American satellite started transmitting again after being abandoned in 1967 (opens in new tab)

(thevintagenews.com)

167 pointscsirac210y ago33 comments

33 comments

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

Johnny55510y 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.

petecooper10y 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

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAT-3

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAT-14

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CANTAT-1

[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_(submarine_communicatio...

[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAT-8

[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AC-2_(cable_system)

[8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EIG_(cable_system)

[9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GLO-1_(cable_system)

[10] http://www.amazon.co.uk/Moving-Mountains-Letting-Others-Thin...

3 more replies

mstade10y ago

That's a great combination of visualizations, looks kind of like a waterfall.

LesZedCB10y ago

That's what it's called[1] :)

http://ham.stackexchange.com/questions/889/what-is-a-waterfa...

1 more reply

dstyrb10y ago

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

hackbinary10y 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

iraphael10y 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.

jimhefferon10y 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.

hoinz10y ago

lol, but then I realized.. maybe it's done on purpose to validate an article's appeal.

Sir_Cmpwn10y ago

It's done on purpose to get more ads to your eyeballs.

1 more reply

hmottestad10y ago

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

iSnow10y 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.

hrrsn10y ago

I didn't notice it in Safari on OS X (it scrolled fine), but scrolling with Chrome on OS X is terrible.

sixothree10y ago

Also the "related content" is pretty much not worksafe.

asadhaider10y ago

Scrolls fine for me in Firefox on Mac, that is after I allowed the site on NoScript.

yAnonymous10y ago

Scrolls like every other site for me, but if it's broken on Macs, that's nice.

bencollier4910y ago

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

parennoob10y ago

Another great reason to run an ad blocker. My webpage looked pretty clean, no "social" links.

csirac2OP10y 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).

miah_10y 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-satell...

jpmattia10y ago

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

raddad10y ago

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

DrScump10y ago

Changeling? Uh oh.

illumen10y ago

Everyone who worked on that space junk is dead?

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

33 comments

csirac2OP10y 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

Johnny55510y 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.

petecooper10y 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].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GCHQ_Bude

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAT-3

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAT-14

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CANTAT-1

[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_(submarine_communicatio...

[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAT-8

[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AC-2_(cable_system)

[8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EIG_(cable_system)

[9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GLO-1_(cable_system)

[10] http://www.amazon.co.uk/Moving-Mountains-Letting-Others-Thin...

3 more replies

mstade10y ago

That's a great combination of visualizations, looks kind of like a waterfall.

LesZedCB10y ago

That's what it's called[1] :)

http://ham.stackexchange.com/questions/889/what-is-a-waterfa...

1 more reply

dstyrb10y ago

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

hackbinary10y 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

iraphael10y 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.

jimhefferon10y ago

hoinz10y ago

lol, but then I realized.. maybe it's done on purpose to validate an article's appeal.

Sir_Cmpwn10y ago

It's done on purpose to get more ads to your eyeballs.

1 more reply

hmottestad10y ago

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

iSnow10y ago

That ranted, on Firefox/Windows it scrolls normally.

hrrsn10y ago

I didn't notice it in Safari on OS X (it scrolled fine), but scrolling with Chrome on OS X is terrible.

sixothree10y ago

Also the "related content" is pretty much not worksafe.

asadhaider10y ago

Scrolls fine for me in Firefox on Mac, that is after I allowed the site on NoScript.

yAnonymous10y ago

Scrolls like every other site for me, but if it's broken on Macs, that's nice.

bencollier4910y ago

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

parennoob10y ago

Another great reason to run an ad blocker. My webpage looked pretty clean, no "social" links.

csirac2OP10y 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).

miah_10y 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-satell...

jpmattia10y ago

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

raddad10y ago

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

DrScump10y ago

Changeling? Uh oh.

illumen10y ago

Everyone who worked on that space junk is dead?

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse