Back in May of 2022 we posted about SOCORAD32 which at the time was pre-announced for future crowd funding. A few days ago Crowd Funding begun and already it's goal has been reached.

The project is described as a "hackable, open source, ESP32 amateur radio board with walkie-talkie functionality and data communication". We note that this is not a software defined radio, rather it's a highly customizable software controlled radio.

The advertising claims that you can communicate between SOCORAD32 devices by voice and text for up to 5km at 2W of power. No commercial or amateur radio license is required to use this radio since it operates in the 400 - 470 MHz license free bands that are available in many countries. Although we note that these bands in many countries may have power restrictions well below 2W, which would restrict range.

In recent updates they note that they have been refining the PCB and now added a battery holder and moved the push to talk button to a new position.

During crowd funding the device is selling for US$80 + $8 US shipping / $18 worldwide shipping.