The following posting is from Slashdot.org.
Long-Lost US Military Satellite Found By Amateur Radio Operator (npr.org) 69
Tilley, an amateur radio operator living in Canada, found a "zombie" military satellite that was supposed to shut down in 1972. NPR reports: Recently, Tilley got interested in a communications satellite he thought might still be alive -- or at least among the living dead. LES-5, built by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Laboratory, was launched in 1967. Tilley was inspired by another amateur who in 2016 had found LES-1, an earlier satellite built by the same lab. What was intriguing to him about LES-5 was that if it was still working, it might be the oldest functioning satellite still in geostationary orbit. By scouring the Internet, he found a paper describing the radio frequency that LES-5, an experimental military UHF communications satellite, should be operating on -- if it was still alive. So he decided to have a look.
"This required the building of an antenna, erecting a new structure to support it. Pre-amps, filters, stuff that takes time to gather and put all together," he says. "When you have a family and a busy business, you don't really have a lot of time for that," he says. But then came the COVID-19 pandemic. British Columbia, where Tilley lives, was on lockdown. Like many of us, suddenly Tilley had time on his hands. He used it to look for LES-5, and on March 24, he hit the ham radio equivalent of pay dirt. While Tilley thinks it may be possible to send commands to the satellite, the MIT lab that built LES-5 didn't comment on the matter when NPR inquired.
"This required the building of an antenna, erecting a new structure to support it. Pre-amps, filters, stuff that takes time to gather and put all together," he says. "When you have a family and a busy business, you don't really have a lot of time for that," he says. But then came the COVID-19 pandemic. British Columbia, where Tilley lives, was on lockdown. Like many of us, suddenly Tilley had time on his hands. He used it to look for LES-5, and on March 24, he hit the ham radio equivalent of pay dirt. While Tilley thinks it may be possible to send commands to the satellite, the MIT lab that built LES-5 didn't comment on the matter when NPR inquired.
For more information, go to NPR's posting and/or a Riddles in the Sky posting.
Talk about CQ CQ CQ!
Posted by: Ole Phat Stu | April 29, 2020 at 02:00 PM
That would be "CQ DX", to me, Stu. [Non-hams who care: CQ = calling anyone; DX = distant signal.]
Posted by: Cop Car | April 29, 2020 at 02:27 PM
Hmmm, I've always thought of CQ as a homonym for "Seek You".
Usually it would be a guy called Chuck from french-speaking Canada,
aka "Charlie, Quebec" ;-)
Posted by: Stu | April 30, 2020 at 06:13 AM
I just came in from working in the (hot as hell) back woods; so, don't really have the energy to groan, Stu. (I was doing well to stagger inside.)
Good one. I don't really think that "seek you" is very helpful to non-hams, so gave the meaning in plain English. I don't think anyone knows the etymology of CQ; but, your theory is the one that I've most heard, over my 64.5 years of hamming.
Per WA0GGZ, for which no listing came up in QRZ, but commented in 2005: "Suggest another answer to the CQ question. This comes from the Wireless Course, 12 edition. Published in 1923. It says that CQ is listed as a 'Q' signal, like QRZ or QST. The definition given is: Signal of inquiry made by a station desiring to communicate. This entire course was intended for ship board radio operators."
Of course, with that call sign, I would expect that person to have been a relatively new ham, not long steeped in the lore.
If you prefer Canadian, VE6TL, who has been a ham since 1973 commented: "The following is from www.WorldHistory.com:
"The CQ call was originally used by landline telegraphy operators in the UK. French was, and still is, the official language for international postal services, and the word sécurité was used to mean 'safety' or 'pay attention'. It is still used in this sense in international telecommunications. The letters CQ, when pronounced in French, resemble the first two syllables of sécurité, and were therefore used as shorthand for the word. In English-speaking countries, the origin of the abbreviation was popularly changed to the phrase "seek you", or later, when used in the CQD distress call, to the command "come quick". CQ was adopted by the Marconi company in 1904 for use in wireless (spark) telegraphy, and was adopted internationally at the 1912 London Radiotelegraph Convention, and is still used."
One of the many discussions available is at eHam.net.
Posted by: Cop Car | April 30, 2020 at 04:04 PM