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Hi All,<br>
<br>
I apologize. I guess I caused some grief and misunderstanding. It
was not my purpose. All I wanted to do was let those with limited
budgets, overseas or here know that there were lower cost options
that were planned by TAPR and the designers. Phil sent email to all
of us who didn't get one of the prototype boards, and said that
production bare boards would be available. George and/or everyone
else who felt offended, you have my apology. I did not mean to say
that a built board was not worth every penny of $900. I just can't
afford it, and I was sharing what I was considering to be able to
afford one. Kirk, KD7IRS still has my HPSDR setup. He put it to
good use developing a lot of the Verilog code in HPSDR, doing video
tutorials for us all. etc., and I haven't asked for it back, because
he may again do some more development. I'm using one of Tony's
affordable Softrock Ensemble RXTX units for my play and software
development. I enjoyed building it, though it would have been
easier and faster for me if it had been all surface mount.<br>
<br>
Again, my apologies! Email can easily be misunderstood, and I hope
that was the problem, and that you will forgive my errors.<br>
<br>
73,<br>
<br>
Rob<br>
KL7NA<br>
<br>
On 02/24/2012 01:13 PM, Rob Frohne wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:4F47FD7D.5000508@wallawalla.edu" type="cite">
<pre wrap="">***** High Performance Software Defined Radio Discussion List *****
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Hi All,<br>
<br>
I am convinced that the $900 news isn't as bad as you all think.
Hermes will be released as NCL at least, which means that it can
be duplicated on a small scale by anyone who wishes to. TAPR has
said there will be circuit boards available, and Phil was selling
prototypes for the reasonable price of $40 each, which is about
what the other boards from TAPR cost. I have the BOM, and while I
haven't priced everything out, nobody else who has will share this
information, and Scotty is now running a for profit business to
sell Hermes. He has to make money to make his business run and if
everyone knew what it cost Scotty, it would make some unhappy. In
the past, Scotty has donated thousands of hours to the HPSDR
projects, and he deserves some payback, if he desires or needs it.
I bet you can build you own Hermes board for less than half
Scotty's price, and if you ask for Engineering Samples, even a
whole lot less. It is actually very easy to build surface mount
boards like this, even easier than through hole boards, by using a
solder stencil, paste, and an ordinary toaster oven. See for
example our video on building the Softrock_40_R <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FHvikd3BkY">here</a> and <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCWVUdBO0kg&feature=relate">here</a>.
I could probably make some solder stencils and those who want to
build their boards could mail them to the next person in line.<br>
<br>
So, if you are willing to do a little home brew, like the
developers, you too can have a Hermes for a price that is much
closer to what Kevin and the others who started this project
envisioned.<br>
<br>
73,<br>
<br>
Rob<br>
KL7NA<br>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Rob Frohne, Ph.D., P.E.
E.F. Cross School of Engineering
Walla Walla University
100 SW 4th Street
College Place, WA 99324
(509) 527-2075 <a moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://people.wallawalla.edu/%7Erob.frohne">http://people.wallawalla.edu/~rob.frohne</a>
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<pre wrap="">_______________________________________________
HPSDR Discussion List
To post msg: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:hpsdr@openhpsdr.org">hpsdr@openhpsdr.org</a>
Subscription help: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://lists.openhpsdr.org/listinfo.cgi/hpsdr-openhpsdr.org">http://lists.openhpsdr.org/listinfo.cgi/hpsdr-openhpsdr.org</a>
HPSDR web page: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://openhpsdr.org">http://openhpsdr.org</a>
Archives: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://lists.openhpsdr.org/pipermail/hpsdr-openhpsdr.org/">http://lists.openhpsdr.org/pipermail/hpsdr-openhpsdr.org/</a></pre>
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<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Rob Frohne, Ph.D., P.E.
E.F. Cross School of Engineering
Walla Walla University
100 SW 4th Street
College Place, WA 99324
(509) 527-2075 <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://people.wallawalla.edu/~rob.frohne">http://people.wallawalla.edu/~rob.frohne</a>
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