Get a dsp based rig.  You want one that has variable bandwidth on SSB receive.  I have an IC 7000 that can be narrowed to 50 to 100 Hz on SSB and I use it for single signal reception of PSK.  Without the overload problems from a wide open pass band, you can copy signals you can barely hear by ear.  For FSK RTTY the IC 7000 has a twin peak filter that is made for FSK reception.  There are many other rigs based on DSP that would be great as well.

Don't mess with the old stuff, it drifts and the filters are just not up to modern standards.

BTW the K3 is also very good on digital as well.

If you are willing to change circuit topology, you can simply use any active filter circuit that can give the transfer function you want.  Within the power supply swings of the opamps, the filter should actually be better than a high inductance inductor.  The core material in the 88mH is not going to be particularly linear.

For lowest noise, you might have to select premium opamps, depending on your applications.

For everything except switch mode power inductors, there is no reason to mess with 88mH inductors anymore.

Make an air wound coil.  Cut the coax long and trim it down to reduce capacitance for tuning.

I start at low power or with antenna analyzer.  Use a variable cap and find the match.  Measure the capacitance.  Then cut an equivalent piece of coax a little on the long side.  Figure around 22pf per foot for coax.  Trim the coax in circuit until you get your match again.

Now you can run high power into it.  Look for arcs!   You should seal the end of the coax and other HV points.

Its a resistor with a whip attached. 

Theoretically you remove the resistor and add an antenna matching device, like an autotuner to the antenna ( at antenna feed) and you have equivalent of a mobile whip.  You would need a ground plane of sorts as well.  You could make the ground plane with very thin wires that lay on the roof or extend out from the antenna.

Unfortunately every magic dc to daylight low swr antenna ever marketed to hams works on the principle of adding a resistive load that swamps out the antenna impedance variations.  T2FD, infamous magic dipoles and many others.

You might also consider a screwdriver against a ground plane as well.  It isn't highly efficient but at least is on a sound physical principle and can be tuned for a good match.

Typical semiconductors can run with junction temps up to 100 C and power devices to 150 C.  Its common to derate them in high rel applications.  Even so this means some pretty uncomfortable case temperatures could be acceptable.  The finger rule is very conservative.

It does seem like the 7000 gets warm in receive so I found a small computer style 12V fan and mounted it on to the rear heat sink with plastic inserts and sheet metal screws (like used to mount stuff in wall board).  The fan is powered off the antenna tuner connector which I don't use.  This results in cooler operation.

I took the unit in once for some warranty work and it came back with a firmware mod that runs the internal fan much more aggressively.  That seems to be a great improvement, at least on transmit.

The only mode now where the temp gauge gets to near the red zone is PSK and it is acceptable at room temperature at 30% power out (about 30W at 13.6V).

Hot spots are a fact of life in highly miniaturized electronics.  You're not going to get there if you limit yourself to 10 or 20 deg C temp rises.  Some components are going to have to run at closer to rated junction temps.

Besides, have you ever measured the temps in some of the beloved boat anchors touted on this site?  They got things inside that glow red hot

Put the data for the memories in via computer and then read them out to verify they are correct.

Then wait or some how induce the TX ERROR problem.

Then read the memories out and see if they are corrupted.

If the 857 doesn't have a backup battery, then it is using some sort of flash memory.  So this memory could be having some sort of problem.

You could then try the usual trouble shooting for intermittent problems like heating and cooling, supply voltage variation etc.

If the storage memory is bad, it would likely be an fairly involved repair job.

I you're just starting run a debian derived linux distro.

Ubuntu, Mint etc.

You should then be able to find in the repositories, fldigi, gmpsk and linpsk to name a few.

fldigi seems to be the most modern.

You could also consider running HRD and digipan with the Wine windows compatablity layer.  I believe I have been able to run them with wine.  This is less reliable than native applications but can work fine if you absolutely want or need the familiar programs.

