Ham Radio Deluxe Version 6.4.0.777 Released with Discount

First, I'd like to apologize for the length of this posting. If I'd had more time, it would have been shorter

I wrote my first program almost 50 years ago. It was 1969 and we used pre-printed punched cards that were assembled into a "deck" which was fed to the computer. Although the program I wrote ran, I never got to see the computer itself. I did, however, get to see the successful printout.

It's nearly unbelievable how much computers and programming has changed since then. For those of us who were actively involved, every year would bring about new techniques, new languages, new hardware, and new operating systems. Each one was built upon knowledge accrued by its predecessors and today, the art of programming bears no resemblance to what it was only a few short years ago.

Over the years I've learned enough about many topics and as a result, I've become quite a handyman. I can build and/or repair just about anything, be it electronic, mechanical or just plain nuts and bolts. Heck, when I see a nice house it wouldn't be a stretch for me to think "I could build that....", if given an ample supply of lumber and nails. I suspect that large numbers of those reading this could say the same. Basically, most of us have been taught, if not educated, by what's available in Home Depot and we're led to believe that if we had the time and funds, we could build just about any structure whose parts could be purchased there.

Now, contrast that with software development. What if one could gather a set of programming tools and a couple of test computers and some radio equipment and then ask for volunteers to step forward and create a program which would compete with HRD? Care to venture a guess as to how many people would be up to the task? QRZ has nearly 700,000 members and I would not expect that more than a dozen of them would have the skills necessary to do it. Those who can are already employed and even then their ultimate success would depend on having the business and management acumen to make the new product a success. Finding a talented software engineer AND a good businessman in one package is rare. Finding a talented engineer, businessman, and ham radio enthusiast in that same package reduces the selection set of available candidates to single digits.

Look at what happened to HRD: it's creator, Simon, was a technology genius but a poor businessman. Rick, who once worked for Microsoft, was the next person to take on the task. Rick had business and programming skills, but had other shortcomings that hampered his success. Mike, HRD's new leader, has extraordinary credentials and business skills, but isn't a programmer. This is probably the best thing for HRD as no matter what, you need a good, solid leader who knows and can identify the shortcomings in the business and take the steps to correct it.

The programming work involved is extraordinarily complex. Software has a knack for taking very complex problems and making their solutions look simple. A simple Google search for "cat toys" executes more software than I have written in my entire career. This feat took talented people tens of thousands of hours to perfect. Perfection, however, is a direction, not a goal because with a program containing more than 100,000 discrete, hand written instructions is bound to have a dud or two in it. Think of it, out of 100,000 simple, basic instructions (like A+B=C), one bad command comprising not more than 0.001% of the whole program, can ruin the whole thing. It sounds unfair, right? Your program is 99.999% correct, and yet a failure. We're talking about things as insignificant as a punctuation mark, a period, or a comma misplaced, can crash the program.

It's time that users everywhere begin to appreciate just how difficult the task of programming is, and how remarkable it is when a large, complex program is able to exist. The skills and experience required to write a program like HRD are simply HUGE, and in this entire world of ham radio I personally know only a handful individuals who are capable of doing it. Right now, a program such as HRD would need at least two years of full time work by an extraordinarily talented person to create from scratch. Why would it take so long? Well, consider that any program you write must run on hundreds of _different_ computers, each having different capabilities and the program must run _concurrently_ with other unrelated services like email, web browsing, word processing, etc.. You can't just write a program that works, it must co-habitate with other things running on the end user's computer.

Finally, I see a large number of users who don't think that a programmer's talents are worth paying for. It's shocking, in many ways. Perhaps that's because we've become used to the idea that apps are free and that software is disposable. Big business makes us feel that way because it serves them. That stupid pizza ordering app from Dominoes probably had more money spent on its development than all of the work put into HRD thus far. It just makes sense to spend half a million dollars developing an App that will be distributed to hundreds of thousands of users and be capable of generating millions of dollars in pizza orders per day.

HRD, for all that it does, will never have a million users. It will probably struggle to reach a tenth of that. There is no team of programmers and no multi-million dollar conglomerate to finance their development. Good programmers are paid at least $40 per hour and are likely worth twice as much. Do the math. Two years of development work by one crack engineer will set you back at least $200,000 as an employer. As a conservative estimate, one would need about a million dollars to write a new HRD from scratch using hired help. Then, people would expect you to give the program away for free.

Software isn't like the cheap crap you buy at Walmart. There isn't a "less expensive version" that does the same job for half the price. Cheap software is absolutely worth what you pay for it. That isn't to say that expensive software is better. Sometimes, that one single misplaced semi-colon will still reduce the whole thing to the scrap heap. Only time and use can prove the ultimate worth of a program. HRD has proven itself to be extremely capable and competitive in the market that it plays in. There are some alternatives to HRD, and even some that are free, but these ultimately fall on the shoulders of one of those extraordinary individuals that I mentioned above and many times it is a labor of love. As long as the author is alive and interested in the hobby, you may enjoy using their product. If, however, they lose interest (like Simon), or (God forbid), pass away, then you will be looking for a replacement.

Rick, for all of his foibles, stepped up and did the ham radio community a favor. He purchased a dead, neglected but popular program from Simon and brought it back to life. Had Rick not done this, we wouldn't be having this discussion now because HRD would be just another piece of obsolete software on the junk table at a swap meet. I'm not really interested in hearing from those of you who still use the original version of HRD, even though you may be happy with it. You are running a system that is on borrowed time and even though at your age it may not matter, it does matter to those of us who continue to ride on the forward edge of technology. The original "free" version of HRD was frozen a decade ago, which makes it officially antique in the software world.

So, before we grumble and gripe about paying for HRD, stop for a second to realize just how much you're getting for your money. For $100 you're getting the combined efforts of dozens of highly talent people and access to a span of work that took decades to develop. You're getting a team of people, not just one guy, all of whom are committed to making the product a success.

It's time that we all started valuing software, just like we value knobs, buttons, and fancy screens because without it, knobs and buttons are good only for jewelry. If you are an HRD user, you're already in the digital age and as such, you need to realize that there is no equivalent to antique radio hardware. Sure, you can dust off a 50 year old Collins radio and put it right on the air, immediately. This will NEVER happen with software. In 50 years, the "Free" version of HRD will look like a spark gap transmitter does today. You simply won't want to use it, even if you could.

 

Thank you for your comments. We will close the discussion now.