[DARARepeater] TNG - Thursday, March 19 - Anarchy

[Mark Erbaugh]

TNG – Thursday, March 19

DARA Clubhouse, 6619 Bellefontaine Rd. Dayton, OH 45424.  The meeting begins around 7pm. 

There is no special presentation this week.

We are looking for presentations. If you have something you would like to share, please let me know. 


73,
de Mark, N8ME

License Exam Quiz #362

de Steve, AE8AT 

The quiz has featured a number of satellite topics to the point that the question pool is exhausted of satellite-specific questions. But there is an enduring fact: satellites are cool! Our topic this week is the Vangaurd 1 satellite, launched March 17th, 1958. This grapefruit-sized chunk of tech is currently the oldest manmade object still in orbit, and it isn’t expected to re-enter for another 200-250 years. At the time, they thought it might orbit forever but lacked an understanding orbital drag. But why was it launched? NASA cites two reasons. One was to test a three-stage launch vehicle. And the other was to test out solar power; Vangaurd 1 is the first solar powered satellite. The Navy Research Labs page indicates the transmitter operated at 108MHz, but Gunter’s page provides more detail indicating there was a 10mW tranmitter at 108MHz and a 5mW transmitter at 108.3MHz. Not able to locate details on the structure of the transmitted data, but it seems a continuous signal for tracking and internal temperature data was the data payload.
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/vanguard-satellite-1958/
https://www.nrl.navy.mil/Media/News/Article/2507198/nrl-celebrates-60-years-in-space-with-vanguard/
https://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/vanguard-6in.htm

T3A04 What happens when antennas at opposite ends of a VHF or UHF line of sight radio link are not using the same polarization?
A. The modulation sidebands might become inverted
B. Received signal strength is reduced
C. Signals have an echo effect
D. Nothing significant will happen

G4E09 What is the approximate open-circuit voltage from a fully illuminated silicon photovoltaic cell?
A. 0.02 VDC
B. 0.5 VDC
C. 0.2 VDC
D. 1.38 VDC

E7D11 What is the purpose of an inverter connected to a solar panel output?
A. Reduce AC ripple on the output
B. Maintain voltage with varying illumination levels
C. Prevent discharge when panel is not illuminated
D. Convert the panel’s output from DC to AC


Answers:
T3A04 = B
G4E09 = B
E7D11 = D


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/dararepeater/attachments/20260318/7e5bce81/attachment-0001.html>