There’s a limited new production run of the Hermes SDR board that should be available in the next month or so - it is a low-power (350 to 500 mW output) transceiver design that has been available for a number of years, with reasonably good receiver dynamic range, capable of operating on frequencies up to 55 MHz. Originally planned to be available this week, they have pushed back the availability date by ‘a few weeks(?)’.

It needs a case, power supply, probably some rf filtering and switching accessories, and maybe a small power amplifier and antenna tuner - plus a computer with all the fixin’s and appropriate software to operate it.

I placed an order in a moment of weakness - mainly to have a relatively inexpensive platform for learning about and experimenting with the software packages that all the cool kids are playing with, such as Thetis or maybe PowerSDR, or maybe even to control it with a Raspberry Pi to make it more portable.

https://apache-labs.com/al-products/1022/OpenHPSDR-Hermes-Transceiver-Card-Assembled--Tested.html

Anyone else have one or planning to order one?  If so, any advice or info on your use or plans for it?

I am almost a total novice in this arena - yes, I have played with an RTL/SDR dongle, and I have an RSP1A, but still have much to learn.

Maybe I even first heard about this board somewhere on this forum, but if so, I’m not quite sure where…

I’m considering using it for various HF experiments, maybe for panadapter or spectrum analyzer hookups, and maybe for driving various VHF and UHF transverters that I have, and for everything from cw to ssb to digital modes.

That looks like a ton of fun if you have the time to devote to it. Hopefully you can post updates here.

I have a Hermes lite 2 which is a low-cost open-source board based on the ad9866 from digital modems. It comes with a filter board by N2ADR. I really don't know what I'm doing with respect to SDR's but have had fun playing around with different programs and multiple receivers. I tried running SparkSDR on my raspberry pi 3 and I was able to get it to work but it was verrrry slow even with only one receiver. Try a bunch of programs - you may find that one works better for you.

Interesting to look up the N2ADR board and SparkSDR.

The tiny components used on the filter board are a good reminder of the low TX power levels that it’s designed to handle.

I regret not getting an HL2 when they were available.

@targetworks

I've been an avid user/abuser/modifier of openHPDR hardware/software/firmware going on eight or so years now. I came onto the scene well after the original Hermes hobby-time, bleeding edge SDR days. My first hardware was a used ANAN-100D that I got about the time they came out with the ANAN-200D. I still have the 100D, but my daily driver is an ANAN-8000DLE.

Once you get over the hump of getting your Hermes and putting it into some sort of housing with some sort of low powered amp so you can actually use it, the entire experience is really all about the software. The hardware is truly the least little bit of it. Your Hermes board and whatever amp/RF board you come up with are NOT by themselves a radio, but merely the front and back end of a radio, the part that sits between the antenna and the first (and only) IF interface. The guts of the radio, 90% of it functionally speaking, is in the software.

The best software is called Thetis. It runs on Windows only. This is what you want to run. Anything else quite frankly sucks. You definitely do not want to run piHPSDR or linHPSDR. They are poorly supported, have not been updated in years, and have half the functionality of Thetis.

I know that everyone thinks it would be cool to pair a Pi with a Hermes, and you can do that, but you are screwing yourself. You need a keyboard, mouse and display to run the radio no matter what, so you might as well just use a decent Windows laptop.

What you really want to do is start dredging up the old information from the original Hermes hobbyist days. You can start here: https://openhpsdr.org/wiki/index.php?title=HERMES

Follow all the links you can find. You will want to find someone selling an old Apollo board. Follow the Apollo links. Get on all the relevant forums and lists and see if you can find some old timer who wants to part with one:

Where the real old timers hang out: https://openhpsdr.org/reflector.php
More old timers: https://groups.io/g/apache-labs
The new stuff, everything about the latest firmware and software, and by far the most active place: https://apache-labs.com/community/index.php

Once you have the Hermes and the Apollo board, then you are going to want a Hammond enclosure to put them in, and to create the front and back panels. This was very popular in the old Hermes days. There are many sites where you can find this information, but here's one: http://www.k9ivb.net/hermes/

Once you get that all sorted you'll want to hang out on the Apache Forum to get your software and firmware up to snuff, and to really figure out what you are doing.

Once you get this baby running with Thetis, you will be flabbergasted at how great the receiver is. And Thetis incorporates the best noise reduction available in any radio, an entire professional audio rack worth of audio processing, and, with appropriate mod's to the Apollo board (or equivalent), the ability to run adaptive predistortion linearization on transmit, giving all openHPSDR/Apache users the best sounding and cleanest audio on the air.

One word of warning: regardless of what you see on the Apache website, they are NOT a radio company. All they build and deliver is the hardware. The firmware and software are all open source and created by an eclectic group of volunteers. Apache will preload Protocol 1 firmware (the old stuff) for you, that's it. They won't talk to you or support you unless it has to do with faulty hardware. Other than that you have to look to the user community on the Apache Forum for help.

PM me for more information.

Thanks, that is all extremely helpful.

There's so much to digest, but I'm looking forward to diving in.

