I think it's wonderful that with stack upon stack of esoteric TX / RX and test gear, we end up looking a a two inch diameter analogue meter to see if it all works!
@CuriousMarc
2 жыл бұрын
My vintage meter feels very under-appreciated! But it is very proud, because this is exactly what the astronauts would have been looking at to know if the link worked.
@1944GPW
2 жыл бұрын
Yes the low tech measurement is very reminiscent of Randall and Boot, the inventors of the cavity magnetron needing to know the frequency of the output. They did this with nothing more than two parallel copper wires that they dragged a lightbulb along. The bulb lit up every 10 centimetres, which showed them the frequency.
@KamAbbott
2 жыл бұрын
Absolutely spectacular. Everyone in the radio shop is gathered around cheering you guys on.
@KarlAdamsAudio
2 жыл бұрын
19:55 - yep, it's the age-old truism - amplifiers oscillate, and oscillators don't. Awesome work, everyone - this is an absolute delight.
@cwwhg
2 жыл бұрын
Ooo another Apollo video already, you are spoiling us this week Marc! Thanks for all of the hard work you and the guys are putting into this project, it's wonderful that you are helping to preserve this unique hardware plus we get to watch an excellent series as well, c'est vraiment merveilleux! Merci beaucoup a tous!
@erpi-ks1by
2 жыл бұрын
What is amazing to me (aside from these outstanding videos of course) is that the components have lasted and still work almost as if new! I collect and repair antique radios (yes consumer so no comments please) and the difference between a cap for commercial use and a cap/resistor for military/space use is so different. Just wonderful to show what the US could do back when engineering a product was for more than a few weeks or a year or two (and lives on the line too). And let’s give Motorola a hand at this wonderful engineering also. The Galvin brothers started with battery eliminators (for battery operated radios) to car radios etc. in 30 + years they went from what radio was in late 20s to the moon! Just wow.
@CuriousMarc
2 жыл бұрын
It's truly outstanding hardware. And consider the items we have are the "not for flight" stuff... Just built for outstanding reliability.
@cheapasstech
2 жыл бұрын
@@CuriousMarc I don’t believe these specs are used anymore… anywhere (pricing wise) as most electronics get outdated so fast now…and replaced.
@CuriousMarc
2 жыл бұрын
@cheapasstech Indeed, not for consumer grade stuff. But for military, space and undersea telco, we sure still make parts to an insane degree of reliability. But you gotta pay…
@zyeborm
2 жыл бұрын
@@CuriousMarc add a zero for every 9 in the reliability
@BlueSkyScholar
2 жыл бұрын
Something to note... living in FL I have some 44+ RU racks that have seen better days but are painted the same barf color. Well shielded, RF gaskets everywhere in their original form and in the vicinity there were some doors with general electric apollo program asset tags on them. Sadly the doors were outside in the muck and I saved only one asset tag which is somewhere in my collection.
@zornhed100
2 жыл бұрын
I do marvel at the beautiful anodized modular chassis that the equipment is built on.
@CuriousMarc
2 жыл бұрын
That's because it's not anodized. It's gold plated. The whole darn thing!
@zornhed100
2 жыл бұрын
@@CuriousMarc wow
@zyeborm
2 жыл бұрын
@@CuriousMarc I mean if you're going to do it right... ;-)
@mikedinn
2 жыл бұрын
An old DSN story. “Why are the modules gold plated? Cos it’s cheaper than milling from the solid”
@jlwilliams
2 жыл бұрын
I enjoyed the software-defined radio and Keysight segments and learned a lot from them about current practice, but the real fun of this channel is seeing the vintage tech live again. Super satisfying episode!
@BelgianSquirrel
2 жыл бұрын
I work since 2004 with measurements taken by the JPL instrument "Microwave Limb Sounder" aboard NASA satellite Aura. This instrument is the most powerful ever flown to measure the chemistry in the upper atmosphere, and it will not be replaced. The MLS main scientist told me that it was too expensive to replace this instrument due to its complexity. I did not understand but now thanks to this series I get it: "Microwave electronics, the blackest of black arts in analog electronics..."
