Stations directory
Use the station directory to find who to connect to. Favorite stations you use often, or open Best Paths when you want channels ranked by how likely you are to reach them.
Best Paths
During a radio session, tap the station area to choose a channel. The Best Paths tab ranks stations using:
- Distance for VHF and UHF (packet and VARA FM)
- Ionospheric predictions for HF (VARA HF, ARDOP, and HF packet)
- A slider from now through the next 24 hours for hourly forecasts
- Your transmit power and noise level
- Your exchange history and anonymous reports from nearby operators
Short low-band HF paths may show an NVIS badge. Use a high-angle antenna for those.
Filtering
Use filters to narrow the directory to stations that match your radio and location.
Tap the filter control on Stations to turn filtering on or off. When filtering is on, a Filtered by: line summarizes the active choices. Tap that line to edit filters.
You can filter by:
- Modes (for example Packet, ARDOP, VARA FM, VARA HF)
- Bands
- Origin (Published directory stations or Custom personal stations)
- Service codes, when you have more than one code configured
- Only nearby stations (about 185 miles on VHF/UHF, 400 miles on HF)
Best Paths in a radio session uses the same mode and band filters. It does not apply proximity or origin filters.
Favorites
Stations you favorite appear under Favorites so you can open them quickly without searching the full directory.
Personal stations
Add Station creates a personal entry with one channel, the full callsign including SSID, favorited by default, and an optional grid square for distance. Adding the same callsign again creates another independent entry.
Directory updates
The public Winlink directory refresh in the background about every 8 hours. Pull to refresh on Stations to update now.
Service codes
In Settings → Stations → Directory, list additional Winlink service codes (for example EMCOMM). Non-public codes appear as a small label on directory rows and in the session picker.