OTVA NEWSLETTER - December 2008 - Volume 10 - Page 39

CONTENTS

President’s Message 39
New Members 40
Ceduna Santa 40
Hunt The Kaiser’s Cruisers - II 40
How The Coat Of Arms Was Saved 41
The Introduction Of Satellites to the Maritime Industry 42
Kurrajong Radio Museum Visit 42
An Extravagant Excrescence - I 45
An Extravagant Excrescence - II 46
Vale (Doug Lloyd, Gwen Salloway) 46
B-pay Your Annual Subs 47
Stories - Bedlam At The ITMC 47
Last Word 47

COMING EVENTS

NSW CHRISTMAS LUNCH AND REUNION

This will be held on Level 2 of the Bowlers’ Club in York Street, Sydney from 11.00am on November 14 2008. Please note that 99 York Street is located on the Town Hall side of “The Bowlers Club’ and not through the club, “The York Room” is on Level 2 and access is via the lift. Cost of $35.00 is for a sit–down Chinese banquet with table service. A bar is located outside the function room and will be open from 11.00AM with luncheon at 12 N00N.

During lunch Paul McCann will give us a short update on the latest developments in terrestrial and submarine cable technology.

Please book early! Please RSVP!

Victorian Branch OTVA Christmas Luncheon.

The Victorian Branch will be having their Christmas Reunion on Saturday the 29th November 2 at Legacy House, 2nd Floor,293 Swanston Street Melbourne, just 50 metres north of Lonsdale Street corner at 12 noon until 3pm or so.

R.S.V.P. 26th November 2008 or ASAP.

CONTACT: 95116969 or 0417527648.
Write to: Mr. R. Hall, 29 Merrill Street, MULGRAVE 3170.
EMAIL: rjmdolphin@optusnet.com.au

FUTURE OUTINGS:

Other suggestions for places which might interest Vets are sought. Make your suggestion now to any Committee member!

FROM OUR PRESIDENT [Top]

Fellow Members of the OTVA, as Christmas draws near, I reflect upon another year of development and progress in our association.

Your continued support and involvement encourages us to keep working for you. I thank all of the members of the OTVA Executive for their hard work and dedication throughout 2008 and wish them and their families a Merry Christmas and a Happy New year.

Since the AGM, your new Executive has been busy on several fronts:

The tour of the Kurrajong Radio Museum was patronised by about a dozen or so enthusiasts who enjoyed the nostalgia of the items on display as well as the social banter over the lunch that ensued after the tour.

Don Withers has been working with the staff of the Telstra Museum at Bankstown to convert the OTC Video tapes to DVD media to protect the content from loss due to the degradation of the video tapes over time which is apparently occurring with other tapes stored at the museum.

Together with the members of the OTVA Executive, I wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Have a safe and happy festive season.

I look forward to seeing you at the Christmas social event on November 14 2008.

Peter Bull

NEW MEMBERS [Top]

A very warm welcome to our new members - Peter Grove, formerly of International Relations and Gary ‘Sammy’ Samuels, formerly of the ISTC at Broadway, and Terry Nipperess of ITMC and satellite fame.

CEDUNA SANTA [Top]

Does anyone recognise our Ceduna Santa of 1969? Please contact your editor. Photo from Henry Cranfield.

HUNT THE KAISER’S CRUISERS. [Top]

A follow-up by Bob Emanuel.

Following up on Gordon’s article in the last edition, I found the source for the program material on a website. It is a reproduction of the book 'The Voyage of the Emden' by Kapitaenleutnant Hellmuth Von Muecke of His Emperor's Ship, the "Emden," translated by Helene S. White.

It can be seen on http://www.greatwardifferent.com/Great_War/Naval/Emden_01.htm

It contained all the errors Gordon highlighted. Alas, as the good Kapitaenleutnant is long dead, there’s not much point in asking for a correction.

That web site is full of articles well worth a read. It tells the “history” of World War 1 from the German perspective. It makes no moral judgements as to who was right and wrong.

