From: Joe Taylor K1JT
Sent: Saturday, March 20, 2010 1:32 PM


For those who were asking about the setup at Arecibo, I now have more 
complete information.  It turns out that they *did* get their 3CX800 amp 
out of mothballs and hooked up in time for the tests.  No wonder they 
were so loud!

Here's the scoop:

Antenna: Tx and Rx with the same circular polarization (I don't know 
which sense).  The expectation is that ground stations will use linear 
polarization, and thus Faraday will not be a problem.

Rx: GaAsFET preamp into a TS-2000.

Tx: A second TS-2000 driving a 3CX800, 500 W measured output.

T/R switchover was done with a hand-operated mechanical switch -- one 
reason why their T/R turnaround time sometimes seemed slow.  They expect 
to have a T/R relay in place for the session on Monday.

Once again: KP4AO expects to be QRV on 432.045 from about 2100 to 2330 
UTC on Monday.

	-- 73, Joe, K1JT