Any attachment may be used with WL2K - Word processing files, spread sheets, photos, anything you can attach to an e-mail.  This would allow formal letters, work sheets, even standardized forms to be used to support a served agency's operations.

One caution is the resulting file size that must be transmitted over the bandwidth-limited ham radio frequencies where the faster internet is not available. This is especially critical when sending photos that can get a little large in file size.  The larger the file, the longer it takes to exchange the e-mail on the radio paths.  Once being handled by a TelPac Node the rest is at internet speeds.

To minimize channel usage, it is also wise to use Plain Text rather than Rich Text Format (RTF - HTML) formatting where possible.  Unless there is a compelling reason (i.e. a standardized form) to use RTF just use Plain Text. With some judicious pre-planning, even a standardize form might be set up as a template file in the field so that all that is needed is plain text that gets re-formatted at the receiving end into the standard form.

This is particularly critical when using 1200b packet on the Local Area Networks.  It becomes a major problem during an exercise when several tactical stations may be using the LAN at the same time for the incident. Remember packet radio is a time-sharing process on a single frequency. While there may be many packet stations using the same frequency, in reality only one can successfully send or receive data packets at any given slice in time - the rest have to stand by while a single packet burst is going from one station to another.  There is a lot of taking turns!  The AX.25 protocol
takes care of the time-sharing automatically - you do not have to listen first, the DCD/RCV LED on the TNC will keep things organized w/o interference.  However, the greater the number of stations trying to use the frequency at the same time, and the larger the files being exchanged, the lower the overall throughput rate.

We should have such problems- so many users we complain about how slow things are.  When that happens, we'll add a 9.6k user ports to the local packet networks!  Or better yet - WiFi access!

Back to attaching photos . . .

What we need to learn is how to minimize the file size but still retain needed resolution/picture quality.  Needless to say - those who plan on using photos will have to be prepared to do some basic photo editing in the field between camera and attaching the file.