From 1962, a range of receivers was pressed into use for tracking satellites. Some were second hand, some were brand new and other items were home built. Often, modifications were made for use with particular frequency bands or tracking specific satellites.
| Item |
Purpose |
Note |
Currently Residing |
| Marconi CR-100 Communications Receiver |
Reception of CW and HF voice from craft in orbit and recovery beacons |
Coverage up to 30 MHz
Fell out of use on arrival of Racal RA-217 for 1968 but later pressed into occasional use for tracking multiple HF satellites simultaneously
Accompanied by wooden boxed loudspeaker, headphones, operating manual, and kit of spares
Personal property of Derek Slater |
British National Space Centre, Leicester |
| Eddystone 770R Receiver |
General radio reception |
Accompanied by wooden boxed loudspeaker
Coverage up to 165 MHz, occasional use for satellite reception at VHF in early years, in addition to general broadcasts
Used for 'Tracking' Gemini missions via "Voice of America", and Apollo 9 by listening to the NASA ground station at Tananarive
Later use for 137 MHz metsat image reception from ESSA and later metsats - together with the 144 MHz Yagi and VHF pre-amp
Became second-string VHF receiver to Hallicrafters for a period around 1980
Personal possession of Derek Slater - acquired from the former Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) |
Derek Slater Collection |
| PYE PTC986 'Mercury' Transistorised HF Radiotelephone |
Almost permanently tuned to 2.5 MHz for the AM time signal from MSF at Rugby (now moved to Althorn), with backup at 4.525 MHz (CW from DIZ at Nauen, Germany) and 5.0 MHz (also AM from MSF) |
Originally a receiver/transmitter but with the transmitter disabled and a dry battery fitted into the transmitter space to power the receiver
Receiver coverage 1.8-3.8 MHz, 3.8-10.0 MHz and MF broadcast band
'Scrounged' from the PYE company, originally intended for sale into overseas markets
Thanks go to Richard Howes, Custodian of the Pye Telecom Historic Collection in 2009 for assistance in determining the actual model number and name
|
Unknown |
| Racal RA-217 Communications Receiver |
Reception of HF CW and voice |
Coverage up to 30 MHz
Presented to the team by Racal at the instigation of the Daily Express newspaper
Handover was at the 1967 Autumn meeting of the British Interplanetary Society held at Northampton College of Technology, Islington, London (now London City University) with presentation by Ernest Harrison, Chairman of Racal and Express Assistant Editor John Young to Geoff Perry and Bob Christy - Geoff Perry was at the meeting to give a talk on radio tracking and John Marshall was also present to talk on the subject of photographing satellites |
Geoff Perry Collection |
| Eddystone EC-10, HF Receiver |
Reception of HF signals by Geoff Perry at home |
Coverage up to 30 MHz
Personal property of Geoff Perry |
Geoff Perry Collection |
| Crystal controlled receiver - VHF |
Reception of voice from Soyuz |
Prototype of GEC crystal controlled radiotelephone, converted for 121.75 MHz
Squelch control used to drive relay to supply power to tape recorder when used 'out of hours'
Pen recorder added later for timing markers in order to log times of voice occurrence |
Derek Slater Collection |
| Hallicrafters S-27B Receiver |
VHF signals/voice? |
Coverage - VHF, 27-165 MHz |
Loaned by the Clarendon Laboratory, Oxford, later passed to another school together with the accompanying Panoramascope |
| PYE F-60 FM VHF Receiver |
VHF reception around 120-150 MHz? |
Can be seen in photographs taken by Sven Grahn in 1979, make and model identified by Greg Roberts
It is the receiver section taken from a rack-mountable radio-telephone system - if unmodified it is probably one of the versions tagged as Band A: 148-174 MHz, Band B: 132-156 MHz or Band C: 108-132 MHz
This item probably got very little use |
Unknown |
| Various |
Simple receivers and down-convertors for VHF use |
Oddments of equipment for VHF use, some built from basic off the shelf components - used by pupils and associates at different times |
Derek Slater Collection |
