FranLab - 1957 Soviet Sputnik Model Reborn

In this vlog I undertake the task of recreating an artifact from the Royal Society archives; an audio demonstration model of Sputnik from 1957.
- Music by Fran Blanche -
Join Team FranLab!!!! Become a patron and help support my KZbin Channel on Patreon: / frantone
The links:
Race for Space - Objectivity #32 - KZbin - • Race for Space (feat. ...
Brady Haran's Blog - www.bradyharanb...
Public Service Broadcasting - • Public Service Broadca...
The Royal Society Sputnik Schematic - static1.square...
My corrected Sputnik model schematic - www.frantone.co...
Hackaday Blog: Sputnik’s Transmitter Beeps Again - hackaday.com/20...
Frantone on Facebook - / frantone
Fran on Twitter - / contourcorsets
Fran's Science Blog - www.frantone.co...
FranArt Website - www.contourcors...

[@agranero6]

My deceased father told me when I was a kid that you could hear the Sputnik on a radio on 40Mhz. This brought fond memories of him. UPDATE: Some people said it was at 20Mhz so I researched and found it had two frequencies 20.005 and 40.002MHz not modulated.

[@nathanstoysandmore]

@Finnley Angel hacker

[@davidaix5771]

I haven't finished or even really started watching this video yet but this makes me wonder what Sputnik just a repeater basically

[@agranero6]

@@davidaix5771 It wasn't. This would require uplink stations all.over the globe. It was just a fighter plane transmiter rigged to emit an audio tone.

[@davidaix5771]

@@agranero6 similar to a beacon

[@agranero6]

@@davidaix5771 Basically a beacon. Just to prove the satellite was there and to track its orbit.

[@roberthorwat6747]

When you moved the circuit slowly past the microphone as if it was orbiting the earth I found the effect was quite magical, as it seemed to emulate all the recordings of the real thing quite nicely (despite the sound from the tinny ultra cheapo speaker). I was indeed too busy not being born yet at the time but I have seen so many documentaries on Sputnik over the years. Marvellous upload Fran!

[@JesusisJesus]

The magic word you're looking for is "Doppler" It's the name given to the sound as it changes tone while passing you. Like a siren going "Nee naaw nee naw nea nor ee aw..........."

[@yoduro]

@@JesusisJesus now do that with a chew chew train :)

[@james_m2533]

no clue why this was in my recommended tab but im very happy it was

[@t0x1cbacon56]

James Murray welcome then

[@JesusisJesus]

James Murray of Impractical Jokers?

[@jeremyz4623]

That’s how I found Fran too - and I’m hooked!

[@oddvertex9429]

She’s super great - very knowledgeable and grinds on space and electronics videos. Decades of experience.

[@SSmith-fm9kg]

Just did a search and found the Sputnik batteries lasted 21 days, failing on October 26, 1957. In a low earth orbit, it reentered and burned up on January 4, 1958. I remember the announcement at the time, I was busy being 7 1/2. The TV news stations ran animations (black & white, of course) of Sputnik detaching and orbiting the earth, beeping. I remember seeing it in orbit. Pretty cool stuff, seeing a satellite in space! Of course, all the Cold War hype was also added. Those were VERY tense times, with the concept of atomic annihilation at any moment. Congrats of the circuit redesign! Always a pleasure to watch your channel.

[@FoulOwl2112]

Im sure you probably dont read comments on these old videos. But just in case FYI... In addition to the nature of recording media and atmospheric interference of SW reception, some of the variability you mentioned in recordings of Sputnik's beeps is also due to that data was encoded in the duration and pitch of the beeps. Sputnik 1 had simple internal temperature and barometric pressure sensors on board. An increase in temperature above a given threshold would result in a change of pitch in the beep. A drop in internal barometric pressure of the capsule resulted in a shift in the duration of the beep.

[@lordmuntague]

Hello Fran! I reckon you should be made a member of the Royal Society - I might just start a campaign here in the UK. You also uncovered a dual purpose for that circuit: trim pot one way = Sputnik; trim pot other way = car alarm! I love this stuff, please keep it coming!

[@MarkTheMorose]

Fran for Prime Minister!

