Getting Started

Install via official GitHub repository on Linux:

1. Install the dependencies:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install libasound2-dev libpulse-dev libhamlib-dev cmake git

2. Clone Mercury official GitHub repository:

git clone https://github.com/Rhizomatica/mercury.git

3. Change directory to mercury/:

cd mercury

4. Run make and make install commands:

make && make install

5. Run mercury command to run Mercury HF modem

Install via Debian package on Linux:

1. Install the repository certificate:

wget --no-check-certificate -qO- https://debian.hermes.radio/hermes/hermes.key | gpg --dearmor -o - | sudo tee /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/hermes.gpg > /dev/null

2. Add mercury to the sources list (change it for you current architecture):

• ARM64:

echo 'deb [arch=arm64] http://debian.hermes.radio/hermes trixie main' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/hermes.list

• AMD64:

echo 'deb [arch=amd64] http://debian.hermes.radio/hermes trixie main' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/hermes.list

3. Update the debian packages:

sudo apt-get update

4. Install mercury:

sudo apt-get install mercury

5. Run mercury command to run Mercury HF modem

Note: Installation via Debian package requires Debian 13 (Trixie)

Install ZIP package on Windows:

1. Navigate to the releases page on the official GitHub repository: https://github.com/Rhizomatica/mercury/releases
2. Download the ZIP package for the latest version
3. Go to Downloads folder (or the folder you download mercury ZIP) and extract the files
4. Double click on the mercury executable file (mercury.exe) to run Mercury HF modem

Configuring mercury.ini

• Edit mercury.ini.example file with your preferred editor and rename it to mercury.ini or
• Run mercury with -C /path/to/configuration-file CLI argument to directly point to the configuration file

More information check https://github.com/Rhizomatica/mercury#configuration-file

Running Mercury on VarAC

With VarAC open, click on Settings -> RIG Control and VARA Configurations

Navigate to the Vara tab and click on VARA file path to update it and point to your Mercury executable file (mercury.exe)

E.g. C:\Users\your-user\Downloads\mercury\mercury.exe

Note: Do not set the Start modem upon startup checkbox as it will run Mercury on the start without pointing to the mercury.ini configuration file. Instead you need to first run mercury then VarAC

Click on SAVE AND EXIT button, it will restart VarAC.

After the restart you are good to go and use Mercury HF modem on VarAC.