interface→Radio⇢RMS gateway or another ham
The modemxara is a VARA modem that runs on iPhone, Android, Mac and Linux. Run it on the same device as Gateway, or on another one on your network.
The radioAudio goes through an interface such as a Digirig. For tuning and keying, run RigHelm (or rigctld) on the computer the radio is plugged into. iOS doesn't let apps use USB serial ports, so the phone reaches the radio over Wi-Fi.
Phone to phoneTo try P2P with no radios, put two phones running xara side by side and let them hear each other through their own speakers and mics (a testing switch in xara).
Your accountYour call sign and Winlink password, the same as in Winlink Express or Pat. The password lives in the Keychain and only answers the gateway's login challenge.
Get it · in development

Not on the App Store yet. Build it with Xcode.

Gateway isn't on the App Store or TestFlight yet. You can build it yourself with Xcode on a Mac (free) and run it on the Mac or on your own iPhone: open the project, pick the Mac or your phone, set your Apple ID under Signing & Capabilities and press Run. It needs iOS 17 or macOS 14 or later. 

git clone https://github.com/NR5P/Gateway.git
open Gateway/Gateway.xcodeproj

Open source

All of the code is on GitHub at github.com/NR5P/Gateway, under the MIT licence. The README covers setup, rig control, P2P and exactly what has and hasn't been tested.

Source code · README & setup · Report a problem · License (MIT) · RigHelm

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