Rules For Loaning A Radio¶

People often choose to loan a radio to a CHIRP developer for the purposes of adding support for that model to the software. This process has (to date) always gone smoothly, but the following agreement must be made between the developer and the owner to assure that a good faith effort does not turn into a fight.

The rules:

• The owner must ship the radio and all accessories required to operate and clone it to the developer via an insured courier.
• The box and packing materials should be re-useable for the return shipment (please no boxes that you must destroy with a pull-tab to open).
• The owner must provide a tracking number to the developer, as well as an inventory of items enclosed.
• The owner must open an issue on this site first and must write the number on the outside of the box, as well as on the packing slip inside.
• The developer will, upon receipt, inspect the radio for for basic operational status. If it appears non-functional, it will be shipped back to the owner immediately. Since the owner purported to ship a working radio via an insured courier, the damage must incidental to the shipping process and thus becomes an issue between the owner and the courier.
• The developer will, upon completion, return ship the contents in the same box to the owner via an insured courier, providing a tracking number to the owner. The expense of the return shipping will be incurred by the owner, unless otherwise arranged before the transaction begins.
• To date, no radios have been harmed or "bricked" in the course of adding support for them to CHIRP. However, the developer is not responsible for damage to the radio, its firmware, or programming as a result of reverse-engineering its protocols and memory format.
• The original contents (programming) of the radio are usually restored before returning the device to the owner, but the nature of the process means that this is not always possible.
• While there has not yet been a radio model that could not be added to CHIRP , it's entirely possible that there could be something preventing compatibility and thus support in CHIRP is not a guarantee of this agreement. Update: Commercial radios that do not base their memory layout on channel numbers do not work well with CHIRP's interface.

All of the above is in place to say that the maximum liability of the developer in this relationship is the nominal cost of return-shipping the radio back to the owner. The act of sending your radio to a developer implies your consent with everything on this page.

Please DO NOT send the following:¶

• Power cables if your radio uses standard "T" or Anderson PowerPole connectors
• Microphones unless they are required to operate the radio
• The manual, if it is available online

Please DO send the following:¶

• Software that is not freely available online (a copy will not be maintained and your license will not be violated)
• Programming cable (and drivers, if they are not freely available on the internet)