After only using self-built rigs all this time, I finally broke down and bought one.
Called CQ with it last night after the kids were in bed, and managed to have a nice QSO with KE6HCE, who is actually in the same town. :)
Today I made an audio cable for the CE-19 adapter. Followed instructions here, though I seemed to have gotten the headphone/mike backwards. No worries on that, just had to reverse the labels. Managed to decode off the bat, but the StarTech audio interface I was using wouldn't put out sound. (Probably need to install a driver, since it has multiple output options). Switched to another USB interface I had, but couldn't get the VOX to work (following directions here). Finally found I needed to adjust the VOX gain up to 5, then it worked.
Tried FT8 first, but wasn't getting anyone. Also, needed to turn my power down to 2W, because it was taking more than my bench supply was able to give. (Need to look at getting proper supply for this.) Moved over to WSPR, and got some nice results on 20m using my QRPGuys DS1.
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