4 Oct 2007, marks the 50th anniversary of Sputnik 1 (launched 4 Oct 1957), the first man-made artificial satellite to orbit the Earth.  

A good documentary video is at: http://www.sputnikmania.com/index.html

QST has a nice article from John Foley (W7ETS), "The Wake-Up Call", QST, October 2007, page50.  John used his Ham radio to listen to Sputnik on 20.005 megacycles.  After many passes John reports, "I figured out how to predict approximately the times I would hear it and how loud it would be."  Personally, always having thought of this event as a hostile cold war action, I was surprised  to see that the article displayed a QSL card received from the Soviet Union by Gerald Kananen (K8AMZ).   

How many of you remember Sputnik1?

Did anyone listen to Sputnik on their Ham gear?  What was it like? 

Did anyone get a QSL card?

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