Digital interface working PSK31 on 17m

Here are some screen shots of my homebrew digital interface working. I am running the Ham Radio Deluxe Digital Master 780 software which provides lots of handy functions. The waterfall display and macro options are far better than similar software I have used. As you can see, I have configured the application to send CQ on the 17m band. On the waterfall you will see that I have chosen a low noise area of the band and well away from the strong signal which is left of centre.

Here is my radio gear listening on the central frequency of the band. My digital interface has been labelled so I don’t need to remember the function of each knob. I recently added the Avair SWR/Power meter in-line to provide an analogue view of these values. The LDG antenna tuner also provides similar information but in a less granular digital way.

I have my rig configured so that the ACL is only just starting to activate. This is keeping the TX power output at around 20 to 30 Watts. Over driving the rig causes some interesting issues which I think are due to RF pick-up on the leads. I need to do some further testing with a dummy load and some ferrite cores to prove my theory. My HF antenna is an end-fed wire which isn’t ideal and could be causing some of my problems. For now I’ll keep the power low so that I don’t cause interference.