
American satellite started transmitting again after being abandoned in 1967 - csirac2
https://www.thevintagenews.com/2015/10/23/american-satellite-started-transmitting-46-years-after-being-abandoned-in-1967
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csirac2
Here's a recording of what it transmits (just a carrier, probably modulated by
voltage fluctuations from the solar panels as it tumbles):
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxqwZ42NyLw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxqwZ42NyLw)

~~~
Johnny555
Interestingly, the article says that the signal was picked up by an amateur in
North Cornwall (in the UK?) in 2013, but the video you linked to was posted in
2012 by a ham from Brazil.

~~~
petecooper
>(in the UK?)

Correct. I live near Bude, north Cornwall, UK and can confirm this.

Local attractions include GCHQ Bude[1], TAT-3[2], TAT-14[3], CANTAT-1[4],
Apollo[5], TAT-8[6], AC-2[7], EIG[8] and GLO-1[9].

Unrelated but relevant: Henry Bottinger, former AT&T big cheese and author of
possibly the finest book I've read on getting your point across to an
audience[10], lives a few hundred metres up the road from me. Nice guy, too.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GCHQ_Bude](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GCHQ_Bude)

[2] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAT-3](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAT-3)

[3]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAT-14](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAT-14)

[4]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CANTAT-1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CANTAT-1)

[5]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_(submarine_communicatio...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_\(submarine_communications_cable\))

[6] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAT-8](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAT-8)

[7]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AC-2_(cable_system)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AC-2_\(cable_system\))

[8]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EIG_(cable_system)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EIG_\(cable_system\))

[9]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GLO-1_(cable_system)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GLO-1_\(cable_system\))

[10] [http://www.amazon.co.uk/Moving-Mountains-Letting-Others-
Thin...](http://www.amazon.co.uk/Moving-Mountains-Letting-Others-
Things/dp/0020792506)

~~~
zatkin
Did you mean "Henry M. Boettinger"? [http://techchannel.att.com/play-
video.cfm/2011/2/14/AT&T-Arc...](http://techchannel.att.com/play-
video.cfm/2011/2/14/AT&T-Archives-1976---To-Communicate-Is-The-Beginning)

~~~
petecooper
Yes, that's him. We occasionally chat about mundane things at the local store.
Alzheimer's disease hasn't been kind, so he needs some friendly help and
assistance from time to time.

~~~
zatkin
That's so sad, sorry to hear about that. :(

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dstyrb
I, for one, am glad they split that article into two pages; I was getting a
bit intimidated by the length.

~~~
hoinz
lol, but then I realized.. maybe it's done on purpose to validate an article's
appeal.

~~~
Sir_Cmpwn
It's done on purpose to get more ads to your eyeballs.

~~~
ohitsdom
Which is silly since the same ads show on both pages. But I guess the site can
charge twice...

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hmottestad
This site uses "smooth scrolling" which tries to mimic how scrolling on macs
work and subsequently breaking scrolling on mac.

~~~
iSnow
What's extremely infuriating is that I disable smooth scrolling where possible
only to get it shoved down my throat by various sites. Which web designer
comes to the conclusion that overriding a platform-wide choice is a great
idea?

That ranted, on Firefox/Windows it scrolls normally.

~~~
hrrsn
I didn't notice it in Safari on OS X (it scrolled fine), but scrolling with
Chrome on OS X is terrible.

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bencollier49
High quality web-site there plastered with borderline-NSFW social links. Nice.

~~~
parennoob
Another great reason to run an ad blocker. My webpage looked pretty clean, no
"social" links.

~~~
csirac2
Ouch; I also run ad blockerd, or I might've tried to find a more reasonable
page to post (turns out there's a decent blog post with basically the same
information).

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miah_
I found a blog by Andrew Garrott (M0NRD) describing their experience
monitoring the signal, also has a recording.

[http://nerdsville.blogspot.com/2013/03/receiving-
les1-satell...](http://nerdsville.blogspot.com/2013/03/receiving-
les1-satellite-built-in-1965.html)

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jpmattia
Some detail about the Lincoln Experimental Satellites here:
[http://www.hq.nasa.gov/pao/History/SP-4217/ch8.htm](http://www.hq.nasa.gov/pao/History/SP-4217/ch8.htm)

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raddad
[http://starringthecomputer.com/snapshots/independence_day_po...](http://starringthecomputer.com/snapshots/independence_day_powerbook_5300_1.jpg)

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DrScump
Changeling? Uh oh.

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illumen
Everyone who worked on that space junk is dead?