[@RoySATX]

On Sputnik, and other satellites, being visible to the naked eye, when I was much younger my cousin and myself would often lay on the trunk of our parents' cars in the evenings looking for passing satellites. This was during the early to mid 70s and by then there were a good number of them, enough to keep us entertained, in wonder, and a bit in awe. The number has greatly increased since then, obviously, but sadly so too has light pollution. The location where we were in the 70s was "in the sticks" but today is quite urban and even on the clearest, darkest of nights I'm lucky to spot more than a few of the brightest of stars. It's such an incredible injustice, light pollution, it has robbed us of one of the greatest spectacles imaginable, the view of our Milky Way and the stars. Most people today have no clue what they are missing or how great a spectacle the night sky actually is.

[@tracyscott3261]

Thank you. My dad showed me when sputnik flew over. It's one of my nicest memories. It was so cool to see.

[@artdonovandesign]

How lucky we really were! 😊 What we all experienced since the 50's is unsurpassed by any generation in history.

[@colinbrigham8253]

My farther said I won't go into space but you might ,I never did but share your memory 😊

[@scorinth]

I knew exactly what this video was about as soon as I saw the thumbnail. It's great being subscribed to both you and Objectivity.

[@Equiluxe1]

My recollections of Sputnik are of my maternal grandmother refusing to leave the house without an umbrella in case Sputnik should fall to earth on top of her, she also told my sister and I that if a man ever landed on the moon the earth would come to an end. I think she was rather superstitious, I was not quite five at that time.

[@Sk8Spitia]

Equiluxe1 well.. your grandma was right.. believe me... men on the moon ... never.. cheers

[@mikeselectricstuff]

re. The speakers, small 80 ohm speakers used to be quite common for early transistor circuits

[@timi6050]

80ohm? or 8ohm?

[@proudsnowtiger]

Fabulous! I think another reason for the variation in the recorded beeps would have been due to the Sputnik 1's transmitter being CW, not modulated, so the audio frequency of the beeps would be dependent on the BFO setting in the receiver, as well as doppler. There is a theory that the Soviets chose 20.005 MHz for the HF transmitter so that it would beat with the 20.000 MHz WWV standard signal which was broadcast at the time, making it possible to hear the beeps on receivers without a BFO, but I don't know how true that is. I saw Public Service Broadcasting play the Race for Space album recently in Edinburgh (what a gig that was), and the stage show included their own model Sputnik (called 'Sputters'). I think it's going to be retired now the band's finished touring that album, but perhaps it could be retrofitted with this circuit, just because...

[@FranLab]

Awesome info! Thanks...

[@greggeshelman]

Any chance of you getting an invite from the Royal Society to have a look at and perhaps repair their model? You'd also be able to compare the schematic to the actual circuit.

[@proudsnowtiger]

That's a great idea. I suspect the RS would be a bit chary about it, though, as historic artefacts in important collections tend to be professionally conserved rather than repaired. Perhaps Fran could get together with Objectivity and the Science Museum, and take the Sputnik model along to record how conservators deal with vintage technology, find out about the insides of the model and compare notes on how tech history enthusiasts can best treat their own collections. There's a lot of good discussion to be had there.

[@eddiel798]

I remember my oldest brother taking the family to see Sputnik cross the sky. My mother’s excitement and talk with others made this a remarkable night. My brother helped me to focus on the faint light moving across the sky and I was amazed. Truly unforgettable.

[@B60IN3]

I remember those times. Dad built a receiver and we would set it on the porch so as to help know when to start looking for Sputnik! The grown ups were very scared of this event. Thanks for the vid.

[@msf60khz]

The 40 MHz transmitter was directly audible on Channel 1 TV Sound receivers in the UK (which were nominally 41.5 MHz). This was an immense PR coupe.

[@robertlancaster8190]

Thank you I just learned something I was not aware of...

[@msf60khz]

The USA also had a satellite almost ready to go, and we had magazine articles describing how to make a "Minitrack" interferometer for tracking it. But as soon as Sp1 went up, it was noticed that it had Doppler shift, and this was used by a UK school to ascertain its launch site, by working back. Also, the new 200ft reflector at Jodrell Bank was use to track Sp1, but it was clearly ridiculous and just PR.

