From the good folks at Sierra Radio (our sponsor):

Want to learn to design and program with microcontrollers?

Want to add “smarts” to your next ham radio project?

Whether you are new to microcontrollers or an experienced designer / programmer, the HamStack is a great platform for your next project. Based on the Microchip PIC architecture, the HamStack can be programmed in C or Basic.

Many people ask us how to choose the best hardware and software tools for developing ham radio projects with microcontrollers.
Up to now, there really has not been a great answer to that question.

So, in traditional ham radio fashion, we put a system together. We call it a HamStack.

The HamStack platform combines popular PIC microcontrollers, a set of circuit boards, great C and Basic language compilers, in-circuit programmers and a set of easy to follow instructions and design examples that are useful for the ham radio operator.

For more info:

http://www.hamstack.com/hamstack.html