openQRP

Over the past couple of years I have been fascinated by the Open Source software revolution. There are countless examples of how the open sourcing of software has fostered the development of exceptionally good free software applications. I would like to present an experiment to see if its possible to develop ham radio equipment by a community of ra... dio amateurs who exchange ideas on the Internet. I will kickstart the idea by presenting a microprocessor controlled QRP transceiver design and open the design up in a form that anyone can download, modify, and improve. It is expected that if you participate that you will, in return, share your ideas and work with others on the group. This website will provide a forum for this purpose as well as a means to upload your design files. One astounding result of open sourcing is the appearance of free hardware and software design tools that are of exceptional quality. All the design work for the openQRP transceiver has been done on tools that can be downloaded and used with no cost or restrictions. The software design used in the transceiver will be covered under an open source license that applies specifically to software. The hardware designs presented here share the principles of free and open-source software. All of us can learn from each other by sharing concepts and ideas. To make this happen I have released original design files in open formats. These files are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license, which allows for both personal and commercial derivative works, as long as they credit openQRP and release their designs under the same license. It is important to note that the Arduino CPU design, incorporated in the openQRP transceiver, is covered by Arduinos own license. As I mentioned above, my plan is to present a transceiver design and document the development and debug. As I write this I am in the middle of debugging it and I will present all the details (both good and bad) in the Blog section of this site (Project Progress). I think ...Read More