On Nov 20, 2023, at 10:38, ajparent1/kb1gmx <kb1gmx@...> wrote:

?How the various items like filters are switched is an aside to the basic amp.

Also to do diode switching well it takes a lot of parts.? That was in conflict
with the design contest rules for ease of reproduction and low cost..

--
Allison
------------------
Please use the forum, offline and private will go to bit bucket.

Sounds good. ?As I am 'retired' these days, I am generally available save for dinner time with my wife (which is one of the reasons I retired - too many years working round the clock to spend quality time with her), which is generally around 5pm to 7pm PST. ?And I have a radio club net at 8pm PST on Mondays. ?Other than that, happy to meet at a time we find convenient.

Not too dive too deep into details at this stage, but I don't see an issue with maintaining the core functionality in C and just providing APIs for the UI, regardless of platform. ?One of the constant arguments at Apple was whether to simply use a Javascript/browser engine for our frontends (speaking of internal apps only - our contractors generally used Windows or Android, and even internal employees often used old Macs - out of choice - that wouldn't support newer browsers or SwiftUI). ?On top of that, there are a number of cross-platform approaches now that may save you from Kotlin or SwiftUI, etc. ?Architecting/developing/distributing client libraries is my forte and passion, so I would be grateful to work with you and the contributors on an approach that would ease moving the SDR code to new platforms. ?FYI, I think you should consider supporting visionOS as well - creating a virtual transceiver (or entire ham shack) in VR is something that I have been discussing with folks internally long before I heard of sBitx.

Anyway, lots to discuss. ?Thanks again for this opportunity to work with you, and hope to speak with all of you very soon.

Michael Papp
mkpapp@...
(415) 350-1473

On Nov 18, 2023, at 9:21?PM, Ashhar Farhan <farhanbox@...> wrote:

Michael,
I am located in south central part of India, in the city of Hyderabad. I am almost exactly 12 hours away from Pacific time zone.
Let's wait to hear from Rafael and Mark. Rafael has forked the sbitx for his work? which is very important (providing connectivity to isolated communities in South America).
Mark has helped us with some key interventions. He has been hacking the code.
Another person is Anthony Goodie who has left the group, I am not sure of his current interests.
- f

On Sun, Nov 19, 2023, 10:32 AM Michael Papp <mkpapp@...> wrote:

Hi Ashhar,

You can't imagine how excited I am with your response.? I would
be honored to (help) manage this project, at least on the
software side.? I should add that I have worked on SW/HW projects
before, professionally, most recently at Apple. My team created
software used to develop all new HW products at Apple by
providing tools to program managers and engineers and coordinate
with offshore contract houses like Foxconn.

I was thinking that if you were interested in my offer, the first
thing we should do is get on a FaceTime or Zoom call to cover the
basics and discuss how to move forward (as you suggested). Let me
know your availability and your preferred way of communicating
(aside from a ham band, that is), and we can set up something as
soon as convenient.

Looking forward to your response and the opportunity to speak
with you in person, if only virtually.? Take care and awaiting
your response.

PS - where are you located presently?? I am in San Francisco.

Michael Papp
mkpapp@...
(415) 350-1473

On Nov 18, 2023, at 7:34?PM, Ashhar Farhan <farhanbox@...>
wrote:

Mike,
Thanks for your detailed note. Just the other day, I was talking
to a colleague?about?the development hell of sbitx and I was
bemoaning that I don't have a manager to manage me! She was an
old hand at this herself much like you (she shipped the XP2
service pack). I was telling her that unless someone has used
and continues to use the sbitx it will be difficult to
appreciate things like "wrong slot on FT8" bugs.
First, I must thank you profusely for the offer, I would like to
jump at it the right way. There are a few more people who are
collaborating. I am proposing a drastic measure, can a few of us
get onto a call with you and see what and how we can take this
forward? A kind of devcon 0.01.
I am also planning to port this out so people with PCs (that
already has a sound card) can use this too. Another idea is to
port this software to the smart phones (painful, as I will have
to write in weird languages like kotlin et al. but if I have
ideas about that too).

