VARA

VARA HF and VARA FM are relatively new software transports by José Alberto Nieto Ros, EA5HVK. VARA features a free trial, and the modestly priced registration fee unlocks the full speed of the software modem. The software is not open source and only available as a Windows x86 executable, but it has been tested to run well in Linux under WINE, and even on Raspberry Pi/ARM with additional compatibility layers.

Install

Installing VARA HF or FM on Windows is straightforward: download the latest version from EA5HVK's site. The installer will put shortcuts in your Start Menu, which you can use to launch VARA alongside Pat. Similar to other Pat transports, VARA is not launched by Pat; instead, Pat assumes it's already running.

Installing VARA on x86 Linux is slightly more complicated. VARA seems to work well with WINE, so x86 Linux systems should be as easy as any other WINE software (not easy, but doable).

Raspberry Pi is by far the most difficult platform to use with VARA. WINE is still needed to translate from Windows to Linux, but in addition, Box86 is needed to translate from x86 to ARM. WheezyE KI7POL maintains a script called Winelink that does most of the heavy lifting, and Jason KM4ACK has done a great tutorial video on the subject. Note, the Winelink script is only able to install under Raspberry Pi OS 32-bit; the 64-bit OS is not yet supported.

Manual WINE installation on an x86 platform

The most sensible way to do this is to install both VARA programs into a separate "bottle" (WINE prefix) where they won't interfere with any other Windows software you may be using and vice versa.

#!/bin/bash

# Location of the wine prefix.
export WINEPREFIX=$HOME/.wine-winlink
export WINEARCH=win32

winetricks winxp
winetricks sound=alsa

winetricks -q dotnet35sp1
winetricks vb6run
winetricks vcrun2015

wine VARA\ setup\ \(Run\ as\ Administrator\).exe
wine VARA\ FM\ setup\ \(Run\ as\ Administrator\).exe

To subsequently launch VARA, you will need to supply the correct environment variables:

env WINEPREFIX=$HOME/.wine-winlink \
	WINEARCH=win32 \
	WINEDEBUG=-all \
	wine $HOME/.wine-winlink/drive_c/VARA/VARA.exe

And similarly for VARAFM:

env WINEPREFIX=$HOME/.wine-winlink \
	WINEARCH=win32 \
	WINEDEBUG=-all \
	wine $HOME/.wine-winlink/drive_c/VARA\ FM/VARAFM.exe

Configure

The default Pat config should be sufficient for standard deployments. Detailed information on each field is described here.

Usage

First you'll need to find the node you want to connect with. Several options are available, but here is one:

# List all VARA stations with the LA prefix (nodes in Norway), sorted by distance
$ pat rmslist -s -m varahf LA
callsign  [gridsq] dist    Az mode(s)              dial freq    center freq url
LA1J      [JO28UP] 172    174 VARA              3.601.50 MHz   3.603.00 MHz varahf:///LA1J?bw=2300&freq=3601.5
...

After starting the VARA application, you should be able to connect to a remote station by using the URL listed in the example above:

# Connect to a remote station (omit ?freq=... if you don't have/want rig control)
$ pat connect "varahf:///LA1J?bw=2300&freq=3601.5"