Saturday September 12 2015 at the glider club Union Linz‘ air field. A nice day despite the clouds that covered the sky in the morning. Three of the MURSAT team start to set up the equipment to fish for satellite signals.
Setting up the fishing gear
We were invited to take part at “Beyond the field” which was part of the “(K)ein Festival Kollaboration”. The local organizers provided food and drinks and the glider club took interested people for short flights in their planes. A perfect surrounding to go fishing for satellites.
Our equipment still seems to be far from perfect since we did not get lot’s of signals from satellites. But our last attempt finally worked and we even gathered some useful data from one of the NOAA birds that constantly transmit pictures of our planet’s surface.
Satellite Performance by Reni and Norbert
But maybe it’s not technical error that prevented us from catching more satellites at this particular day. We could not resist the offer to hitch a ride on a glider and spend way too much time waiting in line for a first short flight.
Later in the afternoon another member of the team showed up as we packed the fishing gear. We started preparations for the performance by Reni and Norbert. Both used satellite data in various forms to wonderfully wrap up this exciting day. As the sun set behind the industrial sky line, glider pilots, satellite fishers and everyone else stood listening to the strange sounds from outer space.