Media Coverage of the Swatch Protest
The articles included here are mirrored on my server to assure faster downloads, but point to the dynamic advertising icons and graphics on the original site, so as not to decrease their ad revenue. If you know of any other web sites, print, radio or TV coverage that I haven't mentioned here, please let me know by e-mail at rcarls2@umbc.edu.
From their April 6, 1999 9:15 PDT newswire, a Wired article by Leander Kahney titled "Spam That's Out of This World."
From an April 9, 1999 MSNBC article by Gary Krakow, titled "Half computer, half world radio which speaks about the new Ten-Tec's RX-320 PC Radio, but also devotes two paragraphs at the end to this issue.
From the April 11, 1999 edition, an article from The Sunday Times of London by Mark Prigg entitled "Swatch's satellite broadcasts upset radio amateurs" details how Swatch has outraged radio amateurs around the world by planning to take over some of their frequencies as part of their promotional campaign. If we're getting such positive press in the most widely read paper in the world, we must be doing something right.
From the April 11, 1999 19:50 GMT release, a SpaceViews article titled Amateur radio operators protest Russian satellite plans.
From the April 16, 1999 04:36 GMT BBC Online Network release, this article by Chris Nuttall titled "Hams jam space spam" details the success of this and other protests to prevent the launch of the Beatnik satellite.
From their April 17, 1999 3:00 PDT newswire, a Wired follow-up article by Leander Kahney titled "Swatch 'Saves' MIR."
From their May 17, 1999 edition, Forbes Magazine summaried the Swatch debacle in Ben Pappas' column Transparent Eyeball, in an article titled Space jam by Nikhil Hutheesing.
From their June 14, 1999 edition Suck had this article, titled Big Hand on One by The Internick.
From their November 1, 2001 edition, ARRL News had a recap of the last few Russian mini-Sputnik satellites in "Space&Beyond: The Many Little Beeps Heard 'Round the World" by Anthony R. Curtis, K3RXK. It's a little disappointing that it doesn't mention this site, but ARRL is allowed to write their own version of the story, and I'll write mine. :-)
My occasional partner in crime Ron Hashiro, AH6RH wrote me to point out this article and said "It's been a while since all the activity on the Swatch Beatnik satellite." It sure has, but now we as U.S. citizens have new things to fear.