Loading ...Yes, I have heard of it and am trying to find out more… like specific orbital parameters so we can tell when it is overhead for ham radio listening and tests.
The ham radio community is fairly adept at analyzing ionospheric conditions for shortwave propagation. Under the right conditions, on the right frequency band, it is not uncommon for a ham radio operator to hear his own signal come back to him after propagating completely around the globe in multiple-reflection hops. The signal delay is fairly predictable like the speed of light, and the signals are usually weak and warbling a bit.
There have been occasional reports over the years of “Long Delay Echos” that would have required a much longer delay path out in space… and the ‘echos’ are NOT weak! The return signal is quite strong and stable, like something directly transmitted within a few hundred miles. Recently some hams have suspected they are delayed retransmissions from the Black Knight satellite.
One ham I know had this experience years ago on the 20-meter band (14 MHz) where he sent out a voice, single-sideband, call. When he let up the transmit button, he was hearing his own voice and call coming back to him with a full S9 (strong) signal. Totally freaked out, he thought someone was playing tricks on him. He tried to duplicate it, but it never happened again.
If we can get the orbital parameters of the satellite and know when it is overhead in close range, it would be very interesting to try to generate a deliberate transmission to see if it repeats, and on what frequency bands the thing works.
Shades of the Black Monolith from the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey”… our progress is being monitored!
