While no longer sold/made, I recently purchased a "new in box" kit, and plan on
mating this up with the KR500 el / and a CDE/Hy-Gain az, rotor combo, in conjunction with the
FT-736.
This will up my ability to do winter, nighttime, sat work, since that seems to be the
time when I have the most free slots, and will save having to stand outside in the weather.
Description from TAPR:
The trakbox is a self-contained, stand-alone accessory for use with satellite stations. You simply select the satellite you wish to track from a front panel control and the TrakBox will steer your antennas in both azimuth and elevation to track the selected satellite when it is or above your horizon. In addition, if you have a radio with a computer interface, the TrakBox will tune your transmitter and receiver and correct them for doppler shift.
Trakbox includes a serial port to allow you to set the real-time clock (which is battery backed), your station location (latitude, longitude and elevation) and the keplerian elements for the satellites you are interested in (up to 40 satellites may be loaded, and the elements may be uploaded in ASCII in either the AMSAT or NASA formats). A two-line LCD display is updated every second, showing the azimuth and elevation of a satellite, along with the satellite ID and GMT. Once set up, TrakBox no longer needs to be connected to any other computer to operate.
