Post by emron on May 9, 2022 17:04:54 GMT 12
Press, 9 June 1960.
ARDMORE STATION TRACKING
TWO SPACE SATELLITES
The Press Special Services
AUCKLAND, June 8.
Few visitors to Ardmore realise that a small group of huts and unusual aerials tucked away on a back road form one of the most important links in the world satellite observation programme. The buildings form part of the University of Auckland radio research station, which, at Ardmore and at another station on a disused wartime aerodrome at Seagrove, carries out invaluable research into the reception of radio waves.
This year the station was granted 7000 dollars by the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration, for satellite observations, and other grants have come from the Department of Scientific sand Industrial Research, the Broadcasting Service and the Post Office.
Carrying only a small staff, the station this year is under the control of Dr. J. E. Titheridge, in the absence of the director, Dr. H. A. Whale, who is on temporary appointment to the American administration. Dr. Titheridge, who received his early training at Auckland University, has been working on radio propagation at Cambridge for the last three years. He has been appointed a research fellow at Seagrove, where he will carry out the satellite work and original research.
Two Satellites
At present the Ardmore station is tracking two satellites - the Russian “space-ship,” and the American Explorer VII. Only these two are still transmitting on the international satellite frequency band, 20 megacycles. Most of the reports from New Zealand radio enthusiasts of receiving signals from the Russian satellite were probably wrong, said Dr. Titheridge. The satellite had a very weak signal and the times when it was recorded did not fit in with observations at Ardmore or data sent by the Smithsonian astrophysical observatory in Washington. Dr. Titheridge said that the signals were probably from Explorer VII, which emitted a very strong signal on a frequency close to that of the “space-ship.”
The receiver which tracks the satellites has two aerials mounted on the end of a rotating 60-foot boom. The boom swings round every 10 seconds and the signals are transferred to a graph from which can be read the time of passing, the direction and elevation of the satellite. Using this method, it was possible to detect the change in the orbit of the Russian “space-ship” when the capsule was ejected, said Dr. Titheridge.
The Russian signal was just a carrier wave and nothing would be heard on an ordinary short wave radio tuned to the frequency, but the American satellite emitted a modulated telemetry signal, heard as continuous, rather eerie, warbling note.
Dr. Titheridge discounted suggestions that the “space-ship” had contained a man who was transmitting information back to earth. Nothing that had been received at Ardmore from the Russian satellite could be interpreted in that manner, he said.
One of the problems with the work is the analysis of results – during the descent of Sputnik III more than 1000 charts were recorded of transits, and each takes one man at least half a day to analyse. “We have months of work there,” said Dr. Titheridge. The information found at the station is collated and sent to the N.A.S.A. in Washington for distribution to international agencies.
ARDMORE STATION TRACKING
TWO SPACE SATELLITES
The Press Special Services
AUCKLAND, June 8.
Few visitors to Ardmore realise that a small group of huts and unusual aerials tucked away on a back road form one of the most important links in the world satellite observation programme. The buildings form part of the University of Auckland radio research station, which, at Ardmore and at another station on a disused wartime aerodrome at Seagrove, carries out invaluable research into the reception of radio waves.
This year the station was granted 7000 dollars by the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration, for satellite observations, and other grants have come from the Department of Scientific sand Industrial Research, the Broadcasting Service and the Post Office.
Carrying only a small staff, the station this year is under the control of Dr. J. E. Titheridge, in the absence of the director, Dr. H. A. Whale, who is on temporary appointment to the American administration. Dr. Titheridge, who received his early training at Auckland University, has been working on radio propagation at Cambridge for the last three years. He has been appointed a research fellow at Seagrove, where he will carry out the satellite work and original research.
Two Satellites
At present the Ardmore station is tracking two satellites - the Russian “space-ship,” and the American Explorer VII. Only these two are still transmitting on the international satellite frequency band, 20 megacycles. Most of the reports from New Zealand radio enthusiasts of receiving signals from the Russian satellite were probably wrong, said Dr. Titheridge. The satellite had a very weak signal and the times when it was recorded did not fit in with observations at Ardmore or data sent by the Smithsonian astrophysical observatory in Washington. Dr. Titheridge said that the signals were probably from Explorer VII, which emitted a very strong signal on a frequency close to that of the “space-ship.”
The receiver which tracks the satellites has two aerials mounted on the end of a rotating 60-foot boom. The boom swings round every 10 seconds and the signals are transferred to a graph from which can be read the time of passing, the direction and elevation of the satellite. Using this method, it was possible to detect the change in the orbit of the Russian “space-ship” when the capsule was ejected, said Dr. Titheridge.
The Russian signal was just a carrier wave and nothing would be heard on an ordinary short wave radio tuned to the frequency, but the American satellite emitted a modulated telemetry signal, heard as continuous, rather eerie, warbling note.
Dr. Titheridge discounted suggestions that the “space-ship” had contained a man who was transmitting information back to earth. Nothing that had been received at Ardmore from the Russian satellite could be interpreted in that manner, he said.
One of the problems with the work is the analysis of results – during the descent of Sputnik III more than 1000 charts were recorded of transits, and each takes one man at least half a day to analyse. “We have months of work there,” said Dr. Titheridge. The information found at the station is collated and sent to the N.A.S.A. in Washington for distribution to international agencies.