The club station is equipped with gear to operate Amateur Radio Satellites modes A, B, JA, KA, KT, and T. The satellite radio is a Yaesu FT-847, which is designed to be capable of full-duplex, cross-band operation. It is a brand new radio, and UTARC is its first owner. The manual for the rig is available in the shack, as is a VHS tape describing the operation and features of the rig.
Satellite tracking software (Nova for Windows) is loaded on eskip, the computer at the VHF table in the club station. We also have a SASI Sat Tracker hardware interface that connects our azimuth-elevation rotor to the computer. The interface and rig frequency control are both integrated with the satellite tracking software.
A fifteen foot galvanized steel mast is bolted to the stairway railing just outside of the club station. Atop the mast is a Yaesu G-5500 azimuth/elevation rotor. This rotor has an eight-foot long, solid fiberglass boom, painted black, on which three antennas are mounted: a ten-element cross-polarized yagi for 145 MHz, an eight-element, cross-polarized yagi for 435 MHz, and a barbecue grill dish and downconverter for 2.4 GHz. The downconverter and dish were purchased at a ham fest without documentation - it is believed that the downconverter will put AO-40's 2.4 GHz signal to somewhere around 120 MHz, but nobody has been able to confirm that. There is no transmit protection for that downconverter, so do not use it unless you are sure that you know what you are doing.