apache-labs.com

Hello All,

Due to the current silicon shortage there has been severe problems faced by most electronics manufacturers, quite a few Amateur Radio SDR kits such as the Hermes Lite etc have become unavailable, we have received several requests from the community to take up production of the Hermes board and make it available to the community at a lower price point.

Apache Labs, based on these requests has decided to do a single run of the OpenHPSDR Hermes board with a 14bit LTC2208 ADC and an EP3C25 FPGA, we will provide the assembled board to the community at our cost price of US$389.00 plus shipping.

Please note that this will be a limited run of 250 boards and once we have run out of stock we will not be able to produce more at this price point.

Product link:

https://apache-labs.com/al-products/102 ... ested.html

Regards,

Apache Labs Support Team

Very interesting to read about this 14 bit Hermes board! Excellent project to help the community.

Is there a diagram available of the board and in specific the rear panel? I see four SMA connectors for inputs and outputs; what is their function? I assume one of them is EXT1, for the use of Pure Signal.

If there is additional information I would be very interested (not only for myself).

TNX and 73, Hans PA0Q.

Hello Hans,

Details for the Hermes Board are available on the OpenHPSDR web site:

User Guide: https://github.com/TAPR/OpenHPSDR-SVN/b ... _V1.18.pdf

Schematics: http://openhpsdr.org/support/Hermes/Her ... hanges.pdf

Cutout details and other Docs: https://github.com/TAPR/OpenHPSDR-SVN/t ... umentation

Firmware: https://github.com/TAPR/OpenHPSDR-Firmw ... %26%20100B

Please note that as mentioned this board utilizes a 14 bit LTC2208 and an EP3C25 FPGA, else it is identical in functionality to the Original Hermes Board.

Hope this helps,

Regards,

Apache Labs Support

pa1hr wrote:Very interesting to read about this 14 bit Hermes board! Excellent project to help the community.

Is there a diagram available of the board and in specific the rear panel? I see four SMA connectors for inputs and outputs; what is their function? I assume one of them is EXT1, for the use of Pure Signal.

If there is additional information I would be very interested (not only for myself).

TNX and 73, Hans PA0Q.

Thank you very much, you are most helpful!

Good work, everything you do for the community.

73, Hans PA0Q.

Does anyone know if a suitable enclosure is already available for the Hermes.

73

Conrad PA5Y

Any information about the shipment that would happen om March 25, 2022 ?

Ed PY2RN

Any status on the March 25 shipment? Haven't heard anything. Also I sent an email March 15 about how to pay for shipping on the Hermes I paid for in February. No reply to that email.

August KG7BZ

Hello Group,

What else is needed with this board to make a complete Transceiver? The Makerfab one needs a filter/amp board (N2ADR)?

Thank you.

Mike WA3O

Mike,

Welcome to the old days, when Hermes was for hobbyists

What you really want to do is start dredging up the old information from those 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:

There's a real old mailing list reflector where the real old timers hang out, you might find a deal on some of the older stuff there: https://openhpsdr.org/reflector.php

This is obviously the place for everything about the latest firmware and software

Once you have the Hermes and the Apollo board, then you might 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/

73,

Scott

Scott,

I have 2 10E radios. Am I correct in thinking it is an exact replacement for a 10E so it would need at least a filter board. I drive a LDMOS amp with about 1-2 watts and .5 would get me about 600-700 watts and I guess it's Lowpass filter may take care of any harmonics.

Thanks for the info.

Mike WA3O

The14 bit Hermes is the same board that is in your 10E.

IMHO you don't need a preselection (BPF) filter board unless you've got some nearby broadcast or amateur stations. I don't believe there is one in the -10 or -10E.

The Hermes by itself puts out 0.5W. 1 and 2 watt amps are a dime a dozen on eBay. Example: https://www.ebay.com/itm/353127916298

If it took you 3 or 4 eBay amp's to find one with low harmonic outputs it'd still be short money. If you are always going to drive your LDMOS amp I'd not bother with any LPFs at that stage, just have LPFs on the output of the big amp.

You would also want a TX/RX switch and and an RX/PureSignal switch. Seeing as how those are done as cheap relays in the Apache units you could easily do the same. Or you can shop eBay for fully packaged and connectorized RF switches. They always have a ton of those listed.