[@matthaxx7137]

There's more to the change of the sound of Sputnik than SW distortion and changes of component values due to temperature etc. The beeping of Sputnik-1 was a pulse density modulated signal, encoding internal pressure as pulse length and temperature as length between pulses. I have seen (can't remember where) a Sputnik beeper that emulates these changes. Google 'Russian Telemetry Systems' for (a bit) more info.

[@bondbug73]

Great project and Fran staying power to finish. Funny comment below about a grandmother using an umbrella as protection from Sputnik crashing down on her.

[@Taurmin]

Was not expecting Brady Harren to show up here, educational youtube is a small world.

[@generatorjohn4537]

I don't solder small circuits too often so I breadboard them on an experimenters board first to see them work. I just don't go to soldering stage as you did. I compliment your skills, troubleshooting and speed to build a circuit from scratch. Nice video.

[@sadiqmohamed681]

What fun! I remember hearing Sputnik on the BBC World Service news at the time. I was 6! My Dad found out the frequency, and we heard it direct several times on 20Mhz. My memory isn't what it was, but I think it was around 1Khz. My Dad was a musician, but unfortunately he is no longer around to ask. Great work as usual. Do you intend to make the model as well? The other thing I remember was from the 60s. My Dad had learned Russian so he could read a biography of Tchaikovsky on the original, and he found a Russian transistor radio in a shop in Glasgow. I was very into electronics by that time so I had to open it up and look inside. It had lots of transistors with that sort of numbering inside. As to the transistor pin-outs, I think the convention with TO-5 was that the little tab was the emitter. There was a thinner package (TO-1?) with a white or red dot, but I can't remember which that was. Such a long time ago. BTW your breadboards are very neat. I was never that good at soldering. When I joined the BBC in 1969 as a trainee engineer I nearly failed my practical because of bad solder joints!

[@statinskill]

That radio would be interesting, because the public radio broadcast bands were different in the mighty Soviet Union than in the west. Where was it made we wonder and we guess it was made in ones of the Baltic SSRs or the UkSSR. They made high-tech products at the time, but now that they're westernized they sell sprots (a sort of fish like a sardine) or clean the toilets in Germany.

[@SamuelGGuss]

Fran, i so remember Sputnik - i was in the first grade, and it was really amazing even to that five-year-old so many years ago. This has to my favorite video so far, i really shared the glee as you demonstrated how it would have sounded as Sputnik flew over. Just a superlative project, and the engineering involved to actually get it working was very impressive. I'm so glad you're doing stuff like this, and i eagerly look forward to your next video. All best wishes, Sam

[@lochinvar00465]

I noticed the osc schematic didn't have a lamp in the circuit like wein bridge oscillators I have seen. The lamp was used to control voltage levels.

[@VintageTechFan]

7:07 .. Soviet germanium transistors are quite easy to come by via eBay from eastern Europe. Most are of later production, but thanks to centrally controlled production often still the ancient types.

[@dxexplorer]

I was fascinated about the Sputnik... so excited that I always had it in my mind. And I also ended up naming a radio receiver with the same name )))

[@6F6G]

You should have used the highest gain transistors you could find in that bag for the wien bridge oscillator. Germanium transistors are quite leaky. You normally have to reverse bias the e-b junction to switch them off completely. Check out the biasing for the first stage of the amplifier (Q5?). There is only a resistor to ground. Normally there should be another resistor between the base and supply rail to bias the transistor on. Because this is a germanium transistor there must be enough leakage current for it to operate correctly otherwise it would be operating in class c which is not normal for audio amplifiers. The output stage is simply biased on with no emitter resistor. With germanium transistors that is asking for thermal runaway.

[@GreatPlainsChaser]

I love following your projects

[@fireantsarestrange]

The signals continued for 21 days until the transmitter batteries ran out on 26 October 1957. Sputnik burned up on 4 January 1958 while reentering Earth's atmosphere, after three months, 1440 completed orbits of the Earth, and a distance travelled of about 70 million km (43 million mi).

[@ralphritter9173]

You bring back memories of my late brother. He was into electronics since an early age. He built a black and white tv from parts scavenged from discarded TVs when he was in the 7th grade. It actually worked! He built a 5 tube radio also That was really nice. He had a custom cabinet painted fire engine red Put various decals on it from packs of bubble gum.! Truly one of a kind! Keep doing what you are doing!

