Larry Baysinger, a Louisvillian that worked as a technician for the local WHAS 840 AM radio was in his late 20s and dabbled in amateur radio astronomy. He experimented with satellite tracking and snagging pictures of Earth from weather satellites. With his know-how and with NASA on the verge of landing a man on the moon, he was able to verify the information that was being provided about the Apollo Program.
The night of the eavesdropping he has to “bore-sight” the antenna on the moon by aiming it like a gun. He managed to get transmissions and had difficulty keeping it up due to the Earth's rotation.
His family watched the live landing on TV while Baysinger listened to his equipment. He was able to receive transmissions about 5-10 seconds earlier than the television. Turns out he didn't snag anything anything NASA didn't want the public to hear.
