[hpsdr] To kit or not to kit...............

[Larry Gadallah]

Hi all:

After following the (long) set of threads on the kitting options, my
vote would be for some combination of:

B) Fine SMT parts only mounted
C) All SMT parts mounted
D) Bare board only

The only other comments I have are:

1. These are not simple boards in the same fashion as say, a
Softrock-40. Someone correctly, IMHO, pointed out that the pointy
technical end of this group is a precious and finite resource. Sure,
many want to "roll their own", but who are they going to call when it
doesn't work for some reason, and what will the result of this be?
There are many on the list who have sophisticated test equipment and
know how to use it, but there are likely even more who do not.

2. Personally, my big interest is HPSDR is _performance_. If that
makes me an appliance operator, so be it. Whether or not I physically
build the hardware or compile the software makes little difference to
me, providing that the performance is ahead of other solutions.

3. Even if a person could eventually buy fully assembled versions of
the HPSDR boards, another important attribute of the project that
attracts me is the flexibility and scalability of the boards. In the
future, perhaps people will have to re-flash some of their boards, or
replace an Ozy or Mercury board with some superior successor. This
kind of flexibility doesn't usually go with the "appliance" label.

Anyhow, as Steve and Lyle have said, all of this has to be tempered
with the real-world logistics that TAPR has to deal with regardless of
which kitting options are selected.

Cheers,
-- 
Larry Gadallah, VE6VQ/W7
lgadallah AT gmail DOT com