[@stuartthegrant]

I was 11 when Sputnik was launched, and Fran you are such Gas "British compliment" doing this project! Well done for even thinking of it. I also follow the guys in the Royal Society channel and saw the episode you mentioned.

[@38bass]

I’ve loved watching Brady’s videos for years now! Thanks for the link, he’s so prolific that it’s hard to keep up. 😅

[@wandawong]

Hey Fran, I found the original Sputnik peanut-tube transmitter schematic. It's super easy! (20mHz and 40mHz). One additional trick you might want to add to your little Sputnik sound machine, is the "meaningful" time periods of the beeps. Sputnik 1 was pressurized with nitrogen to 1.3 atmospheres. The length of those beeps was actually modified by two limit switches for upper/lower pressure thresholds inside the shell, as well as two switches for upper/lower temperature. They probably just switched in different RC values for the beep periods (or "off" periods).

[@derekchristenson5711]

How neat! My parents remember Sputnik passing over the Earth well. 🙂 The chirping that that model makes reminds me of the bleep of the RCA Studio II, although that is made with a good ol' 555. If Sputnik sounded like that, then I wonder if anybody in the 70's, who had heard Sputnik live, tried out a Studio II and thought "It sounds like a heavily-medicated Sputnik!" (Similar chirp, but slower.)

[@solidstate0]

Public service broadcasting rock! Love you Fran! There’s so much to what you present that is both art and technology that suggests that there was so much more to the implements being displayed than the common uninterested people realised

[@danvanlandingham3854]

I was six years old in 1957 and I remember it well.I later studied Soviet history as well as Communism.I met an engineer who told me about monitored Sputnik back then.I have a good sized collection of general coverage receivers from that era.I'm recapping a 1957 Hallicrafters S 38 E right now.I also have a couple of Soviet Era transistor sets in my collection as well as a couple of Soviet Era trumpets.I use some Soviet Era parts.You can get them off of You Tube.There is a man on You Tube who used Soviet Era transistors he rebiased to use in a '60s Zenith Trans Oceanic.They are available now as I'm writing this.

[@jerryg50]

I realize this video was made in 2017. I found it interesting, and watched it in completion. Below is a Sputnik fact. I was 7 years old when it was launched. I remember this event to be a huge thing in the news! This made the rest of the world very nervous. Each of a series of artificial satellites, the first of which (launched on 4 October 1957) was the first satellite to be placed in orbit. 'Ever since the Soviets launched in 1957, satellites have been part of our consciousness. ' ... 'In , the word a travelling companion.

[@kirksweeney2179]

One of my few childhood memories is going into the back yard with my father to watch Sputnik going over (I was 6). It was an amazing time..

[@andrewdrabble8939]

Stumbled across your videos by accident Fran but very glad I did. Love them. You are a natural

[@miguelburgueno4891]

28:46 ...LOOOVEEELYYYY, thanks a lot, dear Fran..! And for your clear explanation about the previous faliure of the oscillator. Well done, dear Lady..!

[@dzarren]

The reason resistors add in series and divide in parallel is because as you stack resistors in series, you have more effective "stuff" the current needs to make it through, its just like throwing an extra clog in a pipe. As for Capacitors, the capacitance is proportional to the area that the charge gets to build up on, so by putting more in parallel, the circuit effectively "sees" more area! When they are in series, the same area is seen by the circuit, but there is more effective distance between the plates, since you have three or more in series, with each set of plates separated by some distance.

[@warp9988]

Fran is awesome. We are Big Fans up here in Canada.

[@xapplimatic]

It makes sense if you think about it why caps add values and resistors divide. Caps soak up electricity, so by giving it more "storage", you are adding whereas resistors try to impede the flow of electricity, so by giving it twice the number of the same flow rate paths, you are overall adding twice as much flow which means you are dividing the resistance to the flow by 2. That's how I think of it anyways.. (if you think of electrons like flowing water and plumbing, the examples always make more sense in a practical way).

[@pieceworkstudios]

You're like a little kid showing how it would sound as it "passed in and out of range" 😀 well done. Loved the video.

