Would anyone know what frequencies the astronauts used to communicate with Houston during the moon landings?...I am curious to know how many watts of power the astronauts were transmitting while on the surface...I understand that the lunar transmissions were heard by amateur radio operators, but I have never read of any quotes mentioning this...If the signals could have been received here on earth it would have made for some interesting monitoring....

Regarding the Apollo 11 through 14 missions (before they had the rover), the astronauts' radio signals were relayed through the LM to Earth. The LM transmitted on 2282.5 MHz and received on 2101.8 MHz. It had a low-power mode of 0.75 watts and a high-power mode of 18.6 watts. I am not sure when they used each power mode. The LM had a 26-inch parabolic dish, but once on the surface, the crew could erect a 10-foot dish.

You can find some stuff at http://www.honeysucklecreek.net

Harald

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"Flying in space is risky business, but just staying on this planet is risky business too." - John Young, astronaut

At one point we had around here a link to some associations of people who had listened in on Apollo using amateur equipment.

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"Facts are stubborn things." --John Adams
Clavius Moon Base

One such link is http://www.svengrahn.pp.se/trackind/...7/APOLLO17.htm which lists some frequencies and even has an audio clip of signals during trans-Earth coast.