[Grammy]

She could have been using winlink, which is a way to send emails and pictures through ham radio.

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Yes, the HAM operator sends the message to a satellite which holds it for the receiver who then contacts the sat to retrieve. So you have to wait till the sat is in range of your radio to send or receive.

Slow but works even if the internet is down.

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Actually I don’t believe winlink uses satellites, and it is quite fast. It is a backup for the military, and is also good for use by incident command during emergencies. We often use it to check into our local net and have used it a number of times during emergency exercises. A number of the creators are in our local ham club.

A few years ago a neighboring state had an ice storm. The state emergency people hadn’t heard from one county and assumed all was well. Our hams went up and took photos and sent them and a report to the state people using winlink. The reason they hadn’t heard from anyone was that all the local cell and communication towers were down!

[spokeshave]

he HAM operator sends the message to a satellite which holds it for the receiver who then contacts the sat to retrieve

There is a network of terrestrial repeater stations that HAM's use.

[TangoLimaSierra]

Thanks. It's been a few years since I studied different comms. I had it stuck in my head that Winlink was sat comms. I may have confused it with AMSAT or another one.

That's what I get for not refreshing. Have to go study now.