Neil Armstrong's
first steps

ABC News
July 1969

OTC Paddington
1969

I was one of the NASA engineers assigned to OTC during the Apollo
missions. I was wondering if you could put me in touch with Wayne Ozarko.
It's been a long time and Wayne and I became close friends during the
missions. Just wondering what the hell he is up to these days..

I got your mail from John Sarkissian. I helped him with his Apollo 11
write-up....

17 Jan 2002

I am in the Seattle area in Washington State. Last thing I knew about Wayne
was he was involved with the passenger ferries servicing the harbor but
that was years ago..

I am also wondering whatever happened to Pam the Pom.. I don't remember her
last name but she ran around with us back in the good old days. I think she
was Bob's secratary.

Do you remember the layout of our cubicle at OTC? If you do maybe you can
help me clear up a few things. You guys did most of the wiring but I think
I laid all the cable for the video system as Charlies console didn't arrive
until after I was on site. That was a long time ago and my brain cells are
a little foggy..

Dick Holl Associate Editor/Webmaster The Sportsfeed editor@sportsfeed.com http://www.sportsfeed.com Wireless: http://www.sportsfeed.com/welcome.wml Ph: 360-613-1788 Cell: 360-981-4751 Fax: 360-692-7416

Robert, et all

Well I was the program man on the Monday, July 21st 1969 AEST, the day of
the Apollo 11 moon walk, it was a day shift and as usual we were only three
staff on duty ( one short on Mondays) and as the TO1A, I was the program
man. The others on duty, from memory, were Grossie ie John Grosbard and
'Silent Sam'. Geoff ran the fault desk, grossie tried to keep the ring ins
away from the program racks, patch panels and cables etc. There was this
big tarp put around the program area and the "press" were invited via the
back stairs to view a few monitors set up adjacent to the the NASA
equipment....but seperated.

The NASA equipment had some big problems when it arrived and was plugged
into 240 Volts AC...bingo it blew the power supply....so close to the
mission like the guys were well on their way...to the moon

Now to Wayne, I remember Wayne very well, had a cool smile and a wheeler
dealer sorta guy, figured he was a 'Canuck' but could be wrong. Wayne
under Kerry Kairney (spelling???) did most of the setup work on level 4 at
Paddo and worked very hard with a lot of the (for want of better
terminology) older Technical staff and an engineer or 2 to fix the NASA
"video translator, 'huge box' " power supply problem when it when up in
smoke. A new power supply was flown in from the States (USA) and the guys
'gerry rigged' a motor running an alernator to deliver 110 Volts 60 Hz down
in the basement near the no-break equipment all attached to a builder's
plank (believe it).

The output of the NASA video equipment was sent directly to the program
video amps and monitored on our magic black and white screens (well it was
B&W anyhow). In a way, I was the first to see that signal in all its fuzzy
glory (but it was so good, never forget it). Then it was split 3 ways to
the 'news' screens out the back with the NASA guys and to the ABC for
Australian distribution and to Moree Earth Station for Transmission to
Jamesburg and on to the world and mainly Houston. Parkes which was the RX
earth station received an ABC feed of the signal cause it could not be
viewed till it was translated thru the NASA box.....

NASA gave me, and the guys on duty, a set of colour 10x12 photos from the
mission and I still have them.

PS. Silent Sam and I were on the night shift listening to the Tidbinbilla
NASA link when the Apollo 13 had its incident...we heard it live...was much
more dramatic than the film...can tell you.

Anyhow enough from me, hope you can find Wayne, I went to Guam and never saw
him again.

Regards
John Vossen

Just a couple of things which you may already know. Pam "the Pom" was
Pam Helps who has had a lot to do with Vets and at the time was working at
Paddo as the Paddo Managers' PA and is still living in Sydney.

Silent Sam
was Geoff Godfrey's nickname, the last we heard of him was he was up on the
far north coast of NSW.

Kevin

Guys:

First of all Thanks everyone for getting involved with this.. Some things I remember.. Now that you guys have refreshed my mind I remember Pam's last name was Helps.. We teased her about it all the time as I am sure you guys did. Wayne was a Canuck but I believe his Mom was living in Sydney. I know he was involved with harbor transportation after OTC. His folks had a lot of money but Wayne was trying to do his own thing. He also was involved in the music/band scene in Sydney. Say Hi to Pam for me. She may know where Wayne is. I think he married one of her mates.

The reason we needed a special generator was the Scan Converter required three phase power. It wasn't the 240 volts that blew it up, the phases somehow got reversed. I didn't realize it had taken out our 60hz generator too. I wasn't involved with the wiring or replacement of the generator.

