Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Wilbur, who shared the following message on Twitter:
NASA has posted the Real Time audio of the Apollo 13 Mission on the 50 Anniversary of the launch.
Lift off is just after 2:00 PM EST today! (Saturday April 11)
WOW! Thank you so much for sharing this. I’m already streaming the audio. What a great soundtrack for today!
For anyone interested, the main comms frequencies used by the Apollo programme were around 2.2GHz but some VHF was also used.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_S-band
CQ magazine had an article or two about the Apollo radio system, about 1968 so maybe it evolved afterwards.
Some hams tried to recieve signals from the moon, there were a few articles in QST about it. No success with 11, but if I recall properly success later. But I think they received from the Command Module, which acted as a repeater for the LEM.
There was Project Moonray about sending ham equipment on one of the later flights, I was never sure how far along it actually got. Someone figuted out there was space, I think under the seat of the lunar rover, so jt was planned on that. So it would remain running after the astronauts left the moon. But the main proponent died, leaving things in disarray, and then of course the Apollo program was cut short.
Thhere were attempts to get a transceiver aboard Skylab, but no luck. At the time apparently NASA was worried about communication that they couldn’t control.
Very cool. I am also going to watch the movie again. There is a story based on an interview with Jim Lovell on FoxNews.com. He relates what they learned during Apollo 13 and how it applies to the current pandemic: https://www.foxnews.com/media/apollo-13-commander-jim-lovell-coronavirus