Plaintext mirror of the Swatch Beatnik web-site
To view the actual pages, go here.
From the SWATCH website:
http://www.swatch.com
We are collecting your written and voice messages (.wav) format to put them on our Beatnik satellite.
Once in orbit, the satellite will transmit a selection of them to a worldwide audience (and beyond...) Voice messages have to be maximum 7" long or 0.08 of a Swatch. sorry guys, there's not a lot of room in space...) while text messages can be up to 130 characters long. You can talk about anything you want; your mum, your boy/girlfriend, your latest project, how much you would like to go into space to discover new, sexy, friendly life forms, as long as the message contains the word "BEAT" it could be selected. Don't forget, we don't really know who is going to be listening out there, so help us give a good impression of the people living on our blue planet...
Before sending us your messages, take time to check out our rules and regulations, to make sure that you are on the right side of interstellar laws.
In the month of April, on a date to be defined that we will communicate on these pages, a fearless crew of Cosmonauts will be launching the Swatch .Beatnik loaded with a selection of your intergalactic messages into orbit from the MIR space station. The Beatnik will orbit earth and you will be able to track it around thanks to the pioneering technology of our website.
Check out this space (no pun intended) for further information and more space-connected goodies.
The Beatnik will transmit the selected messages in the following bands:
145.800 to 146.000 MHz
Thus allowing radio-rads worldwide to listen to your voice. You will be able to catch both voice and text messages (in the form of HTML pages) ; but hey, if you are not a radio-freak, you do not have to worry. You will be able to follow the Beatnik and its messages live right here on the tracking section of the website.