Ham Radio Workbench Podcast Episodes

HRWB 148 - Workbench Roundtable with Doug K6JEY, Dennis W6DQ and Marcel AI6MS

2/8/2022

SHOW NOTES

Quote of the show… Wayne Yoshida: write that down -- “rectangular waveguide is not square”.

FCC Notice to cease operations between 3.45 and 3.5GHz by April 14 2022
http://www.arrl.org/news/view/amateur-operation-in-3-45-3-5-ghz-segment-must-cease-by-april-14-2022

LCR Tweezers
http://www.miniware.com.cn/product/dt71-mini-digital-tweezers/

LCR Meter
https://www.deree.com.tw/de-5000-lcr-meter.html

20,000 Hz podcast about the Sure SM7 microphone
https://www.20k.org/episodes/sm7

Hi-Z Panadapter taps from David Calo KD2C
https://kd2c.com/

BayCon 2022 for WW6BAY
https://www.bay-net.org/baycon.html

8 Comments

bob KD8CGH

2/9/2022 12:07:22

Sad to see HRWB promoting unauthorized Chinese knock-offs of the development work of fellow hams. The uSDX software wizardry is due to Guido Ten Dolle, PE1NNZ, who squeezed an SDR transceiver with envelope elimination and restoration SSB transmission into an Arduino. Since 8 bands were mentioned the uSDX clone mentioned is probably a copy of the hardware designed by Manuel Klaerig, DL5MAN. His exquisite serial resonance class E amplifier design is highly efficient.
https://groups.io/g/ucx/wiki
These developments were open source for noncommercial purposes with acknowledgement of the developers. The many Chinese copies violate that license. These poorly made copies tarnish the uSDX design, witnessed by the many poor reviews on eham. Manuel did examine one and found that the pirates changed some components without the understanding of how the system works. Further damage was done by Chinese knock-off buyers complaining to Manuel on the groups.io forum about problems he had nothing to do with that he became disgusted and left, depriving that community of further developments.

Please put some thought into what you promote.

George

2/9/2022 15:14:02

Hi Bob,
We appreciate all the constructive feedback. I would like to take issue with your comment. You said that the HRWB promoted the uSDX. To be very clear HRWB did and does not endorse or promote the uSDX in any way. If we have a guest who has bought such an item, we can and will not control their comments. That is up to them. We did not promote it at all. In fact, we always try to encourage people to buy from the original creator of IP and not commercial copies that were not licensed for commercial sale.
Your characterization of HRWB endorsing the uSDX is factually inaccurate.

Dr. Frank M. Howell link

2/10/2022 13:04:25

Bob and George:

Thank you for the constructive dialog here. Bob's points are his but they are based upon the supposition that many listeners of podcasts or other social media make.

IF the podcast host(s) put a censor on the guests, then, within socially acceptable boundaries, they don't need the guests. Sure, guests should not be allowed to do certain things that violate common boundaries (severe cursing, making threats, and so forth) but they ARE there to provide their insight, comments and critique of podcast topics. Otherwise, the podcast loses so much in what it offers to listeners/readers.

Bob, please keep in mind that just because a guest shows a product, it's far, far from an endorsement by the podcast. While I do understand the IP issues you raise (and I've actually dealt legally with IP issues with private attorneys and a State Attorney General's Office as a consultant), they are both legion regarding China and cannot always be adjudicated by a podcast host. You do provide informative links in your post and I personally thank you for that.

There are amateur radio manufacturers who have told me explicitly that they just don't bother with patents any more. The US does not (yet) have an international angle to enforce them in the Pacific Rim nations (not just China) so the money it costs for patent attorneys and filings may be more than they will make in profit margins over their ROI horizon. So they just sell their products and if an off-shore person or company copies it, they just move along with their next version.

I've blogged about what SDRPlay is facing on eBay (especially) with Chinese clones of their SDR products (search for SDRPlay at k4fmh.com.) I offer ways to attack the obvious clones using eBay's own protocol. Jon at SDRPlay has listed my blog post as an example of market-based activity to combat the theft of their IP.

This is the type of mechanism that engaged amateurs like yourself can certainly do to protect legitimate IP.

Thanks again to you both for the interchange here!

Great, great episode, George!

PS: I too would like the link that Doug mentioned regarding the inexpensive calibration board. I have a couple of these and want to see if I already have one. If not, I need the link to $$$, lol

George

2/10/2022 14:07:49

Frank you summarized the situation perfectly. Thank you very much for your thoughtful and complete comments.
George KJ6VU

Tommy

2/10/2022 09:03:59

Love the show, thanks for all you do. Maybe you should change your copyright to 2016-2022. Other than that...73

Glen A Jenkins

2/10/2022 09:26:53

During this episode you mentioned a LCR Calibration board that was found on AliExpress. I've done a search for "LDR Calibration board" and other key words and have not located one. Please add the link to it for us folks. Glen, WB4KTF

George

2/10/2022 16:47:13

Doug's reply...
I recommend the DE-5000 LCR meter. The cal sources are available on Ebay.
Search for "High Precision Inductance Resistor Capacitor LRC Calibrate Reference Module Box"

Dr. Frank M. Howell link

2/10/2022 20:15:00

Doug,

Thanks for the reply. I have that cal cube. And the DMMCheck one, too. The latter is always advertised on the header of eHam.Net.

I noticed the DE-5000’s specs. Better than my B&K Precision 879B in several ways.

I always enjoy your appearances here!

73,

Frank

HRWB 148 - Workbench Roundtable with Doug K6JEY, Dennis W6DQ and Marcel AI6MS

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