How The OTC Coat of Arms Was Saved. [Top]

By Tom Barker

Let me begin this story with a disclaimer. Most of this is hearsay and it was told to me by someone who (sadly) cannot protest his innocence. Like many of the best stories we all know about episodes in our careers, this tale was never supposed to appear in print, due to fears of libel suits or worse.
However, during the enjoyable lunch which followed our very successful 2008 OTVA AGM, I was approached by our newly elected Newsletter Editor, Bob Emanuel (congratulations Bob) (thanks Tom) who asked me to set the record straight on this matter.

Now this story is mainly about a man we all knew and loved, the late, unique and irreplicable* Eamon Fitzpatrick and I shall try to tell it as he told it to me.

Following the merger of OTC with Telecom Australia, to create Telstra, much of the considerable collection of artefacts and archival materials which OTC had accumulated as a record of its (and Australia’s) international telecommunications history was being gathered up and disposed of in a rather ruthless fashion. Those items which particularly related to OTC were deemed to be of lesser value than those with a more general historic pedigree.

Amongst the former was an handsome wooden board , which had been mounted on the walls of the OTC Board Rooms, originally at Spring Street, then Martin Place and finally at Elizabeth Street. About four feet (120cm) square, it had the circular crest of OTC engraved upon it and it was a unique piece of OTC history; more than that, it was the “Holy Grail” of OTC artefacts.

So it came to pass that one afternoon, Eamon Fitzpatrick received a phone call from someone whose name I have conveniently forgotten. He was told that a crew was on its way to Elizabeth Street, with a truck, which was to be loaded with the contents of all the display cabinets and other such spaces in that building and that the “valuable items” such as the art works, were to be taken into a protected space, while all other materials were go directly to the tip. Particular mention was made of the OTC Coat of Arms in the Board Room, which was not to survive that afternoon. Eamon was asked to act swiftly and “do something about it”.

Now Eamon didn’t drive, as we all know, but he was an avid collector and he did all his collecting with a wheelbarrow, so how he managed this we do not know, but the OTC Coat of Arms found a safe refuge in his garage, the repository for a host of memorabilia from Eamon’s life, as a British Commando, an OTC Technician and a Volunteer Fireman. Many of us who attended Eamon’s funeral, went afterwards to the wake which was held in that garage. We were astonished to behold the remarkable collection which he cherished so dearly and spent hours polishing and dusting. We couldn’t resist searching for one particular item but we would not have found it without the aid of his daughter, who showed us its secret hiding place.

This story has an unexpected happy ending. Following its discovery, an approach was made to Eamon’s family by our worthy President, who obtained their permission to recover several items, including the OTC Coat of Arms, from the garage and take them to a new sanctuary, which was successfully achieved. So, not only did the OTC Coat of Arms survive the threat of destruction but it may even be seen on display again, on some appropriate occasion.

*I like that newly minted word so much, Tom, that I have had to add it to my dictionary – Bob E.

The Introduction of Satellite Communications to the Maritime Industry. [Top]

By Henry Cranfield

Post World War 11, the International maritime industry abided by the rules set prior to same by each nation and all shipping complied with an international convention known as “SOLAS” for safety of life at sea communications. This was upgraded over varying intervals and in 1948, it was recognized that the convention was out of date and a new (3rd) version was agreed to, which made it mandatory for all ships of 300 gross tons or over to carry a radio installation. It also required those of over 500 gross tons to carry radio-telephone and direction finding equipment. The introduction of transistorized equipment, made it was possible to use higher frequencies, reduced its physical size and power consumption. The use of radio- telephone equipment grew rapidly and radiotelegraphy was mainly used by larger vessels.

At the same time, the ships themselves were undergoing a dramatic change in design. Passenger liners became luxurious cruise ships, container ships replaced cargo boats and bulk carriers of 100,000 tons and over, were used for the transport of minerals, oil and grain.

