[hpsdr] PowerSDR, cuSDR and new GUI for HPSDR

[Michael]

Dear SDR enthusiasts,

there are different motivations for people involved in latest art SDRs. 
Most people here develop HW & SW on a voluntary base in their free time 
to contribute something outstanding to the HAM radio community, to radio 
development overall and maybe also drive technology to a new level. You 
can not imagine how big the 'Thank You' is from those people who know 
what it takes to develop such HW & SW!

On the other side this project has left by far the enthusiast's group as 
Apache Labs drives distribution of ANANs through major HAM suppliers to 
a much wider audience. Maybe not to make a fortune, but clearly to run a 
business. But this wider audience has different needs. They will for 
sure honor latest fancy developments in DSP but their major contact with 
'the project' is the GUI. Their expectation is to have a state of the 
art interface like CUSDR, VAC and virtual COM integration etc. They will 
benchmark every development against Flexradio, other SDR-software, even 
against IC7300 and new rigs with renewed interface/GUI.

Here is the issue. Does the core team has enough motivation to invest a 
lot of time on something 'boring' like a new GUI and driver integration 
with the next project already in progress? Probably not. Is Apache Labs 
able to rework the business case and invest time and money in software 
development for a state of the art software adaption with a focus on GUI 
and driver integration? Who knows?

The only fact is that there are thousands of OMs out there, owning an 
ANAN who have a strong desire to get a software like CUSDR for RX/TX up 
and running soon. From my perspective, if there is no plan to provide a 
new GUI there is a risk that current perception of the great HPSDR 
project could be negatively influenced. The question of a discussion 
should be 'How' to get a new GUI, not 'If'.

73 Michael, DG5MK