From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: M Taylor Subject: Re: VHF/UHF frequency monitoring Date: Tue, 3 May 2005 01:22:13 +0100 Message-ID: <20050503012213.A18202@pull.privacy.nb.ca> References: <200504281537.09707.lists@gnosysllc.com> <20050502234417.GA6281@braddock.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Return-path: Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20050502234417.GA6281@braddock.com>; from braddock@braddock.com on Mon, May 02, 2005 at 07:44:17PM -0400 Sender: linux-hams-owner@vger.kernel.org List-Id: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit To: linux-hams@vger.kernel.org On Mon, May 02, 2005 at 07:44:17PM -0400, Braddock wrote: > > However, what I needed to do first is just to buy a scanner and get a > no-code HAM license (not at all hard for the technically minded...I ... > my little Kenwood TH-F6A, probably perfect for you as well. Then you > can help the GnuRadio/USRP folks, which need all the experienced help > they can get to achieve prime-time usability. I want to agree with your ideas, I think it is important that Kevin take the time to get his (in the US) Technician license as a first step, because if he wants to "market" (commercially or even just a successful and popular open source project) his ideas he needs to understand the ham community (their demographics are funny). I figure most people who are good at learning can easily past a no-code Tech in a weekend. The second thing is I thing the GNU/Radio and USRP (or SSRP) are an excellent choice for a ham interested in experiencing with a truly affordable, flexible, and powerful Software Defined Radio. However GNU/Radio and USRP (or other Hardware) are not plug-and-play. They require some skills and patience of a software tinker (comfortable compiling and install software with many dependencies under Linux or BSD) and at least some homebrew skills (can use a soldering iron and build a simple SMT project for maximium experimentation). I have USRP with the Basic RX & TX boards and plan on doing some more experimenting this summer. Good luck,