With the 50th anniversary of Sputnik this Thursday, I've added to W0RPK's list of interesting sites on the Internet along with a couple of our member's reminiscences for publication in our local contesting club (Potomac Valley Radio Club) newsletter.

Enjoy!

Eric W3DQ Washington, DC

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AUDIO ITEMS ON SPUTNIK FROM NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO:

Weekend Edition Sunday (Sept 30, 2007) Space Race Permeated Pop Culture http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14845436

News Analysis: Remembering Sputnik by Daniel Shorr http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14841107

Sputnik: The Shock of the Century' Interview with Author Paul Dickson http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14841104

All Things Considered (Sept 30, 2007) Sputnik Left Legacy for U.S. Science Education www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14829195

Weekend Edition Saturday (Sept 29, 2007) Khrushchev, Schorr Look Back on Sputnik http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14829415

Talk of the Nation (Sept 28, 2007: 45 min) Sputnik I, the First Satellite to Orbit Earth, Turns 50 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14799200

All Things Considered: (Oct 4, 2002) Walter Cronkite: How Sputnik Changed the World http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1151147

All Things Considered (Oct 4, 1999) Sputnik Anniversary http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1064887

All Things Considered (Oct 1, 1998) Sputnik Satellite Inspired Congress to Create NASA http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1033054

Talk of the Nation (Oct 3, 1997: 1 hr.) SPUTNIK http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1010850

All Things Considered (Oct 4, 1987) Igor Kripinov: I Remember Sputnik http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4462087

SPUTNIK HISTORICAL INFORMATION Sputnik-1 http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/database/MasterCatalog?sc=1957-001B

Sounds of Sputnik http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/sound/sputnik.wav

Full-scale replica at the National Air & Space Museum http://www.nasm.si.edu/exhibitions/gal100/sputnikclsup.jpg

Korolev, Sputnik, and The International Geophysical Year http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/sputnik/siddiqi.html

Thrills of the Earliest Days http://www.svengrahn.pp.se/trackind/getstart/oldcyts.htm

Geoff Perry's radio work with his students at the Kettering (UK) School was highlighted in a "NOVA" television documentary, "The Schoolboys Who Cracked The Soviet Secret", which first aired in December 1989. The group continued to operate after Mr. Perry's retirement from teaching in 1984. Perry and his associates published numerous reports in the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society and in US government publications as well.

DID YOU HEAR SPUTNIK?

from Jim W3CP: “My W3CPB logbook has a note for 7 Oct. 1957: "20.03 mc heard Russian satellite at 0305 GMT for about 5 min" and "20.006 mc heard from 2318 to 2330 GMT.”

The accuracy of those frequencies is uncertain since for receiving I was using a surplus RAX. I had the orbital data as I was working at NRL.

from Chuck, W4XP: “Not only do I remember listening to Sputnik 1, even though I was too young to understand the significance, but Sputnik II about a year later (at least I was told it was Sputnik 2). I also remember sitting in the ham shack of my Friend Terry Perrault, WA6MVV (SK), not very many years later, listening to OSCAR-1's HI. from Bob, W9GE: “We listened to Sputnik on my dads Hallicrafters S20R. Amazing how far we have come technologically and politically since that day. You must be a bit older...I was to young for chem in 1957. But not too old to have Polio that year. Remember that stuff?

from Ron W8RJL: “How many of you actually heard Sputnik live? I sure did. I was standing in my grandmother's kitchen when I heard the first news flash about the Russians launching Sputnik. I'll never forget that day. The announcer told the orbital speed (unbelievable) and described a satellite but there was no telemetry audio broadcast at that time. Somewhere I read about the telemetry frequency (near the 15 meter band) so I turned on my Hallicrafter S-76 and using my home brew 15 meter 2 element Yagi heard Sputnik come over the horizon, pass over, and die away. Wow what an experience!!! I got out the tape recorder and made a tape which I gave to WCHI the local radio station plus I took my recorder to high school so everyone in my chemistry class could listen to it. One of my classmate's father was a photographer for the local newspaper. She told her dad about the tape and soon after I made the front page of the Chillicothe Ohio newspaper with a photo of my station. It was a good plug for ham radio.

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