[hpsdr] In the Spirit of experimenters

[Tom Holmes]

Hi Terry...

Welcome to HPSDR!

I can answer your questions about TAPR, and give you a little bit of insight
into how these boards come to life.

First of all, TAPR is a 501c(3) non-profit organization that started over 25
years ago in the early days of packet radio TNC's. It has always been TAPR's
objective to help provide hams (and interested others) with access to
leading edge technology, such as the HPSDR boards. We have done this in most
cases by offering kits of parts for the DIY types to assemble. However, with
HPSDR, we determined very quickly that we could provide these rather complex
boards at a cost quite competitive with what an individual would have to
spend to buy the parts in single unit quantities. 

Coupled with the fact that these boards would not be easy to troubleshoot
for those hams who don't have well-equipped labs, and that with the very
small parts, assembly errors might be hard to locate, it seemed to us that
assembled and tested was in the best interest of the HPSDR community.
Another factor in our thinking is that HPSDR is really about software
experimenting, so getting the hardware issues out of the way of the
programmer types who might not be thrilled with doing a lot of soldering
would allow them to get right to the stuff they enjoy. 

I should also point out that TAPR has funded much of the HPSDR development
work, for example the alpha and beta test builds that are needed to assure
that when we go into production that the PC boards and parts values are
right. This can easily cost several thousands of dollars. We see that as
part of our role in bringing leading edge technology to hams.

As for the doc's, I believe that most of them are available at some point
through links from the respective pages or the wiki. The licensing matter is
not something I can profess to completely comprehending, but most of the
designs are done under the OHL by the developers, not TAPR.

Full disclosure: I'm TAPR's Treasurer.

Have fun with HPSDR; I think you will find this is really neat stuff and
that the folks involved will be more than happy to help you with whatever
questions you have. Just ask!

Tom Holmes, N8ZM

Tipp City, Ohio


> -----Original Message-----
> From: hpsdr-bounces at lists.openhpsdr.org [mailto:hpsdr-
> bounces at lists.openhpsdr.org] On Behalf Of terryllong at gmail.com
> Sent: Monday, July 12, 2010 9:54 PM
> To: hpsdr at openhpsdr.org
> Subject: [hpsdr] In the Spirit of experimenters
> 
> ***** High Performance Software Defined Radio Discussion List *****
> 
> Someone noted that HPSdr seemed to be very expensive esp when made and
> assembled by manufacturing firms - I'd have to concur that the price of
going the
> HPSdr route is probably out of my reach in the foreseeable future.
Although I'd
> like to help support the efforts of the group, it's not likely I can, due
to the cost of
> entry.
> 
> Can't help thinking that a group effort to design these boards and put
together kits
> of parts with PCB's would be also serve the experimental nature of what
this group
> professes.  How does this group determine what will be offered as a
finished board
> and what will be offered as a kit via TAPR?  Is TAPR a non-profit or
profit
> organization?
> 
> Are the schematics, PCB layout files, etc made available to the HAM
community
> under the unique TAPR licenses?  I haven't seen them if they are?
> 
> 73
> Terry
> N8AB
> 
> 
> Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
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