SolderSmoke Daily News — Ham Radio Blog
Serving the worldwide community of radio-electronic homebrewers. Providing blog support to the SolderSmoke podcast: http://soldersmoke.com
We were searching for this last year. Oleg, RV3GM, finally found the schematic for the transmitter in the Sputnik satellite.
ftp://ftp.radio.ru/pub/2013/04/55.pdf
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Something to be considered by those hoping to win the Elser-Mathes Cup.
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-108
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Wow, Vanguard even looks like a QRPp satellite.
I suspected that something was up: I noticed that Mike Rainey, AA1TJ has recently been crossing pond with a QRPp Germanium rig… Then Steve “Snort Rosin” Smith clued me in: The next period of Vanguard QRPp Activity Days begins tomorrow. “Club 72” has a nice write up, and a nice collection of pictures of the Vanguard rigs that have been built around the world:
http://www.club72.su/vanguard.html
Go Germanium! Go Vanguard!
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OVERVIEW from Planetary Collective on Vimeo.
Every once in a while, it’s a good idea to step back and consider the big picture.
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Very cool: Japanese students sent up a small satellite. One of its capabilities is to flash Morse code messages in the visible light range using LEDs. Prepare to peg your geek meter:
http://www.fit.ac.jp/~tanaka/fitsat.shtml
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3 October from AA1TJ:
Here’s an admittedly late reminder that the Sputnik Party begins
tomorrow (4 October). I’ve been preoccupied with non-hobby concerns in
recent months but I did manage to throw something together for the
event.
My transmitter follows the lines of the 10mW, battery-powered, RF
beacon that was carried into orbit in 1958 by “Vanguard 1.” You may
recall this is the one Premier Nikita Khrushchev characterized as “the
grapefruit satellite.”
My present build uses essentially the same circuitry and componentry
as did an earlier, 20m version; details of which can be found at
http://aa1tj.blogspot.com/2012/06/vanguard-1-satellite-transmitter.html
The 15m version drives a 44m end-fed wire with 30milliWatts.
The receiver that I built for the event is essentially a “Q-multiplier
-> detector” type regenerative job. However, the Q-multiplication is
accomplished by a parametric amplification using a quartz-crystal
controlled pump. I thought it would be historically appropriate given
that parametric amplifiers were all the rage in the late 1950’s.
I put together the keying and R/T changeover circuitry this morning.
When it appeared that “all systems were go” I began sending CQs on
21.060MHz. The band, or at least that portion of the band (the
receiver only tunes from 21.060 to 21.064MHz), seemed rather quiet,
but my 6th call netted a “dit dit dah dah dit dit.” Resending my call,
I was very pleased to hear HB9DCL come back to me from just outside of
Zurich. The reports were 579/339. Frank was running 5W to a log
periodic antenna. I sure hope this is a sign of things to come!
I hope to be at the key by 1300Z tomorrow. Although my little
“grapefruit” only puts out 30mW, folks running “Sputniks” made from
ex-Soviet subminiature “rod tubes” should be at least two S-units
stronger. A number of European stations will be operating this year
and at least one station that I know of will be QRV from Japan. Just
listen for the beeps and give them a call!
Thank you,
Mike, AA1TJ
…………………..
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Jim, K1KJW, and others alerted me to this very cool move by the inventive minds at JPL. They put a Morse Code pattern in the tire treads of the Curiosity rover. So now as it drives around, it spells out JPL in the Martian regolith.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/news/msl20120829f.html
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As I’m sure is the case with many of you, Neil Armstrong was one of my childhood heroes. Neil passed away yesterday. His family made a very nice request for those wishing to do something on the occasion of his passing:
“For those who may ask what they can do to honor Neil, we have a simple request. Honor his example of service, accomplishment and modesty, and the next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink.”
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Maybe it’s because I’ve done some parachuting myself… I was really blown away by this picture. Taken by the Mars Orbiter as Curiosity descended.
And here is the initial low-res video from the rover itself. Very cool.
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The Olympics are fun but the real big event tonight will be the rover Curiosity’s landing on Mars.
What an amazing machine! The Atlantic has a collection of photos guaranteed to get you psyched for the descent to Mars and the exploration that will follow. Fingers crossed!
