Folks

I refer you to a famous story. It comes in many variations and this is just one:

I am the last person to discourage experimentation.... it is what I do, both for a living and for fun. But this is getting ridiculous.

We have here a platform that literally does nothing well. Nothing. Its only claims to fame are 1) It is inexpensive and 2) it is software configurable. The uBitx is a horrible transmitter, perhaps a worse receiver, bereft of simple operating niceties like AGC, ALC, preselection filtering, etc. As it comes out of the box it is illegal for air operations in most countries in the world. Its receiver has no front end, no filtering, miserly overall gain, and lousy audio. The transmitter cannot be put on the air legally and maintained without thousands of dollars of lab grade test equipment. Even as a core SSB generator it is 1960's technology executed badly.

And all of that would not be so bad if it were not for the fact that it IS put on the air, in the vast majority of cases, without the necessary lab equipment and testing simply because it does a lot of bands very inexpensively. This is the Twinkie offered to a starving child, the shipping container begging to become a multimillion dollar condominium,? the tricycle with dreams of winning the Indy 500. All possible..... but all ultimately futile for all but a persistent, doggedly stubborn few. And the others who try will simply add to the noise and junk that has become HF around the world.

Even the narrative that this represents employment for needy women in a third world country.... even that does not justify foisting this on amateur radio operators around the world. Producing garbage does not lift a segment out of poverty..... it just makes more garbage. It is very, very disappointing to see the hobby I have loved for 50 years be reduced to this.

If there was ever an electronic analogue for "Stone Soup", it is uBitx.

WA8TOD