Radio Ignores Borders

Radio waves ignore man made borders

So we are free to listen to the world.

Nowhere is this more true than with signals from space.

The sound you can hear (if you click the play button above) comes from a NOAA weather satellite. About the size of a car and weighing 588kg it travels at 26,840 kph. At an altitude of about 800 Km. its polar orbit of the earth takes about 90 minutes.

As the earth rotated beneath it, the satelite 'sees' every part of the earth twice a day.

It is wonderful to see the computer graphics predict where the satellite is and then hear its 'ping' sound as it comes over the horizon. Typically, here in Ireland I can first 'hear' it as it is flies north over Algeria in Africa.

The sound represents the data burst from its on board camera. Using a relatively simple radio and a computer, this data builds, line by line, into a real time image (visible and infra-red) of the earth as it flies overhead.

Guess what? Not a single Border shows up on the images!

So - my contributiuon to the theme of Borders is - 'No Borders visible from space'

And yes - you guessed it - I have a very tolerant partner who insisted that my Radio Rack resides in the dining room :-)

More information on our main sites - see below. Sample images here - Images

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Europe / Ireland

Lat: 51° 43' 58.8" N
Long: 9° 33' 38.4" W

→ maps.google.com [EXT]

Precision is: Unknown / Undeclared.

Nikon D70s with Nikkor 10.5 mm fisheye lens. 360 Precision Panoramic Head. Stitched with PTMac from Kekus and converted to panorama using CubicConverter from Click Here Design

Let me know if you want to talk radio at:

brianoreilly@mac.com

I use my camera to capture the visual world

I use my radios to capture the world

For weather satellite I am lucky to have a great receiver and software made by Dartcom