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Billy’s Arduino Uno board arrived yesterday and he has been working on getting the LED to blink. (We bought the board with funds generated by people who have been entering Amazon through the SolderSmoke blog site — thanks.) We really like the little Italian board. On it you will find a map of Italy, including Sardinia and Sicily. And there is a notation on the board noting that its production was carbon neutral. Bravi!
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Here is a recent e-mail exchange between Michael, AA1TJ, and Dale, W4OP. (Dale happens to be the fellow who built the W1FB Barebones Superhet that I am currently using on 17 meters. Details on this caper appear in SolderSmoke — The Book).
—————————————————-
From AA1TJ:
Wahoo…Dale, you amazing!
You are my first QSO with the Vanguard 1 reproduction satellite beacon transmitter. My circuit is a fairly close copy of the one shown on the lower left-hand corner of the 1959 CQ Magazine article (notice the output signal pick-off shown in this schematic is incorrect, or at least incomplete). My circuit uses link-coupled output impedance matching, which is similar to the only other documentation that I was able to dig up. The attached image “Early_Microlock_Bcn.jpg” was snipped from an original NASA report on the transmitter used in early airborne and sub-orbital tests leading up to the Vanguard flights.
Yes, you heard correctly. I’m using a Philco 2N504 surface-barrier transistor, but please let me back up a bit.
Roger Easton (a native Vermonter…and still resides here!) was at the helm of the communications development for the Vanguard/Minitrack project. Of the Vanguard “grapefruit” satellite beacon transmitters, he wrote in the May 2008 issue of High Frontier magazine
“We tried subminiature tube transmitters first. They worked marginally. Finally, Bell Telephone/Western Electric developed a very nice transistor for the task, and the problem was solved.”
However, that leaves out a small detail. They first tried Philco surface-barrier transistors, which worked fine on the bench, however two problems were discovered. They were found to be too temperature sensitive; the RF output power from the one-stage transmitter dropped excessively at elevated temps. Secondly, there was some issue with the packaging that produced erratic operation when the transistor was rotated positionally. The Western Electric devices proved better on both counts.
The WE transistor appears to be “unobtainium” these days. That, plus the fact that my circuit won’t be flying up to space anytime soon, prompted me to settle on a Philco 2N504. Although my device was manufactured in September of 1959 (Vanguard TV-4 – re-Christened “Vanguard 1” – first orbited on March 17, 1958), the 2N504 was an off-the-shelf item on the launch-date.
The only other obvious difference is the Vanguard 1 beacon circuit operated on 108MHz, whereas mine is presently working on 14.0596MHz. I recently had it running as a beacon on 10m for 48 hours but I had no luck given present band conditions.
The receiver is a simple, 0-V-0 regenerative set using a single Raytheon QF721 (fabricated in February 1953). I heard little activity on 20m when I started up my auto-keyer this morning. I had it looping 3X1 CQs whilst I worked on another project. To make matters more difficult, the exhaust fan was running in my shop and it happened to be raining heavily when you called. Worse yet, the receiver had drifted off my calling frequency by the time you called. I barely discerned a high-pitched CW “1” or “J”…which prompted me to quickly switch off the fan and re-tune. You were subsequently a solid 579.
Of course my heart jumped when I heard you calling me…how I love that feeling! And it was a fabulous QSO so far as I’m concerned. Following our contact I opened my metal index card file box and pulled out the QSL that you sent to me following our “Code Talker” QSO. To think I now have another happy memory to add to that one! Thank you once again, Dale. It figures you’d be the one to pick-off my unannounced presence on the 20m QRP calling frequency with 25mW. Well done, OM.
Also, you might enjoy this video of the actual launch, including some interesting control room audio banter. It may be found here: http://www.nrl.navy.mil/vanguard50/index.php. The way at least one of them nervously repeats, “Keep going baby!” gives some indication of the pressure these guys were under…having failed so spectacularly on two previous occasions.
All the best,
Mike, AA1TJ
Hi Michael,That was fun!I first heard you on my SG-2020 rig, but did not have a paddle handy, so I fired up the K3. I don’t ever recall having QRN on 20M, but it was bad. Without it, you were 579 and even with it, 569 towards the end of the QSO.I just happened to be QRV on 060 listening when I heard your CQ’s. Not bad for a 25mW signal from (I think you said) a Philco transistor.73,Dale W4OP
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Take a look at this NASA page on zero gravity soldering. Just look at that rosin go!
