HPSDR Hermes

100W Version

2012-03-14T10:49:00.000-07:00

Have not been able to give much time to the hobby lately, the 100W version has also been assembled, tested and housed in the production extrusion, thought I should at least put a couple of pictures online......

ANAN-100

2012-02-16T06:10:00.001-08:00

Hello Folks,

Have been away for a while, but things have been happening in the background :)

Update 24th Feb 2012: Have received the front and back plate engineering samples (unfinished)...

I have christened the radio "ANAN-100" (short for my daughter's name), this includes an extruded housing 62mm(H) x 135mm(W) x 160mm(D) designed from scratch, Hermes and a 15W PA/LPF board.

As you can see the extruded housing still need the front and back panel which are in design and I should have a complete radio to show in the next few days!

Initial tests with 100% duty cycle 15W is no problem and the radio is FCC compliant on all bands 160M through 6M.

Receiver performance is contest grade to say the least.

Stay tuned.......

100W Amplifier Update

2011-11-28T09:13:00.000-08:00

I have the amp running well, the power output is as follows:

Band        Saturated MAX Output PEP with -30dB or better IMD

160M    150W    108W
80M                160W                                108W
60M                160W                                110W
40M    160W    106W
30M                160W                                106W
20M                160W                                104W
18M                150W                                102W
15M                150W                                102W
12M                150W                                102W
10M                150W                                100W
6M                  150W                                100W

The PCB needs some final edits before I would like to release the design :)

Abhi

100w Amplifier for Hermes

2011-11-12T06:37:00.000-08:00

OpenHPSDR is build on a modular concept of building blocks, this allows for flexibility and the end user can spread his/her investment over a period of time by buying the various modules separately or buy the modules of interest only. This approach is wonderful for an experimenter but may also have a steeper learning curve.

Hermes on the other hand is a single board transceiver which is designed to be easier to use, the only missing link was a 100W amplifier with a good housing to make it a plug and play SDR (well almost).

This PA and LPF is designed on a 160mm x 220mm 4 layer PCB which slides into the pictured extrusion, this can be manufactured in quantity and is MIL spec. I have used two RD100HHF1s in push pull for the finals driven by two RD15s.

Hermes would be mounted on a sliding bottom plate to make this into a complete 100W 160m-6m transceiver.

Hammond chassis

2011-10-06T14:45:00.000-07:00

Here's another option for Hermes, still have to make cutouts for the Accessory port, speakers, 10Mhz, however, everything fits in perfectly!

2011-10-06T03:44:00.001-07:00

Will always "stay hungry, stay foolish"

Adios amigos!

Hermes gets a Home!!

2011-09-28T07:24:00.000-07:00

I've designed a prototype housing for hermes and the 15W PA combo, this setup is now fully functional, there would be further refinements before we think of putting this in production,

The front panel has an ON/OFF switch, Ethernet Port, CW Key, Headphone and Mic.
The Back Panel has the Three Antenna BNCs, 10Mhz in SMA connector, Accessory port, speaker switch, Power in (incorrectly cut the panel so i'm using a power cable directly soldered to the PA board) and the FAN air intake slots.

2011-09-06T21:36:00.000-07:00

15W Amplifier and LPF companion board for Hermes

This Board uses similar logic circuitry as the HPSDR Alex to control the Rx/Tx. switching, LPFs, 3 Antennas, the LPF, SWR bridge are different although 100% compatible with all HPSDR hardware.

The amplifier consists of an RD06 driver and a push pull RD15 final which gives out 15W minimum from 160M through 6M, spurious and harmonics are below -40dB on all bands.

This could be another companion board option along with Kjell's Apollo for those who don't want a build in tuner.

Thanks to Phil (VK6APH) for writing the code to support the LPFs.

Hermes Production PCB assembled and tested

2011-08-28T01:03:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update, I have tested the production PCB and have been able to replicate the performance of the beta version, all functions work OK.

Regards,

Abhi

Hermes Production PCB (Hopefully!!)

2011-08-04T11:09:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

Received the Hermes Production PCBs today from the fabricator, these have all the minor corrections and edits required.

If all goes well we will soon have Hermes available for sale at TAPR.....

Abhi

HPSDR Hermes Spur and Noise Level Tests

2011-07-31T10:29:00.000-07:00

Hello Folks,

This video gives you an idea of the basic Hermes receiver performance indicators, i'm using the W5WC flavour of PowerSDR (TM) with the following settings:

Mode: CWU, Filter: 500Hz, Preamp: OFF, Random: ON, Dither: ON.

The receiver input is connected to a 50 ohm dummy load, there are a total of 6 spurs that I can see from 160M through 6M, noise levels are almost constant from 160M through 6M.

If you have an HPSDR Mercury, Flex (TM) or any other SDR you can compare this with your setup (uploading test figures to the blog would be much appreciated!), i'll run some extensive tests on the Rx and Tx over the next few days and document it for you.

regards,

Abhi

P.S. The spur at 50Mhz is the second harmonic of the 25Mhz PHY Clock.

UPDATE: I wanted to add that the noise floor is not calibrated, with a 50 ohm dummy load the calibrated noise floor would be lower.

Hermes is Alive!!!!

2011-07-28T00:38:00.000-07:00

I finished the PCB design and assembly on the Hermes Ethernet prototype a few weeks ago but due to work I had no time for the first blog post till now, i guess it’s better late than never.

The design team includes:

Kevin Wheatley M0KHZ who conceived the Hermes and is the Project Lead

Abhi Arunoday PCB layout & schematics

Phil Harman - VK6APH - Software & hardware development

Bill Tracey - KD5TFD - Component sourcing and kitting

Lyle Johnson - KK7P - hardware development

Scotty Cowling - WA2DFI – Parts procurement

Graham - KE9H - Hermes PA

Apollo, a companion 20W PA, LPF and ATU and the Hermes SMPS was conceived by Kjell Karlsen – LA2NI

I must mention that Phil did a wonderful job on the verilog code, initially I had some grief due to a faulty chip but once I replaced it the original code works flawlessly! (this code was written by Phil even before the PCB was ready).

The board is 8 layers and with 3 clocks at 1.5v PP, multiple frequencies being generated by the FPGA, high signal speeds on the PHY and the extremely sensitive Rx front end make the routing, placement and the ground plane system extremely critical.

Initial tests look very good; there are 6 spurs within the HAM bands from 160M through 6M, most will fall below the noise floor with the antenna connected. Noise floor is within 2dB across all bands and sensitivity measures at about -136dB on 20M with preamplifier ON.
Transmitter tests look promising too......all harmonics and spurious outputs are well below 45dB.

Have a look at the short youtube video below:

Hermes Video

More to follow :)