Winlink Thursdays: Now Every Week, Still Always Optional

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EmComm-Training.org Announces new Weekly Practice exercises for 2026!

ETO is introducing a new set of weekly practice Winlink training exercises, starting January 1, 2026. The exercises are short “message passing” exercises, where we expect you to provide a “letter-perfect copy” of the instructions. These are not “content creation” exercises. Here’s the cadence for the Winlink Thursdays exercises:
  • 1st Thursday: (NEW) a ICS-213 message
  • 2nd Thursday: (NEW) ICS-213 RR message
  • 3rd Thursday: a custom Winlink exercise, continuing the ETO model of exploring Winlink features.
  • 4th Thursday: (NEW) ICS-205 message
  • 5th Thursday: (NEW) a Field Situation Report message
The Exercise Window (for all exercises) is now Saturday 00:00 UTC through Friday 08:00 UTC.

The new 1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th Weekly practice messages must be addressed to ETO-PRACTICE, while the 3rd Thursday, monthly training exercises should continue to be addressed to your normal clearinghouse and to ETO-BK.

ETO is continuing our monthly training exercises on the 3rd Thursday of each month, but with the new exercise window of Saturday 00:00 UTC through Friday 08:00 UTC.

ETO is responding to feedback from both our participants and our volunteer team of exercise writers and reviewers stating that some of our monthly training exercises have become too complicated. We’re responding by creating this new stream of weekly practice exercises. These new exercises focus on what we consider to be among the most important of the various Winlink forms. Rather than asking our participants to submit the same message week after week, each week’s instructions will be computer generated and unique.

What isn’t changing is our commitment to provide meaningful feedback to our participants on how well their message response met our expectations. This need for feedback arose from participant frustration in being told that “you didn’t do it right” but not being told what we did wrong! ETO believes that this combination of challenging exercises and feedback makes our monthly training exercises valuable to the Winlink community, and we’re now bringing the opportunity to participate to the community on a weekly basis.

Winlink Thursdays: How Do They Work?

===Information===>>

Step One:  Find your Clearinghouse Tactical Winlink Address here...

Step Two: This Week's Winlink Thursday assignment:

What happens next? [click here to expand]

  • After the Exercise has concluded, all submissions will be gathered from our Clearinghouse Receiving Stations, and compiled for processing;

  • In a few days, you'll receive an announcement from our Group.io mailing list, that the Results are available on the ETO "Winlink Thursdays" page.

  • Visit the Winlink Thursdays page, click on the "Results" link, and find your submission listed under your Callsign.

[to find pre-2026 Winlink Thursdays, and their results, click here]

NEW!! To find January 2026 thru August 2026 Exercises, and their results, click here

Exercise Schedule: August 2026 and Beyond: (newest on top)
Date Exercise Links
Legend:    Weekly Practice (Winlink Thursdays Basic)
   Monthly Exercise (Winlink Thursdays Intermediate)
August 13th, 2026
Weekly Practice
Instructions
August 6th, 2026
Weekly Practice
Instructions  /  Results

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General Notes on Frequently-Seen Mistakes... Please Read!

General Notes:

We see many of the same mistakes being repeated week after week, across different exercise types, so we think it’s worthwhile to call these out.

Sending incorrect longitude and latitude data

We use the latitude and longitude data to plot you onto maps. Sometimes that map data is obviously incorrect. This occurs when folks in the Western Hemisphere omit the minus sign in front of longitude or when folks in the Southern Hemisphere omit the minus sign in front of latitude.
The use of a GPS dongle helps to mitigate against this. If you’re not using a GPS dongle, do take extra care in copying/pasting or entering those numbers

Incorrect format when answering a multiple choice question

When we ask a multiple choice question on a Winlink Check In message, we require the answer to be in a specific format: a single character, uppercase letter on the first line of the Comments field. We don’t want any punctuation before or after that single letter. We don’t want an explanation. We just want a single letter.
Here’s a partial list of answers that we consider “not valid”:
  • B is the answer
  • The answer is B
  • “B”
  • B.
Providing real-time tactical digital communications in conjunction with a map showing the locations of stations

Not sending to an ETO clearinghouse

We use a group of volunteers to act as the “Clearinghouses” for most exercises. The purpose of the Clearinghouses is to divide the work that we do to process your messages. Each Clearinghouse has a specific Winlink tactical address: ETO-01 through ETO-10 (corresponding to USA FEMA regions), plus ETO-DX for non-US participants and ETO-CAN for Canada.
If you don’t address your message to one of these tactical addresses, we won’t receive your message.
Even though some Winlink Templates, such as the Winlink Check In, allow you to address your message directly from the message itself, we strongly discourage this. Instead, we would strongly encourage you to create a Winlink “contact” for your clearinghouse.
Then, after you hit the [Submit] button on the template, click on the [To:] button and select your clearinghouse contact.
Yes, it’s a bit more work to set up, but once you have it correctly set up, you will not make an accidental mistake by entering “ETO-1”, or “ETO-O1” ( with a letter "O" next to the "1" ) when you meant to enter “ETO-01” ("eee-tee-ohh-dash-zero-one").