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2004/16aug_solder/
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I was out on the national mall yesterday morning to watch the Shuttle Discovery (atop a 747) fly over Washington DC en route to Dulles Airport and the Smithsonian Museum. Having watched Discovery when it was in orbit it was kind of bittersweet to see it go by this way. The event reminded me of going out to Hyde Park in London to watch the final overflight of the Concorde SSTs.
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Today is Sputnik Anniversary Day! Michael, AA1TJ, and his intrepid international band of solder melters will be putting their homebrew Soviet-parts rigs on 15 meters! I will be listening with my HQ-100. This is all discussed on SolderSmoke 138, which I have just uploaded:
http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke138.mp3
October 4, 2011
A Meteor and Jupiter: Cosmic Birthday Present!
Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot — Lots of interesting radio info
On the cover of “Hot Iron”!!!!
The HW-7 Philosophy and Way of Life
Sputnik Anniversary
Getting my 2B back on 17
Preparing for a return of sunspots and 17 meters
Raiding Radio Shack (for 2N2222s!)
The Autumn SPRAT
MAILBAG
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October 4 is approaching and I DO NOT have a homebrew Sputnik transmitter in the works. I hang my head in shame. AA1TJ sent me the parts, but they went to one of my many APO or FPO addresses, so I suspect they are orbiting around the Azores, or London, or Lisbon, or Rome. I’m sure they will reach me eventually.
But I have come up with a way to participate in this historic event even without a homebrew replica transmitter: I will be listening for the Sputnik transmitters, and I will be doing so with a receiver of that era, a receiver that could have been used by some earnest teenager eagerly tuning for the beeps of the overhead RED MENACE. Like the intrepid young man in the picture. What a great shot! Wow, that’s Roy Welch W0SL, then W5SLL! When I got into satellites in the Dominican Republic in 1994, the first tracking program that we used was Orbits II… by Roy Welch. We loved that software. From the AMSAT page: “Roy and his two-year-old daughter would put the radio speaker in a window and then go outside and listen to the strong signals while they watched the third stage booster tumbling end over end like a bright pulsating star as it passed over in the evening sky.“
I will be using a Hammarlund. Moore’s “Communication Receivers” says my HQ-100 was made between 1956 and 1960. PERFECT! (Mine was probably in the Dominican Republic on October 4, 1957.)
By the way, I got into the old Electric Radio magazines again, reading some more of Lew McCoy’s wonderful reminiscences. He reports that during the Sputnik period he — and apparently others — were asked by their Uncle Sam to use their skills to monitor Soviet space activities.
Let the beeping begin! (Sputnik signals recorded by Roy Welch:
http://www.amsat.org/amsat/features/sounds/Sputnk1b-144.ra)
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When I heard of the terrible floods in Vermont, I thought immediately of OM Michael, AA1TJ (aka Comrade Mikhail, the Chief Designer) and his underground hamshack. I heard this morning that Michael is high and dry, up at his mountain top lair (the TV transmitter). Here is an update on the Sputnik project:
Fellas,
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So I was sitting in the shack yesterday morning, drinking coffee and listening to IGY by Donald Fagen on Pandora, when I heard what I thought was an alarm. I thought it might have been a smoke detector going off (always a real possibility in the N2CQR shack!). It took me a moment to realize that what I was hearing was the device pictured above. I’d left my 2 meter HT tuned to 145.950 MHz, and Arissat-1 was breaking squelch with SSTV tones. Very cool.
Later, I was thinking about this as I pedaled along on my bike. I remembered our recent discussion of Copthorne MacDonald, inventor of SSTV. Way to go Cop!
It is easy to join in the fun. Just tune you two meter gear to 145.950 and leave it there. You’ll soon be alarmed just as I was.
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I just got back from a vacation trip to New York City (amazing place!) and found out that yesterday Russian cosmonauts launched the ARISSat amateur radio satellite. This one looks like lot of fun. It has a two meter downlink. I’ll be doing some listening, and my try to get some of the SSTV signals.
Uh oh…. Just read a post from Mark over on Brainwagon reporting on some problems with the deployment:
http://brainwagon.org/2011/08/03/arissat-1-is-off-to-a-bumpy-start/
Details on how to use the satellite can be found here:
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/ARISSat/ARISSatHowTo.php
Our book: “SolderSmoke — Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics”http://soldersmoke.com/book.htmOur coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmokeOur Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20
Our book: “SolderSmoke — Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics”http://soldersmoke.com/book.htmOur coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmokeOur Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20