Orbital Focus - International Spaceflight Facts and Figures
carousel image
 
The Kettering Group


Tyneside, UK
2024 Mar 29
Friday, Day 89

Curated by:









Kettering Group Equipment in Detail:












Elsewhere on the Web:

Contemporary 1966 film of the tracking equipment

Supplementary Radio Reception Equipment

Item Purpose Note Currently Residing
Airmec Wave Analyzer Used to look at 150 MHz Tsikada and Parus Signals Loaned by Pye-Phillips Unknown
Frequency Meter - BC-221 (or similar) Stable oscillator to act as BFO and tuning aid when receiving CW transmissions with the Marconi CR-100 Lent by Cyril Dobson, a radio amateur living in Kettering (call sign G3ICK), returned when Derek Slater acquired a permanent replacement Not known
Frequency Meter - BC-221 Stable oscillator to act as BFO and tuning aid when receiving CW transmissions with the Marconi CR-100 Acquired by Derek Slater to replace the loan item from Cyril Dobson

Use alternated with the CRR-74028

Fell out of use on arrival of Racal RA-217 for 1968 but later pressed into occasional use for tracking multiple HF satellites simultaneously
Part of the Derek Slater collection, passed to British National Space Centre during 2011 and put on open display 2015 December
Frequency Meter - CRR-74028 Stable oscillator to act as BFO and tuning aid when receiving CW transmissions with the Marconi CR-100 Acquired by Derek Slater to replace the loan item from Cyril Dobson

Use alternated with the BC-221

Fell out of use on arrival of Racal RA-217 for 1968 but later pressed into occasional use for tracking multiple HF satellites simultaneously
Part of the Derek Slater collection, passed to British National Space Centre during 2011
Headphones Listening to ouptut from various radio receivrs Several sets used over time, some held by Natioal Space Centre. Various
Audio Unit Amplifier and loudspeaker School property - general science

Used with the Hallicrafters when not needed for teaching
Unknown
VHF Pre-amplifier Amplification of VHF frequencies Constructed by Derek Slater and mounted in re-used tobacco tin (Golden Virginia) Part of the Derek Slater collection, disposed of "to a good home" 2009 more than forty years after it was constructed
Output/speaker Interface for RA-217 Speaker system for RA-217 and clean output to GNT Undulator Specially-built by Derek Slater
Geoff Perry Collection, passed to Science Museum, London in 2018.
Navsat Decoder Used to produce readable copy of Parus/Tsikada position and Almanac data. Still in use by Chris Wood as of 2014. Chris Wood Collection
Pre-amplifier 137-150 MHz Use with unidentified VHF receiver Supplied by Dick Flagg Reportedly in the Derek Slater Collection but actual whereabouts unknown
Panoramascope Panoramic Adaptor used with the Hallicrafters S-27B receiver Became unrepairable Probably loaned by the Clarendon Laboratory, Oxford - later passed to another school together with Hallicrafters receiver
Copyright © Robert Christy, all rights reserved
Reproduction of this web page or any of its content without permission from the website owner is prohibited