The info that you provided will help me to get things sorted - there's so much info that is old and obsolete, but as you mentioned, some of the old info is still good to go.

I have a few longtime ham friends who are active Thetis users, who closely follow the forums and update with every new release and spend hours dissecting the menu settings and helping with identifying and resolving bugs, etc. From quick discussions with them, for example, I take it that 'protocol 2' may be a 'non-starter' with this board, but I don't need to be on the bleeding edge (yet, anyway).

Once I get my hands on the board and get my feet wet I will almost certainly want to send you a PM - thanks for offering your help.

Thetis will run with Protocol 1 with two limitations: 192KHz IF sample rate only, and no stitched receivers. I don't see either as being a major impediment. Assuming you set up your RF board, Apollo or otherwise, to support PureSignal linearization (and you definitely want to do this!!!), you are limited to 192KHz and no stitched receivers under Protocol 1 anyway with PureSignal active. That said, there are some who have been successful in getting Protocol 2 to run on their 14 bit Hermes, so don't give up all hope yet!

eta: unless you live near a big broadcast station, or next door to another ham, where you've got problems with large signals interfering with your reception, don't bother with provisioning a bandpass filter (BPF) board, aka preselector. It's just not worth the hassle. In the process of adding an external preselector to my second ADC channel on the old 100D, I discovered the difference in performance is negligible. Everything on the market that fits in a Hammond box is kind of junky, and they are only third order filters so the stop band performance is lackluster. The Apollo board has LPFs on it for transmit spurious suppression, and you want those, but on the receive end it's not worth the time. If AM broadcast stuff is bothering you, just provision a single AM broadcast band HPF on the RX input of the Hermes.

Luckily (?) I live in a bit of an rf black hole, so there are no local high-power broadcast signals or neighborhood ham signals that I must filter out.

So it's good to know that I likely won't need to worry about adding a receiver BPF board.

The revised ship date shown on the apache labs site is now early May, 2022:



https://apache-labs.com/al-products/1022/OpenHPSDR-Hermes-Transceiver-Card-Assembled--Tested.html

Hate to say it, but don't hold your breath. Apache deliveries have been glacial ever since COVID, and it's hard to believe all of their issues are purely supply line related.

I’ve become accustomed to being disappointed

Web site was updated today with the following (date is in non-US format, so it's May 10, not October 5):



That's not particularly encouraging news, but in the current 'disrupted supply chains' environment it's not unexpected - waiting for the other shoe to drop when they actually get the projected delivery date from their supplier, to which add in expected production, packaging, shipping and other miscellaneous delays.

Note to self: Continue to be patient. Don't be distracted by this, rather pay attention to all of the other items on the to-do list, such as prepping tower and antennas for 6-meter sporadic-E season and for the June VHF contest, work on getting the 6-meter Harris LDMOS amplifier pallets ready to go on the air, attach N connectors to Heliax, prep antenna relays and rotator cable, build the QRP Labs 10-watt amplifier and 6-meter lowpass filter kits, etc. etc. etc.

You could try to find a used ANAN-10 or 10E, or possibly even a used Hermes bare board. Have you posted a "WTB" to any of the usual places: eHam, qrz, Apache Forum, etc?

If you want to deviate a little from the beaten path there is Hermes Lite and Red Pitaya, but IMHO the original 16-bit Hermes design is superior to either of those, and if you can find an Angelia or Orion bare board one of those would be even better.

All useful suggestions - I will give it some more time, but at a certain point I may just try one (or several) of those routes. Trying to keep the cost low right now.

I have considered Red Pitaya, and have spoken with a couple of hams who are using it with Thetis.

Latest website update from a couple days ago (sounds encouraging, but their production date estimates have been 'optimistic' in the past):



So in case anyone may be interested in placing an order, be aware that it appears that they are close to having all of the new production batch spoken for.

I ordered the 10-watt amplifier (even knowing that it may not have the latest updated schematic or parts BOM). I had previously ordered a QRP Labs 10-watt amplifier kit and 6-meter filter, which I will also build and use for my primary intended plan for the Hermes, namely for driving a 6-meter LDMOS amplifier, but I also wanted to leave open the possibility of operating it on other bands, and so a separate amplifier with built-in filters for the HF bands (plus 6m) seems like a reasonable approach, rather than getting a bunch of separate filter boards to add on to the QRP Labs amp.

Latest update from Apache-Labs shows signs of progress, along with a further expected delay of two to three weeks for the contract manufacturer to begin actual production - which means that expected time until shipment and delivery would be beyond that.

I will continue to be patient. In fact, I'm enough of a glutton for punishment that I might even consider ordering a second board, if there are any remaining to be ordered.

I was lucky enough to get in on the (as far as I know) last HL-2 run, about 3 weeks ago.

Put the 3 items in your cart at makerfabs, and check back every now & then. That's how I got mine. I guess someone dropped out, or they found enough to put together a few more than added them to the site.

FWIW Apache labs is taking preorder deposits for the NEW 8000 DLE MKII. 500 watts out of the box! December 22 delivery on the 1st run!