It was apples in my day, bananas were reserved for navigators studying for line checks. Seriously, it's been many a moon since I last did any winching but, yes, it's the winch operator (the man in the cabin) doing the talking. The units were supposedly in feet, but once the winchman had got the "handle" on what the pilot thought was a foot, he adjusted his call accordingly. "Right two, left six, steady".