However, I can't get past two items before I commit my first patches. 1) I'm not able to run tox. The output on freshly downloaded from repository Chirp code is: F:\Programming\CHiRP\chirp.hg\chirp>tox

You should be running this from the directory above (chirp.hg not chirp.hg/chirp).

2) When trying to create a Windows executable using "run ./build/make_Win32_build.sh", it fails: this script is not present.

I removed this script a while ago as it was no longer useful or correct. You don't need to run it before or in order to submit your patch. If it says (or implies) so somewhere, let me know and I'll fix it.

F:\Programming\CHiRP\chirp.hg>tox
GLOB sdist-make: F:\Programming\CHiRP\chirp.hg\setup.py
unit inst-nodeps: F:\Programming\CHiRP\chirp.hg\.tox\.tmp\package\1\UNKNOWN-0.0.0.zip
ERROR: invocation failed (exit code 1), logfile: F:\Programming\CHiRP\chirp.hg\.tox\unit\log\unit-8.log
================================== log start ==================================
DEPRECATION: Python 2.7 will reach the end of its life on January 1st, 2020. Please upgrade your Python as Python 2.7 won't be maintained after that date. A future version of pip will drop support for Python 2.7. More details about Python 2 support in pip, can be found at https://pip.pypa.io/en/latest/development/release-process/#python-2-support
Processing f:\programming\chirp\chirp.hg\.tox\.tmp\package\1\unknown-0.0.0.zip
    ERROR: Command errored out with exit status 1:
     command: 'F:\Programming\CHiRP\chirp.hg\.tox\unit\Scripts\python.EXE' -c 'import sys, setuptools, tokenize; sys.argv[0] = '"'"'c:\\users\\dl4mhk\\appdata\\local\\temp\\pip-req-build-1zunen\\setup.py'"'"'; __file__='"'"'c:\\users\\dl4mhk\\appdata\\local\\temp\\pip-req-build-1zunen\\setup.py'"'"';f=getattr(tokenize, '"'"'open'"'"', open)(__file__);code=f.read().replace('"'"'\r\n'"'"', '"'"'\n'"'"');f.close();exec(compile(code, __file__, '"'"'exec'"'"'))' egg_info --egg-base 'c:\users\dl4mhk\appdata\local\temp\pip-req-build-1zunen\pip-egg-info'
         cwd: c:\users\dl4mhk\appdata\local\temp\pip-req-build-1zunen\
    Complete output (5 lines):
    Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
      File "c:\users\dl4mhk\appdata\local\temp\pip-req-build-1zunen\setup.py", line 5, in <module>
        from chirp import CHIRP_VERSION
    ImportError: No module named chirp
    ----------------------------------------
ERROR: Command errored out with exit status 1: python setup.py egg_info Check the logs for full command output.

=================================== log end ===================================
driver inst-nodeps: F:\Programming\CHiRP\chirp.hg\.tox\.tmp\package\1\UNKNOWN-0.0.0.zip
ERROR: invocation failed (exit code 1), logfile: F:\Programming\CHiRP\chirp.hg\.tox\driver\log\driver-8.log
================================== log start ==================================
DEPRECATION: Python 2.7 will reach the end of its life on January 1st, 2020. Please upgrade your Python as Python 2.7 won't be maintained after that date. A future version of pip will drop support for Python 2.7. More details about Python 2 support in pip, can be found at https://pip.pypa.io/en/latest/development/release-process/#python-2-support
Processing f:\programming\chirp\chirp.hg\.tox\.tmp\package\1\unknown-0.0.0.zip
    ERROR: Command errored out with exit status 1:
     command: 'F:\Programming\CHiRP\chirp.hg\.tox\driver\Scripts\python.EXE' -c 'import sys, setuptools, tokenize; sys.argv[0] = '"'"'c:\\users\\dl4mhk\\appdata\\local\\temp\\pip-req-build-h1dlry\\setup.py'"'"'; __file__='"'"'c:\\users\\dl4mhk\\appdata\\local\\temp\\pip-req-build-h1dlry\\setup.py'"'"';f=getattr(tokenize, '"'"'open'"'"', open)(__file__);code=f.read().replace('"'"'\r\n'"'"', '"'"'\n'"'"');f.close();exec(compile(code, __file__, '"'"'exec'"'"'))' egg_info --egg-base 'c:\users\dl4mhk\appdata\local\temp\pip-req-build-h1dlry\pip-egg-info'
         cwd: c:\users\dl4mhk\appdata\local\temp\pip-req-build-h1dlry\
    Complete output (5 lines):
    Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
      File "c:\users\dl4mhk\appdata\local\temp\pip-req-build-h1dlry\setup.py", line 5, in <module>
        from chirp import CHIRP_VERSION
    ImportError: No module named chirp
    ----------------------------------------
ERROR: Command errored out with exit status 1: python setup.py egg_info Check the logs for full command output.

