docker-winlink

License: GPL-2.0 · source

docker-winlink puts a complete amateur radio desktop inside a container. One command builds a Linux desktop that opens in your web browser with the tools already installed: Winlink Express — the standard client for Winlink, the amateur radio email system — and the VARA software modems for FM and high-frequency work, both Windows-only programs set free to run under Wine on Linux. Alongside them: Dire Wolf, the open-source software packet modem, CHIRP for programming radios, and the hamlib radio-control library.

Everything you configure — callsign, Winlink account, modem settings — persists across restarts and even rebuilds, so the one-time station setup really is one-time. No Linux or Docker experience is expected: with Docker installed, copy the example configuration, set two passwords, run one command, and open the desktop at a local address in any browser. It runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows hosts alike.

Honest notes, straight from its own documentation: the first build takes twenty to thirty minutes (you wait once); transmitting requires an amateur radio license — though Winlink's telnet mode sends real Winlink email over the internet with no radio and no license, a complete practice environment before anything ever keys a transmitter; and VARA itself is shareware, running speed-limited until you buy a key.

One licensing point worth being precise about: the GPL license covers the container recipes, scripts, and documentation. Winlink Express and VARA are not redistributed — the build downloads them from their official sources.

Dockerfiles and scripts. Code and documentation — including the radio hookup guide — at github.com/leavesofgrass/docker-winlink.