Transcript from Apollo 11 Tape
recorded at Honeysuckle Creek

Timings and transcript revised May 05 2004 by Colin Mackellar

This tape is a mix of NASA’s NET2 (the communications net)
and the internal Honeysuckle comm loop (‘Alpha’)

The transcript is a modified version of the one found on Mike Dinn’s website
as part of his “The Truth About The Dish” section.


Mike Dinn writes,
“The Net2 and Alpha recording was made by Bernie Scrivener from the intercom in Tom Reid’s office.
If you listen very carefully you can hear a PA announcement in the backgrou
nd at one point.”

Sections of special interest are in bold.
Conversations on Alpha (and not sent on Net 2) have black text with an orange background.

In this version of the transcript, all times are relative to the “TV online” announcement, which took place at 02:54:00GMT.

Time
Speaker Transcript
00:00
Goldstone
[Goldstone] TV on line, Goldstone TV on line
00:05
Honeysuckle (Dinn)
Honeysuckle video on line
00:07
Houston TV
Houston TV, we have both sites 5 by
00:17
Houston TV
Goldstone video, Houston TV
Goldstone
Goldstone video, go ahead
00:21
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 the reverse position
00:31
We are in reverse
Houston TV
Roger, thank you
01:42
[Houston TV switches to Honeysuckle.]
01:45
Houston TV
All stations, we have just switched video to Honeysuckle
02:20
[Armstrong steps onto Moon]
04:15
Honeysuckle (Reid) Data, Ops 1 Alpha
Data Data
04:17
RTC
Honeysuckle, RTC, Net 2
Honeysuckle (Saxon)
Honeysuckle
04:22
RTC
Roger, take your on site history, put end of file please
Honeysuckle (Saxon)
Wilco
04:45
[Houston TV switches to Goldstone, but the Goldstone picture is now negative.]
04:57
Houston TV
All stations, Houston TV. We have just switched to Goldstone video.
05:37
Honeysuckle (Saxon)
RTC, Honeysuckle, Net 2
05:39
[Houston TV switches back to Honeysuckle.]
05:46
Houston TV
Honeysuckle, Houston TV. We have just switched back to you again.
05:50
Honeysuckle (Saxon)
Roger
Honeysuckle (Saxon)
RTC, Honeysuckle Net 2
05:56
RTC
Go ahead Honeysuckle
Honeysuckle (Saxon)
Confirm end of file
RTC
Roger, thank you
06:01
Houston TV
Goldstone TV, Houston TV
Goldstone
Goldstone TV, go ahead
06:03
Honeysuckle (Reid)
Ops, PAM
Honeysuckle (Turner) Ops, PAM on Alpha
Honeysuckle (Reid) Switch to Bank 2
06:06
Houston TV (to Goldstone)
Roger, would you check your polarity switch please
Goldstone
Roger
06:11
Houston TV
Roger, that’s better
06:19
Honeysuckle (Reid) Data, Ops 1 Alpha
06:21
Data Data
06:23
Ops (Reid) I’ll leave it to your discretion, you can release one man at a time to go and look at that TV if they want.
06:28
Data Roger, thank you very much.
Ops (Reid) Just for a few minutes and then back
Data Roger
06:32
Ops (Reid) SB1
SB1 (Litherland) SB1 on Alpha
Ops (Reid) Same comments apply to you.
SB1 (Litherland) Right, one man per time to watch TV.
Ops (Reid) At your discretion.
  SB1 (Litherland) Roger
06:44
PAM (Turner) Ops PAM on Alpha
Ops (Reid) Ops
PAM (Turner) Has signal level gone down on prime?
06:50
Houston TV
All stations, Houston TV. Switching to Goldstone
[Houston TV switches to Goldstone.]
PAM (Turner) Bank 3 and the wing and Bank 2 look about identical. Bank 1 from Receiver 4 is the worst at this time – er, Receiver 1, SDDS 4.
Ops (Reid)

Wait a minute. You’ve got receiver 4 and receiver 3. That’s
what you’re talking about.
That’s Receiver 4 into FM 2, SDDS.

