Re: [TenTec] Orion2 Firmware Update

[Stuart Rohre <rohre@arlut.utexas.edu>]

It is much harder to have open source for the the code in the combined 
hardware type of radio the  Orion and Orion II represent, than say the 
"front end" plus a computer and Software Defined code of the Flex radios.
Even the Flex that contains a PC is radio plus computer just all in one 
box.  And on the flip side, I know some of the folks who build Flex 
radios, and the problems they have had to fix with hardware, and 
difficulties getting parts such as band toroids is kind of like 
listening to Orion software woes.  I have a friend who now has a cottage 
industry of winding band cores for Flex.  They could not get the quality 
they needed from offshore manufacturing.
-Stuart Rohre
K5KVH