All posts by j0n

Amateur Radio, General, Utility Listening

Adjust your watch..

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The Feb. 27 magnitude 8.8 earthquake in Chile may have shortened the length of each Earth day.

JPL research scientist Richard Gross computed how Earth’s rotation should have changed as a result of the Feb. 27 quake. Using a complex model, he and fellow scientists came up with a preliminary calculation that the quake should have shortened the length of an Earth day by about 1.26 microseconds (a microsecond is one millionth of a second). More.

Also, as a result of the earthquake, there is a lot of activity on Amateur Radio frequencies of 7050, 7060, 7088, 7095.  As there is a contest next weekend, please listen carefully before using these frequencies. More.

Technology, Utility Listening

STS-130

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I have always been interested in the shuttle missions. There is, I guess a natural curiosity about anything to do with space. I’ve observed a few launches that passed through the sky’s over Ireland. I saw STS-127 on the launchpad, and then streaking across the sky over Ireland.  What I hadn’t done (before yesterday) is listen to voice communications from the Orbiter directly.  I’ve tried a few times, but not really persisted.

Yesterday at approximately 09:30 I snagged the following Audio Clip on 259.7MHz AM.  Suffice it to say, it made my day. Many thanks to the Hearsat folks for putting up with my dumb questions. Also I must agree with Hugh, it was probably the prettiest launch I’ve ever seen.