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[RTTY] Longest Distance Digital QSO

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Subject: [RTTY] Longest Distance Digital QSO
From: jeflanders@comcast.net (Jerry Flanders)
Date: Sun, 03 Mar 2002 15:45:04 -0500
Back when I had a "real" job, I worked at the plant where the Plutonium-238 
nuclear fuel for that spacecraft was made. A friend of mine worked on the 
team that finished off the fuel pellets. He, along with other members of 
his team, signed a card that described their role in making the fuel. That 
card was later photographed onto a microdot that, along with other 
microdots from other teams, was included in its payload. His signature is 
riding inside that spacecraft, alongside the record with the earth sounds 
and the other stuff you remember from the news back then.

Pu-238 has the strange property that it gives off heat as it undergoes 
normal nuclear decay . They use thermoelectric generators to make 
electricity from the heat. Neat long-term fuel source, but VERY expensive.

Jerry W4UK

At 10:28 AM 3/3/2002 -0600, Don Hill AA5AU wrote:
>Just read an article on the USA Today website about NASA
>Scientists contacting the Pioneer 10 spacecraft on Friday 7.4
>billion miles from earth.  Wow!  That's twice the distance of
>Pluto.
>
>http://www.usatoday.com/news/healthscience/science/2002-03-02-nasa-pioneer.htm
>
>Now that's what I call Digital DX!!!
>
>73, Don AA5AU
>http://www.aa5au.com
>http://www.geocities.com/writelog
>
>
>
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