9 ms·

American satellite started transmitting again after being abandoned in 1967

167 points by csirac2 11y ago

csirac2 11y ago
Here's a recording of what it transmits (just a carrier, probably modulated by voltage fluctuations from the solar panels as it tumbles): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxqwZ42NyLw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxqwZ42NyLw
- Johnny555 11y ago
  Interestingly, the article says that the signal was picked up by an amateur in North Cornwall (in the UK?) in 2013, but the video you linked to was posted in 2012 by a ham from Brazil.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
  - petecooper 11y ago
    >(in the UK?) Correct. I live near Bude, north Cornwall, UK and can confirm this. Local attractions include GCHQ Bude[1], TAT-3[2], TAT-14[3], CANTAT-1[4], Apollo[5], TAT-8[6], AC-2[7], EIG[8] and GLO-1[9]. Unrelated but relevant: Henry Bottinger, former AT&T big cheese and author of possibly the finest book I've read on getting your point across to an audience[10], lives a few hundred metres up the road from me. Nice guy, too. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GCHQ_Bude https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GCHQ_Bude [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAT-3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAT-3 [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAT-14 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAT-14 [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CANTAT-1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CANTAT-1 [5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_(submarine_communications_cable) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_(submarine_communicatio... [6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAT-8 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAT-8 [7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AC-2_(cable_system) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AC-2_(cable_system) [8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EIG_(cable_system) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EIG_(cable_system) [9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GLO-1_(cable_system) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GLO-1_(cable_system) [10] http://www.amazon.co.uk/Moving-Mountains-Letting-Others-Things/dp/0020792506 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Moving-Mountains-Letting-Others-Thin...
    - zatkin 11y ago
      Did you mean "Henry M. Boettinger"? http://techchannel.att.com/play-video.cfm/2011/2/14/AT&T-Archives-1976---To-Communicate-Is-The-Beginning http://techchannel.att.com/play-video.cfm/2011/2/14/AT&T-Arc...
      - petecooper 11y ago
        Yes, that's him. We occasionally chat about mundane things at the local store. Alzheimer's disease hasn't been kind, so he needs some friendly help and assistance from time to time.
        zatkin 11y ago
        That's so sad, sorry to hear about that. :(
    - bpye 11y ago
      Still seems strange to see somewhere so close to home mentioned here. Always feels like the middle of nowhere when I'm in the area.
    - philiphodgen 11y ago
      Book ordered. Thanks for the suggestion. Out of print, so a second hand copy off Amazon had to suffice.
      - petecooper 11y ago
        Happy to help. There was a period from ~2003-2008 when I was looking for _any_ copy of the book, 'new' copies were absurdly expensive and even the well-used versions were upwards of 40USD. Then I moved to Cornwall, met the guy and he gave me a copy from his stash.
- mstade 11y ago
  That's a great combination of visualizations, looks kind of like a waterfall.
  - LesZedCB 11y ago
    That's what it's called[1] :) http://ham.stackexchange.com/questions/889/what-is-a-waterfall-display http://ham.stackexchange.com/questions/889/what-is-a-waterfa...
    - mstade 11y ago
      Cool, I learned something – thank you! :o)
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
illumen 11y ago
Everyone who worked on that space junk is dead?
hmottestad 11y ago
This site uses "smooth scrolling" which tries to mimic how scrolling on macs work and subsequently breaking scrolling on mac.
- yAnonymous 11y ago
  Scrolls like every other site for me, but if it's broken on Macs, that's nice.
- iSnow 11y ago
  What's extremely infuriating is that I disable smooth scrolling where possible only to get it shoved down my throat by various sites. Which web designer comes to the conclusion that overriding a platform-wide choice is a great idea? That ranted, on Firefox/Windows it scrolls normally.
  - hrrsn 11y ago
    I didn't notice it in Safari on OS X (it scrolled fine), but scrolling with Chrome on OS X is terrible.
- asadhaider 11y ago
  Scrolls fine for me in Firefox on Mac, that is after I allowed the site on NoScript.
- sixothree 11y ago
  Also the "related content" is pretty much not worksafe.
dstyrb 11y ago
I, for one, am glad they split that article into two pages; I was getting a bit intimidated by the length.
- hackbinary 11y ago
  I didn't even notice that it was split into two pages. I also appreciated that they left out the detail on what the intended purpose for Les 1 and Les 2 was, so they wouldn't confuse anyone with too much information. http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/les-1.htm http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/les-1.htm
- jimhefferon 11y ago
  Yes, I often I judge the journalistic source by the links to other articles. Here, I judge that the source is very interested in the word "dirty". That makes a ham radio article all the more .. unexpected.
- hoinz 11y ago
  lol, but then I realized.. maybe it's done on purpose to validate an article's appeal.
  - Sir_Cmpwn 11y ago
    It's done on purpose to get more ads to your eyeballs.
    - ohitsdom 11y ago
      Which is silly since the same ads show on both pages. But I guess the site can charge twice...
- iraphael 11y ago
  I also appreciated the fact that they overrode the browser's default scrolling to a less natural speed, and in doing so, also prevented me from being able to use gestures to return to hacker news.
DrScump 11y ago
Changeling? Uh oh.
miah_ 11y ago
I found a blog by Andrew Garrott (M0NRD) describing their experience monitoring the signal, also has a recording. http://nerdsville.blogspot.com/2013/03/receiving-les1-satellite-built-in-1965.html http://nerdsville.blogspot.com/2013/03/receiving-les1-satell...
jpmattia 11y ago
Some detail about the Lincoln Experimental Satellites here: http://www.hq.nasa.gov/pao/History/SP-4217/ch8.htm http://www.hq.nasa.gov/pao/History/SP-4217/ch8.htm
raddad 11y ago
http://starringthecomputer.com/snapshots/independence_day_powerbook_5300_1.jpg http://starringthecomputer.com/snapshots/independence_day_po...
bencollier49 11y ago
High quality web-site there plastered with borderline-NSFW social links. Nice.
- parennoob 11y ago
  Another great reason to run an ad blocker. My webpage looked pretty clean, no "social" links.
  - csirac2 11y ago
    Ouch; I also run ad blockerd, or I might've tried to find a more reasonable page to post (turns out there's a decent blog post with basically the same information).