@KeritechElectronics
2 жыл бұрын
"Microwave electronics is a joy for ever." "Any sufficiently high frequency technology is indistinguishable from magic." I'm not there yet to understand the inner workings of the technology you're resurrecting, but oh hell, it's absolutely amazing!
@BigMouth380cal
2 жыл бұрын
A room ( or 2 ) of equipment, 3 geniuses, and "voila", Double Lock achieved. Now, just squish all that stuff down so it fits in the walls and floor of a tiny capsule, shake it violently (as in a concrete mixer) for about 10 or so minutes, and you will have recreated Apollo. All kidding aside, you guys are a blast to watch work. Love this channel.
@proehm
2 жыл бұрын
"Shake it violently..." That's why the crystal is soldered in and all the tuning slugs have lock nuts. We once bought a "space rated" uMatic deck for the helicopter. You could have dropped the helicopter on it without impairing its functionality.
@KeritechElectronics
2 жыл бұрын
True that.
@phuzz00
2 жыл бұрын
Hooray! The blue cones finally get their moment to shine!
@roncarlson8535
2 жыл бұрын
Simply excellent work, so well done! Now to hear "One small step for..." Thanks to the many contributors' generosity and enthusiasm and NASA.
@nigeljames6017
2 жыл бұрын
I’m not an RF engineer, but this channel keeps me on the edge of me seat ! I sometimes have problems like this in my line of electronics, but this is just voodoo to me. Congratulations !
@paulkocyla1343
2 жыл бұрын
Please record your victory dance, so we can party with you! Awesome job, I´m dropping a tear here!
@oldsasknorsky
2 жыл бұрын
Marc the Apollo comms video are so good you have done a great job this all brings back a longing to touch analogue microwave equipment again. I worked for a telecom company for 35 years and worked on a variety of microwave radios ranging from tube type if repeaters to solid state base band repeaters and even digital types. Thank you for the memories.
@alexscarbro796
2 жыл бұрын
Given how well the retuning process was documented, it kind of feels like the system was designed to be reconfigured for different space programmes. NASA getting value for money from their space dollars!
@UnitSe7en
2 жыл бұрын
No. Not specifically. That's just what you do as an engineer. And that's how you build things. Tuning is always going to be a part of the process no matter if intended for further use or not.
@John_L
2 жыл бұрын
@@UnitSe7en Agreed. All microwave kit of that era had multiple tuned stages and the tuning sequence was always well documented. I worked on several 1GHz and up aeronautical systems and they all came with that sort of documentation. The biggest problem would usually be to get the crystal to oscillate in the correct mode - exactly the problem that Marc and Mike had when tuning the Rx.
@CuriousMarc
2 жыл бұрын
I imagine that these test setups would be have been engineered to cover several channels in that section of the S-Band, provided you changed the crystal and retuned them as we did here. They were reused for several different satellite missions on different frequencies, as you can see here. No such easily accessible adjustments on the Apollo transponder and amplifier though. These must have been built and adjusted once at the factory for the specific spacecraft frequency.
@cheapasstech
2 жыл бұрын
@@CuriousMarc probably locked to be readily captured in emergency issues - so the frequency wouldn’t drift space-side and make the uplink impossible.
@John_L
2 жыл бұрын
@@CuriousMarc Yes indeed. Another factor is that component tolerances of the era would have made it essential to be able to tune each stage even if it was only designed for a single frequency. Tuning a 455kHz IF amplifier of that era, for example. As you found, the interdigital filter at the end of the multiplier chain is very high Q and therefore very sensitive to small frequency changes, or manufacturing tolerance/temperature changes. As a general rule of thumb once the oscillator is running, in the correct mode, then everything else is really a case of tuning for maximum smoke.
