- Joined
- Jul 26, 2003
- Messages
- 50,798
- Reaction score
- 11,251
- Points
- 113
- Location
- Scottish Borders
- My Satellite Setup
-
TM 5402HD
Sky+ UK.
- My Location
- Scottish Borders
Last night whilst idly keeping half an eye on the waterfall spectrum on sdr# I spotted an out of band "APT like" carrier around 136.650MHz. After a bit of research it turns out its actually Transit 5B-5. Which was launched in December 1964 and abandoned after an on board failure after just 19 days! So its another zombie sat. Sadly its not a new discovery - its quite well known about, but as its only transmitting a carrier with no data most folk dont bother with it. There are a few web pages about Transit 5B-N and the other zombie birds that are out there.
However I found this absolutely fascinating - its reckoned to be the oldest satellite still at least partially operational. Not bad for a satellite almost 54 years old! The pic shows the carrier mid pass tonight about 2155 uk time.
However I found this absolutely fascinating - its reckoned to be the oldest satellite still at least partially operational. Not bad for a satellite almost 54 years old! The pic shows the carrier mid pass tonight about 2155 uk time.