I would venture a guess that it mostly had to do with how the rig finally
came to market. This rig was considered to be 'vapour ware' by many for
quite a while. It was 'in the works' for a number of years, went to FCC
type acceptance several times only to have vendors end-of-life components,
had one lead engineer quit and, to top it off, was never figured to be much
more than something a repeater rig anyway. (Yes, they sure missed their
target there!) When this unit was first conceived 5 or 6 years ago, DSP was
quite new. Flashable DSP was only a dream. Despite the relative newness of
the rig on the market it has really been a very long time "in the works"
and, like most items, once in the system can't be changed in a major way.
The DSP in this rig is a major part of the entire system since it not only
does the DSP for your listening pleasure but also does the DSP for the Dx
station as well. FM, CW, USB & LSB are all created via the DSP. This was
the concept 5+ years ago when Proto#1 sat on the test bench and 'flashable'
just wasn't a consideration. Technology marches on.
My opinion and I'm sticking to it!
73 KF4DZV
"You manage things, you lead people. We went overboard on management and
forgot about leadership. It might help if we ran the MBAs out of Washington."
Rear Adm. Grace Murray Hopper
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