Noah,
Have you considered the panadapter board from this website
?
I installed this one in my 857d several years ago and was very happy with it.
I was able to get a very wide bandwidth display (more than huprf shows) and it worked very well into a cheap SDR dongle.
I used it with HDSDR software and found it to be very useable.? I was able to use cat-control to tune the 857d from the hdsdr software.
I just had a sma pigtale hanging out of the heatsink so I can't speak to installing the sma in the heatsink but if you can it would be much more robust.
Just wanted to give you an alternate source for the choice of the panadapter.
I have not used it for a few years as I now have an Icom 7300 which I love for the price.
I was able to easily install inside the 857 under the cover.
Here is a video showing how to interface to HDSDR for cat control
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tshlXgarnBQ
I believe this is the video I used for the initial setup.
I would be happy to take some pictures if you decide to choose this board over the one you initially listed.
I have no idea how it compares to the one you chose.? But I was very happy with the results.
Cheers
73, N7KBC
