It's 50 years Sputnik 1 was launched. And pretty much all it had was a
few transmitters keying on and off carriers at 20.005 and 40.002MHz
(when on was off the other was on) and the rate of keying was related to
the internal air pressure inside the transmitter housing (they use
convective cooling). I would imagine that they used a few vacuum tubes,
probably filament "pencil" tubes, as transistors were not enough
advanced to run at these frequencioes. I've seen pictures of the
physical hardware boxes, but are there any diagrams of the circuits used
on the web?

I suppose a satellite is the inverse of a boatanchor. :-)

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

"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.

On Sun, 7 Oct 2007 11:44:39 -0700, "The Shadow"
wrote:

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

Were you at Convair in 1957?

--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

On Fri, 05 Oct 2007 16:24:38 -0400, Robert Casey
wrote:

It's 50 years Sputnik 1 was launched. And pretty much all it had was a
few transmitters keying on and off carriers at 20.005 and 40.002MHz
(when on was off the other was on) and the rate of keying was related to
the internal air pressure inside the transmitter housing (they use
convective cooling). I would imagine that they used a few vacuum tubes,
probably filament "pencil" tubes, as transistors were not enough
advanced to run at these frequencioes. I've seen pictures of the
physical hardware boxes, but are there any diagrams of the circuits used
on the web?

I suppose a satellite is the inverse of a boatanchor. :-)

There is a great deal of technical information on Sputnik here (no
diagrams) http://www.arrl.org/news/features/2007/09/28/03/

The article makes reference to the Institute of Radio Technology
whereby they flew a duplicate of the Sputnik 20 Mhz transmitter for
receiving practice. I made a quick search, but didn't find anything
on that organization.

Dick - W6CCD

--
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"Dick" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 7 Oct 2007 11:44:39 -0700, "The Shadow"
wrote:

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

Were you at Convair in 1957?

--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com


Dick I replied to your QRZ address
Lamont

I remember being in a friend's shack in Detroit, after school, listening
to Sputnik on an RME-4300 receiver @20 Mcs. If I'm not mistaken, the
signal was a keyed "U" for the USSR.

The Shadow wrote:

"Dick" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 7 Oct 2007 11:44:39 -0700, "The Shadow"
wrote:

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

Were you at Convair in 1957?

--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com


Dick I replied to your QRZ address
Lamont