[hpsdr] Hermes Failure, Can anyone help ???

[Bob Segrest]

My Hermes board appears to have failed and I am trying to find someone who
might be able to repair it.

My board was one of the TAPR build and has operated flawlessly for the past
15 months or so.  I also pre-ordered and purchased a ANAN-10
amplifier/enclosure and the board has been operated as a complete unit
during this period.

This past Friday I tried to make a JT9 contact and PowerSDR indicated zero
watts output.  I cycled the power on the rig with no change in symptom.
Listening to the PowerSDR audio I hear a lower frequency popping sound.  If
I vary the receive frequency the tone of the popping sounds seems to vary a
little.  When I plugged a headset into the port on the front of the Hermes
board all I hear is a low frequency rumble.  I took the time to separate the
Hermes board from the ANAN enclosure and amplifier with no change in
symptom.

The digital interface to the Hermes board does seem to be operating
correctly.  It is discoverable by the firmware update utility (in fact I was
able to reload the firmware without any difficulty) and PowerSDR seems to
talk to it without reporting any issues.  I have also tried using different
versions of PowerSDR on different computers.

While I am well aware that Apache-Labs has no warranty obligations for the
Hermes board, I sent them an email clearly identifying that my board was one
of the TAPR build and was politely told " that as the board was not provided
by us so we'll not be able to assist you with the same. However, we advise
you to kindly contact the original manufacturer of the board."  I can
understand their position, but given the legacy of this design and the
nature of the community it was developed in, I found their response very
disappointing.  I wasn't expecting free warranty.  But I wasn't expecting a
polite single finger salute either.

Has anyone else experienced a Hermes board failure?

Can anyone suggest a resource that might be able to fix my board?

I truly love this rig and am really feeling a void in its absence.

Bob Segrest
KO2F