@seamusandpat
2 жыл бұрын
Brilliant! I am no engineer but I just love what you do. Thank you so much for restoring these historic instruments.
@emmanuelr6698
2 жыл бұрын
Amazing, this is equipment almost fifty years old (eh like me !) and you figure it out ! Awesome, thanks !!
@SatelliteLily
2 жыл бұрын
I have a theory about why the 24x multiplier on the receiver didn't need to be changed. At the beginning when there was no oscillation at the original crystal frequency, that capacitor Mike adjusted was way out. That and other adjustments were all that must have been needed to retune and compensate for the other crystal without messing with the multiplier. I think you guys are right on about it probably being for the Geos 3 satellite. Great catch on that one.
@larryscott3982
2 жыл бұрын
This is what satisfaction looks like. Using what you know to figure out very complex: electronics and RF physics and stuff. And a happy dance.
@TheFleetz
2 жыл бұрын
Incredible persistence, amazing knowledge, never phased and what a result! Congratulations to all involved....thank you for sharing this with us! 👍
@dack42
2 жыл бұрын
The posts on the tuning adjustments are designed for special non-conductive adjustment tools. When you use a normal screwdriver, you will sometimes find that the adjustment is affected by touching it with the tool. This can make it difficult to adjust properly.
@soniclab-cnc
2 жыл бұрын
double locked to these Apollo episodes...
@snooks5607
2 жыл бұрын
6:40 it'd be awesome if all the rare docs in private collections got digitized and put online but guess it might make them less desirable to collect
@DW-ep9wj
2 жыл бұрын
Incredible work, Marc, Mike, Ken, and the rest of the crew! You're RF archaeologists, if there is such a thing!
@islandhopperstuart
2 жыл бұрын
Fabulous work guys. Truly inspirational and a fabulous tribute to the engineers who, fifty years ago, were on the top of their game, making equipment without compromise and with true quality and reliability at the heart of what they did.
@carpetbomberz
2 жыл бұрын
Much applause 👏, you found the GEOS Satellite and the S-Band experiments "smoking gun", BRAVO! Now the mystery crystal is a mystery no more. Kudos to you and the whole crew yet again.
@JensAndree
2 жыл бұрын
Wow!!! RF and this type of analogue electronics are way beyond my electronics capabilities but I do understand almost everything you've done in this mammoth project, and think how all the components and parts were collected and put back into pieces here?! Some were scrap on the floor until someone rescued them... Awesome! I have my background in telecoms switching and despite beginning rather young I always preferred working with the old and obsolete equipment, both because I knew I was soon going to be in hot demand (and which I also was!) but also because I felt I would learn more by beginning from the beginning ;) I made a great career maintaining old Ericsson software and hardware (MSC, BSC, HLR, IOG, AXE10) both in office and later in the field around Europe and although it often was a challenge keeping old systems running despite they had their end of life a long time ago, if was really fun and rewarding! Once I raided some hardware in a Ericsson museum in Sweden just to get a pre-paid switch working again! There were only three units left in the world and I was operating two of them, both in need of repairs, so I persuaded the museum to let me swap some of my boards with their museum piece and I got them up and running like they should again! I can't even begin to tell you how nervous I was travelling back through airport security with my unobtanium boards having an argument where I really didn't want to x-ray them, but it all worked out in the end. None of these are in operation today and to be fair they shouldn't have been back then either, but it was a case of if it ain't broken, don't fix it. At one stage I had every last piece of new old stock MFM hard drives under a desk in my office. If people knew how old some of the hardware was in the mobile networks in the year 2000 nobody would've believed me, but after Y2K we begun replacing everything obsolete and I wish some of the older units were saved, but I doubt it. I would've loved to be able to join your team rescuing all the obscure and obsolete hardware, but I'm just too far away... Luckily we all can follow along here and I can only thank you so much for making all these videos!!! They're excellent and you all explain so well that even when you hit black magic RF stuff it's still easy to understand everything! Best Wishes from Sweden!