167 points by csirac2 11y ago

Here's a recording of what it transmits (just a carrier, probably modulated by voltage fluctuations from the solar panels as it tumbles): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxqwZ42NyLw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxqwZ42NyLw

Johnny555 11y ago
Interestingly, the article says that the signal was picked up by an amateur in North Cornwall (in the UK?) in 2013, but the video you linked to was posted in 2012 by a ham from Brazil.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- petecooper 11y ago
  >(in the UK?) Correct. I live near Bude, north Cornwall, UK and can confirm this. Local attractions include GCHQ Bude[1], TAT-3[2], TAT-14[3], CANTAT-1[4], Apollo[5], TAT-8[6], AC-2[7], EIG[8] and GLO-1[9]. Unrelated but relevant: Henry Bottinger, former AT&T big cheese and author of possibly the finest book I've read on getting your point across to an audience[10], lives a few hundred metres up the road from me. Nice guy, too. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GCHQ_Bude https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GCHQ_Bude [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAT-3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAT-3 [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAT-14 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAT-14 [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CANTAT-1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CANTAT-1 [5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_(submarine_communications_cable) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_(submarine_communicatio... [6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAT-8 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAT-8 [7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AC-2_(cable_system) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AC-2_(cable_system) [8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EIG_(cable_system) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EIG_(cable_system) [9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GLO-1_(cable_system) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GLO-1_(cable_system) [10] http://www.amazon.co.uk/Moving-Mountains-Letting-Others-Things/dp/0020792506 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Moving-Mountains-Letting-Others-Thin...
  - zatkin 11y ago
    Did you mean "Henry M. Boettinger"? http://techchannel.att.com/play-video.cfm/2011/2/14/AT&T-Archives-1976---To-Communicate-Is-The-Beginning http://techchannel.att.com/play-video.cfm/2011/2/14/AT&T-Arc...
    - petecooper 11y ago
      Yes, that's him. We occasionally chat about mundane things at the local store. Alzheimer's disease hasn't been kind, so he needs some friendly help and assistance from time to time.
      - zatkin 11y ago
        That's so sad, sorry to hear about that. :(
  - bpye 11y ago
    Still seems strange to see somewhere so close to home mentioned here. Always feels like the middle of nowhere when I'm in the area.
  - philiphodgen 11y ago
    Book ordered. Thanks for the suggestion. Out of print, so a second hand copy off Amazon had to suffice.
    - petecooper 11y ago
      Happy to help. There was a period from ~2003-2008 when I was looking for _any_ copy of the book, 'new' copies were absurdly expensive and even the well-used versions were upwards of 40USD. Then I moved to Cornwall, met the guy and he gave me a copy from his stash.
mstade 11y ago
That's a great combination of visualizations, looks kind of like a waterfall.
- LesZedCB 11y ago
  That's what it's called[1] :) http://ham.stackexchange.com/questions/889/what-is-a-waterfall-display http://ham.stackexchange.com/questions/889/what-is-a-waterfa...
  - mstade 11y ago
    Cool, I learned something – thank you! :o)