PAM (Turner) Roger, that is the best at this time.
Ops (Reid) OK, that’s the one you’re using isn’t it?
PAM (Turner) We are, at this time.
07:31
Ops (Reid) Data Ops 1 Alpha
Data Data
Ops (Reid) Did you just change the input on the PAM, or did you change boards or what?
07:41
Data We just switched on to PAM.
Ops (Reid) Switched input, OK.
Data Roger
07:57
Ops (Reid)
SDDS, Ops 1 Alpha.
08:00
SDDS (Gallegos)
SDDS
Ops (Reid)
Can you confirm we are receiving Parkes data now?
08:09
SDDS (Gallegos)
Ah – ah yes Ops, they’ve taken the multiburst off.
08:12
Ops (Reid)
OK, ah
take out receiver 1 and put in Parkes main
– demod 4 PM
08:28
SDDS (Gallegos)
Roger, Parkes main into demod 4 PM
08:31
Ops (Reid)
in lieu of receiver 1
08:33
SDDS (Gallegos)
Wilco. Standby
08:36
Sydney Video (Goodman)
Sydney Video, Houston TV, Houston TV, Sydney Video.
08:41
Houston TV
This is Houston TV, go ahead
08:42
Sydney Video
Please be advised I have a very good picture from Parkes, shall I give it to you?
Houston TV
Roger
08:49
Sydney Video
You have it
08:51
Houston TV
Roger, beautiful picture, thank you
08:53
Houston TV
All stations, we are switching to Parkes at this time
  [Houston TV switches to Parkes, then momentarily to Goldstone and then back to Parkes.]
SB1 (Litherland) SB1 on Alpha.
We’re going tape change – we’re going manual for a minute.
09:05
Ops (Reid)
SDDS Ops 1 Alpha
SDDS (Gallegos)
SDDS
Ops (Reid)
What does that look like?
09:12
SDDS (Gallegos)
Standby
09:17
It looks good Ops. I’ll take the voice from there. Do you want me to take the voice?
Ops (Dinn)
Looks OK does it?
09:23
Goldstone
Houston Comtech, Net 2
Houston
Houston Comtech
Goldstone
Did you copy that uplink on the downlink at that time?
Houston
Yes sir we did
Goldstone
Roger
09:31
Network (Randall)
Honeysuckle, Network, Net 2
09:33
TIC
Honeysuckle, TIC, Net 2
Honeysuckle (Reid)
Network, Honeysuckle
09:38
Ops Ops 1 Data on Alpha
09:39
Network
Go ahead TIC
09:40
TIC
What is the signal strength from Parkes?
Honeysuckle (Reid)
Standby
09:42
Data We’re getting high bitrate LM on Decom 1 wideband
Ops (Reid) Roger
09:51
Honeysuckle
Signal level is negative 89
TIC
Negative 89, thank you
09:54
Data Has there been a reconfiguration?
Ops (inaudible) reconfigured Parkes (inaudible)
Data Roger
10:00
SDDS (Gallegos) SDDS Ops 1 Alpha
Ops Go SDDS
SDDS You want to take the PLSS from SDDS 1 PM?
Ops (Reid) Standby
10:10
Ops (Reid) Data Ops 1 Alpha
Data Data
Ops (Reid) Is narrowband 2 configured to SDDS 4 PM?
Data Narrowband 2 is configured to SDDS 4 PM
Ops (Reid) Select narrowband 2
10:25
Network (Randall)
Honeysuckle, Network
Honeysuckle (Reid)
Network, Honeysuckle
10:30
Network (Randall)
Right, you might pass on to the Parkes people that their labour was not in vain, they’ve given us the best TV yet.
10:37
Honeysuckle (Reid)
Roger, thank you very much, they’ll appreciate that, they’re monitoring.

 

Glossary
(after Mike Dinn, 2000)

   
RTC Houston Real Time Command
TIC Houston Telemetry Instrumentation Controller
Network Houston’s ground network controller, sitting in the main control room (Ernie Randall)
Houston TV TV/Video selection controller
Ops Honeysuckle Assitant Director Mike Dinn and Director Tom Reid, plus John Saxon Operations Supervisor
Net 2 World wide network, Houston to/from tracking stations
SDDS Signal Data Demodulation System (Kevin Gallegos)
Alpha Main internal Honeysuckle intercomm loop
Sydney Video Charlie Goodman at OTC Paddington in Sydney, responsible for selecting
video source to Houston (from either Parkes or Honeysuckle)

Further notes on the Net 2 and Alpha tape.

This excerpt is part of an audio tape recorded at Honeysuckle. In the early 1990s, the tape was played back at Tidbinbilla and transferred to compact cassette – and then eventually played into a computer and converted to an audio file. Somewhere in this copying process, the tape was slowed down by a factor of 11%. Time markers common to both the EVA video and the “Net 2 and Alpha tape” (especially the “TV on” announcement and the switch to Parkes) were used to determine the correct time frame of the tape. Happily, once the speed correction was applied, the other time markers (switches between the stations to Houston TV) fitted to within a second or two.