Lunar Eavesdropping in Louisville, Kentucky

In July of 1969, a Louisvillian by the name of Larry Baysinger accomplished an amazing feat. He independently detected signals from the Apollo 11 astronauts on the lunar surface.

Fortunately, his accomplishments were recorded and promptly published in the Louisville Courier-Journal, by another Louisvillian by the name of Glenn Rutherford, in an article entitled “Lunar Eavesdropping: Louisvillians hear moon walk talk on homemade equipment”. The story appeared in the July 23, 1969 issue of the paper, on the front page of section B.

Rutherford was a 23-year-old reporter for the Courier-Journal. Baysinger was a technician for Louisville’s WHAS 840 AM radio, and only a few years older.

The story garnered some attention for Baysinger. He was interviewed by the Collins Corporation who were very impressed that anyone could detect the Apollo signals with home-built equipment

You can read the full, fascinating story by C. Graney of the
Jefferson Community & Technical College
Otter Creek-South Harrison Observatory at
http://www.jefferson.kctcs.edu/observatory/apollo11/

Our thanks to David Barber, G8OQW for spotting this item