{"id":10104,"date":"2011-07-19T10:22:00","date_gmt":"2011-07-19T00:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/2011\/07\/19\/royal-order-of-the-sputnik-clone-chasers\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T03:51:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T17:51:13","slug":"royal-order-of-the-sputnik-clone-chasers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/2011\/07\/19\/royal-order-of-the-sputnik-clone-chasers\/","title":{"rendered":"Royal Order of the Sputnik Clone Chasers"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><a onblur=\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/kettering.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 303px;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/kettering.jpg\" alt=\"\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5631007260354312306\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><span style=\"font-size:85%;\">Kettering Group, UK<\/span><br \/><span style=\"font-size:130%;\"><span style=\"font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:130%;\"><span style=\"font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">From the Chief Designer (AA1TJ):<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;\">Fellas,<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;\">I came across an online blurb for the recent book, <\/span><i style=\"font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;\">Sputnik: The Shock of the Century, by Paul Dickson<\/i><span style=\"font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;\">; a worthwhile read, judging from the introduction and first chapter.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a style=\"font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.sputnikbook.net\/intro.php\"><span class=\"yshortcuts\" id=\"lw_1311070823_0\">http:\/\/www.sputnikbook.net\/intro.php<\/span><\/a><\/span> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sputnikbook.net\/intro.php\"><span style=\"font-size:130%;\"><br \/><\/span><\/a> <\/p>\n<p style=\"font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;\"><span style=\"font-size:130%;\">&#8220;Someone brought out a shortwave radio, and soon a beeping noise filled the room. A Russian scientist, Anatoli Blagonravov, confirmed it was Sputnik. &#8220;That is the voice,&#8221; he said dramatically. &#8220;I recognize it.&#8221; John Townsend Jr., one of the scientists at the party, recalled watching Blagonravov: &#8220;I knew him quite well, and I could tell that he was a little surprised and quite proud. My reaction was &#8216;Damn!'&#8221; <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;\"><span style=\"font-size:130%;\"> And so an abstraction now had a voice. It also had a name &#8211; Sputnik. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;\"><span style=\"font-size:130%;\"> Many of those at the party adjourned to the Soviet Embassy&#8217;s rooftop, attempting to view Sputnik with the naked eye. Several of the American scientists drifted over to the American IGY headquarters in <\/span><span style=\"border-bottom: 2px dotted rgb(54, 99, 136); cursor: pointer;font-size:130%;\" class=\"yshortcuts\" id=\"lw_1311070823_1\" >Washington<\/span><span style=\"font-size:130%;\">, where they began speculating on what impact the satellite would have. They feared that the American people would be disappointed. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;\"><span style=\"font-size:130%;\"> It also dawned on them that they had better start tracking the satellite&#8217;s orbit. They got in touch with the <\/span><span style=\"border-bottom: 2px dotted rgb(54, 99, 136); cursor: pointer; background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;font-size:130%;\" class=\"yshortcuts\" id=\"lw_1311070823_2\" >American Radio Relay League<\/span><span style=\"font-size:130%;\"> in <\/span><span style=\"border-bottom: 2px dotted rgb(54, 99, 136); cursor: pointer;font-size:130%;\" class=\"yshortcuts\" id=\"lw_1311070823_3\" >West Hartford, Connecticut<\/span><span style=\"font-size:130%;\">, asking its 70,000 members-all &#8220;ham&#8221; radio operators-to lend a hand and help track the Sputnik. In less than twenty-four hours, reports on the satellite were coming back to the National Science Foundation, where a temporary control room had been established. Eventually, these hams and other amateur and professional trackers would consider themselves part of a great international fellowship known as ROOSCH, or the Royal Order of Sputnik Chasers.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;\"><span style=\"font-size:130%;\">That&#8217;s right guys&#8230;ROOSCH&#8230;the Royal Order of Sputnik Chasers. And to think that fifty four years later a second great international fellowship would rise from the ashes&#8230;ROOSCCH, or the Royal Order of Sputnik Clone Chasers! ;o)<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;\"><span style=\"font-size:130%;\">(BTW, October 4, 1957 is an important date in American history for a second reason. On that evening the first episode of Leave it to Beaver made its debut.)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;..<br \/><span style=\"font-size:130%;\"><br \/><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">I thought we should also at this point remember the intrepid lads of the Kettering Group, pictured above. (Some of those dudes look like they would have been right at home in &#8220;Leave it to Beaver.&#8221;) For more info on their amazing Sputnik adventures go here: <\/span><br \/><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size:130%;\"><a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.svengrahn.pp.se\/trackind\/getstart\/oldcyts.htm\">http:\/\/www.svengrahn.pp.se\/trackind\/getstart\/oldcyts.htm<\/a><a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.svengrahn.pp.se\/trackind\/getstart\/oldcyts.htm\"><br \/><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">and here<\/span><br \/><a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.svengrahn.pp.se\/trackind\/trackin1.htm#KEttrack\">http:\/\/www.svengrahn.pp.se\/trackind\/trackin1.htm#KEttrack<\/a><\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.svengrahn.pp.se\/trackind\/trackin1.htm#KEttrack\"><span style=\"font-size:130%;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><br \/><span style=\"font-size:130%;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Check out &#8220;SolderSmoke &#8212; Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics&#8221;<\/span><br \/><a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" href=\"http:\/\/soldersmoke.com\/book.htm\">http:\/\/soldersmoke.com\/book.htm<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kettering Group, UK From the Chief Designer (AA1TJ): Fellas, I came across an online blurb for the recent book, Sputnik: The Shock of the Century, by Paul Dickson; a worthwhile read, judging from the introduction and first chapter. http:\/\/www.sputnikbook.net\/intro.php &#8220;Someone brought out a shortwave radio, and soon a beeping noise filled the room. A Russian &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/2011\/07\/19\/royal-order-of-the-sputnik-clone-chasers\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Royal Order of the Sputnik Clone Chasers&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10105,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[157,462,31,86,96,82,119],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aa1tj","category-igy","category-radio-history","category-rainey-michael","category-russia","category-satellites","category-uk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10104"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10106,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10104\/revisions\/10106"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}