I’ve always been fascinated by satellite operation as so many things have to go just right in order to log a successful QSO. I bought an Icom 9700 five or six years ago with high hopes of getting into satellite work. To be sure, you don’t need a $2000 radio in order to talk to satellites - a lot of people do it with HTs and a handheld antenna. But, you know, it’s pretty cool to have the technology do the work for you. In a perfect world, I’d live on a mountaintop somewhere in Tennessee and have 1000 acres and could put up towers, have rotators and large antennas. Sadly that’s not going to happen in my HOA in Bluffton.
I saw a Facebook video this morning talking about the PSR-100 lightweight rotator. I was pretty excited when I watched the video and realized that I could take satellite operation portable - maybe even do some satellite POTA work. The rotator is sold in kit form and can be purchased at the WA4MCM website - the current cost of the kit is $320. So, yeah, I ordered one of the kits. There’s some more stuff that I bought for my setup, but let me first share a good video that I found online - this is better than the video I saw on Facebook and, if you’re like me, you’re gonna get excited and go buy one of these. Take a gander at the video:
I did buy some extras - the Arrow Antenna II Satellite Antenna Solid Boom without Duplexer 146/437-10, which Don Friend from WA4MCM recommends. There’s are a few antenna options, yet know this is a lightweight rotator and you do have to be sensitive to the weight of the antenna. I bought my antenna from HRO as Gigaparts has this antenna on back order (as of 5/27/26). The antenna was about $130. At a minimum, I needed the antenna, so that spend was going to happen anyway. But… if you happen to be keeping track of how much Dan spent this morning… we’re at $430 for the rotator ($330) & antenna ($130).
If you watch the video above, you’ll learn that there are a couple of pieces of software that you can use to track the satellites, yet I’ve had my eye on a CSN SAT controller for some time now. What’s a CSN SAT controller, you ask? It’s a self contained antenna rotator and radio controller. It natively controls Icom radios, Yaesu rotators and can interface with PSTRotator. And, yes, the PSTRotator is the PSR-100 rotator. It’s actually a very cool piece of technology as it controls both the rotator and the radio, setting frequencies and controlling the doppler shift. Uhhh… yeah, that’s another $275. So… now we’re at $705. To be clear, you don’t need to spend anywhere near this amount in order to log satellite QSOs. You can do it for the cost of an HT and an antenna. Most of us already have some sort of radio that we could use, although if we really wanted to split hairs you could count the cost of the radio in my spend summary. Given this, my satellite setup is coming in at roughly $2700. I’m pretty sure I didn’t pay $2000 for my 9700 (maybe $1600 or so), but things radio have increased in cost over the last few years. Figure there will be some other odds and ends - light weight antenna cables, some misc power cords, a tripod, and more.
If the video wasn’t enough to get you excited, take a few moments to read this - it was written by a local club member of the BRAG Club, Keith Baker.
AMSAT is the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation and is the definitive source for all things satellite related.
I’ll post here as I receive these items and build the kit - my goal is to get everything up and running before the upcoming field day at the end of June.
I saw a Facebook video this morning talking about the PSR-100 lightweight rotator. I was pretty excited when I watched the video and realized that I could take satellite operation portable - maybe even do some satellite POTA work. The rotator is sold in kit form and can be purchased at the WA4MCM website - the current cost of the kit is $320. So, yeah, I ordered one of the kits. There’s some more stuff that I bought for my setup, but let me first share a good video that I found online - this is better than the video I saw on Facebook and, if you’re like me, you’re gonna get excited and go buy one of these. Take a gander at the video:
I did buy some extras - the Arrow Antenna II Satellite Antenna Solid Boom without Duplexer 146/437-10, which Don Friend from WA4MCM recommends. There’s are a few antenna options, yet know this is a lightweight rotator and you do have to be sensitive to the weight of the antenna. I bought my antenna from HRO as Gigaparts has this antenna on back order (as of 5/27/26). The antenna was about $130. At a minimum, I needed the antenna, so that spend was going to happen anyway. But… if you happen to be keeping track of how much Dan spent this morning… we’re at $430 for the rotator ($330) & antenna ($130).
If you watch the video above, you’ll learn that there are a couple of pieces of software that you can use to track the satellites, yet I’ve had my eye on a CSN SAT controller for some time now. What’s a CSN SAT controller, you ask? It’s a self contained antenna rotator and radio controller. It natively controls Icom radios, Yaesu rotators and can interface with PSTRotator. And, yes, the PSTRotator is the PSR-100 rotator. It’s actually a very cool piece of technology as it controls both the rotator and the radio, setting frequencies and controlling the doppler shift. Uhhh… yeah, that’s another $275. So… now we’re at $705. To be clear, you don’t need to spend anywhere near this amount in order to log satellite QSOs. You can do it for the cost of an HT and an antenna. Most of us already have some sort of radio that we could use, although if we really wanted to split hairs you could count the cost of the radio in my spend summary. Given this, my satellite setup is coming in at roughly $2700. I’m pretty sure I didn’t pay $2000 for my 9700 (maybe $1600 or so), but things radio have increased in cost over the last few years. Figure there will be some other odds and ends - light weight antenna cables, some misc power cords, a tripod, and more.
If the video wasn’t enough to get you excited, take a few moments to read this - it was written by a local club member of the BRAG Club, Keith Baker.
AMSAT is the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation and is the definitive source for all things satellite related.
I’ll post here as I receive these items and build the kit - my goal is to get everything up and running before the upcoming field day at the end of June.
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