On Sat, Nov 18, 2023 at 1:14?AM KO6AGA Mike <mkpapp@...>
wrote:

Hi Ashhar,

Allow me to introduce myself. I have been professionally
employed as a software engineer and senior manager for over
40 years, recently retired. You can view my CV on LinkedIn:
. I should also note
that I have managed Open Source software projects for at
least 20 years, most recently shepherding numerous internal
Swift projects at Apple into our public Github repositories.
As a consequence of these recent efforts, I fully appreciate
the role of an 'organizer/manager' in working with the
creators of such software projects, and divining the lines
between building a community around a project while not
abusing their ownership or intent in developing these projects.

I have become heavily involved in ham radio after a hiatus
of almost the same amount of time (40 years) and the mix of
HW/SW has energized my interest in this area what with SDR
and digital RF modes. I purchased the sBitx (recently) as a
platform for experimentation but also as a means to develop
software in general for ham radio. Since diving back into
this area, I am been reviewing the various repos on Github
as well as some semi-private Git repos to understand current
development practices and participation by the community.

Many/most of the projects are 1 to 3 person efforts, with
little to no organizational approach in terms of PR reviews
or planned areas of development. So we face (at least) three
specific issues, two of which are universal to open source
software projects:

1.

Pride of ownership: having developed/managed open source
projects both personal and corporate, letting "just
anybody" contribute code is generally a non-starter. In
order to build trust and maintain confidence in the
quality of the code, you need an organization (in the
"Github account" as well as practical sense). There
needs to be some core team of contributors willing to
review PRs, people willing to do some testing, as well
as some protocols around how PRs are created and
submitted. You also need to provide guidance or
direction to potential contributors on which areas need
work or a queue of tasks that folks can self-assign.
Otherwise you get people stumbling over each other with
competing submissions and arguments over implementation
details. The latter is better managed through an
organized PR process than in a free-for-all PR contest.

2.

While really an item (1) subpart, this isn't just a
software project in the sense that anything aside from
pure UI or admin software interacts with the HW. And I
was reminded just today that you can literally blow up
the sBitx, or certainly damage it, with software bugs.
This necessitates: A person/persons with a good
understanding of the HW to perform an "visual
inspection" of the code to catch any obvious defects
that could damage the HW (or just plain won't work)
Protocols or a form of test harness that would preclude
damaging the HW under test as much as possible People
willing to do some testing of code on HW and follow a
test procedure designed to insure that the code change
works as predicted. We would require that a contributor
follow all of the above steps before cutting a PR, but
we couldn't rely on that during the testing process.

3.

The usual challenges of attracting contributors,
maintaining a core set of reviewers/testers/admins, etc.
Additionally, this is software for a specific
transceiver that costs a bit more than other hobby kits
- not a complaint, it offers so much more, but
represents enough of an investment that people aren't
going to plunk down some spare cash just to join the
Github project. On the upside, given the evolution of
the platform and SDR generally, I don't see this as
being a 10 year project - maybe 5 at best? So reasonable
in terms of retaining contributors.

Given all of the above, this may sound like too daunting a
project or poses impossible challenges. And of course, who
would undertake this effort if you do not have the time (and
I'm confident you don't - both running HF Signals, answering
support question, designing HW, and having a life away from
radio). So I would be willing to undertake managing the
project and being a contributor.

I want to be very clear that I am proposing a role as an
organizer and part-time manager of the software project. I
have no intention (nor desire) to take over the
development/maintenance of the software, or this project in
general. And I would promise to work closely with you to
insure that this project aligns with your interests,
expectations, and future plans.

Thank you for your time and all the incredible effort you
invested in creating these radios and associated software.
If nothing else, allow me to express my appreciation for
your work, and still offer to assist as you see fit. Thanks
again, and 73 Mike Papp KO6AGA

On Nov 19, 2023, at 19:38, ajparent1/kb1gmx <kb1gmx@...> wrote:

?An example of mosfet high power for 2009 by W6JL the "89 cent special"
as an entry into the ARRL homebrew challenge,

Worth a read as an example of a well documented design.

--
Allison
------------------
Please use the forum, offline and private will go to bit bucket.