As Einstein said, it is all relative.

Most of the quantum mechanics theory can be accomplished much more simply..

I have proposed a much simpler solution in my book "Reverse Engineering The Universe."

Nowadays I feel like you need a degree in quantum mechanics to understand quantum computing and nanotechnology.

We were doing that back in the mid 1980's, but them we spent about 120 million USD to do it.

This whole thing where processors are fast enough to digitally process analog RF frequency signals still boggles my mind.

I have a similar thing with some microcontrollers - they appear bricked so I replace them, only to discover the problem was something else. I don't replace the new working part, because that just incurs a risk of breaking something, with no up side. The used part becomes an orphan that for some reason I am reluctant to re-use.

Yes, they should go through rigorous testing before you try to reuse them.

I just became aware of your reply only because there was a post to your post. I didn't receive anything else.

I suspect there are a few known good tubes deployed in this website or at least it appears.

The company I was working for,  got very anal on rising tube cost so a new process called known good was implemented. If you replaced a tube but it didn't solve the problem you recorded known good and returned the tube to spares. Putting it back in the equipment took times that was considered wasted.

I despised using known good spares.

Agree, SDR is like James Bond movie. 

Yes, I was the same in Tech School.

We did everything with tubes as transistor's and IC's were just beginning to become useable.

When I worked on the CNI project, I got to explore the DSP algorithms they were using and quickly saw where the technology was going.

The SDR made perfect sense to me we I saw it as just the evolution of what I had seen in the 1980's.

I started my electronics career in tube HF_VHF_UHF equipment and AM/FM & SSB radio frequency theory. SDR leaves me in awe.