These changes also altered the communication requirements on ships, as owners wanted more detailed reporting of fuel use, better weather forecasts and position reports. Also, it was recognized that the “SOLAS requirements did not meet the new needs and the newer technology e.g. satellites offered great improvements in maritime communications.

In 1959, the “International Maritime Organization” (IMO), now a United Nations agency, was formed to improve maritime safety globally and to draw up regulations which included such matters as pollution, safe practices and the handling of disasters.

In 1979, a group of experts drew up the “International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue” which called for a global search and rescue plan and also called for IMO to develop a “Global Maritime Distress and Safety System {GMDSS} to provide communications support for its plan. This new system was based on the use of satellite and terrestrial radio services to provide distress communications and changed the previous “Ship to ship” based system, to a “Ship to shore based rescue co-ordination centre” system. This brought about the end of “Morse code” communications in the maritime world!

The GMDSS provided for automatic distress alerting and location It also required ships to receive broadcasts of marine safety messages [known as NAVTEX] to prevent a distress happening.
In 1988 it became mandatory for all ships to carry “Electronic Position. Indicating Beacons [EPIRB] and to carry full GMDSS provisioning by August 1993 and there was no longer requirement for morse equipment from then on. This span of time allowed for all the maritime nations to meet the requirements and to provide time to transfer to a fully satellite based system.

The GMDSS System.

Australia, through the offices of The Department of Communications, Australian Maritime Safety Authority[AMSA] and OTC made significant contributions to the establishment of the GMDSS as our area (Nav. Area 10) covers from Mid Indian ocean(90E.) to the middle of the Tasman sea (170E0 and from the Equator (00S)to 50Deg south in the Southern Ocean. It has been divided into 5 areas within its boundaries, to enable better weather forecasting and reducing the message lengths.
The actual INMARSAT Story will be in a further article.

Kurrajong Radio Museum Visit. [Top]

By Tom Barker

Our visit to the Radio Museum at Kurrajong, on 13 September, was a great success, despite the small number of OTVA members who were able to make the trip.

It was a beautiful, summery day, that Saturday, in stark contrast to the horrible wintry weather that we had experienced in the weeks prior to that date, so the trip up the Blue Mountains turned out to be a thoroughly enjoyable one, regardless of what we might have found there. This proved to be quite extraordinary and far beyond what most of us had expected.

Ken Theaker, Bernie White, Tom Barker, Tony Stuart and Ian O’Toole at the Museum.

I say “most”, because some of our party were already familiar with the museum and its founder, Ian O'Toole, who is a well-known identity amongst the radio community.

Ian and his wife, Pat, have spent years accumulating, cataloguing and classifying an enormous range of equipment, documents, photographs, records and associated memorabilia, relating to the history of radio in Australia, including commercial broadcasting, military communications, international telecommunications and amateur radio. The collection is so extensive that only a part of it is on display at any time and Ian regularly recycles various items, from the storage area into the museum display, in order to maintain a changing experience for his visitors.

Ken Theaker amid the rows and rows of radios at the Kurrajong Radio Museum.

There are rows and rows of radio receivers, transmitters and transceivers, of all ages, arranged on shelves, most of which have been restored to working order and all labelled with their technical descriptions and usages, etc, There is a host of various equipment familiar to ex-OTC people, as well as video displays and sound recordings of significant events such as the opening of ANZCAN Cable, which are played for visitors, on request. One such item was a lecture given by an ex-AWA/OTC engineer, whose voice I was able to identify as Joe Reed (despite never having met Joe). (I was rewarded with a jellybean).

There was a little, unplanned twist to this story. When the OTVA organized a working party to sort, identify and label the large collection of OTC memorabilia which had been recovered to the La Perouse radio station, a few years ago, one of the most painful jobs we had to do, was to identify those items which museums (anywhere in Australia) might wish to have as a part of a small display on international telecommunications.

Korean ship Pong Su Radio Room reconstructed.

These were all sorted and sent into secure storage. Any items which did not meet theses criteria were destined for the tip.

