Install VARA FM on Raspberry Pi

VARA FM

A shareware FM modem for amateur radio messaging.

VARA modems require a messaging app (such as Pat, Winlink Express, VarAC, or VARAChat), an amateur radio transceiver, and cables to connect audio and PTT control from your Pi to the transceiver.

Run from Menu: Menu -> Accessories -> VARA FM
Run from Terminal: wine "C:\VARAFM\VARAFM.exe"

This app runs with the help of Box86/Box64 and Wine.

Fortunately, VARA FM is very easy to install on your Raspberry Pi in just two steps.

  1. Install Pi-Apps - the best app installer for Raspberry Pi.
  2. Use Pi-Apps to install VARA FM.

Compatibility

For the best chance of this working, we recommend using the latest 64-bit version of Raspberry Pi OS, which is currently version Trixie.
Raspberry Pi OS has 32-bit and 64-bit variants, both of which will run on most Raspberry Pi computers, including the Pi 3, Pi 4, and Pi5.
VARA FM will run on either PiOS 32-bit or 64-bit.

Install Pi-Apps

Pi-Apps is a free tool that makes it incredibly easy to install the most useful programs on your Raspberry Pi with just a few clicks.

Open a terminal and run this command to install Pi-Apps:

wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Botspot/pi-apps/master/install | bash

Feel free to check out the Pi-Apps source code here: https://github.com/Botspot/pi-apps

Install VARA FM

Now that you have Pi-Apps installed, it is time to install VARA FM.
First launch Pi-Apps from your start menu:

Then click on the Engineering category.

Now scroll down to find VARA FM in the list.

Just click Install and Pi-Apps will install VARA FM for you!

Pi-Apps is a free and open source tool made by Botspot, theofficialgman, and other contributors. Find out more at https://pi-apps.io