Oh my. It seems that folks keep designing good stuff, circuits,
software,radios and the like, and for economic reasons end up with
Chinese manufacturing some of the boards or assemblies. It doesn't
take them long to figure out what makes it tick and end up with a clone
available at 1/2 the price or so. And they don't care about copy-write
laws or patients either. "ok, so sue me".
I'm not naming names, but just look around and find the "Made in China"
or the likes.
No way would I write any computer code and make it open source. Thus I
say if you want something different, then learn to write code. Oh, it
only takes thousands of hours and many years experience. And someone
wants it for FREE!!!!!!
73
Bob, K4TAX
On 7/1/2019 10:54 AM, John Harper wrote:
I sometimes doubt that Chris M0NKA ever meant for it to be a commercially
viable rig but, despite what you correctly mentioned, it has become one. I
think his original intent was to provide a project to experiment with
coding etc - the platform for that experiment just happened to be a radio.
The firmware is open source, thus all the clones. Chris recently complained
that he is now expected and often asked to provide support for the Chinese
clones! That's gotta burn...
A group in Germany is now providing the lion's share of updates.
But, what all this proves, is what's possible in the form factor in terms
of with.without PC and ease of connectivity from keeping audio in a digital
format for PC exchange.
If Elecraft made a similarly featured KX4 it would sell like hotcakes and
would be hitting the sweet spot of how so many people operate today:
portable, FT8, CW/phone, with and w/o a PC. What an attractive set of
features for new younger hams and those without the ability to have a
"proper" antenna.
I am hesitant to experiment too much with my mcHF because support and
documentation is so lacking. I can't easily recover from an error by
reading - I'd have to ask in a forum and hope someone both knows the answer
and isn't too burnt out by being asked other questions, that he'll answer
me.
If a company with Elecraft's reputation produced such a rig I'd probably be
moved to write a tributary haiku, or maybe even a limerick.
John AE5X
https://ae5x.blogspot.com
___________________________
I’m with you 100%, John! Hope Elecraft is listening!
Love the mcHF, but there is really NO customer support. If the current
group of developers aren’t interested in fixing a bug or adding
something new, you’re told to do it yourself. Not something I’m
interested in doing, or really able to do. But as is, its still a fun
and innovative transceiver!
Elecraft could do it right!
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