[cfgeeks] Take the tinfoil off, stand down, I repeat standd downnn..

[Kevin P. Inscoe]

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> HAM RADIO IN SPACE:  ME AND MY BABY - MONITOR - MYSTERY SOLVED
> 
> Ham radio is responsible for the NASA video seen over an Illinois 
> mothers baby monitor during the recently concluded STS 117 space 
> shuttle flight.  Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, reports:
> 
> --
> 
> A radio club in Schaumburg, Illinois says it is likely responsible for 
> the NASA spaceflight video over baby monitor.  But it turns out that 
> the signal seen only by suburban Chicago teacher Natalie Meilinger was 
> not on 2.4 GHz as originally thought.  
> 
> It happened this way.  The club was re-transmitting STS 117 mission 
> video on it's  910.25 MHz amateur television repeater.  The system runs 
> 100 watts out into a par of horizontal yagis.  These antennas are at 70 
> feet with one pointed north and the other to the west.  
> 
> And it turns out that not all baby monitors operate on 2.4 GHz as 
> everyone first thought.  Some are in the 900 Mhz spectrum while others 
> are dual band units.  If you do the math it mean that a more than 
> receivable signal could easily reach the Meilinger home and be 
> displayed on the monitor receiver.
> 
> So why was no I-D noted by the Meilinger family? During the mission the 
> transmitter had the call sign K9MOT displayed in the lower right corner 
> of active video every 10 minutes - per FCC identification regulations.  
> Any properly aligned video monitor like those used in Amateur 
> Television stations would have displayed it because the I-D fell inside 
> what broadcast engineers call the video safe zone.  That's the screen 
> area you are supposed to see  in off air television viewing.  
> 
> But a baby monitor is not a broadcast quality monitor.  In reality, 
> most are low-end consumer products that tend to overscan the picture 
> tube face.  That's fine for watching the kids at play but not for 
> trying to see the whole picture.  And that was likely the case with 
> Natalie Meilinger's baby monitor as well.  
> 
> The K9MOT identifier was there, but the baby monitor had to much 
> picture width.  That put it out of the picture area her unit could 
> display so she and anyone else looking at the monitor screen couldn't 
> see it.
> 
> Mystery solved thanks to some good sleuthing on the part of some 
> Illinois hams.  
> 
> For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, at the 
> studio in Los Angeles.


- --
Kevin P. Inscoe                       Amateur Radio Call Sign: KE3VIN
Deltona, FL 32738                                28.9497N by 81.1952W
kevin [at] inscoe [dot] org                    http://kevininscoe.com
GPG 0x61288D53













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