You could just mount everything inside your LDMOS amp.

To prevent a legendary amount of thread drift, I have moved the Apollo amp discussion to this topic: https://apache-labs.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=4157

I ordered in February, STILL haven't heard anything. Is there a hoped for ship date? I have received NO reply to my emails. How long are you going to hold on to my money without answering?

August KG7BZ

The website was updated last week - the updated message shows:

UPDATE- 15/06/22 All shortage components have been shipped by supplier, we expect to complete production in 2-3 weeks.

This is a special group order based on community demand, boards are being manufactured and sold at cost, Apache Labs will be

producing a limited batch of 250 nos only. (234 units sold as on 15/06/2022, 16 units available as of 15/06/2022)

It is very nice to see the updated shipping information. I tried to order a 10W PA in order to supplement my earlier order from February but unfortunately the checkout then insisted that I buy another Hermes for a total price of $588,00. I could not find a way of ordering the PA as an upgrade to my final order. Furthermore I could not delete this order from the checkout.

I have sent several emails to Apache with no reply. I really do wish that Apache labs would dramatically improve basic customer service. Hopefully someone will read this and respond to my emails.

Regards

Conrad PA5Y

Since yesterday an additional item for the PA only has appeared. I managed to order one, furthermore I was able to remove the previous order so things appear as expected.

Regards

Conrad PA5Y

Hi

I am Interested in Hermes Card,
Is there still available ?
How to order it ?
How much is Shiping Cost to Indonesia ?

73


Harya
de YC1 SEI

administrator wrote:Hello All,

Due to the current silicon shortage there has been severe problems faced by most electronics manufacturers, quite a few Amateur Radio SDR kits such as the Hermes Lite etc have become unavailable, we have received several requests from the community to take up production of the Hermes board and make it available to the community at a lower price point.

Apache Labs, based on these requests has decided to do a single run of the OpenHPSDR Hermes board with a 14bit LTC2208 ADC and an EP3C25 FPGA, we will provide the assembled board to the community at our cost price of US$389.00 plus shipping.

Please note that this will be a limited run of 250 boards and once we have run out of stock we will not be able to produce more at this price point.

Product link:

https://apache-labs.com/al-products/102 ... ested.html

Regards,

Apache Labs Support Team

Hello,

Just checking in!
I had ordered a 14 bit Special Production Hermes card and I personally have not heard back from anyone.
My PayPal was charged. Has anyone received their 14 bit Hemes Card as of yet?

Thank you,
Ken
WB4AM

Hello Ken,

The component kit for the Hermes card has been provided to the Contract Manufacturer and is in queue for production, we expect them to take up Hermes in the next 2-3 weeks,

The 10W PA production is complete and for those who have ordered one these will ship with the Hermes boards.

Thank you to you and everybody else waiting on the Hermes for your patience, it is much appreciated.

Regards,

Tony

Hello Tony and thank you for your reply back, you are appreciated.

I don't know if you are able to answer, but I have also ordered the 10 watt Pa board.

However when doing so, I had received an error during the process, but I did receive
a receipt from Apache Labs and also from PayPal stating that I was charged/Paid in full.

My actual question is how does one actually know if someone from Apache Labs had actually gotten
the order to start the process, not just for myself but for anyone else who might be having the
same error issue?

Again, Thank you Tony for your reply.

73
Ken

administrator wrote:Hello Ken,

The component kit for the Hermes card has been provided to the Contract Manufacturer and is in queue for production, we expect them to take up Hermes in the next 2-3 weeks,

The 10W PA production is complete and for those who have ordered one these will ship with the Hermes boards.

Thank you to you and everybody else waiting on the Hermes for your patience, it is much appreciated.

Regards,

Tony

Hello Tony, 2-3 weeks was mentioned on June 15th on your website. This was 6 weeks ago. My problem is not the delay - everyone in the electronics industry is affected. My problem is the communications AND the lack of response to emails. I had all kinds of problems with the ordering process including an incorrect address. I asked you to correct the address and confirm that it had been corrected and have heard nothing. I also tried to order a PA board and the system attempted to charge me for another Hermes and A PA board. I did not complete the order but I cannot remove it from my profile. I emailed about this again no response.

