Apollo communications?

[kc8kek]

With the recent remembrance of the Apollo missions, there is a question I've always had and never researched in depth enough to find the answer to. What band were the Apollo missions using for communications? I found someplace that their voice was HF, but this doesn't seem to be practical for directional antennae and the like (and the ionosphere). What about the telemetery?

Thanks
Matt

[Hooligan]

Originally Posted by kc8kek

With the recent remembrance of the Apollo missions, there is a question I've always had and never researched in depth enough to find the answer to. What band were the Apollo missions using for communications? I found someplace that their voice was HF, but this doesn't seem to be practical for directional antennae and the like (and the ionosphere). What about the telemetery?

Thanks
Matt

HF & UHF were kind of used interchangeably, but S-Band stuff was one of the main systems for the Apollo stuff.

NASA had or has some on-line technical pubs that go into great detail on Mercury/Gemini/Apollo communications & communication systems, including transcripts of the comms.

Probably about 10 years ago, someone came out with a series of books that did the same thing. It was all before my time as even a junior radio-geek, but I read that 15016kHz was one of the active freqs for the comms.

[kf8yk]

Here's a good resource for the communications gear aboard Apollo:

Apollo TV and Communications Documentation

[kc8kek]

Thanks for the reply, I'll keep reading into it.