[@josephososkie3029]

I remember as a kid how the time Sputnik flew over Michigan was published in the Newspaper. Fran is right it was a big deal.

[@GARCKY]

I'm a new subscriber, so I've just seen your Sputnik beeper circuit for the first time. It send me back on a memory voyage. In 1957, I was 12 years old, and the launch of Sputnik was enormously interesting to me. At the time, I was an avid short wave radio listener and a budding electronics geek. I had built my own shortwave receiver from an Allied Electronics Knight Kit. Just a simple regenerative two-tube thing. In one of the electronics magazines I read, the broadcast frequency of Sputnik, which I don't remember, was printed. In the Los Angeles Times, after the launch, a schedule of times it would pass over that area was printed. So, here was this 12-year-old kid, trying to tune in the beep. I heard it the very first time I tried. The next time Sputnik passed over, I gathered my parents and my sister around, and let them listen to it. From there, word got out about this boy genius kid who could hear Sputnik. I ended up tuning it in for dozens of people in my small town in California. Then, it all ended, far too soon, but I followed early satellite launches, searched out frequencies, and got a better receiver. Eventually, I listened to almost all of the early satellites. I didn't end up studying electronics, in the end, but that all took up several years of my young life. Thanks for reminding me of that!

[@tdgreenbay]

When my mother lived in Manitowoc WI she always talked about the day Sputnik crashed in Manitowoc true story

[@vtwinbuilder3129]

But does she know Steven Avery? Lol

[@jayofthenorth3364]

@@vtwinbuilder3129 omg lol I’m dieing!!

[@brianwaskow5910]

Sputnik Fest Manitowoc Wisconsin

[@tdgreenbay]

@@vtwinbuilder3129 no.. steven avery is a convicted murderer and is where he should be.. no matter how much Netflix wants to libel the police and prosecution...

[@sassulusmagnus]

I just discovered your channel, Fran. Thanks for providing the You Tube universe with something worthwhile. Cheers!

[@jojobar5877]

That kind of sounded like Edgar Winter when you were cranking that pot. Lol. Really cool, thanks

[@ufohunter3688]

If you hit the pliers on the edge if the work bench, it demagnetizes ! I do it all the time if the tool starts bugging me. Since I use magnets as tool holders, I am used to them. but once in a while, I need them not to be magnetized. One bang, and they let go of the magnetism. Try it next time. BTW, I have the same exact DMM from Radio Shack. I don't used anymore, but it still works :)

[@LenHarms]

I had a Tandy degausser for my Tandy cassette drive I used with CoCo 2. That noise brought back memories.

[@nlo114]

As a kid I belonged to the school radio club in 1968. We used to build similar circuits to this by soldering recovered components onto the heads of copper-plated nails banged into a piece of wood. When the teacher had inspected our work, we were given transistors to solder into place, then a battery to make the thing work. All we got was a tone in a hearing-aid earpiece, but it was a thrill to me as an 11-year-old. I went on to be an electronics engineer and eventually to build satellites that are still functioning to this day.

[@dcw56]

That was quite a fun watch. Thanks!

[@Spirit532]

This is not the 1957 Sputnik circuit. I don't have the original schematic, but the transmitter was built out of finger-sized vacuum tubes, the output stage was based on the 1P24B tube, and I believe 1P19B or 2P19B. The output power was 1W, and it transmitted at 20.005 and 40.002 MHz, and the frequencies switched - the beep was on one whilst the other one was silent, and this switching was done with an RP-5 relay.

[@martyhastings9347]

Yes i recall something about the circuit being vacuum tubes. I also recall that the signal was designed to give the ground a status on the condition inside the satellite. what that status was, that i don't remember. thanks Fran for the video. i did enjoy it.

[@chanmix51]

The schematic shown from hackaday seems to be the correct one, here is one : i.pinimg.com/originals/a7/dd/81/a7dd81099a7b6a2dec8dfa251128c954.png

[@mikekj1]

At the 5:00 mark she mentions that the original was a tube circuit. She is replicating a model someone built.