Understandably, some of these latter items had great sentimental value to some of us, but they would not be of any interest to the general public. Some us were motivated to add a few of these things to the clutter in our garages, rather than see them destroyed. Such actions were not always met with ringing endorsement by our partners (enough said, I think).

When we were planning our excursion to the Kurrajong Radio Museum, Allan Hennessy and I conceived a plan to offer a couple of these items to Ian O'Toole, to add to his collection, if that idea appealed to him. The three items were:-
(1) The “Sched Board” from the Managers office, at Bringelly Receiving Station.
(2) The Great Circle Map, which accompanied the Sched Board.
(3) The Solas Clock, from Sydney Radio, which has the “Silence Periods' of three minutes, marked in red, every quarter hour.

The first of these items is a peg-board about 1.5 x 2 meters across, which has recorded on it every radio service scheduled for reception, including every technical detail involved in that operation. The second is nearly as big and it has a long perspex wand, suspended on a pin in the middle (located at Bringelly) which can be spun to identify the G.C. bearing required for that reception. The clock was much smaller, but accommodating the three items in the boot of Allan’s car proved rather tricky.

Great Circle Map from La Perouse donated by OTVA to the Kurrajong Radio Museum.

Any apprehensions or doubts we may have had about this were quickly dispelled when Ian saw what we had brought with us. He was absolutely euphoric and is determined to find a prominent wall space to hang them all. There is no doubt that these items, which would mean next to nothing to most people, were genuinely valued here and will be treasured. It made our visit all the more satisfying.
After our visit, we had lunch at a nearby restaurant, overlooking the scenic valley, before returning home.

“OTC Remains An Extravagant Excrescence.” [Top]

Bob Emanuel recounts the first attempt by a Labor Government to amalgamate OTC and Telecom Australia. This account is compiled from the published writings of Edgar Harcourt and Gough Whitlam.

The Vernon Royal Commission was set up by Gough Whitlam’s government in 1973 to examine the structure of the Postmaster General’s Department, which had both postal and telecommunications functions, and also to enquire whether OTC should remain a separate business from the domestic telecommunications body, the soon to be set up Telecom Australia.

The Chairman was Sir James Vernon with B.J. Callinan and J.J. Kennedy completing the Commission.

Hundreds of submissions were received and examined. Trips were made to the US and the UK to examine the industry in those countries.
Sir James had been a Chairman of CSR, and had also been a Royal Commissioner under the McMahon Government.

The Royal Commission reported back to Parliament on April 19th, 1974. The recommendations were that the Post Office should be independent of the Public Service and that separate statutory corporations should be established for the postal and telecommunications services.

Those decisions were unanimous – but the decision on the amalgamation of OTC and the new Telecom Australia was a majority decision not supported by the Chairman, Sir James Vernon. He was impressed by OTC’s business acumen and the service given to its customers, whereas the other members were convinced that an amalgamation was required.

J.J. Kennedy was appointed as chairman of an interim board of the Postal Commission.

A.G Gibbs, chairman of the Victorian Railways and formerly MD of General Motors Holden was appointed to the chairman of the interim board for the Telecommunications Commission.

The two Commissions came into effect on the 31st of July, 1974.

I can’t put it any better than Gough Whitlam, in his memoir, “The Whitlam Government” who continues:-

“Even so, the cosy bureaucracy in OTC promoted the formation of an Overseas Telecommunications Users’ Association. A former chairman of OTC, Bert Chadwick, was persuaded to be president of the association. He wrote to 100 companies which were thought to be OTC’s largest customers. He chaired a meeting of about 48 of these customers in Melbourne. Peter Golding, as his proxy, chaired a meeting of some 35 of them in Sydney. The Opposition obliged with the necessary amendments in the Senate. OTC remains an extravagant excrescence.”

Sources: E.G. Whitlam, The Whitlam Government, Penguin Books, Australia, 1985, pp 697 to 699. Edgar Harcourt, Taming The Tyrant: The first 100 years of Australia's international telecommunications services pp 382 to 383.

