Angelo and All: Equipment here similar to Angelo's and perhaps common to many other operators. For S band downlink, I use the grill dish and the K5GNA AIDC 3731 downconverter directly behind feed. Receive downlink at 145Mhz IF then feeds an FT897D. RG6 coax works fine through a bias T for 13.8Vdc. S meter will easily reach full scale. FT736R operates 2M uplink. SATPC32 for doppler tuning and Unitrack for rotor G5500 control. No desense issues or front end overload with this crossband operation. For AO-40, I had a 3', off-set dish with helix feed for S band operation. However, that size dish had too much wind load. Also, found in my brag file: I use Keyspan and Prolific serial to USB adapters as these products seem to handle data packet transfer better than other adapters I've used. An Ultra 7 port USB hub from Tigerdirect handles the above operations as well as CAT control for all radios and PK232 TNC packet and Morse code operation. 73, Ron, n6paa

*************** The equipment is very modest. A bbq grill dish 2x3 feet, the downconverter is the K5GNA with RG-6 running about 50 feet long. No additional preamp needed with the K5GNA downconverter. The noise level in the shack is about S3. I use two rigs when operating the V/S mode. With SatPC32, I have a second configuration setup. The IF is going to be rig #1 (Kenwood TS-2000) which is connected to the K5GNA downconverter. Rig #2 is connected to my ICOM 910 as the transmitter. SATPC32 also control the rotor system with the G8LVB tracker connected to the Yaesu G-5500.

The dish and downconverter I paid if I recalled correctly was about 175.00 plus shipping for K5GNA. I do not know if he still makes the packages available anymore. I know he was waiting for Eagle or P3D to lauch before he goes back to selling them.

Enjoy,

73 de Angelo