Ex-minicab Communications Receiver

Ex-minicab Communications Receiver

Salvaged from a burnt out minicab, this communications receiver was part of the equipment Geoff Perry and Derek Slater used for the Kettering Satellite Tracking Group. It shows the 'make do and mend' approach they employed whilst tracking Soviet space activity.

Slater and Perry worked at the Kettering Grammar School together and shared an interest in space. They used borrowed and inexpensive equipment to teach their students how to track satellites. In the process of doing this, the Kettering Satellite Tracking Group was born - which in turn led to the discovery and announcement of a secret Soviet launch site at Plesetsk, securing the Group worldwide media attention.

Used in conjunction with a tape recorder and a Vitatron UR400 Linear Recorder, this simple bit of kit routinely and automatically monitored voice traffic from Soyuz vehicles travelling to the Salyut space stations between the mid-1970s and mid-1980s. The setup operated overnight and at weekends, meaning that the Group missed very few opportunities to listen in and learn from what they heard. Soviet crews working on Salyut aligned with Moscow Time, meaning that they could normally be monitored during daytime in the UK. However, some launch windows dictated that the visiting Soyuz passed over Russia and Kettering during the night.