[@pwnmeisterage]

Running the "Sputnik circuit" through those adjustments at 29:05 to 29:35 makes it produce some very distinctly recognizable Star Trek noises. I suppose this is no accident. Sputnik was symbolic of future space technology (before the moon landings, anyhow). The people who made the shows probably played around with different oscillators (or recordings) until they could deliberately mimic the effect.

[@chipmack7]

The satellite flying by at a high rate of orbital speed had a slight Doppler effect. Similar to the pitch change heard from a train horn after it passes by and races away, causing the sound waves to be stretched longer(lower Hz)

[@waynehall1]

One of the sources of the audio variations in recordings is that the emissions were on-off keyed carriers. Detection of such is like listening to morse code; the tone coming out at the speaker depends on the tuning of the receiver. It could be tuned for audio from very high audio tones to zero beat. So some of the recorded receivers had been tuned for max audible signal to the ears.

[@Allan_aka_RocKITEman]

At 29:06 - OMG, YOU'RE KILLING IT! 《grin》

[@Tocsin-Bang]

The Sputnik batteries were made in the UK by the EverReady company part of Mallory.

[@richardbrobeck2384]

very cool

[@KRAFTWERK2K6]

You know what would be a cool idea? A little Model kit that also transmits that beep on shortwave or AM on the same frequencies as the original Sputnik :) However with a much lower transmission power of maybe 10 or 50 milliwatts or so. That would be a real sweet kit to build.

[@mogwopjr]

I was not yet on this planet when Sputnik was broadcasting. Even still, for me it is always eerie to listen to that sound. An amazing recreation Fran. Thank you p.s. I had not heard of Public Service Broadcasting till you mentioned them. They're great! :)

[@LarryDeSilva64]

I was born December 15th, 1950 so I remember Sputnik and Mutnik and all those flights from the space race. Interesting that they had the model of Sputnik and showed the schematic of the tone generator. Looks like a fun project Fran. In the original Sputnik after it had been up for a long time and the battery was dying the tone slowed down before it quit.

[@colinbrigham8253]

I watched the sputnik pass overhead in UK it was amazing the sound was played on TV and radio.

[@craign8ca]

From watching this, I checked my stash of diodes. I still have several germanium types. Still have my old 2N2222 NPN transistors, too. Watching this vid sure brought back great memories of my early ham radio days in the 70's. I built oscillators, amplifiers, and a variety of other projects. I had a blast. Thanks for making this very interesting video! Oh. . . .and I was only 3 years old when Sputnik was making it's rounds.

[@deirdrehbrt]

I'm betting that the difference in pitch was in part because of the particular BFO used, and the differences in tuning. The same way that Morse Code or SSB signals will sound different depending on tuning.

[@msf60khz]

The AM audio modulation frequency should not vary due to propagation, although the carrier was subject to Doppler Shift. The transmission was intended to telemeter internal temperature of the satellite but it is thought this was not noticeably working.

[@spbnick]

Here's a page about the transistor in the schematic: www.155la3.ru/p6.htm and here's the datasheet: www.155la3.ru/datafiles/p6.pdf These were a second iteration of soviet planar transistors. Their development was started in 1955. They were still pretty poor quality, apparently. Checkout that whole website, there is no shortage of "weird and wonderful" soviet semiconductors and ICs there. Ping me if anyone is interested in the translation of the specs from the datasheet.

[@DandyDon1]

The USA ran into problems with their transistors too. nepp.nasa.gov/whisker/index.html

[@oprahwinfrey878]

Hey Fran,I'm gonna make this for a project here at college. However I can't quite see the values for the caps, diode, and input voltage in your revised schematic.

[@dbingamon]

If the signal from Shortwave were sideband then the pitch would vary depending on a BFO setting.

[@statinskill]

Sputnik: S-put-nik. A put' is a path, the `s` in front works like the word "with" and a -nik is either a guy or a thing. So a Sputnik is a with-the-path-guy or a companion.

[@JamesGMunn]

I have that same Radio Shack True RMS Multimeter. So late 1980s! Best Wishes!

[@BruceNitroxpro]

That kind of oscillator uses a tungsten filament bulb in order to oscillate correctly and with low distortion. Listed in Wikipedia as "Wien bridge oscillator" with a schematic. I'll watch the rest of your post to see if you clean up the wave form (I'd use that scope more often!).

