I am also a radio-amateur. The most expensive thing I have ever purchased was a new HF/VHF/UHF radio for $1400. For antennas I use trees for supports etc.
Amateur radio is like boating. You can spend as much as you like, but I would not be an amateur radio operator either if I had to spend $13,000. I don't see how anyone could write GNU software for VSE or VM at that price. Rod KA3BHY >On Mon, 2 Dec 2002 12:53:50 +0800, John Summerfield wrote: > >>On Mon, 2 Dec 2002 12:42, you wrote: >>> $13K entry point (not 20K) for their own system with software loan amounts >>> to an impediment that forecloses their effort. I am aware of one-man >>> shops taking IBM up on the offering, so Mr. Szumovski's post to the >>> contrary is factually incorrect. >> >>Some may find $US13 000 affordable. For me, it's sometthing to dream about. > >I certainly don't find $13K all that affordable either. But I can't help >thinking - > >I am a licensed radio-amateur - haven't been active for a while, but - the >costs involved in either buying ready-built equipment or buying the equipment >necessary to build your own were not something to be ignored. >I bought a 2nd hand HP scope 2 or 3 years ago - not the top of the line, >ended up paying EUR2000. And then think of prices for eg. spectrum-analysers or >digital signal analysers. They don't come cheap. >Putting up a tower-mast for a short-wave arial is not cheap either. Etc. etc. >PCB design software like Protel will cost you USD5000 or so - and they don't >have a hobbyist license either :-( > >So, although I *totally* agree with all of the arguments why IBM should make eg. >OS390 available on a hobbyist basis (and not at $13K), doing other things >on a hobbyist basis are expensive too. > > > > >regards, >Per Jessen, Zurich >http://www.enidan.com - home of the J1 serial console. > >Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped. -- Rod Clayton KA3BHY Systems Programmer Howard County Public Schools [EMAIL PROTECTED]
