Beep on radio transmissions between (Houston)Nasa and Space Craft.

Question

What is that little "beep". What is its name. Sounds kinda cool but no idea for what is for. You know "houston (beep) we have a problem (beep)"

Answer 1

Many of the beeps are telemetry "pings", making sure the radio transmissions are being sent and recieved correctly.

In the case of Apollo those loud beeps you hear are usually faults (problems) in the spacecraft -- usually computer processing problems (such as dropped low-priority tasks due to computing overloads or memory buffer problems).

Answer 2

The beep is known as a "roger beep".

Answer 3

the Beep you hear over the radio is a signal that is send automatically when the sender presses the Talk button, and again when they let go. It has two uses, i'll explain in the NASA context, but the same system is used in many similar cases.

A - To notify the person recieving that someone is going to send a message

This is so that the people on the ground know when to stop talking with eachother and pay attention. It's also a way to know when someone wants to talk, but can't. For instance, a beep, followed by silence and another beep might mean the microphone broke.

B - To let the people on the ground know that the astronaut is done talking, and they can say something back.

The radios they used were used to send and recieve on the same frequency, which meant that you either talk or listen, but not both at the same time. When two people talk at the same time, neither of them hears the other. The beep is there to let the other person know they van start talking.

If there's a name for that beep, I'd love to know it, but I don't think so.

Answer 4

The beep you speak of may not have had a name then but has since often been referred to as a 'Roger (affirmative) Bleep'. Some radios have this feature built in as standard.

In the context of NASA/Apollo, it was an audible means of signalling the start or end of a radio transmission.

A common problem of 2-way radio is that it is possible for both radios (transceivers) to be transmitting at the same time. But if you are conversing over the same channel you'd both be deaf to what the other party is saying. By imposing a bleep at the start and or end of a radio transmission you'd have some guarantee that the listener knows you have finished talking.

I have a pair of 2-ways radios that (optionally) bleep when you press the talk button. They also send a bleep at the end of trasmission. The noise can be irritating but it does help clarify when someone has started and ended a transmission, thus helping avoid both radios talking over each other.

Answer 5

I don't think there's a name for it.  I think it's just an artifact of the VOX (Voice Activated Switch) circuit that is used.  Rather than wasting power transmitting a continuous carrier with no modulation, the transmitters are turned off when no one is speaking.  The presence of a voice signal at the microphone causes the radio transmitter to turn on -- this sudden turn on may be the cause of the sound you hear.