[@the1spyderryder]

On the satellite I'm sure that they didn't need an audio amplifier unless it was to modulate the AM transmitter, also at 20 and 40 megecycles, (before it was renamed to megahertz) there would be much better resolution than at 540 to 1600 kilocycles... but there was always the doppler shift of the tone which I think was 2 kilocycles...(lol) as the satellite approached, passed then went away from you the tone would go up in frequencies it approached and then go down in frequency as it traveled away from you, then also the Doppler shift would affect the receiving frequency as well, but didn't affect the receivers so much because they were still AM and the front end of the receivers were pretty broad.

[@QuinnDjinnsQueerGear]

do you know of the magical world of eurorack synthesizers? i think you would love eurorack modules and building them.

[@edmclaughlin4923]

Wasn't around in 1957 but growing up had a space poster with all the satellites on it. Sputnik was of course very prominent! Great video Fran. Thanks!

[@featheredskeptic1301]

The original transistors are P6G (П6Г). The parameters are: Maximum frequency in common base: > 1000KHz, current gain in common base: > 0,97, current gain in common emiter - > 32, power gain - > 37dB (40 dB)*, reverse collector current: < 15 microampers (10 microampers)* , reverse emiter current: < 15 microapmers, collector capacitance: < 50 pF (40pF)*, expected time in service: 5000 hours, thermal resistance - 0,5 °C/mW, maximum collector current in amplifier mode (constant current): - 30mA (10mA)*, maximum switching current: - 100mA (50mA)*, maximum collector voltage: - 30v(15v)*, maximum power dissipation: 150mW, maximum temperature of the environment: -50°C to +60°C, collector temperature: -60°C to +100°C. the * values are "according to some sources". Source: www.155la3.ru/datafiles/p6.pdf

[@jimwaldo4200]

Amazing sleuthing Fran, haven't heard that sound in a many a years and you put a big smile on my face. The sound that changed the world. Thank you so much.

[@theronwolf3296]

I was about 7 years old when sputnik was launched. I remember the news channels broadcasting samples of the signal.... kind of cool to hear it reproduced after all these years. Very similar to what I remember.

[@raymondheath7668]

I was figuratively jumping up and down when you turned it on. Yay! Great historical project!

[@richardbrobeck2384]

great build it looks like a fun project that I can build to show the kids in class it would be fun to 3d print the globe

[@yoduro]

Great! 💛👍 Love the rat shack meter, what model is it? I have a Micronta branded model but lacks that nifty transistor checker! Seems to beat the Cricket.

[@mindscraped]

I was studying the diagram and it would appear that the connection from the multivibrator to the output of the win bridge through the diode is the only output of the multivibrator. So what ever sound the multivibrator made was changed by the diode then mixed with the output of the win bridge. To answer your question as to whether the speaker is dynamic or crystal. Your right it would have to be dynamic . It would have to have a coil because the speaker is in series with the transmitter so that the speaker is the collector resister. Sorry about that I have one question. How does lowering of the emitter resistor increase gain when gain of a transistor is predetermined at the factotory and the gain information should be supplied by the package it came in. It is rated in hFE. ? Doesn't reducing the emitter resister increase the working current of the transistor and also change the base bias ?

[@Xydail]

You could not see Sputnik with the naked eye, this is a common misconception. What you could see was the second stage of the R7 Rocket.

[@Brooke95482]

Hi Fran: Doppler shift may account for the different frequencies. It was pronounced. By plotting the Doppler frequency some people were able to figure out the orbital parameters of the satellite. They then reasoned that if someone knew the orbital parameters they could find their location on the Earth. This led to the Transit satellites that broadcast their parameters, but they required (1) an atomic clock in the receiver and (2) a long time to get the Doppler curve. That led to GPS. prc68.com/I/Nav.shtml#Sputnik Have Fun, Brooke

[@popefacto5945]

That awkward fangirling... Adorable.

[@popefacto5945]

Listened to a bit of that band. You'd probably dig MASERATI (of Athens, GA).

