I'm a an operator myself. To be honest: Ham radio - in my opinion - is slowly dying.
At some point there was a split between the ham radio and opensource scene. There are still some connections, but the majority is gone. It's IMHO pretty much a question of mentality ("No license? Underling").
A lot of software/hardware there isn't opensource but badly written shareware and the entire thing seems to be stuck in the past. Have a look at this VARA stuff.. that list endlessy can be continued.
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