Top this DX Record: 4.7 Billion Miles!

[AA7BQ]

Another record contact was established a couple of weeks ago - 4.7 Billion miles to Pioneer 10; now twice the distance from the Sun that Pluto is! The return telemetry arrived 22 hours later. Another attempt will be made a year from now when Pioneer 10 will be 130,000,000 miles further out.

The following is from a list server managed by Larry Kellogg at the Ames Research center. The original control computer for Pioneer 10 was a PDP-11.

This has been replaced with an emulator and the front-end is a LabView vi.

I removed the attachments from the original email and
have put them on my website. Our list server doesn't like some of the language in the original email so I've deleted it. Here are links to the pictures:

The birthday cake (optional)
PN-10_30thBD_cake.jpg (http://www.zen-in.com/)

Low resolution spectrum plot
p10.base.2002.061.gif (http://www.zen-in.com/p10.base.2002.061.gif)

Waterfall of Pioneer's carrier - doppler is from Earth's rotation p10.c.2002.061.gif (http://www.zen-in.com/p10.c.2002.061.gif)

Waterfall of Pioneer's telemetry
p10.sb.2002.061.gif (http://www.zen-in.com/p10.sb.2002.061.gif)

Pioneer 10 control panel
lv030202.jpg (http://www.zen-in.com/lv030202.jpg)

[N3HGB]

What does Motorola 6 meter conversion have to do with Pioneer 10?

[KE4MOB]

Hey, Frank, check the birthday cake pic...something's not right!

I think this whole Pioneer thing is just totally awesome. #For the record, according to the Pioneer project webpage, the spacecraft is now transmitting a 8 watt signal over 4.3 billion miles. #8 WATTS!!! #And it can still hear us, because we are repointing the antenna twice a year!

Does anyone have a wav file of what the contact sounded like?

Steve, KE4MOB

[w5rm]

Any detail on which earth transmit/receive site was used, hardware and processing used?
tnx Jim W5RM

[KE4MOB]

Here ya go...this has some particulars...looks like they pumped 200 kW up from Goldstone and brought it back down 22 hours later from Madrid....

http://spaceprojects.arc.nasa.gov/Space_Projects/pioneer/PNStat.html

Steve, KE4MOB

[MAB2003]

i think that it is excellent i wish i could do something like that but i dont have the equipment nor the $$ http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[N8YV]

So, is Pioneer 10 recognized as a legitimate DX entity?
(hi)