A few days later the ordering process was updated and I was able to order a PA board - this has the correct address.

• Hermes PCB ordered 17th February - delivery address on the order is INCORRECT - no response to emails
• Attempted to order PA Board 29th June but the system insisted that I order both another Hermes as well as the PA PCB - cannot remove order
• Successfully ordered a PA board 1st July when the ordering system was updated - this has the correct address

I would really appreciate a response to emails and for the 29th or June order to be removed and most importantly that the address on the first order be corrected.

Many thanks

Conrad PA5Y

Still no response to emails. This is really not good enough. Has anyone tried the landline number, does that work?

Regards

Conrad PA5Y

Thank you to Abhi for contacting me using his private email. All issues are now resolved. It appears that the Apache email server emails were not reaching me for some reason. The ones reminding me to complete the order that I could not cancel were arriving with regularity, throughout the whole of July so this is odd.

Anyway all is now OK.

Regards

Conrad PA5Y

The website product page for the Hermes board (https://apache-labs.com/al-products/1022/Open-HPSDR-Hermes-14-bit-ADC-EP3C25-Transceiver-Card-Assembled--Tested.html) was just updated again - it now says:

* New Orders have a 8 week lead time

This is a special group order based on community demand, boards are being manufactured and sold at cost.

Please note - Shipping will be charged at actuals.

Indeed it does state new orders will have an 8 week lead time. Which begs the question what is the status of old orders? I ordered mine in February. Could Apache be so kind as to indicate when decidedly not new orders will be shipped?

Regards

Conrad Farlow PA5Y

I too ordered a Hermes in February and a PA in June. Have heard nothing about shipping my units.

August Johnson KG7BZ

OK, got a reply to my email:

Dear August,
Thank you for your email,
We expect to start shipping Hermes in 3 weeks, we will be in touch as soon as your order is ready to ship, we will combine both orders together for shipment.
Lead time for new orders is 8 weeks.
Regards,
Tony
Apache Labs Support

I have almost reached my tolerance level for this now. Very poor communication and repeated broken promises. I would not be so annoyed if Apache had been more honest and open. Meanwhile I bought an FDM-Duo which will do the same job.

I will give it one more month and then cancel my order and obtain a refund from PayPal. This is really poor. I had considered a ANAN-7000DLE but given this experience I have removed the 7000DLE from my wanted list. Its a shame but I have had enough.

Regards

Conrad

Hello,

i've booked a Hermes card on 28 of June. Order Number: AC-3660.

since i did not receive information on delivery time.

your product are goods but there is a lack of communication, please communicate!! it's strongly recommended.

what is the status?

best regards

On February 24, 2022, I ordered and paid for one of the Hermes HPSDR boards Apache Labs was going to produce in a limited run. I paid US$389 for a board that was supposed to be sent "in a few weeks".

Time went by and, like everyone else, Apache Labs was having difficulty obtaining chips and other components necessary to produce the boards - fair enough. They informed those of us who purchased the boards that they wouldn't ship until late May or June.

June came and went and no boards were shipped. Still, understandable BUT, and here is the big problem, NO communications from Apache Labs. Nothing. Zilch.

On July 16, 2022 I wrote to Apache Labs enquiring on the status of my order. I did NOT receive any response.

On August 13, 2022 I again wrote to Apache Labs and referenced my earlier email regarding the status of my order and I informed them that if they are unable to produce the board, then I want my money back. This time, I received an email back from "Tony" in Customer Support on August 14th, 2022 as follows:

"Apologies but we seem to have not received your earlier email,
Your order is expected to ship in 3 weeks at most, the Hermes cards are in production now,
Thank you for your patience, it is much appreciated,

Regards,

Tony,

Apache Labs Support"

Well, it is now one month later and still nothing! I have written two more times to Apache Labs, including just now, and have asked for my money back. I simply do NOT trust this company.

It is most unfortunate because a good ham buddy of mine has highly recommended them and I was seriously considering buying a new 7000DLE transceiver from them based on his recommendation but there is no way I will do so now. I'll buy a Flex instead...

Heads up: If you're considering purchasing a new SDR transceiver LOOK ELSEWHERE!

73,
Robert VE7ZN (celebrating 51 years of Ham Radio)