SB SPACE @ ARL $ARLS034
ARLS034 Sputnik PS 2 heard

ZCZC AS34
QST de W1AW
Space Bulletin 034  ARLS034
From ARRL Headquarters
Newington, CT  November 4, 1997
To all radio amateurs

SB SPACE ARL ARLS034
ARLS034 Sputnik PS 2 heard

Working model Sputnik is on the air.

Reports from several places indicate the working model Sputnik PS2
satellite launched Monday, November 3, from the Mir space station is
beeping away on 145.82 MHz. The one-third scale Sputnik model was
built by students in Russia and France to commemorate the 40th
anniversary of the original Sputnik 1 satellite. Sputnik 1, launched
by the Soviet Union in 1957, was the first artificial Earth
satellite. The original Sputnik 1 transmitted a beacon on
approximately 20 MHz.

The Sputnik model was launched by hand from Mir during a space walk
by Cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov and Anatoly Solovyev, who turned on
the transmitter and checked out reception aboard Mir before launch
with help from US astronaut David Wolf, KC5VPF. The beacon is
audible in either FM or SSB mode. The beacon transmitter runs
approximately 250 mW.

Among those reporting reception of the beacon was Ralph Wallio,
W0RPK, near Des Moines, Iowa. He reports monitoring the Sputnik PS2
on November 3 from 1228 to 1238 UTC. He says the frequency was
approximately 145.827 MHz at acquisition of signal (AOS) to 145.819
at loss of signal.

Mario Cajar, N1NYJ, of New Britain, Connecticut, also heard the
Sputnik on November 4 at approximately 145.82 MHz. Both he and
Wallio indicated that the Sputnik is following approximately the
same orbit as Mir. Cajar reports he heard the beacon signal very
well during a seven-minute pass using a 2-meter hand-held
transceiver and a scanner antenna.

Ray Soifer, W2RS, in Glen Rock, New Jersey, said he heard the
Sputnik model ''loud and clear'' on November 3. ''It was 20 dB over
S9 on my main station receiver, but also full quieting at times on a
hand-held with a rubber duck,'' he said in an Internet posting to
the SAREX group. ''Congratulations to one and all.''

On Reunion Island, a great cheer went up as hams, students and
teachers gathered to listen to the Sputnik model as it passed
overhead on its initial orbit and heard the beacon signal from space
for the first time. Students from the FR5KJ radio club at Jules
Reydellet College in St Denis, Reunion Island, and at the
Polytechnic Laboratory of Nalchik Kabardine in Russia cooperated in
building the mini-Sputnik. The Russian students built the satellite
body, while the French students fabricated the transmitter inside.
Two working models of the Sputnik were assembled and transported to
Mir, but only one was launched.

The 500 mm antennas are circularly polarized. Reception reports go
to FR5KJ, the club station at College Reydellet. Miles Mann, WF1F,
says reception reports also may be sent to Sergei Sambourov, PO Box
73, Kaliningrad-10 City, Moscow Area, 14070, Russia. Include an SASE
and one IRC for a certificate.

The frequency of the beacon indicates the satellite's internal
temperature. The scale runs from 1361 Hz at 50 degrees C to 541 Hz
at minus 40 degrees C. Here's the scale:

Degs (C) Freq (Hz)

  50      1361
  30      1290
  25      1261
  10      1208
   0      1131
 -10      1040
 -20       891
 -30       724
 -40       541
NNNN
/EX