On Sat, 5 Jun 2010 07:31:12 -0400, "Flying Pig"
wrote:

That is, unless the connection deteriorates along the way, starting at mid
thousand, but deteriorating to low hundreds. In those cases, since I'm
unwilling to risk having the entirety go poof, at the cost of all those
amps, let alone my need to babysit it, I break it up, post all the segments
but then unpost all but the next in line, and deal with it like that.

Propagation has not been good lately but should start improving again.

If I try, I can usually get a Winlink connect at 1400 bytes/sec which
is a fairly good rate, even for longer messages. We download a 25K
GRIB file every day, usually with no problems. Winlink is very good
about piecing together broken messages. If the GRIB transmission
deteriorates to below 600 BPS, I disconnect and try another PMBO
gateway station. Winlink automatically picks up where it left off and
completes the transmission. It's a great service and a good example
of how ham radio can still be useful in the 21st century.