[hpsdr] Books on SDR

[Jeremy McDermond]

On Apr 30, 2010, at 2:27 PM, Ken N9VV wrote:
> 
> I for one, would be eagerly be willing to pay for talented and
> skilled programming with the small contribution I can afford. I am sure there are others out here on the list who would also help fund skilled programmers.  Perhaps we could purchase a "license"
> for use of the code or purchase a "maintenance agreement" looking toward the future? would those $$ help promote and encourage the Ham programmers?

I can only speak for myself, but getting cash isn't going to really encourage me.  I wrote MacHPSDR because it scratched an itch I had, and I enjoyed writing it.  To a large extent, for me, the cash actually is counterproductive to that role.  The cash makes me feel responsible to people to write things, and there's an implicit contract there.  This makes it no longer "fun" but "work."  I didn't get into ham radio to work.  That's part of why I went to law school:  computing was becoming not much fun anymore.  Now that I don't do it for a living, computing is fun again.

Maybe there are some that might be motivated by cash, and there might be some that it would allow them to substitute ham work for other work.  That being said, I think there are a significant number of programmers that cash isn't going to be very motivational.

As I think I've stated to folks before, I think part of the issue is getting the software folks interested technically.  I've been programming since I've been 5 years old, and have pretty much grown up with programming.  While when I was growing up the draw of talking to guys around the globe was fascinating for kids in my high school, that's no longer a draw for young programmers with the Internet.  What's interesting me now is the application of the digital technology that I've grown up with to radio problems.  The current OpenHPSDR interests me greatly because it fascinates me how I can do what my IC-746 does with a few mathematical equations.  In the future what I'm going to be interested in is digital communications and coming up with higher speed data on VHF and UHF frequencies.

The OpenHPSDR project has been fairly encouraging to me.  There are lots of smart folks here that are interested in things, and interested in sharing.  I would like to see ham radio adopt more of the open source/computer ethos of sharing knowledge and code freely so that everybody can learn.  I've been learning from other's code on my journey (see Kok Chen's cocoaModem and GNU Radio), and I would be extremely happy if people learn something from my code and work.

Anyhow, while I really appreciate the sentiment, Ken, I would rather see folks get involved because they're passionate about the project, not because they're going to get paid.  I would suggest that such money would be better to support software developers with acquiring the hardware they need to play with.  Maybe you can establish the TAPR hardware fund or something.  To those that have contributed to the MacHPSDR hardware effort, you have my eternal thanks.

> 
> Ken
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--
Jeremy McDermond (NH6Z)
Xenotropic Systems
mcdermj at xenotropic.com




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