[Elecraft] Elecraft KX4

[Alan]

 > I suspect ELecraft do actually support modified hardware, which most 
people wouldn't.

Yes, I believe that is true.  Wayne and Eric are long-time supporters of 
homebrewing.

 > Incidentally a lot of the original developers of the internet (before 
commercialisation) were radio amateurs.

My favorite example of early free software contributors was Irv Hoff 
W6FFC (SK).  He was big in RTTY (radioteletype) in the early days. Among 
other things, he designed the "Mainline" series of FSK demodulators and 
the AK1 frequency-shift keyer.  He wrote a couple of dozen articles 
about RTTY in QST and elsewhere back in the 1960s and early 70s.

Later he got into computers.  Somewhere he acquired a surplus DEC 
computer and had fun programming it to run his RTTY station.  When 
personal computers came out in the 1970s, Irv jumped right in.  His 
contributions to free software included IMP (Irv's Modem Program, later 
"Improved" Modem Program), which became the standard for CP/M and other 
early home computers.

He also wrote many other utilities that he shared freely.  Just a few I 
happen to know about: LHA (file compression and archive program), XIZ 
and XZI to translate machine code from Intel 8080 to Zilog Z-80 and 
vice-versa, BD (find bad disk sectors and lock them out), CHEK (CRC file 
integrity checker), MDM (another modem program), M7LIB (manage telephone 
numbers in MDM library), file13 (file search utility), filt (text 
filters), find (find ASCII string in a file), form (source code 
formatter), formatin (format text files), justify (right margin 
justification), kmd (RCMP utility), listt (list text files to printer 
with nice formatting), mcatxcat (disk catalog system), neat (source code 
reformatter), osmdm (modem program for Osborne 1 computer), oxmdm (modem 
program for Osborne Executive computer), FOR (search RCMP list), DIRR 
(directory listing program), etc. etc.

Alan N1AL