I've read that some people use the PIC 16F type micros in RF desgin such at this one.
Seems like you're right IanP. I'm going to look into that one too.
Edit:
Whilest the project is underway, I thought I would add that at the very best I would like to design reverse engineer and also redesign the layout of the boards.
There are 18 such boards in the design which is WAY too many. Most of them would cost $50 to $100 each to build. I was hoping that.. I could build the design on one main board that is 12 x 7" or 8" or 9".. at the most 9-1/2".. if that doesn't happen, 12 x 12 is the max I would allow.
My thoughts is that once this design is accomplished, it could be less modular.. but more Planar. With the possibility of allowing the seperate circuits on 8 or 16 bit cards.. so that a person could remove each board for testing, repair, etc. very easily.
I was speaking with a couple friends of mine who now work as engineers in the AM and FM broadcast industry who helped design the circuits and boards used by
Trio/Kenwood and ICOM and Yeasu during the last 30-35 years. I showed them both the shematics and the etching and layout prints. They said that from what they saw, there are too many errors in the design. Most of them are wrong part #'s, missing parts, etc. Also the documents were too vague. Many of the parts are too expensive, outdated, the wrong types, unavailable, and more.
Keep in mind this is supposed to have been technology available 10-12 years ago. I would hope that in the past 10-12 years things have gotten better.
The second thing they said is that the documents were trying to make the transmitter/transceiver seem as though it is digital and "intelligent", when it is actually an analog device which is trying very hard to be digital.
My other problem is that the VCO and the optical shaft encoder used in the desgin seem to be too archaic.
The last thing that has to be addressed is the finals, the cooling via FAN and Heat Sink, the operator controls, display.
Greg