Echo II
Echo II or Echo 2 or ''variant'', may refer to: * ''Echo II''-class submarine of the Soviet Navy * Echo 2 (satellite), a 1964 NASA communications satellite * Echo II (expansion card), a speech synthesizer card for the Apple II See also * EchoStar II, a 1990s communications satellite * Echo (other) An echo is a reflection of sound. Echo may also refer to: Mythology * Echo (mythology), a nymph in Greek mythology, for whom the sound reflection phenomenon was named. Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities * Echo (DC Comics), vari ...

Echo II-class Submarine
The Echo class were nuclear cruise missile submarines of the Soviet Navy built during the 1960s. Their Soviet designation was Project 659 for the first five vessels, and Project 675 for the following twenty-nine. Their NATO reporting names were Echo I and Echo II. All were decommissioned by 1994. Echo I class The Soviet Echo I class (Project 659 class) were completed at Komsomolsk in the Soviet far east in 1960 to 1963. The Echo I class were classed as SSGNs armed with six launchers for the P-5 Pyatyorka (SS-N-3C, "Shaddock") land-attack cruise missile. The Echo I class had to operate in a strategic rather than anti-shipping role because of the lack of fire control and guidance radars. As the Soviet SSBN force built up, the need for these boats diminished so they were converted to the Project 659T SSNs between 1969 and 1974. The conversion involved the removal of the cruise missiles, the plating over and the streamlining of the hull to reduce underwater noise of the lau ...
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Echo 2 (satellite)
Project Echo was the first passive communications satellite experiment. Each of the two American spacecraft, launched in 1960 and 1964, were metalized balloon satellites acting as passive reflectors of microwave signals. Communication signals were transmitted from one location on Earth and bounced off the surface of the satellite to another Earth location. The first transmissions using Echo were sent from Goldstone, California to Holmdel, New Jersey on 12 August 1960. The last Echo satellite deorbited and burned up in the atmosphere on 7 June 1969.Astronautix.com, ''Echo''

Background

The concept of using orbital satellites to relay communications predated space travel, first being advanced by

Echo II (expansion Card)
The Echo II was a plug-in expansion card, speech synthesizer card for the Apple II and Apple IIe personal computers that allowed applications to use speech synthesis. The Echo II used the TMS5220 speech synthesis chip to synthesize speech. The Echo II software could synthesize either unlimited text-to-speech using stitched phonemes, or play back raw LPC data for specific words, with resulting higher speech quality. LPC (linear predictive coding) was the speech synthesis technology used, which allowed applications to encode speech data in a compact form. The Echo II used the TMS 5220 LPC Speech Chip which was popular in other speech synthesizers Speech synthesis is the artificial production of human speech. A computer system used for this purpose is called a speech synthesizer, and can be implemented in software or hardware products. A text-to-speech (TTS) system converts normal languag ... References External links Mirrors.apple2.org.za Compute ISSUE 50 / JULY 1984 (avai ...
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EchoStar II
EchoStar II is a communications satellite operated by EchoStar. Launched in 1996 it was operated in geostationary orbit at a longitude of 148 degrees west for 12 or 15 years. Satellite The launch of EchoStar I made use of an Ariane 4 rocket flying from Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana. The launch took place at 00:59 UTC on September 11, 1996, with the spacecraft entering a geosynchronous transfer orbit. The spacecraft carried 16 Ku band transponders to enable direct broadcast communications and television channels through dishes on the ground in the Contiguous United States. From September 1996 to November 2001, it was at position 118.8° W, while from December 2001 until July 2008, it was at position 148° W. The satellite ended its activities on July 14, 2008. Specifications * Launch mass: * Power source: 2 deployable solar arrays, batteries * Stabilization: 3-axis * Propulsion: 2 × LEROS-1B See also * 1996 in spaceflight This article outlin ...
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