[hpsdr] Boards: FREE

[Henry Vredegoor]

Hi Todd, All,
 
Let me start by saying that I agree with you that the price/performance
ratio for a HPSDR system is outstanding.
And personally I do not have a problem to have to wait (a long time) for
projects to be finalized and to be made available to us by TAPR.
They do an excellent job and I am not complaining whatsoever.
But if you look at amateur radio, a lot of hams always have been busy to do
the maximum with a given budget, whatever performance you are talking about.
 
That is one of the reasons for some doing it DIY, be it modifying existing
(expensive-) (surplus-) equipment or home brewing a complete system.
I think that's not a wrong thing to do/think, to get the maximum "bang for
the buck".
It simply means that you have more money left to do more HAM radio!  ;-)
 
In the case of the boards currently under discussion, you also could follow
a different way of thinking.
Are they so "High Performance" in the same sense as the difference between a
software defined Mercury/Penny is in comparison to a regular radio RX/TX?
Sure, the designs are of good quality and I'm also sure that the build
quality will be equally good, but compared to the above they are rather
"standard technology" and the price is also the "standard price" for this
kind of hardware and are OK.
 
And so maybe it would be fair to say that "standard price discussions" are
applicable, allowed and OK too for these particular boards of the HPSDR
family?
 
Just a thought.
 
 
73's,
 
Henry.
 

-----Original Message-----
From: hpsdr-bounces at lists.openhpsdr.org
[mailto:hpsdr-bounces at lists.openhpsdr.org] On Behalf Of Todd Mondragon
Sent: zondag 4 oktober 2009 14:51
To: hpsdr at openhpsdr.org
Subject: Re: [hpsdr] Boards: FREE


Hi all, 

Here are my thoughts. 

HPSDR was never meant to be Cheap SDR. It was envisioned as High Performance
SDR.
If anyone got into this thinking it was going to be cheap to build a full
working system they deluded themselves.

And in the grand scheme of things, the performance level of this
experimental system IS cheap in comparison to what you'd pay to get lesser
performance from a commercial rig.

Yes, it will take some time for the individual components to be made
available, there are development times, component sourcing times,
manufacturing and shipping logistics and a myriad of other issue to be dealt
with. This project has been running for a couple of years as is so the
impatient would be well advised to go with a commercial solution for more
money or find their own solutions to the missing components if they can't
wait for the groups efforts to be realized.

As far as I am concerned the HPSDR working group has done an amazing job
creating what in comparison to the commercial solutions available is very
very inexpensive for the performance level. And the good people at TAPR have
otdone themselves with this complex and popular project, a huge thanks to
them and everyone involved.

In summary, if you are upset at the costs involved or the delivery times of
the solutions then you are participating in the wrong project. This project
is High Performance Software Defined Radio, not On The Cheap And Quickly
Produced Radio.

73,

Todd M0GLO

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