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

illumen 11y ago

Everyone who worked on that space junk is dead?

hmottestad 11y ago

This site uses "smooth scrolling" which tries to mimic how scrolling on macs work and subsequently breaking scrolling on mac.

yAnonymous 11y ago
Scrolls like every other site for me, but if it's broken on Macs, that's nice.
iSnow 11y ago
What's extremely infuriating is that I disable smooth scrolling where possible only to get it shoved down my throat by various sites. Which web designer comes to the conclusion that overriding a platform-wide choice is a great idea? That ranted, on Firefox/Windows it scrolls normally.
- hrrsn 11y ago
  I didn't notice it in Safari on OS X (it scrolled fine), but scrolling with Chrome on OS X is terrible.
asadhaider 11y ago
Scrolls fine for me in Firefox on Mac, that is after I allowed the site on NoScript.
sixothree 11y ago
Also the "related content" is pretty much not worksafe.

dstyrb 11y ago

I, for one, am glad they split that article into two pages; I was getting a bit intimidated by the length.

hackbinary 11y ago
I didn't even notice that it was split into two pages. I also appreciated that they left out the detail on what the intended purpose for Les 1 and Les 2 was, so they wouldn't confuse anyone with too much information. http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/les-1.htm http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/les-1.htm
jimhefferon 11y ago
Yes, I often I judge the journalistic source by the links to other articles. Here, I judge that the source is very interested in the word "dirty". That makes a ham radio article all the more .. unexpected.
hoinz 11y ago
lol, but then I realized.. maybe it's done on purpose to validate an article's appeal.
- Sir_Cmpwn 11y ago
  It's done on purpose to get more ads to your eyeballs.
  - ohitsdom 11y ago
    Which is silly since the same ads show on both pages. But I guess the site can charge twice...
iraphael 11y ago
I also appreciated the fact that they overrode the browser's default scrolling to a less natural speed, and in doing so, also prevented me from being able to use gestures to return to hacker news.

DrScump 11y ago

Changeling? Uh oh.

miah_ 11y ago

I found a blog by Andrew Garrott (M0NRD) describing their experience monitoring the signal, also has a recording. http://nerdsville.blogspot.com/2013/03/receiving-les1-satellite-built-in-1965.html http://nerdsville.blogspot.com/2013/03/receiving-les1-satell...

jpmattia 11y ago

Some detail about the Lincoln Experimental Satellites here: http://www.hq.nasa.gov/pao/History/SP-4217/ch8.htm http://www.hq.nasa.gov/pao/History/SP-4217/ch8.htm

raddad 11y ago

http://starringthecomputer.com/snapshots/independence_day_powerbook_5300_1.jpg http://starringthecomputer.com/snapshots/independence_day_po...

bencollier49 11y ago

High quality web-site there plastered with borderline-NSFW social links. Nice.

parennoob 11y ago
Another great reason to run an ad blocker. My webpage looked pretty clean, no "social" links.
- csirac2 11y ago
  Ouch; I also run ad blockerd, or I might've tried to find a more reasonable page to post (turns out there's a decent blog post with basically the same information).