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October 4, 2007
Beep, beep. Don't blame me.
Beep, beep. Don't blame me. Blame Google.
The satellites made me do it. They're talking to me. They told me --
Blame Richard E. Parent. "Holy Crap,' he started it.
Blame Paul Martin, He started it first, and he keeps doing it.
Blame the Russians. If it weren't for them, there wouldn't be satellites, and none of this would have started.
Beep, beep. Don't blame me. Blame the Russians.
50 years ago today, Sputnik 1 was launched into outerspace, signaling, on one hand, the beginning of the space age ("astro-geopolitics") and a new era in the cold war ("geopolitics").
I don't remember the details of that day, but I do have several impressions of it.
The first impression was of the people in the neighborhood standing around in their yards after dark, looking up at the sky. My mom, my dad, my sister and I were outside. Mext door, the Braco family was out, Nono and nana Braco, their daughter and her husband, Mr. and Mrs Rattica, and their granddaughter Joanne were out also.
Would we be able to see it? What would it be like to see it? Would we even know it if we saw it? We didn't see it, and I don't think we ever saw it. (The US satellite Echo was the first one we say - it was a giant balloon in outerspace, designed especially to be easy to see. You couldn't miss it.)
We never did see it. The next night I was the only one outside. A couple of days after that, I gave up.
The closest I got to sputnik was with my Hallicrafters Shortwave radio. I was able to pick it up several times. I remembered the frequency as something like 21 Mhz - an easy band to listen too - generally clear of static. (A web search today identified the frequency as 20.0005 Mhz, just a notch about WWV, the standard time station.) [1]
Beep, beep. Don't blame me. Blame Sony and the RIAA
While looking for Sputnik sounds, I came across a great site that preserves old sounds.
Signals from Outer Space. Actual recordings of the Signals Broadcast by the first Earth Satellite. October, 1957.
Side A features the satellite signals. When I first heard them, I just thought that they were strange. Later, working in the predecessor of UC Berkeley's Space Science Lab, I recognized that they were "telemetry signals." (I'm sure that somewhere on the web is the signal decoding algorithm that would turn the noise into data.)
Side B features a radio-dramatic re-enactment of the Sputnik launch, done in appropriate 1950's news feature style. The countdown is in Russian. The tagline recognizes that this is a step "for mankind."
The narration maked me wish for Jean Sheperd's telling of this story, but google failed me.
Beep, beep. Don't blame me. Blame Unix
Beep, beep. Don't blame me.
I don't try to drive my car, eat an egg mcmuffin, and chat on my cell phone. At the same time. Ever.
Notes:
[1] Ralph H. Didlake, KK5PM and Oleg P. Odinets, RA3DNC , Sputnik and Amateur Radio, AARL, September 28, 2007. http://www.arrl.org/news/features/2007/09/28/03/
[2] Waxidermy, Signals from Outer Space, http://waxidermy.com/2006/05/26/signals-from-outer-space/
Posted by sjc at October 4, 2007 7:09 PM
Comments
Talking on your cell phone while eating? How rude. Of course you shouldn't do that!
Posted by: Hope Greenberg 
at October 5, 2007 9:38 AM
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