Radio Detection of SN 1985L in NGC 5033

Observations of SN 1985L in NGC 5033 with the Very Large Array radio telescope have resulted in two detections of radio emission at 6 cm wavelength about 8 and 16 months after optical discovery. Combined with a number of upper limits and a study of possible models, these indicate that SN 1985L was probably a fairly normal Type II-L radio supernova, somewhat intermediate in radio properties between the well-studied radio supernovae SN 1979C and SN 1980K. A possible late-time optical detection, discussed in an accompanying paper by Fesen (1998), continues the observed correlation between radio and late-time optical emission.