Sunnyvale Ham Radio Outlet Closes

Sunnyvale Ham Radio Outlet has signed off after 26 years as a hub for Silicon Valley’s amateur radio community 

Due in part to rising rent in the city, the outlet at 510 Lawrence Expressway chose to close its doors and merge operations with its Oakland location, according to shop employees.

“Some of the costs associated with operating in the Sunnyvale location have absolutely skyrocketed, and the traffic and parking availability in our current Sunnyvale location has become seriously problematic.”

— Steve Gimore National Sales Manager, Ham Radio Outlet

Steve Gilmore, national sales manager for Ham Radio Outlet, stated on the store website that changes needed to be made to its Northern California locations.

The store inventory will be packed up and sent to Oakland. Employees have been offered jobs there, but Kelly said none have accepted an offer yet.

“This is depressing. It’s like the end of an era. It’s like your best friend moving away,” Gregg Lane said.

Media Story - http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/03/24/sunnyvale-ham-radio-outlet-closes-after-26-years/

uBITX Ham Radio Transceiver

Ashhar Farhan VU2ESE has published the design of the uBITX 10 watt SSB HF transceiver covering the 3.5-30 MHz amateur radio bands 

The uBITX is based on an Arduino controller and one Si5351 for all the local oscillators. The Double conversion, superhet architecture transceiver can be built for less than $50 and a modest stocked junk box.

Article and Video - http://www.phonestack.com/farhan/ubitx/ubitx.html

Motorola Sues Hytera

Motorola have submitted a complaint to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois against Hytera Communications Corporation Limited claiming that Hytera’s two-way radios, base stations, repeaters and dispatch systems, as well as its related commercialization and sales activities, are infringing patents owned by Motorola Solutions and utilizing stolen Motorola Solutions trade secrets.

Motorola Solutions believes that Hytera is intentionally infringing its intellectual property and misappropriating its trade secrets, which has enabled Hytera to compete unfairly by bypassing investment in innovation.

Recently, three Motorola engineers resigned from the company and joined Hytera. It is claimed that the ex-employees had key roles in developing products for their new employer that infringed intellectual property using in excess of 7,000 highly confidential files covering all aspects of the Motorola business.

Motorola Press Release - https://newsroom.motorolasolutions.com/news/motorola-solutions-files-patent-infringement-and-trade-secret-misappropriation-complaints-against-hytera-communications.htm