Issue: Either in Split or Fake-It mode, doesnt matter, the frequency will shift up or down accordingly during Tx, but intermittently will not shift back up/down to the Rx/Dial frequency. This will cause the dial frequency to intermittently and slowly drift upwards or downwards.
E.g.
Rx on 14.074, Tx on 14.074.5
If it doesnt shift back down after Tx, it will creed up by 500Hz.
14.074.5 –> 14.075 –> 14.075.5, Etc,
I have used the exact same shack setup that I am currently using for several years now, nothing has changed. This issue started about 2 weeks ago or less. I have the FT-891 with the DigiRig DR-891 (I think its the prototype/pre-release version if that makes a difference).
I have come to the conclusion that it must be one of 5 things:
My Radio
The DigiRig
The DigiRig Cables (between DigiRig and Radio)
My Antenna and/or feedline
Something outside the house, but I dont have close neighbours and live in a semi-rural area.
These are the only options left as I have ruled out everything else:
No electronics inside the house including the shack power supply (killed the whole panel to the house & used battery backup)
Not my laptop, laptop charger, or software (Tried a different laptop and different software versions)
Not my Tuner or SWR meter (Went directly into the antenna)
Not the USB cable from the DigiRig to the Laptop(s) (Tried with different cables. The main one I use is the DigRig Brand USB A to USB C w/ ferrites on both ends)
Some of these things you all may not be able to help me with, I realize that. But what are the odds it is the DigiRig unit itself, one of the two cables from the unit to the radio, or a combination of both? Can these fail/go bad? And if so how can I confirm or rule them out?
Any help would be amazing as I have been tearing my hair out with this issue for the past week, trying to eliminate the possibilities but cannot for the life of me figure out what the issue is.
Does this also happen at the minimum RF power level? It’s possible that RFI prevents the computer from communicating with the radio while it attempts to restore the VFO.
Sorry for the late reply, I don’t have email notifications turned on apparently. And yes, I tried at various power levels (55, 35, 25, 15, 10, and 5 watts) and they all produced the issue. Does this narrow the problem down or just make the issue more confusing and misterious?
nothing else comes to mind, i’m just not well versed with yaesu stuff.
(the only yaesu i owned was an 817nd and that was forever ago)
the power level stuff tells me it most likely isn’t RFI messing with the CAT command flow but i’m still convinced something is interrupting the CAT flow.
(not getting the command to ‘return to ‘base’ frequency’)
yes, and please don’t think i’m educating anyone, i’m just a stumbling doofus.
i understand the setup was working with split but now won’t unsplit after TX
what i was getting at, is that current rigs and the digirig soundcard have excellent response across the ‘normal’ range that the widest filters provide, so having the rig transmit on a different frequency (on the actual rig, not on the wsjt-x waterfall) isn’t needed to produce full output or full rx sensitivity.
(as is the case for my IC-736 and homebrew interface. you can see the rolloff on the edges of the waterfall are very pronounced)
kb0wlf
This is the feeling I get too. Becuase sometimes it goes back, and sometime it doesn’t. And sometimes it lags a bit longer than other times before shifting back to the dial frequency, as if it ALMOST didn’t. It feels as if the CAT is being interrupted. But I don’t know.
