Hi all,
I’m sure there are other modern Mac owners who would like to join the Winlink network. As part of my work with the West Middlesex ARES group here in Massachusetts, I worked out a pat configuration that is fully functional with ARDOP and VARA HF modems, despite their being Windows-only applications.
I’ve had this working for about 6 months now, and I’ve finally gotten around to writing the instructions necessary for others to try out. They are in a blog post on my web site at:
https://www.wg1v.org/posts/2023-12-27-Winlink-and-Pat-on-M1-Mac/
It’s also the most recent blog post on my ham radio site, wg1v.org.
A caveat: Before folks get too excited, this does involve a piece of payware software called Crossover, which is a commercial version of WINE. It’s available from codeweavers.com and costs $74, but it is available as a 14-day evaluation for you to see if it’s worth paying the money. I suspect that it is now possible to make this work with the open source version of WINE, but 1) I haven’t done that, and 2) I’m happy to pay the Codeweaver folks who make running Windows stuff on Macs easier.
I’ve made this configuration work with both an Icom IC-7100 and a Flexradio 6600, so I’m pretty certain it’s adaptable to most modern radios with a USB audio and CAT interface.
I hope hams using modern Macs find this useful.
Carl, WG1V