Further investigation of the time delay, magnification ratios, and variability in the gravitational lens 0218+357

High-precision VLA flux density measurements for the lensed images of 0218357 yield a time delay of 10.1(-1.6)(+1.5) days (95% confidence). This is c onsistent with independent measurements carried out at the same epoch by Bi ggs and colleagues in 1999, lending confidence to the robustness of the tim e delay measurement. However, since both measurements make use of the same features in the light curves, it is possible that the effects of unmodeled processes, such as scintillation or microlensing, are biasing both time del ay measurements in the same way. Our time delay estimates result in confide nce intervals that are somewhat larger than those of Biggs et al., probably because we adopt a more general model of the source variability, allowing for constant and variable components. When considered in relation to the le ns mass model of Biggs et al., our best-fit time delay implies a Hubble con stant of H-0 = 71(-23)(+17) km s(-1) Mpc(-1) for Omega (0) = 1 and lambda ( 0) = (95% confidence; filled beam). This confidence interval for H-0 does n ot reflect systematic error, which may be substantial, as a result of uncer tainty in the position of the lens galaxy. We also measure the flux ratio o f the variable components of 0218+357, a measurement of a small region that should more closely represent the true lens magnification ratio. We find r atios of 3.2(-0.4)(+0.3) (95% confidence; 8 GHz) and 4.3(-0.8)(+0.5) (15 GH z). Unlike the reported flux ratios on scales of 0 " .1, these ratios are n ot significantly different. We investigate the significance of apparent dif ferences in the variability properties of the two images of the background active galactic nucleus. We conclude that the differences are not significa nt and that time series much longer than our 100 day time series will be re quired to investigate propagation effects in this way.