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Martin Dunne
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 Posted: Fri May 25, 2007 10:28 am Post subject: Australian pre-microwave links |
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Dear all,
I'm researching the links between Australian TV stations over the 1960s
and '70s, and a claim about the Apollo missions has intrigued me.
If the signals were picked up at Honeysuckle Creek/Parkes, then the
coaxial network could have been the carrier to the capital cities, and
even satellite beyond. Or was there a microwave link specifically set up
for this? And was Carnarvon made prime receiver, in which case the
problems of linking were even greater!
Does anyone have a good source on how this was done or history of
linking television signals around Australia?
Martin? |
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Martin Dunne
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| Posted: Fri May 25, 2007 1:29 pm Post subject: Re: Australian pre-microwave links |
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Martin Dunne wrote:[snip]
Or was there a microwave link specifically set up
This last I found the answer to in a CSIRO press release dating back to
the permiere of The Dish--the answer is yes!
Martin |
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| Posted: Sat May 26, 2007 2:59 am Post subject: Re: Australian pre-microwave links |
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Hi Martin,
On May 25, 4:28 pm, Martin Dunne <martindunnerem...@bigpond.com.au>
wrote:
| Quote: |
If the signals were picked up at Honeysuckle Creek/Parkes, then the
coaxial network could have been the carrier to the capital cities,
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To get the Apollo 11 TV from Honeysuckle Creek and Parkes, temporary
microwave links were set up using the kind of equipment usually
employed for outside broadcasts.
In the case of Honeysuckle Creek, it went via a small dish on the
microwave tower at the station, to a temporary repeater set up about a
mile down the road, and then to another repeater at Williamsdale
(which, I think, had one of those little unmanned country telephone
exchanges). From Williamsdale it went to Red Hill in Canberra, which
was the PMGs main Canberra microwave link before Black Mountain.
This link was put in shortly before the mission, and ABC-TV put in a
second circuit, as a backup, along side it.
| Quote: |
From Red Hill the signal went to the PMG Redfern tower, then via coax
to Waverly exchange and via coax to the OTC building at Paddington. |
The TV from Parkes was sent using a similar duplicated OB set - to Mt
Coonambro, then to West Orange (I assume Mt Canobolas, though I will
check) - then via the PMG's microwave network into Sydney, via Dural
and Redfern, also ending up at OTC Paddington.
| Quote: |
and even satellite beyond.
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Yes, the TV selected at Paddington was then sent via microwave to the
OTC's satellite earth station at Moree, and then via Intelsat III to
Jamesberg, California - and then via AT&T links to Houston.
| Quote: |
Or was there a microwave link specifically set up
for this? And was Carnarvon made prime receiver, in which case the
problems of linking were even greater!
|
Carnarvon didn't have facilties to relay the TV - and their dish was
too small for a good picture, but they did *watch* the Moonwalk at the
station on their equipment when the Moon rose high enough (they saw
the second half).
The nearby OTC satellite earth station at Carnarvon received a feed of
the TV which had been released by NASA. It was sent down the just-
completed coax cable to Perth. This was the first live TV from outside
Western Australia seen in Perth.
As you can imagine, all this was a mammoth effort by the PMG, OTC,
NASA (co-ordinated locally from Deakin Exchange in Canberra), the ABC
and the commercial networks. A couple of thousand Australians were
involved in one way or another in getting the voice, telemetry and TV
to Houston.
| Quote: |
Does anyone have a good source on how this was done or history of
linking television signals around Australia?
|
I'm in the process of researching this and writing it up - it will all
appear, in time, on www,honeysucklecreek.net
best wishes
Colin
in Sydney |
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Martin Dunne
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| Posted: Sat May 26, 2007 8:53 pm Post subject: Re: Australian pre-microwave links |
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Marvelous, thanks for this Colin!
Y'see, if the stations couldn't ordinarily even do national broadcasts,
it must have been quite a strain to get these signals around the country
let alone the world!
| Quote: |
I'm in the process of researching this and writing it up - it will all
appear, in time, on www,honeysucklecreek.net
best wishes
Colin
in Sydney
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Looking forward to that!
Martin |
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Neil Gerace
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| Posted: Sun May 27, 2007 8:55 am Post subject: Re: Australian pre-microwave links |
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On May 26, 6:59 am, colinmackel...@gmail.com wrote:
<snip>
| Quote: |
As you can imagine, all this was a mammoth effort by the PMG, OTC,
NASA (co-ordinated locally from Deakin Exchange in Canberra), the ABC
and the commercial networks. A couple of thousand Australians were
involved in one way or another in getting the voice, telemetry and TV
to Houston.
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Thanks for the writeup! The job would have been harder still when we
remember that there were no commercial TV networks here at that time,
at least not what we have now with programming controlled from one
place. Only the ABC had what could be called a network. |
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