I remember the incident well as I was the one who turned the damn thing on when it blew up and I was the one that found the phase reversal on the incoming power.. I really believe our single phase 110V 60Hz was still working after the converter blew up. That may trigger some of your memories..

I remember taking a slow scan camera to Parkes and when I got back to OTC we used it for a full mission simulation with Houston. Everything worked great. We had finished the simulation either the night before or on a Friday and I came in on Monday. In either case the converter blew when I turned on the power. At that time I was the only NASA guy at OTC. It was at least three weeks before the mission and it may have been four. I know because I started fixing things as fast as I could. I wanted HSK to ship their scan converter to me in order to eliminate the extra microwave links but NASA and HSK decided to leave it there and to bring in the guys from the States and all the parts they could get their hands on.. I worked on the thing for over a week before help showed up. There was even talk of sending the converter from Madrid as their converter would only have been needed in a scenario where Houston wouldn't have released the video anyway. Ted Knotts and Elmer Fredd showed up and we worked around the clock and had the converter back on line before lift off. Charlie Goodman and his crew got there about a week before the mission.

What I can't remember is how many Video recorders and monitors were sitting on the table to the right and rear of Goodmans video console. This is important as we need to know if we were recording HSK video and Parkes video simultaneously. How those monitors were configured would really help me sort out the events that took place during the moon walk. Charlie Goodman and I got into a bit of a tif during the early part of the moon walk over two things. The reversal switch on the converter and selecting of Parkes video or HSK video. The lay out on that table, which doesn't show in any of the photos I have, would really help me drum up old memories.

As for behind the scenes at OTC, I spent very little time outside the NASA room. I did place quite a few order wire calls from one of the stations in back that I was told to use for such things. Okay so I called a few girls and my Mom too if the truth must be known but mostly it was business calls. As far as the failure that blew up the converter. Now that I know we were using a converter/generator which I didn't remember (makes sense because of the 50hz 60hz thing) it may of been the generator that caused the converter to blow.. I don't know.. I distinctly remember we still had 110 volt power as I was using test equipment like a scope to troubleshoot so there must of been a separate power source for that power.. Of course the scope may have been set-up to run on either your power or stateside power but I remember the standup rack was still working and all that equipment was 60hz 110V. You guys wired up that rack before I got there. I installed more equipment in it and Wayne helped me do that. You guys did all the interface work to the microwave links for voice, video, and data. Remember blue, orange, green, brown, slate... Not to be confused with the resistor color code which had a great little saying to help us remember...

A few final points before this turns into a book. The ABC signal originated at Charlie's console. All the monitors inside the NASA room were US monitors. The only ABC monitor was the one outside the room at the table set up for the press. We did that on purpose so we wouldn't get confused. The rule was 110 volts 60Hz only in the room with the exception of the TV scan converter. That rule was in place to prevent things like what happened to the TV scan converter. Everyone was paranoid about accidently plugging things into the wrong power source even before the TV scan converter blew up.

As for Apollo 13 I was working at OTC when the fuel cell blew. Lovell's first words were "Houston, we have a problem" After that it got really hectic and they thought they were going to die. It was a madhouse. HSK had to replay the data at least 100 times and I wasn't allowed to leave until they let HSK stand down. Turned out Parkes ended up playing a major role as they couldn't use the high gain antenna on the spacecraft and they had to rely on the big dishes to pick up the signal on the omni antenna.

I was at OTC for Apollo 11, 12, and 13. I visited for 16 but was no longer working for NASA. I was at the Woomera Rocket range working for the United State Air Force. The guys invited me up for the mission.

Dick Holl

Just been doing some background work and discovered that almost no-one has any pictures taken of the NASA equipment - I expect that it was all considered hush-hush. In the last day I have spoken with Alf Culloden, Dave Coutts, John Bennett, Jim Lissaman (Canberra) and left messages for many others.

I have also caught up with Pam Helps who has passed on her details to Dick Holl. She only has snail mail these days. Pam is well and also wanted me to pass on her regards to Wayne Ozarko and family when we catch up.

As for Wayne Ozarko, I tracked down a family member in Queensland who gave me Wayne's telephone number and possible email address. As his phone is currently out of order, it is not possible to contact him at this time. He seems to have settled with his family on a ranch in Queensland. Wayne always had a bit of an alternate streak. More details when I catch up with him.

