It put me off too for many years. If it’s any consolation there’s a lot more welcoming people these days. Tends to be the older hams and a section of black box

It put me off too for many years. If it’s any consolation there’s a lot more welcoming people these days. Tends to be the older hams and a section of black box operators who suffer from elitism. The younger lot (under 50) are totally different. As for open source, this was probably the original open source. Lots of people build their own radios and still do and publish the designs for nothing. There are technical journals such as Sprat which cover this on old fashioned paper form. Software is mostly open now from what I have seen. Main tool these days for digital modes is a good example http://www.physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/K1JT/wsjtx.html http://www.physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/K1JT/wsjtx.html - some people are using this with home build SSB transceivers and computer interfaces.