This is Germany Calling

Radio ham / CB'er DK5DR finds lost satellite

Mr Walter tracked the satellite in the 1970s but mistook the 
beeping sound for his new Casio watch from Aldi

A CB radio enthusiast has traced the whereabouts of a communication satellite which had been lost in space.

Mr. Walter (DK5DR) found the Oscar 7 satellite, which stopped working in 1979, using equipment he has set up in his garden shed.  Mr. Walter said "I picked it up using my G5RV/K40 hybrid, it was a great antenna at the time but far too common for me to use these days, now I just stick with my trusty K40 with lighty thing on top".

The CB enthusiast had recognized the code because he had tracked the satellite when it was working in the late 1970s though back then he mistook the beeps for his new Casio digital watch that Mrs. Walter brought him for his birthday from Aldi.

Now scientists at the University of Surrey have asked Mr Walter to monitor Oscar 7 so they can work out why it went wrong.  The University also confirmed they have ordered a large quantity of Mr. Walters DK5DR wifi speed spray to help them find their own missing satellittes in the future.

Solar panels

Mr Walter said: "It was an old friend. I had spent many hours in the early hours of the morning tracking this satellite and many bottle of my famous wifi speed spray too.

"When it made a reappearance and I confirmed it was Oscar 7 I was quite delighted."

The satellite stopped working in 1979

Mr Walter believes the battery on the satellites stopped working but somehow the solar panels have begun to work again.

"It is live but not necessarily that well.

"It has no battery and the guess will be how long will this spacecraft last again.

"After 20 years in space with millions of miles to its credit, there is no reason it shouldn't last further time."

Mr Walter's wife said he's spent most of our married life in his shed which is fitted with powerful radio equipment with a lot of Behringer kit too.

She calls herself a "radio widow" and Mr Walter has even fitted an intercom from the shed to the house so I don't have to see that much of him.  "All I can see now from the kitchen window is the K40 antenna on the shed roof, I know he is there because he has one of the glowing things on top of the K40 that lights up every time he talks on his wireless to his good buddy friends on those wirelesses".

Mrs Walter said: "He has got everything in his shed even a single bed! He even wanted a double bed!!!

"but I won't allow that! But then again its been so many years since I have seen him who knows what he has now, I think there is something fishy going on and I think its got a lot to do with that no good Mrs. Behringer from number 32"