QUESTION:
Could an amateur receive any of the signals from the landing site,  or
do you need one of the big receivers.  The reason I ask, I'm  thinking
of writing a short story  about a group of amateurs  re-activating the
Pathfinder after NASA believed it to be shut down by the cold and  the
elements.  Could this ever be done by an amateur with the know-how and
correct technology?

ANSWER from Bridget Landry on August 25, 1997:
You might  conceivably receive  the signals,  IF you  had a big enough
dish, and IF you  knew when to listen.   The problem then  would be to
decode  it;  this  same  problem  applies  to  commanding the s/c.  We
purposely don't put all the info  needed to command the s/c out  where
anyone can get at it, for  exactly this reason.  However, in  the case
you describe, it might be plausible  that, if we assumed that the  s/c
was dead, we might publish or  otherwise release the info that we  had
previously withheld.   (At  least the  security on  it would be lower,
making it  believable that  someone could  get hold  of it.)   I think
mentioning  these  sorts  of  things  would  satisfy  all but the most
hyphenated  (as in  "Is  anal-retentive  hyphenated?") science fiction
readers.

Bridget Landry
Deputy Uplink System Engineer