Artist's rendering of Voyager 1. Launched in 1977, the spacecraft is hurtling through space at the edge of the solar system. (NASA/JPL photo)
Artist's rendering of Voyager 1. Launched in 1977, the spacecraft is hurtling through space at the edge of the solar system. (NASA/JPL photo) |
NEWINGTON, CT, April 25, 2006 -- Hams in Germany received signals from American spacecraft Voyager 1 March 31 using a 20 meter parabolic antenna of a radio telescope on a frequency of 8.4 GHz. Voyager 1 transmits on 8415 MHz nominal.
A team of hams at AMSAT-DL/IUZ Bochum (The Institute for Environmental and Future Research at Bochum Observatory) using Doppler shift and sky positioning, received the signal from a distance of 8.82 billion miles (14.7 billion km). That's roughly 98 AUs, or 98 times the distance from the Sun to Earth. This is the first recorded reception of signals from Voyager 1 by radio amateurs. Members of the AMSAT-DL /IUZ team include Freddy de Guchteneire, ON6UG, James Miller, G3RUH, Hartmut Paesler, DL1YDD, and Achim Vollhardt, DH2VA/HB9DUN.
Also helping out were Theo Elsner, DJ5YM (IUZ Bochum), and Roger Ludwig of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, as well as the Deep Space Network Tracking Station in Madrid, Spain.
Voyager 1 was launched in September 1977 to conduct
close-up studies of Jupiter and Saturn, Saturn's rings and the larger moons of
the two planets. Originally built to last only five years, the probe will
continue to send back astronomical information to NASA and the JPL until at
least 2020. Voyager 1 will continue to study ultraviolet sources among the
stars, and the fields and particles instruments aboard will continue to search
for the boundary between the Sun's influence and interstellar space.
Communications will be maintained until the nuclear power sources can no longer
supply enough electrical energy to power critical subsystems.
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