W5TSU

In February 2026 I bought a Hermes-Lite 2 from MakerFabs, along with Jim Ahlstrom’s N2ADR filter board and IO board. I wrote a blog post about it and said the community support was thin. I hoped my notes would help someone, maybe even me.

I didn’t expect those notes to turn into seven months of writing software.

Spring: taking ownership

It started small. In April I forked MI0BOT’s Hermes-Lite 2 build of Thetis and spent a day making GitHub Actions build it. The installer had to come out of CI rather than off somebody’s desk. Getting there took four commits, each fixing whatever the last one broke: a WiX version pin, a toolset mismatch (v145 vs v143), and an installer project the runner didn’t know how to build.

The Hermes-Lite 2 (HL2) is a low-cost, open source HF SDR transceiver. This is a truly fantastic radio it competing head to head with the Flex radio. The whole project – hardware and software – is fully open source, led by Steve Haynal (KF7O). Although this radio has been around for years the community support is poor. My hope is this post will help document what I’ve found for my own use and maybe help others.

Yes, I’ve started a YouTube channel.

My first post is about RMNoise, an AI filter, used to remove noise from SSB voice or CW radio signals. Noramly, audio is connected into and outo of a physical radio. I’m using Thetis radio software connected to a Hermes-Lite 2+. To connect Thetis to RMNoise I’m using Voice Meter Potato to create virtual audio cables to “wire” these together.

Thetis’s Input is connected to my microphone (Focusite). Thetis Output goes to CABLE-B’s Input. You should Enable VAC 1.

I’m going to create a delta loop antena made from arrow shafts. I believe this should be good match from 40 to the 10 meeter band. This will include 3D printed parts for antenna mounts and for a matching coil.

I’ve build a Digipeater. These are my notes.

Equpment

Using DigiPi, Digirig, and a handheld I had not used.

DigiPi runs on RaspberryPi. I’m using a Pi4 with a Geekworm for Raspberry Pi UPS - X729 for grater uptime and 12 Volt support.

DigiPi is a great progject developed my Craiger (KM6LYM. This project is using version 1.8.1. You can plug it into your radio’s USB interface, use a radio interface like DigiRig, or use a sound card with your radio in VOX mode, to run many digital modes.