Q1580 What is the “Catalog” part of AirMail?

A1580 AirMail's "Catalog" window can be used to request weather bulletins and other documents from the Winlink-2000 system for hams, and also from the Saildocs server operated by the Sailmail association but also accessible via email by Winlink users. The AirMail catalog is found under the Window menu, Catalog selection. The catalog window is divided into two panels- on the left is a "tree" showing various folders, similar to AirMail's message-index tree or Windows Explorer. These folders represent categories of documents which can be requested.

The catalog entries are organized first into sections for "WL2K" and "Saildocs". Clicking the little "+" will expand a selection, clicking a "-" will collapse it (just like Windows Explorer). The right and left-arrow keys can also be used to expand and collapse folders.

Under "WL2K" are a folder for "global" bulletins, plus a folder for each station which has been seen, containing that stations local bulletins as well as the "update" listings. Under the "global" folder are folders for each bulletin category, click on these (or use the arrow keys) to open that folder and show the contents in the list on the right side. Bulletins or documents are requested by checking the corresponding check-box, see Winlink-2000 Bulletins for more information.

Of particular interest and use for WL2K users are the WL2K_Help and WL2K_Users folders,. These folders contain messages that can request specific Help files and specific “current” information regarding Winlink users.

Under "Saildocs" is a series of category-folders. The "Grib files" category is a special folder which brings up a grib-request window with a world map for requesting grib weather-data files. See "Grib Weather Files" for more information on requesting grib data.

Saildocs also includes a large number of text weather-bulletin documents which can be requested. These are organized into folders under "Saildocs" for the different ocean regions. Some areas have sub-folders to further divide the selection for easy browsing.

Also, many bulletins are listed under more than one heading, for example Atlantic hurricane bulletins are listed under both "Atlantic" and "Tropical". See "Saildocs Catalog" for more information on requesting documents from Saildocs.