[@Alexander_Sannikov]

> I don't know who would have a bag of Soviet-made 1957 germanium transistors As an electronics enthusiast from post-soviet russia of 1990-s, I do have heaps of USSR germanium transistors. кт315 and мп42 were so widely used since early 60-s, that electronics stores just sold them by weight. Mostly second-hand soldered out from recycled devices though. And yes it is true that most electronics in ussr did come with a circuit diagram: either directly molded inside its plastic casing or glued somewhere inside on a sheet of paper. And yes it was designed to be extremely serviceable: 90% of all transistors used were those кт315 and мп42 that you can get from anything and plug into anything else.

[@Andrew_74]

Of course, кт315 is almost legendary transistor on post-soviet area, it even has its own page on the russian wiki, but it's not germanium. П, МП and ГТ (P, MP and GT) series - germanium, KT - silicon (K means "кремний", or "kremniy", for those who dont know cyrillic) And yes, old soviet germanium transistors are still available, if you live in ex-USSR, and know, where to search it =)

[@timlipinski2571]

Great Video ! (1) Both the USA and the USSR announced that they would launch satellite to orbit for the IGY ! (2) The satellite that people say was maybe the booster of Sputnik. (3) The 40th anniversary of Sputnik known as Sputnik II I heard on a cheap ten channel scanner with the squelch tuned off. The signal deep in the static was heard to go Beep, beep, beep ! ! ! (4) The USA had a rocket to launch a satellite 18 months before Sputnik. But the USA wanted the USSR to be first to over fly foreign countries so they could not complain when the USA did fly over them ! Thank you for the great video ! Back to the Moon to Stay and onto Mars and Beyond-Ad Astra... tjl

[@timlipinski2571]

Yes the Beep was on 04 October 1957 and then 40 years later with Sputnik II with the Beep, beep, beep deep in the static ! tjl

[@Mandolin1944]

Yes the Rocket man Van Braun had a Redstone rocket fixed up with three stages and a data collecting satellite ready to go. But Ike did not like the idea of a German national (with an ugly past) launching our first satellite so he gave the first shot to his secret skunkworks over at the Navy with their highly unreliable liquid fueled Vanguard rocket. Result big embarrassment on TV for all to see. The fact the the Russians gave them carte blanche to space with the Sputnik orbit was realized sometime after the launch of our own Explorer.

[@pablolopezparrague499]

Great proyect!

[@alext9067]

Great video. I sent a copy to my sister across the country. Do you think that the original tone was monkeyed with (as we heard it on TV) to make it sound more dramatic?

[@ahsimiksnabac6576]

Fran, ur the best!! your presentation of what would normally be fairly boring stuff, delivered by some nerdy bloke, comes alive big time with ur magic delivery skills. keep up the good werk, ur a star!!

[@spurgear4]

Your wonderful Fran.

[@hernanotero2710]

Lovely project! I allways used the hydraulic analogy to understand electricity principles, It works most of the time, 20:15 the parallel resistors and capacitors, if the capacitors are small water tanks, paralleling them I add their capacity, if the resistors are pipes, paralleling them I allow more flow reducing the resistance

[@bamagregv]

Thank you fran

[@pffbh]

Put a 1/4" in and out and rig up a Frantone sputnik pedal !

[@curtwuollet2912]

The point of using a wein bridge is usually to produce a sine wave. But as long as you had fun.

[@wetcircuit]

Forget KRAFTWERK. I want an album of Fran playing the cardboard spootnyik!

[@Etherionix]

Doppler shift produced some differences in audio tone as the orbit progressed in relation to ground receiver location. Thanks for the fun as always!

[@TheSlinq]

i thought exactly the same thing when I saw Brady's video - that circuit needs to be made! well done for actually doing it :D

[@peckelhaze6934]

I still use my old, first bought, Maplin multimeter with transistor tester for the same reason. Great video Fran.

[@nozmoking1]

The signal was CW, so the pitch of the recordings would have been determined by the BFO settings on the receiver used.

[@donholdaway2819]

Fran , the speaker may have been a small magnetic speaker, which was "relatively" high impedance, and would work very well with a 2 transistor amplifier in front of it. You would love to see my "store room"! :-)

[@jp040759]

Thanks for your time and persistence on this one. You should have breadboarded this before soldering it up. Can't imagine what a hassle it was to tweak the circuit to get it to work by solder tacking technique.