Wednesday, August 18, 2021

Mercury III S amp kit arrives

My Mercury III S amplifier kit arrived today, well ahead of schedule. When I ordered the amp in late May, I was told to expect a four to five month wait until it shipped. After only 2 -1/2 months, here it is. 

Several new reviews for this amp have been added to eHam in that time, all of them giving the kit 5 of 5 stars and excellent write-ups.

Everything is extremely well packed within the 35lb/16kg box with lots of foam protection all around. All electronic parts and circuit boards are packed inside anti-static bags.

Everything about the kit's individual modules exudes quality, from the case itself right down to the RCA interconnecting cables. They are substantial - about the diameter of a #2 pencil - and made to last.

Included with the amp is a 16GB thumb drive containing 3.5GB of data: assembly videos, 62 close-up photos of various construction steps, schematics, BOM, Operator's Manual (20 pages) and, of course, the Assembly Manual (29 pages).

Mouser part numbers are included for items that may need eventual replacement - fans, fan protection circuit, Molex plugs/headers and the Nextion display unit. The BOM for each module also contains part numbers and parts values.

Too much info is provided, in my opinion, with the proliferation of Chinese clones for so many products and that country's complete disregard for copyrights and other aspects of intellectual property.

Many owners report build times of 4 to 6 hours for this amplifier kit. I plan to take my time and enjoy the process, photographing and making notes along the way.

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Missing from this photo are the controller board, LPF board and power supply

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Controller board & LPF board
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4 comments:

  1. Wow John, that looks good. I can't wait reading your build the thing and report to us. Enjoy! 73, Bas

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    1. GM Bas, it went together quite easily. I'll write more later but, from opening the box to first QSO was 5 hours and that was going slowly with dinner in between.

      73,
      John

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  2. Your remark about Chinese knockoffs, reminded me of the rampant copying of The Lord of the Rings trilogy back in the day. It prompted the US publisher to point out that anyone with any respect for a certain living author would only purchase the authentic edition. When National Lampoon published their satire, Bored of the Rings, they proclaimed that anyone with respect to a certain living author wouldn't "touch this gobbler with a ten-foot battle lance".

    Seems that to maintain your position as a US supplier, you must provide the entire package, including sales and service. Elecraft is an excellent model of this. Hopefully, buyers will consider not just their pocketbook when deciding where to buy their stuff.

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    1. Unfortunately, I think most people consider only their pocketbooks when making a decision on what to buy. To do otherwise is now out of fashion in our "more enlightened" society.

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