SDR

Hans discusses some of the short-comings of software defined radio like disappointing receivers, weird sounds, and a... DUDE you can totally build a radio on a $20 USB stick! Wait. Sorry about that. What was I saying? Oh yeah, SDR has some problems.

And that is why SDR will continue to improve... we are like three years old that can't help but change our focus when something shiny and new appears. As he concludes in the article and the comments, there are some problems with SDR. It isn't a silver bullet, but we've only scratched the surface in both the ham and other communities.