Chirp Developer

Since about August 2015 I get involved with some free software called Chirp and this is the history of how I became a Chirp developer.

Scratching my own itch.

As a open software guru said: all good software project start when you have to scratch your own itch... or kind of.

A friend of mine gift me a second hand 2m handheld radio: a Feidaxin FD-268A, it's a simple and straight radio, and  I want to get the manual and software from the internet, after some time searching I have both and the software is simple and do the job, but I spotted an opportunity.

Learning Python

I have a own debt to learn python and knowing that there is a software called Chirp that is developed in Python and it's main target is to create a kind of "ring to rule them all" aka. just one software to mange many radios across many vendors and models, I get hands on to learn and followed the developers wiki pages, that was about August to October 2015.

I had the driver working by September and after joining the dev mailing list and pass all the requirement I made my first piece of code accepted in a well known and respected free software project, Yahoo!!!

Then I started to mod the driver to support other radio variants and learn new things about python, mercurial, open source development process (a must see for every newbie), redmine, etc.

Chirp is a free software project and of course it's free to use in any of the major 3 OS (MS Windows, GNU/Linux & MAC) you can get the latest version of it here.

Accepted as a developer.

When I was accepted as a dveloper in the chirp team I started to look some new project radios to port to Chirp of course I started with the radios I had at hand:

• Kenwood TK-760 (also the 762, 768, 860, 862, 868)
• Kenwood TK-760G (also the 762G, 768G, 860G, 862G, 868G)
• Kenwood TK-260 (also the 270, 276, 278, 360, 370, 373, 378)
• Kenwood TK-260G (also the 270G, 276G, 278G)

This radios are commercial surplus here and can be adapted  to ham bands with almost no work, of course they are channelized, not VFO radios.

BTECH radios

In January 2016 I contacted with Jim Unroe (KC9HI, he is one of the more active developers and project page management contributors) about a new driver it was building, it turns to be the driver for the BaofengTech (BTECH) family radios series.

Building a radio Chirp's driver

A note here, building a radio driver has two main inputs:  a developer willing to make that radio driver and a radio itself to test. This is one of the most asked questions in the Chirp's project management web page.

Many users complains that "Chirp" don't give support for his radios, but the reality is that you need to borrow and/or gift a radio to a willing developer to make it happen.

In fact Dan Smith the author and main developer of Chirp has clearly stated to vendors that "We (developer) will work for radios", in fact some kind vendors/dealers work side by side with the Chirp's developers to get it's radios supported even before the radio hits the street and they

I can prove that last statement, BaofengTech is one of those dealers as well as Jetsteam and other, the Chirp project has a special "Honor roll" page for give thanks to those vendors, dealers and particulars how have borrowed or donated his radios for the project.

Ok, how I get into this schema? simple, Jim has a radio and i have the skills.

Reader: But wait, you have stated that the developer need the radio on hand. So why not passing the radio to you in the first place?

It's no so simple, you see I live in Cuba (yes, the Caribbean island) and in Cuba the import/export or radio transceivers is forbidden by law unless you as a ham travels to another country and bring the radios with your luggage and even so you must fill a lot of paper work and pay fees, etc.

It was simpler to split the work in two: I has in charge of the communication part  coding and sending test to Jim to perform (I have to admit that Jim has a great patience bearing all the process with me: Thanks for that Jim)

That way I become the main author of the btech.py driver in Chirp (Jim is in charge of the setting part) that has prover a challenge and a beautiful learning experience.

The clone Attack

Yes my friend, the BTECH UV 2501/2501+220/5001 was not the end of the story, this radios are manufactured in China and then the users start to look and they found a few radio clones out there.

Then the BTECH radios get updates and we have 3 generations so far, they we found the QYT KT8900 then the QYT make a new variant/version of the SAME radio every couple of months...

This is the never ending job, but it's a lot of fun every time.

Working for free?

Yes, I'm working for free, this is free software and it's how it works and that's why it's so popular.

Of course  I do will accept direct donations, in fact all this could not be happening if a few Chirp developers/users and even 3rd party people involved on it hasn't donated some of his money to get me connected.

Yes, connected, I live in Cuba and here the Internet is scarce and expensive (bout USD $2.20 / hour), and you can only have it on Public Parks with WiFi at the amazing speed (to me) of 1Mbit/s (128 Kbytes/s) symmetrically.

If you want to contribute to me in this way, go to Ding and select Cuba, then "Nauta top-up" (that's the name of the service) and then use the "co7wt@nauta.com.cu" user as receipt of your donation. Thank you.

If you like the Chirp project you can donate to it to, the money will be used to keep the site working and to get top demanding radios to port, you can donate to it here.

73 Pavel CO7WT.