Mark, KA5UTN

Hello, I have the following equipment: Icom IC-9700 CSN Technologies S.A.T Yaesu G-5500 AZ & EL Rotors on a 19-foot tower Geochron Atlas 2 4k World Clock (shows selected satellite "footprints" in real time) I'm very new to satellite operations. I have the best equipment I could buy, but I really need to increase my skills. Here are my challenges: My 9700 radio waterfall display looks like it has 18dB of attenuation in satellite mode so it's difficult to find transponder conversations. I like to do testing and experimenting at night because there's very few if anyone on at 2 or 3am. I'm having a difficult time "finding" my uplink signal to hear myself on the downlink. I know for transponders, to select REV on the radio to lock the uplink freq with the downlink freq, but I still don't hear myself. Since I'm using the S.A.T., I don't have to worry about doppler shift. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Here's a picture of my S.A.T. browser display.