Things to ponder

I can't say there's been much excitement radiowise again this past week.  The closest thing to radio I can muster today is a fantastic colour photo as Sputnik 1 was launched, a mere 63 years ago, on 05th October, 1957 (local time: UTC launch was 04 October, 19:28UTC; Baikonur is UTC+6 hrs).

It's quite strange if you imagine yourself at the Baikonur launch site, when there was nothing at all man made in orbit around the earth.  The colour image, especially of the late dusk sky, makes everything very familiar, yet it's a very different era.

Sputnik 1 had a 1 Watt transmitter sending beeps at both 20.005 and 40.002 MHz.  The launch of Sputnik provided the scientists developing the world-famous Jodrell bank radio telescope with the significant additional funds they needed to complete the structure, so that the new satellites could be monitored.

Today, there are about 9,000 satellites in orbit, the number rising very quickly, notably due to the controversial Starlink project.  

 

 

At risk of cancellation due to serious cost overruns, Sputnik 1's arrival made completion of Jodrell Bank assured, and the launch rocket - an R7 ICBM, was tracked by the telescope in radar mode.  Image: Getty.