Deakin Switching Centre, Canberra

The Deakin Switching Centre in the Canberra suburb of Deakin was a central communication point for the Australian tracking stations. Part of the worldwide NASCOM network, it was a key link in the chain that is often forgotten.

Housed on a floor of the Deakin Telephone Exchange, the centre was established in 1964 to facilitate communications between DSIF 42 (i.e DSS 42 Tidbinbilla) and the Deep Space Network headquarters at the Jet Propulsion Lab in California. (Previously, communications from DSIF 41 – i.e. DSS 41 at Island Lagoon, Woomera – had been sent to JPL via a switching centre in Adelaide.)

When the Manned Space Flight Network was formed, Deakin was the natural choice for the Australian communications hub.

The Deakin Switch was run by Kevyn Westbrook seen standing on the right. Kevyn had begun his space tracking careers as the Communications Supervisor at Muchea. Photo: Hamish Lindsay.

Mike Dinn writes:

“Three letter codes were used for the network stations, and other NASA elements connected to NASCOM (which I think was every facility including JPL and DSN) headquartered at Goddard, Maryland.

Add one letter in front – G for Goddard, J JPL, M Houston, H Huntsville, K Kennedy, A for Australia, L for (the original) London switching centre for Madrid and Jo’burg – and that was the teletype address.

ACRO was Carnarvon, ACSW was Canberra Switching center (Deakin). The US stations were usually G, because Goddard was responsible for them – eg GGWM, GHAW, GBDA.

Honeysuckle was initially known on the manned flight net as “Canberra” code CNB and the teletype address was ACNB but when anybody called down the line for “Canberra” our Canberra Switch [Deakin] would often respond.

So the name was changed to Honeysuckle, HSK and address AHSK.”

Over time, Deakin became the key switching centre for all telemetry and voice for the new Australian tracking stations.

Deakin closed in 1988 when CDSCC Tidbinbilla took on the role.

An overview of NASCOM – The NASA Communications network for Apollo 11. From a Goddard diagram, with colour added by Hamish Lindsay.

The Deakin switch glass door. This glass door formed the entrance to the Deakin Switch section of the Deakin Telephone Exchange. Now stored at CDSCC, the door is decorated with decals from the later Apollo missions, early Shuttle flights and other missions supported. Photo: Colin Mackellar (with apologies for the blurry picture!)