On Sun, 25 Jan 2004 21:31:49 GMT, "Glen \"Wiley\" Wilson"
wrote:

On Sun, 25 Jan 2004 05:46:03 GMT, (Larry W4CSC) wrote:

Imagine transmitting on your marine VHF handitalkie and being heard by
powerful receivers on another planet. That's exactly what was taking
place as the spacecraft sent back audio tones to let us know how it
was doing. Just the communications engineering of it is simply
amazing.

Scenario:

Tense faces bent over the consoles, waiting for the first sign that
the lander is alive. As hope begins to fade we receive the
electrifying signal:

"Can you hear me now?"

Factoid:

"The sensitivity of our deep-space tracking antennas located around
the world is truly amazing. The antennas must capture Voyager
information from a signal so weak that the power striking the antenna
is only 10 exponent - 16 watts (1 part in 10 quadrillion). A
modern-day electronic digital watch operates at a power level 20
billion times greater than this feeble level."

Can you hear me now indeed. :)

Later,

Tom
S. Woodstock, CT
----------
The years will bring their Anodyne,
But I shall never quite forget,
The fish that I had counted mine
And lost before they reached the net.

Colin Ellis, "The Devot Angler" quoted
in A. R. Macdougall, Jr's "The Trout
Fisherman's Bedside Book" (1963)