And yes you could run windows in a virtual machine under linux but you are still subject to the problems windows has.  Sometimes windows behaves better in a virtual machine due to the more benign virtual hardware it is presented with.

Your idea of getting away from Micro$oft is a good one.  I'm running PCLinuxOS as a write this.

A connection broke due to wind or more likely something got wet or filled with water after a rain storm.

If it starts to work again after some sunny dry WX I can almost gurantee it is water.

Look for antenna designs based on the disk cone for omni vertical and for directive antennas consider a design based on the log periodic would be good.  Those antennas can be designed to cover over 2 to 1 frequency bandwidths.

Another simple solution would be an antenna with very fat elements.  You could build a common 1/4 ground plane with a 2 inch dia radiator mounted on a 1/4 wave or greater ground sheet disk.  10MHz out of 435 MHz is about 2.5% BW ratio and it would seem like a fat conductor antenna could meet the requirement over that BW.

I'm doing it at 100W on HF.  It works no problems with reasonable SWR.  The connector does not get warm.  F connectors are an excellent way to use RG6 cheapo coax for ham radio use.  I use the F connector in conjuction with F to BNC adapters and then BNC to PL259 adapters.  I have rigs with SO239 and female BNCs so I can connect to anything I have.

I know what you mean about the stiff cheap tv cable.  One thing I have done is use a leather punch and punch a bunch of holes between the wires in the twin lead to reduce the amount of dielectric between the wires and make it more flexable.

In the end I have decided to use RG-174 coax with a variable length dipole instead of the twin lead with a fixed length dipole.

The coax has the benefit of being able to toss part of it on the ground and is easier to get in and out of my back packing tent without worrying about it laying on the ground.  

I have various tap points on the dipole for various bands. I don't seem to need a tuner either since the swr is usually low.  The loss of 20 or 30 feet of RG-174 is acceptable on HF as well.  And... its very flexable.

I got some RG-174 and attached connectors to the ends and then just smashed the window down on it.  Actually the stuff I used was teflon and it deformed a little but it didn't short out.  It works well enough on HF.  Also note that the window is vinyl so shorting to the window frame is not an issue.

Alternatively consider using some double sided thin circuit board material that you could slip under the window.  Or some copper tape with insulating tape to separate it.  A really short piece of small zip cord might work.  A close spaced pair of wires might work.

The comercial product is just a pair of flat conductors separated by a tough insulating layer.  It is designed to be 50 ohms and has connectors on it.

For just HF use, you can cheat on the impedance if you just make a short run to get thru the window.  Almost anything made of a pair of conductors closely spaced with a dielectric separating it would be between 50 to 150 ohms impedance which will make only a small bump in the line at HF.

If you are going to use it for VHF/UHF then I would suggest buying a commercial device.

PCI bus is obsolete.  Too much emi inside the PC box.  Doesn't work with laptops, netbooks.  I would be surprised if any new designs go that way.

expect usb, firewire will be the future standards.

PCI bus is obsolete.  Too much emi inside the PC box.  Doesn't work with laptops, netbooks.  I would be surprised if any new designs go that way.

expect usb, firewire will be the future standards.

Why not build your own.  Buy a mini itx chassis.  Buy a mini itx mobo.  Make some mechanical mods and add one of the mini QRP rigs to a shielded area of the ITX case (you might have to do some metal work or add an internal box.  Hook the works up to the itx sound card and RS232 port.  Find a small keyboard and display.  Bundle it and run linux and fldigi.

Or... get a netbook and strap it onto a metal box with a QRP rig in the box.  Rig up some simple interconnect and voila! mobile QRP psk.

Lest you think this is a pipe dream, I have a very simple interface I made for my K2 and HP mini 1010nr netbook.  The K2 has an internal battery and SSB adapter.  I put the works in my pack with a home brew dipole and sligshot laucher.  Hiked 2 miles up a mtn. and operated PSK31 from under a tree in amoungst the snow banks.

Or you can wait for somebody to do it for you.