@MatigrisSH
2 жыл бұрын
You guys are amazing. Thank you for this content!
@Testequip
2 жыл бұрын
A few awesome pieces of test gear!
@mustaphacherkaoui970
2 жыл бұрын
très touché par ces inventions merci infiniment à vous 73 de CN8MM
@MarcelHuguenin
2 жыл бұрын
Well congratulations friends with the absolute magnificent achievement! 👏🏻 Had expected a little bit more enthusiasm though 😂
@GrrregDavies
2 жыл бұрын
Truly inspiring. What a privilege to be able to watch your efforts. Thank you!
@madnar9
2 жыл бұрын
Love it - I'm still waiting for Marc to receive an XC Capacitor from unit 16 so he can walk us through his Interocitor rebuild :)
@XMarkxyz
2 жыл бұрын
That is so cool; impressive result, wonderful job
@Ranger_Kevin
2 жыл бұрын
I am still hoping that one day Mr. Carlson will show up in one of these videos :)
@hymermobiler
2 жыл бұрын
Yeah that would be so cool I love his channel too
@jnelson4765
2 жыл бұрын
That is a massive achievement! You forget these days with 2.4 GHz wifi kit being so miniaturized what it took with discrete components to do the same kinds of frequency work.
@user2C47
2 жыл бұрын
These days, one can by a WiFi transceiver with a computer that makes the AGC look like scrap metal for less than $3.
@mm-hl7gh
2 жыл бұрын
gratulations for the milestone! i hardly get what you are doing there, but its pretty fascinating.
@RaviNewfarm
2 жыл бұрын
Awesome work guys as usual. Congratulations on the milestone. Had to watch it through this morning. Got a bit late to work, but totally worth it!
@jantonkens9820
2 жыл бұрын
Lovely long video with lots of time with my favourite space nerd Mike 😍😍😘😜
@luke144
2 жыл бұрын
I love this channel. I worked in the darkest of black art in analog electronics so this is very interesting to me! All things analog for many years. I worked for Arrow under subcontract for a long time. Worked in ceramics and materials engineering.
@ricod9451
2 жыл бұрын
Marc & Magic Mike, Mastering Microwave Modifications! Master Ken kept a watchful eye on his pupils, and saw that all was good.
@chuxxsss
2 жыл бұрын
The Antenna theory for the tune cavity filter was what I was taught in my day. But after talking to an 86-year-old engineer, I was wrong; it is like a tune transformer, and he must know he is still building them guys. Check my channel for the talk with him.
@ironridgeaudio
2 жыл бұрын
Infinitely fascinating, as usual. Nice sleuthing into how the instruments were repurposed.
@plhebel1
Жыл бұрын
Once again, I find myself with the "mouth hanging open" state because yes, this really is truly RF magic. It's funny but I find I can understand the steps being taken here for the end goal cleaner than all the early years I was radio-active in the Amateur Radio hobby, maybe you explain things well or RF concepts come easier with age.
@remiechange5482
2 жыл бұрын
So interresting : I remember my first VHF (160 Mhz) FM transmitter with crystal....at 9Mhz. It will be very interresting to see the Phase noise degradation , from crystal , to final output signal. As you now we loose 6dB PN every time we multiply per 2. Today we are able to have good phase noise with PLL at 2Ghz in your cell phone. But for radio-astronomy at 240Ghz, we use the same principle : a Yig 15 Ghz oscilator is multiplied until 250 Ghz. Exacly the same principle for the first ham radio transmitter at 1800 Mhz, 7Mhz, 14....21...28 Mhz.
@Sharklops
2 жыл бұрын
Holy crap that filter is pure voodoo!
@edmaster3147
2 жыл бұрын
Let's build an Apollo from salvaged parts and do a series on re-visiting the moon!:) Love your channel Marc and thanks to all of you for the amazing content.
