Some changes in the latest versions of VARA had broken my earlier recipes on getting Winlink Express and VARA to work under Intel-compatible processors for Linux and Mac.
So I have re-written and tested the instructions and can reliably get Winlink Express and the latest VARA and ARDOP working on i386 CPUs using Linux and Mac OS X.
Here is a photo of the gear currently in use for the WB4SON-10 gateway. Power measurements taken over the past few days indicate that about 20 watts are consumed every hour; about 0.5 KWH/day or 175 KWH/year. At the going electrical rate in RI, that works out to about $34 of power per year.