[TenTec] Technical Correspondence

[Duane - N9DG]

--- Merle Bone <merlebone at charter.net> wrote:

> I have to disagree with Bob and Rick. Modifying DSP
> (Digital signal
> processing code), in the future, is the equivalent to doing
> hardware
> modification to ham equipment in the past. I think, in the
> past, most people expected to get
> a schematic with their transceiver or amplifier so that, if
> they had the
> interest and skills, they could try modifications to, or
> just repair, their equipment. Of course,
> not everyone had the skills or interest, but many did and
> many good
> modifications have been developed over the years for
> commercially developed equipment.

Bingo.

Those who can, will modify code, those who think they can
will also modify code. Those can't won't. But in any case TT
would continue to maintain control of the "official" factory
release. Just like the HW only radios come from the factory
just as the mfg's intend them to.

Now with that said I don't think the current TT DSP IF radios
lend themselves to the GPL process very well. The DSP,
control processors, and associated HW are proprietary enough
that only a few would ever tackle it. So with that in mind I
think what could work to TT's advantage is to allow a few
carefully selected 3rd parties (under NDA's, be of limited
duration, etc.) to modify the existing code to extend and
enhance it. As part of such an agreement require that these
third parties release their code via TT's RFSquared.com
process. But however also allow these 3rd parties to add
interfacing and other feature "hooks" that they themselves
can use for their own proprietary (or open) 3rd party
applications that interface to the radio.   

At this point the marketing boost of such 3rd party efforts
wouldn't be that large for the 16 bit radios since they have
past their peak. With that said though, I do think that it
would still be worth doing for the 16 bit radios. In the case
of the 32 bit radios I think they could definitely benefit
significantly from the wider range, and more capable firmware
features that 3rd parties could add. And I'd bet that it
would increase sales.

This approach if done carefully could go a long way toward
quieting the fairly often made criticism of TT's own firmware
development efforts over the last several years.

Duane
N9DG
  


       
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