=================================== log end ===================================
style inst-nodeps: F:\Programming\CHiRP\chirp.hg\.tox\.tmp\package\1\UNKNOWN-0.0.0.zip
ERROR: invocation failed (exit code 1), logfile: F:\Programming\CHiRP\chirp.hg\.tox\style\log\style-8.log
================================== log start ==================================
DEPRECATION: Python 2.7 will reach the end of its life on January 1st, 2020. Please upgrade your Python as Python 2.7 won't be maintained after that date. A future version of pip will drop support for Python 2.7. More details about Python 2 support in pip, can be found at https://pip.pypa.io/en/latest/development/release-process/#python-2-support
Processing f:\programming\chirp\chirp.hg\.tox\.tmp\package\1\unknown-0.0.0.zip
    ERROR: Command errored out with exit status 1:
     command: 'F:\Programming\CHiRP\chirp.hg\.tox\style\Scripts\python.EXE' -c 'import sys, setuptools, tokenize; sys.argv[0] = '"'"'c:\\users\\dl4mhk\\appdata\\local\\temp\\pip-req-build-h5eqfu\\setup.py'"'"'; __file__='"'"'c:\\users\\dl4mhk\\appdata\\local\\temp\\pip-req-build-h5eqfu\\setup.py'"'"';f=getattr(tokenize, '"'"'open'"'"', open)(__file__);code=f.read().replace('"'"'\r\n'"'"', '"'"'\n'"'"');f.close();exec(compile(code, __file__, '"'"'exec'"'"'))' egg_info --egg-base 'c:\users\dl4mhk\appdata\local\temp\pip-req-build-h5eqfu\pip-egg-info'
         cwd: c:\users\dl4mhk\appdata\local\temp\pip-req-build-h5eqfu\
    Complete output (5 lines):
    Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
      File "c:\users\dl4mhk\appdata\local\temp\pip-req-build-h5eqfu\setup.py", line 5, in <module>
        from chirp import CHIRP_VERSION
    ImportError: No module named chirp
    ----------------------------------------
ERROR: Command errored out with exit status 1: python setup.py egg_info Check the logs for full command output.

=================================== log end ===================================
___________________________________ summary ___________________________________
ERROR:   unit: InvocationError for command 'F:\Programming\CHiRP\chirp.hg\.tox\unit\Scripts\python.EXE' -m pip install --no-deps -U '.tox\.tmp\package\1\UNKNOWN-0.0.0.zip' (exited with code 1)
ERROR:   driver: InvocationError for command 'F:\Programming\CHiRP\chirp.hg\.tox\driver\Scripts\python.EXE' -m pip install --no-deps -U '.tox\.tmp\package\1\UNKNOWN-0.0.0.zip' (exited with code 1)
ERROR:   style: InvocationError for command 'F:\Programming\CHiRP\chirp.hg\.tox\style\Scripts\python.EXE' -m pip install --no-deps -U '.tox\.tmp\package\1\UNKNOWN-0.0.0.zip' (exited with code 1)

F:\Programming\CHiRP\chirp.hg>