@orbitingeyes2540
2 жыл бұрын
More great work, Marc! When will you build the rest of the LM to go with the radios & AGC? 😃 I'll be sorry when you run out of Apollo era gear to restore!
@alexscarbro796
2 жыл бұрын
There is probably merit in driving the SRD with an external RF Sig Gen that you can sweep whilst peak holding the spectrum. You can then ensure that the comb filter is centred correctly with a good shape, otherwise you could be sat on the edge of the pass band.
@Strothy2
2 жыл бұрын
Real question is when can we expect the fully restored Saturn 5 plus CM and LM?
@ShainAndrews
2 жыл бұрын
In due time... in due time... next week?
@ReneSchickbauer
2 жыл бұрын
@@ShainAndrews Looking forward to the part where they try to fit C-T 1 into Marcs basement 🙂
@ShainAndrews
2 жыл бұрын
@@ReneSchickbauer There was extensive remodeling a few years back ;-)
@fischX
2 жыл бұрын
Don't know but it will be ready before the SLS 😈
@Strothy2
2 жыл бұрын
@@fischX that was below the belt... but prob correct lol
@m180190
2 жыл бұрын
Congratulations to you and Mike and your team. This is inspirational work. Thank you
@agenericaccount3935
2 жыл бұрын
Black magic wrapped in gold. 🚀
@cjay2
2 жыл бұрын
Complimenti ragazzi !!! You did it! Excellent work. Your lab bench looks just like my bench was at JPL while working on the design of the advanced transponder for the Cassini project. Stacks of HP gear everywhere! It's nice to see the mix of new digital gear and the older HP CRT's displaying all the goodies.
@johnopalko5223
2 жыл бұрын
Congratulations on this milestone, Marc! As an Extra class amateur radio licensee, I understand the theory behind what you're doing but it's really impressive to watch you guys pull it off in actual practice. 73 de N7KBT
@ruston1200
2 жыл бұрын
@CuriousMarc I dont understand 30% of this, but your channel is awesome anyway, I am impressed of your combined knowledge and that you are charing it with the rest of the world! keep up the good work!
@ArferNower
2 жыл бұрын
Excellent work, now we need to get to the moon again
@darrinpearce9780
2 жыл бұрын
Congrats lads, excellent work.
@LarsBohr5
2 жыл бұрын
I too Love all things Apollo! Love the HP-15c as well, still using mine.
@jimcompton4587
2 жыл бұрын
you really needto reach out to us viewers when you need a part! I have xtal sockets for that style crystal that I' d happily send you.
@CuriousMarc
2 жыл бұрын
Ooh thanks, I’ll take you up on this offer! Can you contact me via the link in the description?
@L1NKU5
2 жыл бұрын
I have no idea what you guys are talking about but heck some how I sat thru it all, it was really interesting, thanks for this!
@brendanbarbour8568
2 жыл бұрын
Tremendous result team. What they achieved back in 1969 is truly mind blowing and worthy of your magnificent efforts to rebuild. How are you going to follow that I wonder.....!!!!
@MrTallwilly
2 жыл бұрын
Congrats! Great job! Keep the videos coming.
@alexthelion335
2 жыл бұрын
Amazing to see how far this project has come!
@acmefixer1
2 жыл бұрын
This is episode 13, the luckiest one! Everything went splendidly!
@OnurDinler
2 жыл бұрын
wonderful work. thank you for sharing.
@ksbs2036
2 жыл бұрын
Just wonderful and so much fun
@radarmusen
2 жыл бұрын
Interesting to see this multiplyer full of PFM stuff. Remind me about a weather radar there was using a x6 and x9 to get to 9.345 GHz. But this was from the 80’
@peep39
2 жыл бұрын
What a triumph
@francisbacon-moneygrabber9996
8 ай бұрын
These cavities, the big box with "nothing" in it, definitely HF-black-magic.
