[hpsdr] Where do I watch for Minerva/DFC [Solved]

[Scott Traurig]

My understanding is that for the Hermes derivative designs: Angelia, Orion,
Orion MkII, and now Minerva, everything is open source except the Gerbers
(PCB design). The owners of the original Hermes/openHPSDR intellectual
property rights required the derivative designs to be that way. Schematic,
BOM, firmware and software are all open source. So anyone is free to do
their own board layout and produce the resulting bare boards, or produce
finished CCAs for that matter, either with the design as is or as a
modified, derivative design.

It's funny how you can never please everyone. When people had to do their
own board layouts, joining the "SDR club" was *quite* an exercise in
exclusivity. When people started to design, produce and sell bare boards
that lowered the bar for entry and some people who were in the previous,
more exclusive club didn't feel so exclusive anymore. The same thing when
someone decided to produce and sell completed boards. And then when someone
decided to produce entire RF subsystems. Finally, the cherry on top was
that those RF subsystems became popular, and a lot of people who bought
them thought they were buying "radios" and expected them to be a stable,
finished product in the way an Icom or Kenwood radio might be. Of course
nothing could be further from the truth. Since 90% of the radio is in the
software (PowerSDR, linHPSDR, et al), that company only really owes you
hardware that works, although they do everyone a favor by pre-loading open
source firmware on the hardware and providing extensive support to the open
source community, both developers and consumers.

So if you are unhappy with the state of the current market for hardware, do
reach out to the developers and obtain the schematics and BOMs and get
cracking on your own board layout. No doubt there will be a market for it,
although it might be tiny. And the design is so new that there is plenty of
opportunity to add your own innovations (I'd be particularly interested in
a method to phase lock multiple Minervas).

73,

Scott/w-u-2-o
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