FCDEV3B update

[Mychaela Falconia]

Hello again everyone,

Another update on the upcoming FreeCalypso baby:

* The reballing of the flash+pSRAM BGA ICs got done sooner than
  expected, and I have received the reballed parts earlier today.  We
  now have ALL of the parts needed for the board assembly, and we are
  now waiting for the PCBs.

* On the PCB front, the latest communication I have from pcbcart is
  the email they sent me on Feb 21, which said that the PCBs are
  "scheduled" to ship on March 13.  If they are going to be shipped
  from China on the 13th, hopefully I'll get them by March 17-20 or so.

* FreeCalypso just received a donation of $700 USD outside of the
  GoFundMe campaign; this money will cover the expected cost for the
  assembly of the first 8 boards, thus as soon as the PCBs arrive from
  China, I will immediately reach out to Technotronix and ask them to
  start the assembly at their soonest availability.

In parallel with the wait for this very overdue baby, I am also making
preparations for RF calibration - it's a step which we will absolutely
need to perform on all FreeCalypso hardware products (regardless of
whether the product is a dumbphone or a modem module or any other
variation) in order to not be inferior in comparison to the historical
commercial Calypso phone/modem products.

The standard test equipment for performing RF calibration on Calypso
phones and modems has always been R&S CMU200, and I am in the process
of trying to buy one - using my own personal funds this time, not from
the FCDEV3B crowdfunding.  I grabbed a unit on ebay for $895 USD, but
then discovered that contrary to usual ebay customs, this seller was
not set up to accept Paypal.  It appears that he wanted payment in
some other convoluted way, but I couldn't figure it out, so I just
sent him a paper check by snail mail instead.  The check went out with
the snails on Monday, March 6; if I don't hear from the seller in
another few days, I'll need to bug him to see if he received my check.

So this is where things stand currently.

Hasta la Victoria, Siempre,
Mychaela aka The Mother