I have been thinking alot about SDR lately and it seems to be the future. Why hook yourself in to a locked frequency range for products when there is all kinds of spectrum out there. Also it is the only cost effective way in my opinion for the hobbyist and small time consultant to debug radio applications.
I would love to start producing a few cheap SDRs that work at least in all the ISM bands and can be had as much for a zigbee, of course a dongle or hackRF would be more sufficent for debugging most things but a cheap small tun-able radio to slap on any project may just be what the IoT boom needs, why keep cluttering the 2.4ghz band whan you can use 315mhz or any other ISM band?
Im currently working on SDR equipment in my free time trying to use low cost solutions and compatibility with things like SDR sharp and GNU Radio.
Im also into low voltage/resistance/amp test gear that that uses 16-24 but dacks with hi accuracy voltage references, for the DIY workbench. It kind of sucks I am unable to afford a decent scope right now I use a PropScope PC scope which is pretty limited to 1mhz it was a great start but not having a good scope makes projects like these so hard. I have 5 digit meters etc but there is no substitue for a good scope with a good 5 or 1mv per division setting! I keep my eyes peeled for used DSO's and apply for roadtest all the time so hopefully I will end up with a scope soon!
Im about to just go for it and buy a Rigol 1054z, but every time I do life and children get in the way.
Moral of the story get a good DSO if you want to do any serious projects, you can have an awesome logic analyzer but in the real world everything is analog, my salee will never tell me when a square wave is overshooting or see the low voltage output of a cml ouput TCXO. Scopes are a must for any serious hobbyist or person dipping there toes in to consultation!