49 years ago today...the launch of Apollo 11 and the trip to the moon

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Yup. Basically a two way radio modified to operate "full duplex" using tuned cavities (duplexer). I actually had a hybrid amateur radio, "2 meter" (VHF) transceiver on the SanDiego "WLV" repeater (still in operation!!) on Mt Otay, now as then!!

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with an old GE "pre prog" tube receiver to hear the UHF downlink, so "in effect" it was "full duplex"

The 2 meter transceiver was the much hated GE "TPL" (transistorized progress line) nicknamed the "toilet paper line"

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The "pre prog" was named AFTER the tube type "Progress line" came out. It was huge, heavy, and all tubes, and used either vibrator or dynamotor for high voltage supply.
Del ,Thank you ...for you're input ....
 
I tell you what. Living a short distance from Vandenberg AFB has kinda kept me connected to my 3 yrs at SLC6 the proposed launch site for the Shuttle on the west coast. What a project that was to work on :D. I still manage to get to a good vantage point now and again for a launch. Saturn launches are spectacular to say the least. Always wanted to see a Shuttle launch out of there and then somehow get out there to see the mayhem and destruction left behind :eek:.
 
Yup. Basically a two way radio modified to operate "full duplex" using tuned cavities (duplexer). I actually had a hybrid amateur radio, "2 meter" (VHF) transceiver on the SanDiego "WLV" repeater (still in operation!!) on Mt Otay, now as then!!

HOME


with an old GE "pre prog" tube receiver to hear the UHF downlink, so "in effect" it was "full duplex"

The 2 meter transceiver was the much hated GE "TPL" (transistorized progress line) nicknamed the "toilet paper line"

View attachment 1715199585

The "pre prog" was named AFTER the tube type "Progress line" came out. It was huge, heavy, and all tubes, and used either vibrator or dynamotor for high voltage supply.

My 70 Charger SE was purchased new by a NASA engineer and he had a phone and alarm system in it.
 
For you Space Cadets. Headed to work this morning.
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sweet.

perhaps "mobile phone"
 
perhaps "mobile phone"[/QUOTE]

It was more of a 2 way radio with an operator patching calls thru
 

Thanks for the launch schedule, Unconventional. One of these days I'm going to have to get closer than my North Orange County home to see a launch. It's always cool to see what we can of launches from 190 miles away - especially sundown launches.
My wife and I watched the pre-dawn Mars launch last May. We could only see a bright dot in the dark sky come up from the horizon and go part way across the sky until the first stage burned out.
 
From along the coast north or west (north by Hwy 101 standards west by compass) of Goleta/Santa Barbara might be a good spot. There could be some good spots on Hwy 154 between Santa Barbara and Santa Ynez on the SB side of San Marcos Pass. I never thought of that vantage point until just now. Both without having to go all the way to Lompoc. From the southern boundary of VAFB to the Gaviota State Beach is all private property, 2 bigass ranches with a little county park Jalama Beach in between. They run everybody out of Jalama when a launch is scheduled and close access to the area from Hwy 1. Funny, AMTRAK rides past ALL the launch complexes at VAFB, within a half mile of SLCs 4 & 6.
 
AMTRAK rides past ALL the launch complexes at VAFB, within a half mile of SLCs 4 & 6.

Yeah, I've seen the launch complexes during an AMTRAK round trip to Seattle a few years ago.
Now wouldn't that be an experience for AMTRAK passengers if (I know it's impossible) someone inadvertently hit the 'LAUNCH' button while the train was passing by?
 
About a year after I moved to FL, me and this girl I had known about a week, just decided to go "to the beach", at about 9 pm.

We took my 70 Super Bee and headed East, appropriately enough across the "Bee Line" (I always wanted to get a picture of that car under one of those signs- so if anyone has acquired one...), and ended up at a dive called the "Satellite Inn" at about 10-ish and proceeded to start drinking.

Around 11:30 were were in an adventurous mood and decided to climb on the under construction hotel next door, up to the 4th floor with very few walls.

Right about the time we got up there and sat on the floor/roof whatever it was with nothing overhead and only the Atlantic to the East-----up went the space shuttle.....and it looked like it was about a hundred feet away.

Breathtaking!
 
Yeah, I've seen the launch complexes during an AMTRAK round trip to Seattle a few years ago.
Now wouldn't that be an experience for AMTRAK passengers if (I know it's impossible) someone inadvertently hit the 'LAUNCH' button while the train was passing by?

Sitting on a siding just south of Point Concepcion during a launch might be an experience too :thumbsup: The south bound Surfliner hits Surf Beach, where the Great White Sharks eat a couple surfers in October in even numbered years, about 7:15 AM if I remember right. That's usually right around their launch windows. Surf Beach station is just over one little hill from SLC3. They probably delay the train in Guadalupe in that instance. Nutz!
 
And NOBODY in this thread has mentioned that they got to the moon on a CHRYSLER rocket?
 
July of '69. I was a "newly minted" U.S. Navy Electronics tech either just left Treasure Island, home on leave, or was still there TAD at the Island. After I graduated, I was TAD to the station amateur radio club where "I did nothing" or next to that, for a few weeks waiting transfer.

K6NCG - Treasure Island Radio Amateur Club 1969-1970

"ritty" (RTTY) one of my favorite things to do back then

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"The main station" Drake transmitter / receiver. Had been Collins receiver, Hallicrafters transmitter when I arrived


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k6ncg_positions.html


Yours truly up the 120 ft tower

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Then home for leave, and down to Glynco, GA for GCA RADAR school in one of the old blimp hangers

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Then spring of '70, NAS Miramar!! "Top Gun" "Fightertown USA"
Nice! Looks like you became a Electronics Technician about 10 years before me (I graduated from tech school with a degree in Advanced Electronics in 1979. I actually have First Class FCC license (now called General Class) that allows me to legally work on commercial television transmitters. No sure how much I remember though. LOL
 
About a year after I moved to FL, me and this girl I had known about a week, just decided to go "to the beach", at about 9 pm.

We took my 70 Super Bee and headed East, appropriately enough across the "Bee Line" (I always wanted to get a picture of that car under one of those signs- so if anyone has acquired one...), and ended up at a dive called the "Satellite Inn" at about 10-ish and proceeded to start drinking.

Around 11:30 were were in an adventurous mood and decided to climb on the under construction hotel next door, up to the 4th floor with very few walls.

Right about the time we got up there and sat on the floor/roof whatever it was with nothing overhead and only the Atlantic to the East-----up went the space shuttle.....and it looked like it was about a hundred feet away.

Breathtaking!
Those Shuttle night launches were the best. Always took a car load of people down to watch, when I wasn't working, when you could get real close on the causeway. Have had the fortunate pleasure of watching several launches including a night launch from the LCC when I was working. Now that's a good view.
 
Some of us still remember the teacher rolling the black and white TV into the classroom so we could watch .
 
we had absolutely no idea there was a launch planned that evening.
 
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