OU Course on Moons of the Solar System
Discussion
Not just them. Jodrell listened to 11 landing and plotted the shift and marked the point at which they touched down. They were also keeping an eye on the Russians who were running a spoiler at the time. Radio and TV have been bounced off the Moon, though I think the latter did not return any usable signal but at least a recognisable TV signal (on a scope or analyser rather than a TV).
"EME" or moonbounce is still done on amateur radio. I won't say it is easy, but it is certainly easier than it was, thanks to inexpensive low noise components from commercial satellite and terrestrial mobile phone equipment. Have a look on YouTube for EME Moonbounce.
e.g.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEHqcs8GZvM
This one starts with the operator listening to his own Morse moonbounce, which has a rather ethereal echo. Then it starts to get more interesting, its not every day you see a Kaman twin rotor helicopter! Not much of interest after that, other than wondering where they got the money to build that sort of ground station hardware.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbrqm7z9FOI
This one has a 10 metre dish, resulting in a surprisingly clear signal:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3XlAgl4FBU
e.g.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEHqcs8GZvM
This one starts with the operator listening to his own Morse moonbounce, which has a rather ethereal echo. Then it starts to get more interesting, its not every day you see a Kaman twin rotor helicopter! Not much of interest after that, other than wondering where they got the money to build that sort of ground station hardware.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbrqm7z9FOI
This one has a 10 metre dish, resulting in a surprisingly clear signal:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3XlAgl4FBU
Goonhilly has been sold to an independent operator and they got a few dishes in the bargain. Imagine one of them at your disposal, they are trying to get on the list to assist in deep space tracking among other things. 26 meter dish at your disposal......
OK. For the real enthusiast I expect there is a certain amount of asking nicely? I'll take it away for you etc?
OK. For the real enthusiast I expect there is a certain amount of asking nicely? I'll take it away for you etc?
Eric Mc said:
Jodrell actually scooped the Russians on a couple of occasions by releasing Russian images from lunar probes before the Russians themselves had issued them.
I wasn't aware of that. I remember my Dad taking me to Jodrell Bank as a child, probably aged 9 at the time, I was utterly fascinated by these strips of white paper with holes punched in.After the tour I got a go with 3 or 5 metre dish connected to an oscilloscope, I remember driving it to point at the setting sun, seeing a spike on the screen and thinking I was the first to ever do that!
Many years later I worked for ICI/Zeneca Pharmaceuticals at Alderly Park, I was looking after a lot of the lab kit, balances, HPLC kit, gas chromatigraphs, Radio Immunone Assay kit. There were one or two windows where you could look out and see Jodrrell Bank, I always wondered what they were looking out at whilst I was looking inwards at blood, urine and poop samples.
TheExcession said:
I remember driving it to point at the setting sun, seeing a spike on the screen and thinking I was the first to ever do that!
Look up solar outage...We all get hit twice a year usually October is and March, it. Give or take. There will be web sites that give the info, depending on how inline that pesky sun is depends on your outage and signal strength before etc. You can time it to the second if there is a hit on a channel. Celestial mechanics eh?
jmorgan said:
TheExcession said:
I remember driving it to point at the setting sun, seeing a spike on the screen and thinking I was the first to ever do that!
Look up solar outage...We all get hit twice a year usually October is and March, it. Give or take. There will be web sites that give the info, depending on how inline that pesky sun is depends on your outage and signal strength before etc. You can time it to the second if there is a hit on a channel. Celestial mechanics eh?
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