Dr. Gerald N. Johnson wrote:
There is a fundamental difference between the TenTec and the various ham
SDR that have open source software. The many SDR use PC audio cards for
the A/D and then do ALL the computation in the PC external to the radio.
Sometimes only a certain few audio cards will work fast enough. TenTec
radios use a special purpose collection of micro and DSP chips IN the
radio where the needed compilers are not necessarily available on the
consumer computer market.
Each to his own, but the difference is mainly packaging.
Packaging is important. It's really useful to have your radio in one
box that can be carried around without a keyboard, mouse, monitor, and
PC. Those big knobs are convenient, too.
In terms of the block diagram and signal processing, there is not much
difference. They are both SDR's, but TT has locked up the code so users
can't help improve the product, except by sending testy emails to each
other...
73 Martin AA6E
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