Ground stations facilitate the exchange of data between in-orbit satellites and terrestrial networks, track and monitor satellite operations, and provide mission-support services, among other critical tasks for satellite communications systems. Ground station hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing emulates various hardware-induced impairments to assess the system’s response to challenging post-deployment conditions. Simulated impairments available with the ACE9600 include signal compression, intermodulation distortion, AM/PM distortion, phase noise, group delay slope and amplitude slope.