Fwd: [NOVAC] iridium sadness

[Mark Whittington]

Interesting Iridium memories from someone in the local astronomy club,
seems like something this list might also appreciate.

Cheers.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Tom Finkenbinder via NOVAC
Date: Wed, Aug 24, 2016 at 8:02 PM
Subject: [NOVAC] iridium sadness


Sorry to hear the word is these little guys are going to be
decommissioned.  I worked on contract with Motorola to test the radio
components mounted on a Boeing bus when the network was being launched.  We
did on-orbit testing to measure power output from the antennas, the
multiplexers and frequency converters, modulators, etc.
Satellite-to-satellite routing of calls was actually on a wireless frame
relay network. They piped video and audio in on the big screens for the
Vandenberg launches.  We only had audio for launches from China (and I
don’t speak Chinese but you could figure out the countdown and stage
separation).



Imagine a cell phone tower with wings, and instead of driving and being
handed off from cell to cell, the network is moving overhead and handing us
off satellite to satellite.  The antenna gain pattern looks like a daisy
projected onto earth, so with sixty some of them moving in six
polar-aligned orbits, the whole earth was covered with these floating
daisies, each completing an LEO in about 110 minutes.



It was the most James Bond work I ever had as an engineer.  Place was a
lockdown facility with flight bay, no windows.  Huge bank of batteries (two
stories high) for backup if the power supply went down.  It’s not
classified or hush-hush anymore. The flight center for the whole network is
tucked back into the woods off the 13th fairway of the original Lansdowne
golf course.  We would spend 12 – 14 hour shifts any time of the day and
night over there.  I’d drive home to and from Arlington and tell my wife
that everyone and their brother would be moving out to Leesburg and Ashburn
(and boy did they!).  My commute was on the new Greenway, probably less
than $2.00 each way.  Just me and the deer at night, really no other cars
and I got off at what was Waxpool Road at the time, Belmonte Ridge over to
Route 7 past Partlows (now Carolina Brothers BBQ), picked up an egg and
cheese sandwich in the mornings and in to work.



My kids were 6 mos and 2 years old.  We moved to Leesburg 12 months later.
Now you can guess my age!  I’d go out looking for those flares when the
ephemeris was posted on line.  I haven’t gone out to look in awhile.  They
are predictable if you know when and where to look and I’d go to our
observing sites sometimes when I first joined NOVAC to point them out.
Someone in the club told me if we lived in Medieval times and I did that,
I’d be branded a witch and burned at the stake!



cheers



tf



*@TomFinkenbinder*
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.amrad.org/pipermail/tacos/attachments/20160824/3d52ddc1/attachment.html>