[hpsdr] FR$ Moderated message

[Philip Covington]

Hi Lyle,

On 10/1/07, Lyle Johnson <kk7p at wavecable.com> wrote:
> ***** High Performance Software Defined Radio Discussion List *****
>
> Hello Phil!
>
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > Now if the 5000c was the price of the 5000a, I'd say the price is
> > about right.  But for a radio that still must be tethered to a PC like
> > the 5000a, I don't think the price is justified for the majority of
> > potential customers.  There is a lot less hardware in the 5000a than
> > even the cheapest of offerings (~$700-$800) from the big three.
>
> Gerald did the right thing at the right time.  He is a very good
> businessman, and he is building a business.  He will likely continue to
> sell into the Amateur market, but I think Flex is focused on the larger
> market, not the Amateur radio market.  For those clients, the 5K is
> cheap.  Amateur radio is merely a proving ground.

He is selling the radio for what the market seems to be able to bare
for now.  I can't fault a business for doing that.  My point is that
if you look behind the curtain (in the 5000a box) there is not a whole
lot of hardware in there to justify the high price, especially since
all the DSP is left up to a user supplied PC.

The 5000c adds a PC in the box, but an upcharge of $2000 for this
seems excessive.

Any which way, if people are willing to upfront this kind of money for
the radio then more power to them... (FR$).

> Even within Amateur radio, if Flex can convince the turf protectors at
> Homeland Security, there'll be a 5K in every county Emergency Operations
> Center in America paid for by your tax dollars and mine.  Compared to
> the proverbial $500 hammer, the 5K is a bargain.  If you price it too
> low for those people, they won't buy it.  It lacks credibility.  And
> when you factor in all the BS the government attaches to purchases, you
> need a big markup to deal with the legal garbage.

I wonder why one of the big three amateur radio manufacturers are not
producing SDRs (which would spill over to the Ham market like their
commercial market radios) if there is a large potential market in
Homeland Security applications?

> Ask yourself why our tax dollars are paying for a substantial part of
> the core software development.  When you think about it, the answer is
> pretty clear.  There is nothing hidden or shady or unethical about it.
>
> Having said all that, Gerald has also found a way to finance his
> company's expansion at zero interest, and guarantee his sales: prepaid
> orders.  There are enough people sufficiently interested, at least for
> now, for this to work.  On the business side, it is a no-brainer.  Small
> companies are almost always cash-starved, and production ramp-up is high
> risk (will there be sufficient sales?) and high cost (buying parts,
> filling the pipeline, signing contracts, tuning the mfg process, ...)
> and usually means heavy borrowing (whether from the personal assets of
> the owner, a bank, venture capital or wherever -- the business carries a
> large debt during this period).

This is fine for FR$ until (if/when) some of the big manufacturers
come out with a serious contender in the SDR market.  I guess if they
can sucker enough people to pay the inflated price on pre-orders, at
least until there is some competition, then it is a good situation for
them.

> What amazes me is that there is no one making and selling an "SDR-1K"
> replacement. I don't mean the German single-board 1W clone, I mean a
> 100W HF or HF+6M rig that runs on the PowerSDR platform.  It seems to me
> such a radio could be profitably marketed for $995 to $1395 including
> "soundcard."

Yes, there would be no point in cloning the deficiencies in the
SDR-1000.   Since PowerSDR is open source, anyone could fork it into
supporting their hardware.  A board with an improved QSD/QSE, newer
DDS, and a on-board ADC/DAC connected to the PC via USB would be very
nice.

I would think that there would also be some market for upgrade boards
for the SDR-1000.  Maybe make a replacement for the PIO and TRX boards
to start...  FR$ pretty much has abandoned it's SDR-1000 customers to
concentrate on the 5000 stuff.

> With HPSDR we are making building blocks.  I am disappointed that there
> is no Phoenix yet, or any sort of ISD/ISE receiver + exciter.  Penelope
> is ready for production and Mercury won't be far behind, so we'll have
> direct digital operation at QRPp levels.  We still need a decent 100W rf
> deck + T/R switching system + preamp/attenuator to make it all work as a
> mainstream device.

I hoped for more people to get involved with the development, but so
far it has been extremely disappointing.

> Wow!  Did I ramble, or what?
>
> 73,
>
> Lyle KK7P
>
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73 Phil N8VB

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