Voyager 1 has reached the edge of the solar system. From what I recall in the 90's when the internet was fresh is that some of us hams before the launch inserted our names on the data disk travelling along on the flights. I see no mention of names flying along on the golden disk on the Voyager commercial website.
Voyager Website
This is the golden record page for those remembering putting their names on the furthest flying craft out of the solar system. Does anyone recall if it included our call signs?
Voyager 1 has reached the edge of the solar system. From what I recall in the 90's when the internet was fresh is that some of us hams before the launch inserted our names on the data disk travelling along on the flights. I see no mention of names flying along on the golden disk on the Voyager commercial website.
Voyager Website
This is the golden record page for those remembering putting their names on the furthest flying craft out of the solar system. Does anyone recall if it included our call signs?
Of course all of our ham chatter is light years ahead of the crafts.
Best of DX to everyone. Stand by for alien QSL cards. Hopefully LOTW is OK for them.
Nope; Not V-ger. V-ger was launched in 1977.
But there is a small ham story behind it.
The V-ger records were organized by Carl Sagan and Frank Drake and compiled at Cornell. There were no ham mentions on the records. In part, this is because Sagan's exposure to ham radio was almost nil. His main sources were Drake--who worked with a ham at JPL who eschewed work by talking about DXing--and Barney Oliver--who hated ham radio because his physics teacher was a ham and showed the class films all the time (so he didnt learn anything from class).
Sagan's exposure to the real thing happened in 1978 when I pulled him from Space Sci to the ham station, then in a tower at Ives. Called CQ; made some q's; He was curious for about 10 minutes. There is a myth that his exposure to ham radio (a la Contact) was through W1HFA. In fact, W1HFA was inactive at that time and has been so most of the time since.
If all that had happened 2 years earlier than V-ger could have had a ham pix on the records. A definite maybe.
Now this might sound really strange, but I read somewhere that K1MAN was in that listing of Amateurs, and the FCC put a media blackout on it because of that. They felt he wouldn't be a good example of humanity for our first contact with hopefully a benign intelligent species.
Actually, any reference to ham radio was omitted. If aliens were to contact hams first, they would assume that Earthlings are old, over-weight and also place huge emphasis on such silly pastimes such as contesting.
V-ger was Voyager 6, which had disappeared down "what they used to call a black hole" (Dr. McCoy). I read a fascinating book that suggested that the union of V-ger and Commander Decker at the end of the film was actually the genesis of the Borg! And yes, I'm a Star Trek fan.
I was out of touch in 1977. I had a Motorola in the car but it never never beat a Garmin....
What about Puerto Rico? Aerecibo is always pointing in the right direction for SETI ... is it not?
I participated in that schedule for a while. I did some "work units". I'm not a student or a Journeyman.
I'm just a ham radio op who digs radio and thinks outside of the box ...
Actually I think most Amateur Ops wouldn't find this 'probe' threatening. They would probably want to find out what makes it tick! What is scary is what the Voyagers could find once they enter 'Interstellar Space'.
Something that does bother me though, is that not all NASA equipment is treated equal. Just think about the loneliness lil' Spirit must be enduring on the bleak Martian landscape:
Just think, in about 280,000 years, Voyager will be nearing another solar system. I guess I'm going to miss it, after all. Contemplating the sheer size of the Universe is something that will make your glial cells ache.
Sagan mentioned amateur radio in his novel "Contact", where as a young girl the heroine had a copy of the Handbook. I wrote him a thank you note for that but never got a reply. Actually I've got a QSL from Voyager--well, that would be SWL only. This is for a QSO with W6VIO ("Voyager in Orbit"), the JPL club station. It's a nice full color double card from 1989 celebrating the Neptune flyby. Got their basic card too, which looks sharp (you can see it on their look up here) and another double for the 50th anniversary of the first US satellite, Explorer 1. So they seem to be a pretty active group.
Voyager 1 Leaving Solar System
Originally Posted by AH6OY