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Weekly Practice for August 13th, 2026

[PDF] Instructions for 8/13/2026 Weekly Practice


Complete Instructions 



ETO Exercise Instructions for Thursday, 2026-08-13

Task: Complete an ICS-213 Resource Request Message

Exercise window: Sat 2026-08-08 00:00 UTC - Fri 2026-08-14 08:00 UTC

Use the following values when completing the form:
    Setup: agency or group name: EmComm Training Organization
    Incident name: ETO Weekly Practice
    Date/Time: (click in box and accept date/time)
    Resource Request Number: Exercise Id: 937-238-2021
    Order Items (leave Estimated and Cost empty)
        line 1
            Qty: 940
            Kind: quarts
            Type: n/a
            Description: Honey
            Requested Time: 15:00
        line 2
            Qty: 7500
            Kind: pounds
            Type: n/a
            Description: Chicken Thighs. Boneless, skinless and cubed.
            Requested Time: 15:00
        line 3
            Qty: 1875
            Kind: quarts
            Type: n/a
            Description: Soy Sauce
            Requested Time: 15:00
    Delivery/Reporting Location: Conference Room A
    Substitutes: no substitutes allowed
    Requested by Name/Position: Kylie King / Drill Planner
    Priority: Routine
    Section Chief Name for Approval: Vanessa Vance

Send the message via the Session type of your choice to ETO-PRACTICE.

Refer to https://emcomm-training.org/Winlink_Thursdays.html for further instructions 
about the weekly practice exercises and/or monthly training exercises.

August 6th, 2026: Results of Weekly Practice

Results Map by Feedback Count

NEW!! Results Pie Charts

NEW!! Standard Responses CSV File for Download

We are trying a different approach to providing feedback. [click here to expand]


Instead of a numeric score, we provide information about why a particular field entry was considered wrong, and give you the correct response.

We hope you will find this to be More Useful and Informative.

When you click on your "push-pin" on the Results Map, you'll find Useful Feedback, as well as a record of all the information you submitted.

(be sure to scroll down on the left side Information Panel, to view all of the information there.)

Here is an example of Feedback to one of our own Programmers:

"How do I find my Check-In on the Map?"
  1. In your Web Browser, with our Results Map displayed...
  2. On the left side, you'll see a list of the 12 ETO Clearinghouses.
  3. Click the  ∨  (down-pointing caret), and the list will expand vertically;
  4. Type a Ctrl-F, to use the Browser's "Find On This Page" function;
  5. Type your Callsign;
  6. Your Browser will highlight your callsign, in the vertical list on the left.
  7. Click on your Callsign, and the Map will show you your "pushpin".
  8. Click on your Pushpin, and, on the left side of the screen, all of the information you sent in, will be listed.

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Weekly Practice for August 6th, 2026

[PDF] Instructions for 8/6/2026 Weekly Practice


Complete Instructions 



ETO Exercise Instructions for Thursday, 2026-08-06

Task: Complete an ICS-213 General Message

Exercise window: Sat 2026-08-01 00:00 UTC - Fri 2026-08-07 08:00 UTC

Use the following values when completing the form:
    Setup: agency or group name: EmComm Training Organization
    THIS IS AN EXERCISE: (checked)
    Incident Name: ETO Weekly Practice
    To (Name/Position): Wesley West / Drill Coord
    From (Name/Position): Gavin Gates / Educator
    Subject: ETO Practice Exercise for 2026-08-06
    Date: (click in box and accept date)
    Time: (click in box and accept time)
    Message: Exercise Id: 630-618-8971
    Approved by: Ethan Ellis
    Position / Title: Finance Officer

Ensure that you have a valid and appropriate Latitude and Longitude.

Send the message via the Session type of your choice to ETO-PRACTICE.

Refer to https://emcomm-training.org/Winlink_Thursdays.html for further instructions 
 about the weekly practice exercises and/or monthly training exercises.
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