All,
After Mark and I made posts on the fantastic Inovato Quadra HamClock I had an email exchange with the principle, Michael Burmeister-Brown (Mike Brown (N7MDB)) who is, or was, an Extra. I say is, or was, because in December he told me he had incurable pancreatic cancer and he was going to have to close Inovato down. I find mixed information on whether he is still alive or not, but for a fact he has pulled the plug on Inovato (link).
Brown was a sharp cat. He founded Central Point Software in 1980 in Central Point, Oregon, for which the company was named. Building on the success of its Copy II PC backup utility, it moved to Beaverton, Oregon. There were a series of mergers and CPS was acquired by Symantec in 1994, for around $60 million. I well remember the Copy II PC product and their follow-on product PC Tools. Brown basically made it possible for us to make copies of our software diskettes, which we had bought and paid for, but which had copyright encryption on them trying to keep us from being able to copy them. So, a brilliant computer guy, an Amateur Extra and the innovator of the Inovato Quadra HamClock. Here is a really cool picture of his minimalist ham shack.
Here are some relevant links about him: Facebook posting announcing his health issues (link), Wikipedia page about Central Point Software (link), the Inovato page where he basically signed off (link) and his QRZ page (link).
I was in touch with him in December because my unit had bricked and I was having trouble getting it to reflash. He was a most kind individual and so when I learned of his illness I did a little bit of digging to see what was going to happen to the product. In his final post on the company site he said “I release all support content and the Quadra Restore Image to the community.” Enter Udo Koch (N0LSR). From Udo’s site “…the classic HamCLock system…” was “…[d]eveloped and operated by Elwood Downey (WB0OEW) (QRZ link). With the passing of Elwood on January 29th, 2026, the future of HamClock was in jeopardy.” So, now (or very soon) we will be minus two of the primary people that brought us the economical HamClock via Raspberry Pi product.
Udo too is an interesting cat. Originally from Germany, he’s also a long-time Amateur Extra, He moved to the US and now works for his German employer in Buffalo Grove, IL. He’s a big fan of Michael Burmeister-Brown (Mike Brown (N7MDB)) and his Inovato Quadra project. Here is a link to his bio on QRZ (link), his bio on his N0LSR website (link) and here is a link to a really, really, thorough explanation for how HamClock will continue to evolve and be supported (link).
Udo continues the legacy of the project and product by offering the follow-on HK1RBOX HamClock. He sells a lot of products and we recently made a buy from him. The link to his online store is here (link). His HamClock looks identical to the Inovato product, with the only difference being the label. He also sells a tiny little UPS to power the thing. PERFECT! Now power blips won’t brick our HamClock because it is powered by the power-pack/UPS and that is in turn being charged 24/7.
I urge you to buy yourself a HK1RBOX HamClock, one of Udo’s UPS devices and continue to support the project. I am disappointed that we are losing Brown and that the originator of the whole concept passed away in January, but it looks like their efforts live on.
73
Phillip Beall (W5EBC)