Re: [amsat-bb] Flash upgradeable user programmable radios - why not?

["John P. Toscano" <tosca005@xxxxxxxxxx>]

laura halliday wrote:

> Why people are so concerned with frequency coverage? When
> I think of firmware upgrades I think of new features, revised
> DSP algorithms, bug fixes. And so on. The frequency coverage
> is built in to the RF hardware and is much harder to change.

Though "the frequency converage is built in to the RF hardware",
consider the last time a new VHF/UHF amateur radio came to market
whose RF hardware did NOT support out-of-band reception.  So the
hardware limitation to frequency coverage is usually incomplete,
for better (flexibility to listen to nearby frequencies) or for
worse (greater susceptibility to unwanted nearby frequencies).

Maybe I misled you accidentally.  I was *NOT* so concerned with
frequency coverage.  Like you, I was concerned with upgrading the
FUNCTIONALITY of the software, fixing bugs, etc.  It's just that in
a radio that has a high degree of software control, it might be
mainly the software that enforces the band plan.  And if the software
is easily modified, the band plan could also be considered to be so
easy to modify that the radio's design could be rejected by the
authorities.  And I was expressing relief that this does NOT appear
to be the case, at least not yet, and at least not with the FCC
or Industry Canada.  (In other words, we're still innocent until
proven guilty, thank goodness.)

> It is *my* responsibility to use them appropriately.  If I
> interfere with the cops, they will come knocking on my door.

Certainly there's no argument from me on this.  In the case I cited,
we were rather disappointed at how long it took them to "come
knocking", and extremely relieved when they finally did.  The local
ham community tried to organize direction finding "fox-hunts" to
help the local police and FCC field office find the culprit, but in
the end, it was a very alert police officer who spotted the jerk
interfering with communications by an ambulance crew from his car
near the site of an emergency.

73 de KB0ZEV
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