Brown File Containing Wiring Diagrams and Soyuz Transmitters Data Sheet

Brown File Containing Wiring Diagrams and Soyuz Transmitters Data Sheet

Folder containing 13 loose sheets of paper, including wiring diagrams and data sheets for radio tracking equipment. One sheet includes reference information on the frequency and output power for all of the transmitters on a Soyuz spacecraft.

The information in this folder was used in conjunction with radio tracking equipment operated by Geoff Perry and Derek Slater as part of the Kettering Satellite Tracking Group. The Group monitored Soviet space activity and was set up by Slater and Perry after they had been disappointed at not being able to tune in to the signal sent by Sputnik in 1957.

Perry and Slater's tracking activity began at the Kettering Grammar School where they taught. With help from students they used basic equipment to track Soviet space activity. The group later evolved to include ex-students and collaborators from as far a field as Sweden, Fiji and the USA. The group achieved notoriety for several discoveries it made, including being the first to publicly announce the existence of a previously secret Russian launch site at Plesetsk.