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

[CT1IZU]

Built, part kit or boards, to me these questions are all academic. Indeed
don't get the idea that if you opt for a built Ozy or Janus that some this
devalues your efforts or indeed gives you a 100 clone. There will be plenty
of quality soldering time with simpler boards like Atlas and Phoneix and of
course your main RF in/out block. These simpler Boards should also hone your
SMD skills for bigger ventures in the future.

What will really decide the situation is the pure ecomonmics of the price
each individual  needs to pay to bring his or her version to completion in
the way that suits them, and the will or abilty of volunters to deal with
the service to be offered.

If the project follows others I have done then TAPR will first undertake a
board run for option A and which is essential to any other option. For the
built unit (TH parts end fitted by user) it then just comes down to the
minimum batch quantity/ price ratio the fab house will offer and how quickly
the order slots can be filled. U.K experiance showed in some cases that the
prototype small run fab shops often gave better prices than you can et parts
for!

What to my mind is more problomatic IS the pure kit option. This will be
very labour intensive if users expect an individual chip value, not to
mention the identity problem on caps. I know this well from experiance,
putting 10 DDS kits on the stock shelf every couple of weeks was a boring
chore, I would not fancy 200 or more Janus etc in a batch!

I guess there are more questions about what comprises a kit than there are
about part built units!

Shel CT1IZU



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