@hymermobiler
2 жыл бұрын
I am not clever enough to do this kind of stuff even for fun but I still do like to watch you guys doing it so thanks for putting it on here!
@ricm3633
2 жыл бұрын
Love these Apollo videos!!
@NUTTER8291
2 жыл бұрын
FANTASTIC WORK GUYS !! Can't wait to see what your going to Resurrects next !!
@scowell
2 жыл бұрын
Now send DSKY commands through it! Great job guys.
@MeriaDuck
2 жыл бұрын
18:45 HF is still total magic for me, brilliant!
@proehm
2 жыл бұрын
I had a couple of sizes of those tuning tools in my toolbox, but left them to the guy who took over my bench when I retired. You can fabricate the by taking a Dremel cutoff wheel to the end of a short aluminum rod.
@tim_bbq1008
2 жыл бұрын
5:05 Well, well, well. Marc and I share the same taste in RPN calculators. By the way, I have the very last one that ever shipped from an HP warehouse. Thanks for sharing!
@LMacNeill
2 жыл бұрын
Amazing!! Now what you need to do is hook up the transmitter to a real antenna and see if you can contact the ISS with it, since that still uses the same frequency. ;-)
@teslate
2 жыл бұрын
Genius Detechtives!
@morrisoc1
2 жыл бұрын
Disappointed that you didn't share the victory dance! Aside from that great work guys, it's such a welcome surprise every time one of your videos show up! Excited to see it all in action in the next video!
@Shady97342
2 жыл бұрын
The projects you and your friends tackle are amazing. Thank you for sharing.
@alasdairmunro1953
2 жыл бұрын
Bravo, well done Marc and the team!
@alanvandusen76
2 жыл бұрын
Congratulations!!!!
@julianrolfe2871
Жыл бұрын
Awesome series of videos. 😀
@mike95826
2 жыл бұрын
Next? Find or recreate an Apollo era video camera and decoder to see if you can get the equipment to pass a video stream.
@pipsqueak2009
2 жыл бұрын
Wonderful work! Good job guys.
@joeuser1858
2 жыл бұрын
Congratulations!!
@Xboerefijn1
2 жыл бұрын
I know you already said that it's as good as impossible, but I would love to see you play with this using the original test equipment of the time. Seeing the love you have with these few small boxes I think you'd be like small children in a toy factory:P
@99959bill
2 жыл бұрын
Absolutely Amazing !!! And without the book !!!!
@neilshep50
2 жыл бұрын
Apollo ep. 13, and it didn't end in disaster!
@nicksmith4507
2 жыл бұрын
Love your work.
@petesapwell
2 жыл бұрын
Wonderful work :)
@gerryjamesedwards1227
2 жыл бұрын
I love this electronic archaeology!
@L0wcash
2 жыл бұрын
Congratulations on this milestone! I will drink one on you guys tonight!
@Ur11
2 жыл бұрын
Congrats to all involved.
@mnoxman
2 жыл бұрын
Takes me back to my days as a radio tech. Tuning cavity filters on VHF/UHF two-way transmitters. Tuning the front ends of GE Master II radios and trouble shooting problems with Oscillators where the capacitance of the scope probe would start the Oscillator but when you took it off it stopped. A sine wave is a sine wave. I would have thought you could have used a AWG to generate the fundamental frequency replacing the Xtal. Even a HP 200A would have done. Not stable but would have proofed things out.
@CuriousMarc
2 жыл бұрын
You’d think so, but you can’t do that. These are VCOs that are part of closed loop PLLs. You can’t drive them with a simple sine wave generator and expect it to work. Which is why finding the crystal with the exact characteristics was so important.
@ShainAndrews
2 жыл бұрын
Such thorough work. I trust you red lined the alignment procedure and sent it back to NASA right?
@techlover3284
2 жыл бұрын
Well done guys!!! Congrats for your work and passion. Assolutamente eccezionale!
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