Arthur C Clarke and his 2.4m Gregorian dish

Likvid · 19-12-2005

http://pal.pp.se/%7Ekalle/Clarke.jpg

His Channel Master 2.4meter Gregorian dish in Colombo

He is our "Master" after all.....

**rato** · 19-12-2005

Great pic. Likvid! Yes, he is the Master.

**Analoguesat** · 19-12-2005

Want one
want one

**gameboy** · 19-12-2005

What's he pointing it at?

Can anyone work it out?

**T_G** · 19-12-2005

Originally Posted by Analoguesat

Want one
want one

Might be a problem, there is only one Arthur C Clarke....

**T_G** · 19-12-2005

P.S we should try to get him to be a member here! Anyone got his e mail?

Likvid · 19-12-2005

Originally Posted by T_G

P.S we should try to get him to be a member here! Anyone got his e mail?

Slow site as usual....

Likvid · 19-12-2005

Originally Posted by T_G

P.S we should try to get him to be a member here! Anyone got his e mail?

Anyone got his email?

Likvid · 19-12-2005

Originally Posted by gameboy

What's he pointing it at?

Can anyone work it out?

As you can see he got a transmitter on the feedarm holder so he must use it for some uplink.

He always had the greatest dishes, i have a picture of him and his Paraclipse Classic 16" which is about 5 meter.......

***Skip Channel*** · 19-12-2005

The second reflector on his Gregorian is bigger than my Porty dish!

**gameboy** · 19-12-2005

Found this one...

***Skip Channel*** · 20-12-2005

That's just an upturned umbrella with much of the material ripped off (must've been some hell of a storm).

spiney · 21-12-2005

To read Sir Arthur's (v famous) 1945 Wireless World paper:

www.lakdiva.org/clarke/1945ww/ .

(there's various copies of it, on different websites, here's another).

www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/on-line/clarke/ww1.asp .

**Channel Hopper** · 21-12-2005

I know somebody that knows (and has visited) him.

Will request details after Christmas

**T_G** · 22-12-2005

That sounds nice. Having him visit this forum would be cracking, especially as not only is he a great writer and visionary but obviously also knows his sat equipment...

**sputnick** · 27-12-2005

Omg WHAT A DISH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

**sputnick** · 27-12-2005

Can we shoot some satellite down ?

**T_G** · 28-12-2005

Coming to think of it, we should give Sir Artur his own section in the Forum, maybe in the Science Fiction section. I cannot remember 100%, but would not be surprised if Childhoods End was the first ever SF book I read in my early teens...
Here is a something I found on the foundation that shows what a visionary he was, and every time you watch football on 30 west with your motor moving the dish in a perfect arc remember he "invented" it:

60th anniversary of the Clarke Orbit

Sir Arthur Clarke has been asked many, many times if he's miffed that his invention of the communications satellite concept in late 1945 never really paid him a penny. His standard reply is to laugh and explain that he did not believe his original vision would be realized for many decades, and then he concludes by saying, "But I still think it's a good idea!"
Back in 1945, Clarke combined the technologies of rocketry, wireless communications, and radar to envision an extra-terrestrial system that relied on orbiting space stations to relay radio signals around the world. Just a dozen years later, the launch of Sputnik electrified the world, and brought his vision a step closer to reality. Less than a decade after that, in April 1965, the new international satellite telecommunications organization, Intelsat, under the management of the United States' Communications Satellite Corporation (COMSAT), successfully placed the Early Bird satellite over the Atlantic Ocean into what is now known worldwide as "the Clarke orbit."

Just in time for the Apollo 11 lunar landing in July 1969, Intelsat completed a sequence of launches that placed satellites in space over each of the three ocean regions foreseen by Clarke nearly 25 years earlier. As Intelsat satellites beamed live coverage of Neil Armstrong's "giant leap for Mankind," Clarke joined Walter Cronkite in the “global broadcast booth” to provide expert commentary on the mission and its relevance to a breathless world.

This year we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the publication of Sir Arthur's short article, "Extra-Terrestrial Relays," in the October 1945 edition of Wireless World. His words put into play the minds of other scientists and visionaries working with rockets and radio, leading to the global satellite system and instant connectivity we take for granted today.

Thank you, Sir Arthur . . .

It might be interesting for some to read the original paper Clarke wrote, download the PDF here

**gameboy** · 28-12-2005

He did think of it first, he also admitted that he couldn't work out how they would manage to change the valves on the satellites, as that was the technology at the time.

We need more visionaries like him...

On that note - anyone want to predict technological advances in the next year?

I think we will see broadcast-on-demand 'coming of age' and the Internet will become a boom area again with massive investment.

***BGonaSTICK*** · 28-12-2005

I predict that every arena of technology will advance except batteries. I hate batteries. We need to get ACC to look into this ASAP.

spiney · 29-12-2005

For completeness, it should be pointed out that - although Clarke did mention the geostationary orbit - he was "significantly wrong" about the possible technologies that would make comsats feasible.

The first person to write about satellites for telecommunications was George Smith. Clarke admits this "influenced" his famous 1945 Wireless World paper.

(see http://technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=826

also: www.livescience.com/scienceoffiction/050718_station_air.html ).

(I've previously pointed this out in newsgroup: uk tech digital tv - and got lots of abuse, which we don't want here! - but at least it should be mentioned).

**T_G** · 29-12-2005

Well, you can't get everything right, but it is the vision that he had..

By the way, you recommend any of George O. Smith books?

**T_G** · 31-12-2005

OK, the rest of the thread dealing with George O Smith and books is moved to the SF Forum, as this thread was really dealing with ACC.

Click here

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Arthur C Clarke and his 2.4m Gregorian dish Upload your photos here (Don't link to them with img code, upload them), doesn't matter how basic your setup, it's nice to see what everyone is working with. If you've seen an interesting setup, then post it here. All photos here are copyright and cannot be used without permission of the poster.