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
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