I have been asked if any of the Explorer I recordings were still available in WAV, etc format. There is one posted at http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/index.php. Select the "Select a Topic" drop down menu and scroll down to "Sounds from the first satellites." There are a few recordings there with the info about the recordings. One of them is the Explorer I telemetry. You will hear several constant audio tones with one of them shifting between two tones. There was a geiger counter on board that counted cosmic ray particles according to the info I have read. After a certain number had been counted the tone shifted and after another quantity had been counted it shifted back again.
The 108 mHz antenna was a six element colinear arrangement consisting of six half waves (wire elements) suspended over a 13x13 ft wooden frame covered with chicken wire laying on the roof of my house. This oriented it up about 75-80 degrees above the southern horizon. No tracking. The satellites had to fly through the main lobe of the antenna pattern.
The receiving arrangement was a modified TeCraft (I think) converter with a 6BQ7 TV RF amplifier front end feeding an National NC-300 Amateur band receiver. Not very good as noise figures go today but pretty good for 1958.
I still have all of the original reel to reel tapes, some of their contents transferred to cassette tape.
Roy wrote:
I have been asked if any of the Explorer I recordings were still available in WAV, etc format. There is one posted at http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/index.php. Select the "Select a Topic" drop down menu and scroll down to "Sounds from the first satellites." There are a few recordings there with the info about the recordings. One of them is the Explorer I telemetry. You will hear several constant audio tones with one of them shifting between two tones. There was a geiger counter on board that counted cosmic ray particles according to the info I have read. After a certain number had been counted the tone shifted and after another quantity had been counted it shifted back again.
Explorer 1 may not have been the first satellite in space, but it was the first to make a significant scientific discovery -- the Van Allen belts. That particle detector stopped reading above about 2,000 miles because it was saturated by the extremely high count.
I wonder if any of these recordings show that happening.
Hi Phil, Gosh it's been a long time since I last saw/heard you. I can't recall, but I think initially you were still with Ma Bell weren't you? I've been retired since 1991.
In answer to your question, I don't think any of my recordings showed such a counter stoppage. If it did, I wasn't recording at the time. The receiving setup was not very good for extended periods of tracking what with a fixed antenna. I just found the old Life Magazine article about that launch. I must have tucked it away in the bottom of the trunk and forgotten about it.
Roy
Phil Karn wrote:
Roy wrote:
I have been asked if any of the Explorer I recordings were still available in WAV, etc format. There is one posted at http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/index.php. Select the "Select a Topic" drop down menu and scroll down to "Sounds from the first satellites." There are a few recordings there with the info about the recordings. One of them is the Explorer I telemetry. You will hear several constant audio tones with one of them shifting between two tones. There was a geiger counter on board that counted cosmic ray particles according to the info I have read. After a certain number had been counted the tone shifted and after another quantity had been counted it shifted back again.
Explorer 1 may not have been the first satellite in space, but it was the first to make a significant scientific discovery -- the Van Allen belts. That particle detector stopped reading above about 2,000 miles because it was saturated by the extremely high count.
I wonder if any of these recordings show that happening.
participants (2)
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Phil Karn -
Roy