Krister and Willy, I totally agree with your opinions otherwise, but the copy or clone should always in ALL respects be an improvement over the original design. That the German copy is not. Obviously the worst mistake Mr. Dipl.-Ing. H.-J. Kneisner made is that he did not know or understand that Frank's DttSP is not "public domain".
If we call Mr. Kneisner's clone immoral, much better is not FlexRadio's decision to pull off the "receive only" and "1W" versions as well as selling the boards as a set of two, three or four. I uderstand the inventory burden, but perhaps the prices should be adjusted accordingly. BTW, I am using four sets of SDR-1000 as: a) an industrial measurement device where only TRX board is used, b) a ham band 1W transceiver and an "RF spectrum analyzer", c) a general coverage HF monitor receiver and d) the fourth with the 100 W module is going to function as my desktop ham band transceiver together with my desktop computer. Still I would need a self contained back-pack radio to replace and conquer the domains of "rice-boxes". For a reference, here is the copy of Willi's message: -- I do not understand Flex-Radio´s move either. There is a large potential for selling a receiver-only version without 1 W or 100 W PA to radiotic individuals like VLF, LF, MW, short-wave listeners and beacon hun-ters which are excluded as possible buyers because they are not licensed hams. To this group of non-radiant radio enthusiasts the SDR1k is barely known and they are barred out already before the goods news of its existence reaches them. Hope that so many replies to this topic lets Flex-Radio reconsider its move. vy 73 es gl SM6OMH Willi -- 73, Ahti OH2RZ On 06/01/07, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hmm... definitely an "interesting" situation, perhaps a bit more complicated > than it seems at first. Could be some work for lawyers here as well. But what > kind of infringement might have been committed by the German company? I could > be wrong now, but I don't think Flexradio owns any hardware patents related > to the radio, many if not all circuit details have been rather extensively > published years ago. Maybe someone else has one or three patents, though. In > electronics it's practically impossible to do anything at all without > infringing some patent, seems that the tiniest little trivial detail has been > patented by someone. > > Flexradio probably has one or more copyrights for the hardware design. But at > least the German company did not violate any PCB copyrights, their design > definitely is not a direct copy. Perhaps there is a copyright violation re > the schematic drawings, difficult to say without detailed comparisons. > > Of course, the ethical considerations are even more interesting than the > legal ones, and here we could be skating on some pretty thin ice. Is it > unethical to use the PowerSDR with any hardware not purchased from Flexradio? > In my ever so humble opinion this attitude would be a bit too extreme. The > PowerSDR is used in the HPSDR project as well, with completely different > hardware. The difference, though, is that HPSDR is noncommercial, at least > for now, whereas the German company is taking advantage of the PowerSDR to > hawk their commercial product. On the other hand, I really don't think the > German company will receive a large number of orders from the US of A, and > the price is not exactly undercutting Flexradio either. > > As for "publishing" the existence of the SDR-1000 clone, I did it because > there was a lot of valid concern regarding the discontinuation of the 1W > version. I thought this list is a forum for the exchange of ALL > Flexradio-related information, and didn't see any reason for self-censorship. > > And finally, let me add that I have nothing but the greatest admiration and > respect for the outstanding and truly groundbreaking work done by the > Flexradio team. However, I don't think we need to canonize the original > design and put it above all criticism. EVERY design is always a compromise, > and so there's always one or more details that could have been done otherwise > or even better. For instance, one has to admit that the original 3-board > design is a real kludge, however I'm NOT saying I'd have done it better at > the time. At least in this detail the German clone is an improvement, like it > or not. > > But I'm sure the Flexradio team is already busy at work with some amazing new > design that will receive the deepest admiration of us all, and sell like > hotcakes, too! > > Best regards, > > Krister OH2MLQ > _______________________________________________ > FlexRadio mailing list > FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz > http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz > Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ > FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/ > > FlexRadio Knowledge Base: http://kb.flex-radio.com/ > _______________________________________________ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/ FlexRadio Knowledge Base: http://kb.flex-radio.com/
