"Phil Nelson" wrote in message
...
I have been wondering the same thing. They must have used tubes . . . but
what, exactly?

First one to build a working replica of a Sputnik transmitter wins the
prize :-)

Phil Nelson

ARRL Article at URL:
http://www.arrl.org/news/features/2007/09/28/03/

Sez
The Transmitters

The radios on board Sputnik are described as D-200 units and were designed
by a member of Korolev's design team named V. I. Lappo. 11 The meaning of
the D-200 designation is unclear and our research thus far has failed to
produce a schematic of this transmitter, but Tikhonravov, in a presentation
before the 24th International Astronautical Congress in 1973, characterized
the transmitters as "vacuum valve-type" with a power of 1 watt. 12 Figure 3
shows the transmitter unit mounted adjacent to the antenna connections in
the front casing half. One transmitter operated on a frequency of 20.005 MHz
(megacycles in 1957) and the other on 40.002 MHz. The choice of these
frequencies not only allowed reception by amateurs using existing equipment
but also enabled a receiver set at exactly 20 or 40 MHz to produce an audio
tone plus or minus the Doppler shift without ever going through zero Hz.
This insured that the telemetry was audible throughout an entire pass
without additional tuning of the receiver.

Lamont who saw the booster rocket in the sky in 1957.

As I recall an Amateur at Convair Pomona -- heard transmissions on his Ham
gear.