Now a bit more on the events of the Apollo 11 mission from Pam Helps. Pam remembers the concern that Vince Joiner (Station Manager at the time) had about the staff deserting their posts during the mission. Our gallant NASA engineers (always the ladies men I hear) devised a job for Pam so that she was assured of getting a good look at the moon mission first hand. They put her in-charge of the press camera that was set up in front of a black and white monitor (details in the "Apollo 11 Story"). Pam spent the time right in the heart of the action during the mission instead of being stuck at her regular post.

Robert Brand

G’day Robert

Well you could have knocked me over with a feather when I got your recent phone call. Just remembering my last name after all this time, let alone tracking me down, was a feat in itself. After I got off the phone the memories came flooding back…the "switch" game…oh yea….the …"double flick". I remembered that well.

Many, many times Marlene and myself have thought about the "NASA" blokes and wondered how they were and where they might be. Just a little history of myself for you. I never worked on the harbour ferries. My only connection with them was when I promoted and ran a jazz & rock’n’roll cruise on the harbour which was called…"Sydney Harbour Sounds". This was done with a group of pome friends, we were five in all. We hired two manly ferries, the South Styne and the North Heads. We had two bands on board that played Jazz and Rock’n’Roll non-stop while cruising the harbour from 8pm till 1am. We sold drinks, and hot dogs that were heated in the water from the boilers below deck. THAT was my first business venture in Australia, BUT, not the last. After I left OTC I started a little retail shop in Paddington, right around the corner from OTC, which sold second hand goods. It was called "Dinki Di". Soon the line was extended to clothing and in particular "Indian" gear.

Can you imagine how water buffalo sandals, the Indian Kurta shirts, hand embroidered, mirrored dresses, incense etc, etc, etc. sold in the late 60’s and early 70’s. Soon I was importing Indian gear by the container load, by air and sea. I formed an import company and we were, along with another importer, the larges importer of Indian goods into Australia for several years. The Dinki Di shop was re-named "Adam and Eve and we ran six shops in the chain including shops in CenterPoint, Kingsgate, NorthPoint and Surfers Paradise. At the same time that I was expanding the retail clothing shops and the import/export company we operated a clothing manufacturing company, and an amusement machine company. In the mid 70’s I sold most of the businesses and put my efforts, and money, into developing a five story office building into a restaurant/disco with three bars, restaurant floor, disco floor and penthouse lounge. I managed to bring in 11 Philippino staff, 5 female and 6 male under a two year contract. That excersise took over a year of negotiation with both the Australian and Philippino governments and labour councils not to mention the unions.

While most are still in Australia, one of the girls became a Playboy Centerfold. The business was doing very well for over a year when early one morning after closing it caught fire and burnt down. It was drastically under insured and we lost the lot. After selling our house, boat cars etc. to pay off the creditors I worked managing two hotels and started a market vegetable run supplying restaurants and clubs. In 1979 I packed my family, one wife and one 7 year old daughter, into a used Nisson Patrol 4WD towing a 28 foot caravan, packed with everything we owned, and headed north, way north, up to Cairns. After managing a restaurant for six moths I bought a run down mixed business which we ran for six years, 7am till 7pm 7 days. Getting bored?????

But there’s more. We made a big success from the business and expanded the building. It bought us a house and finally life was looking great again. After six years in the business we needed a change and got out and set up a craft supply shop in a shopping centre north of Cairns close to were we lived. After operating "The Crafty One" for a year we sold the house and business and with another couple bought the "ranch" in 1988, which we now operate.

The ranch is set on 150 acres, has eight motel style ranch units, restaurant/dining hall, airstrip, and a stable of 23 horses. Well that’s where we are now……….

As for the OTC/Nasa connection, I was well entrenched with OTC when I was assigned to work with "the boys", Charlie, Dick, Ted, John, Vern, Ed, Ray……I was chosen, I guess, because of me previous experience in television broadcasting maintenance with Channel 10tv. I was with the Nasa guys from the day they arrived to the day that they departed performing installation, testing and maintenance & repair on the equipment.

OH YEA…..it was definitely the scan converter that went, and just a couple of weeks out of blast off. It took some time to discover the problem but like true professionals we never panicked, we just cra**d our drawers. The problem was sorted out after many long hours work well into the early mornings and the testing was completed on time. The most memorable times were the Apollo 11 & 13 shots, to have access to chat between the command module crews and mission control that the public was not privy to was incredible. There are many stories to tell about our "get togethers" at the boys flat in Double Bay. We taught them to drink real beer. But we’ll save those stories for another time. It was a real pleasure working with the Nasa group during that period and to have you and the other OTC blokes along side. I would really like to hear from them. My email is theozarks@hotmail.com and our web site is www.cyberwizards.com.au/~pioneervalley

Please find enclosed a photo of the NASA guys and me in the background

Wayne Ozarko