Mercury is an HF direct sampling receiver board that a companion to the Pennylane 1/2-watt transmitter/exciter board. The Atlas (bus) compatible Mercury receiver uses direct RF sampling and produces the I and Q data for processing by the PC directly without the need for a sound card.
Mercury does not function as a stand alone card; It requires the Atlas back-plane and either an Ozy or Magister card (for USB interface) or a Metis card (for Ethernet interface) connected to a PC running I/Q data processing software (Such as PowerSDR(TM) or KISS Konsole) to provide a functional receiver.
Mercury Features
100kHz - 55MHz frequency coverage
LTC6400-20 20dB LNA (software switchable)
LTC2208 16-bit ADC sampling at 122.88Msps
Front-end low-pass filter and ADC anti-aliasing filter
SSB, AM, C-AM, FM, CW, PSK etc
Seventeen unbuffered digital I/O from FPGA to header connector
On board audio Codec for line and headphone outputs
Alexiares (RF Preselector) SPI control and power interface
Clocking options:
* On board ultra low phase noise 122.88 MHz crystal oscillator
* Oscillator is phase locked to on board 10MHz TCXO
* External 10MHz reference is available (Excalibur)
* 122.88MHz output available via LVDS
* Optional external VHF clock input via LVDS
* 10MHz TCXO available via Atlas bus
Altera EP3C25 Cyclone III FPGA based DDC (digital down-conversion) enabling future code upgrades
Atlas bus compatible
Two available PC interfaces: Ethernet via Metis board or USB via Ozy or Magister board (no sound card required)
I and Q balance adjustment not required due to direct sampling of RF input
Very high performance:
* ADC overload: -12dBm (preamp on), +8dBm (preamp off)
* MDS (500Hz), 160m - 6m: -138dBm (preamp on), -118dBm (preamp off)
* IP3 equivalent (independent of spacing): +33dBm (preamp on), >+50dBm (preamp off)
* BDR (5kHz, 1dB GC): -119dBm (ADC overload limited, not phase noise limited)
* 122.88MHz clock phase noise: -149dBc/Hz at 1kHz spacing
The Mercury Receiver
Mercury Warranty and Support
Mercury IS SOLD ON AN AS-IS BASIS WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND.
All Mercury boards will be tested prior to shipment, and all boards will be working when they are shipped. To the extent that we have available inventory, we may, at our discretion, agree to a one time only exchange.
This is a low volume production, experimental item. In order for iQuadLabs to be able to offer this board, we must rely on the support of all users in the openHPSDR community. iQuadLabs expects that Mercury buyers will seek help on the openHPSDR Discussion List before looking to iQuadLabs for problem resolution.
Support will be provided via the openHPSDR Discussion List.
Because iQuadLabs is not staffed to provide support for Mercury, and because the knowledge to support users resides with the developers and users on the openHPSDR Discussion List , buyers should participate in that forum for support.
Firmware and software will be available for download from the openHPSDR website.