After the mobile service tower has rolled away, the Delta II rocket with the STEREO spacecraft at top stands alone next to the launch gantry

European radio hams detect signals from space craft

A group of European amateurs has successfully received signals from two space craft that were recently launched on a mission to study the sun.

The solar satellites are the central planks of NASA’s Stereo Mission which aims to shed new light on coronal mass ejections.

They were launched from Cape Canaveral on 25 October and within just three days, five radio amateurs from across Europe had managed to copy strong 8.4GHz signals from the space craft using a variety of home-built and off-the-shelf equipment.

The amateurs were Paul, M0EYT, Bertrand, F5PL, Luis, CT1DMK, Achim, DH2VA, and Iban, EB3FRN. 

Further information about their efforts to detect the space craft can be found on the web at
www.uhf-satcom.com/stereo.

Source: GB2RS News - Courtesy of the RSGB