Let the truth now be told!!

[SLR_dave]

It was one of the greatest days of my life....9 years old, running home from school to watch Man on the Moon!

Don't ruin it for me!

Easy fix Big Rob - they did it - read below.

They went to the moon gaddy you would have been to young to remember either not born yet or one year old

the one small step for man (pause) one giant leap for mankind came from the moon to the Parkes radio telescope (the dish) and then the world

It's a well recorded fact that the dish lost the coordinates of the appollo 11 because of a power failure I think just before Parkes was to take over the transmission and things were fairly frantic one of the Australian scientists said why done we just point her to the moon and swing around a degree or two until we pick up their signal that apparently happened much like the movie the dish

Buy the way the first step on the moon was not supposed to be transmitted though Parkes the yanks held on the broad cast as long as they could but because it was all running behind schedule the signal taken though Parkes just before the walk.

The story of the Australian connection is often confused in its re-telling (including, quite deliberately for popular appeal in the move 'The Dish'), so I think its understandable people believe different things about the Austalian involvement.

The radio signal of the first steps on the moon which included the transcript and (TV) pictures "one small step for man etc" was received in Australia by Parkes, and Honeysuckle Creek (Canberra) and Tidbinbilla (Canberra) and Carnarvon, it was also picked up by the U.S. at Goldstone.

For the first 8 minutes of the TV signal as the astronauts disembarked, the best picture at the time was coming from CANBERRA, (Honeysuckle Creek - AHSK). This was a deep space tracking station specially built for the Apollo missions which could not just receive but also send radio to the space craft - Parkes is a radio receiver only - albeit an important one).

As I understand it, Australia received the radio signal slightly ahead of America due to telemetry, (I personally have wondered if this possibly occurred because of change of schedual by the Astronauts who were supposed to sleep for half a day before disembarking but chose not to...as you would...perhaps!) But this is my surmise on that one as to why the telemetry was not angled for the best radio veiw for America if this was actually the case, but Australian radio telescopes did definately get the best signal.

The best signal of man-kinds first steps on the moon (and which the entire world watched live) was chosen by NASA to be that coming from Honeysuckle Creek. It was relayed from Honeysuckle directly to the ABC in Sydney from where it was distrbuted using Australia Posts Telegraph Cable to the world. At that stage, and for the first eight minutes, Parkes received telemetry data. Shortly after that and about ten minutes in, Parkes was receiving the audio and visual signal and getting a better picture than Honeysuckle or anyone else. It is at this point in the transcript you hear the words from NASA at Houston saying "Parkes, best picture yet". There is then a squiggle across the picture as seen in the movie 'The Dish' (which is not the Parkes Dish readjusting anything as the movie suggests, it is actually the transference of the signal from Honeysuckle to Parkes) - and bloody good work by the ABC and all involved I reckon in 1969!! Parkes then stayed with the signal and continued to broadcast the pictures live to the world for several (seven or eight?) hours.

The live video and audio signal of the first steps taken by Armstrong on the moon as viewed by the world therefore came from Honeysuckle Creek at Canberra.

Rob Sitch said about making the movie 'The Dish' that there had to be some artistic licence, because it was a way better story of the important signals coming from a sheep paddock, than from Canberra,... hmmn, bet he pissed a few people off there!

And heres the evidence : (There are 3 documents here, there is a gap at the end of page 2 of the second one, I couldnt re size the gif).








Below is a transcript of the attachment to which the above letter refers - it wouldnt convert to gif for some reason, had to save it as a word file :

Extract from Apollo 11 Tape
0.00 Honeysuckle (Dinn) Honeysuckle LOS CSM
0.25 Houston TV Goldstone video, Houston TV, Net 2
Goldstone Goldstone Video, go ahead
Houston TV Roger, are you receiving any kind of FM downlink?
0.30 Goldstone Houston TV, Goldstone Video
Houston TV Go ahead, Goldstone video
Goldstone Roger we do have FM downlink, we are not receiving TV
at this time
Houston TV Roger
Goldstone TV on line, Goldstone TV on line
1.05 Honeysuckle (Dinn) Honeysuckle video on line
Houston TV Houston TV, we have both sites 5 by
Houston TV Goldstone Video, Houston TV
Goldstone Goldstone video, go ahead
Houston TV Can you confirm that your reverse switch is in the
proper position for the camera being upside down?
Goldstone Stand by, we will go to reverse position
We are in reverse
Houston TV Roger, thank you
2.50 Houston TV All stations, we have just switched video to Honeysuckle
3.00 [on moon]
RTC Honeysuckle, RTC, Net 2
Honeysuckle Honeysuckle
5.30 RTC Roger, take your on site history, put end of file please
Honeysuckle Wilco
6.20 Houston TV All stations, Houston TV. We have just switched
to Goldstone video
7.00 Honeysuckle (Reid) RTC, Honeysuckle, Net 2
7.15 Houston TV Honeysuckle, Houston TV. We have just switched back to
you again.
Honeysuckle Roger
Honeysuckle (Reid) RTC, Honeysuckle Net 2
RTC Go ahead Honeysuckle
Honeysuckle (Reid) Confirm end of file
RTC Roger, thank you
7.20 Houston TV Goldstone TV, Houston TV
Goldstone Goldstone TV, go ahead
Houston TV Roger, would you check your polarity switch please
Goldstone Roger
Houston TV That's better
8.20 Houston TV All stations, Houston TV. Switching to Goldstone
9.35 Ops (Reid) SUDS, OPS, Alpha. Can you confirm we are
receiving Parkes data now?
SUDS (Gallegos) Yes
Ops (Reid) OK, take out receiver 1 and put in Parkes main
demod 4 PM
10.15 Sydney Video Houston TV, Sydney video.
Houston TV Houston TV, go ahead
Sydney Video Please be advised I have a very good picture from
Parkes, shall I give it to you?
Houston TV Roger
Sydney Video You have It
Houston TV Roger, beautiful picture, thank you
10.26 Houston TV We are switching to Parkes at this time
Goldstone Houston Comtech, Net 2
Houston Houston Comtech
Goldstone Did you copy that uplink on the dowlink at that
Time ?
Houston Yes sir we did
Goldstone Roger
Network (Randall) Honeysuckle, Network, Net 2
TIC Honeysuckle, TIC, Net 2
Honeysuckle (Reid) Network, Honeysuckle
Network Go ahead TIC
11.12 TIC What is the signal strength from Parkes ?
Honeysuckle Standby
Honeysuckle Signal level is negative 89
11.40 TIC Negative 89, thank you
Network (Randall) Honeysuckle, Network
12.05 Honeysuckle (Reid) Network Honeysuckle
Network (Randall) Right, you might pass on to the Parkes people tbeir
labour was not in vain, they've given us the best TV
yet.
Honeysuckle (Reid) Roger, thank you very much, they'll appreciate that,
they're monitoring.

Glossary

RTC Houston Real lime Command
TIC Houston Telemetry Instrumentation Controller
Network Houston's ground network controller, sitting in the main control room
Houston TV TV/Video selection controller
Ops Honeysuckle Ops Supervisor Mike Dinn and Tom Reid, plus John Saxon assistant)
Net 2 World wide network, Houston to/from tracking stations
SUDS S bands Data Demodulation System (Kevin Gallegos)
Alpha Main internal Honeysuckle intercomm loop
Sydney Video A position at OTC, responsible for selecting video source to Houston (Parkes or
Honeysuckle)



So yeah, we went to the moon. Loving this thread, maybe gonna add a second post. As Gaddy says - Let the truth be told.