Very, very cool.

>I worked at Dalmo-Victor in Belmont, California. The company had the original patent for the parabolic antenna, which dated back to sometime around the 1930’s. We built the antenna systems and electronics for the projects. On the Apollo there were four parabolic antennas in an array 2 over 2. It had a retractable arm, which was not deployed until the system reached orbit around the moon. Then the arm would be deployed and the array would go into a “search mode”, looking for a beacon signal from earth. When a signal was detected all telemetry and voice channels would then be activated. You could then do uploads/downloads. There were three earth tracking stations. The array was constantly moving to keep on track as the Apollo and earth moved. It was about ten feet tall and each of the four parabola’s was about four feet in diameter.
>
>NASA would inspect the final product, and the Air Force would button it up (seal the array in an airtight container) and place it on a six by (a huge Air Force missile launcher truck) for shipment to the Cape in Florida.
>
>We sometimes worked 24 hour shifts to meet schedule – the “original 24/7” perhaps. We slept on the workbenches sometimes. Does that sound familiar? Why did I go into programming? Come to think of it, when I was in the Air Force we worked 24/7. Many 72 hour shifts with no sleep or food – just water. Guess I got my training for engineering and programming early in life! At least as a civilian no one has shot at me.
>
>Tom