For Robin Tuckfield the proposed amalgamation was a catalyst to a great career.

I remember, and I was not happy!

I remember the General Manager at the time coming out to "keep us informed" and it seemed like it was going to be 50/50 whether we amalgamated or not.

I was a TO1 (Technical Officer Grade 1) new boy. I hadn't come through the OTC training school, and had joined OTC because of the exciting and interesting company it was. I had been in the company 3 years. I did not want to be a Telecom Tech. I had turned down Telecom twice before. A TO1 in Telecom was 1 in 10,000 with no prospects for advancement for 20 years. If we were going to be amalgamated then I needed to be at least a TO2!

There was a restructure at the time of the political discussions, and there were several TO2 jobs going. I was told I should get a TO2 at Paddo, but that was too much of a gamble for me. I applied for every TO2 job going in OTC, whether I had the qualifications or not.

Because I was one of a very few applicants (maybe 1) for the TO2 (Restoration) at Network Arrangements, that was the position I got.

Well did I get rubbished. Fancy giving up working at Paddo to work in HO!

However I am pleased to say that it was one of the great decisions I made. Maybe I missed out on a bit of shift work penalties, but working with Denis Grant, Darryl Smith, Ross Craig, George Kennedy and the only PTO in OTC at the time, Hedley Caswell (He unfortunately passed away while I was there.) Ron Becket came to join me later. I learned more about OTC and satellites than I would have at Paddo. The experience of those two years helped me all through my career.

What are your memories of this time? Please drop your editor a line. Contact details at the front.

VALE [Top]

More on Doug Lloyd

Henry Cranfield had to bail Doug out on Guam.

Doug Lloyd was sent to Guam and tried to make out how useless their security was on the various bases we had to visit. One night at about 11.30PM I received a telephone call from the base security officer art Andersen Air Force Base asking me if I had a Douglas Lloyd on my staff. Wondering "What Next" I said yes and he asked me to come immediately and get him as he had been arrested at North West Field contravening base security! N.W Field was the Guam equivalent of Nurrangar near Alice Springs and very hush-hush. So I went and bailed him out and found out that Doug had tried them out to the Nth Degree.

When you drove out to the facility (which was at the North West end of Andersen AFB and an old abandoned WW-2 fighter field. It still had the revetments where they parked the planes), you were challenged at the gate a few miles down the road and instructions were you drove straight down to the compound where you were challenged again for I.D. etc and you parked your vehicle and walked to the main building where e you again had to show your ID and sign in. They had to telephone the operations area who sent an escort to the door so that you did not stray inside the building.

Well! Our Doug passed through the first gate OK and then decided he would try out the security by diverting through these revetments with the Ute lights switched off.

Suddenly, he was lit up like fairy land by 4 trucks with searchlights and Air Police, armed with sub machine guns and told to switch off the engine, get out of the cabin and put his hands up. They then drove him to the base security and rang me. The result was no more visits to N.W. Field as next day I had to go up to Andersen and pour oil on troubled waters and was told he was banned.
And people wonder why my hair turned grey?

Gwen Salloway – May 2008

Paying Your Annual Subscriptions via BPay. [Top]

You can now use BPay to pay your annual subscriptions to OTVA.

Contact Bernie White for account details.

Please ensure that your transaction can be clearly identified by entering your name and purpose of transfer in the "To account transaction description" or similar window.

An example could be: "P.Bull OTVA Subs" or just "P.Bull Subs" if your bank's EFT system limits the number of characters that can be entered.

Where the source of any money transfers cannot be readily identified it will be difficult and time consuming for our Treasurer to determine the owner of the money and, as such, the money may have to be treated as an anonymous donation to OTVA until such time as the issuer of the money supplies a copy of their bank statement to the Treasurer to support any ownership claims.

Stories [Top]

It wasn’t always noses to the grindstone. Dave Stimson recalls some of the staff exploits at home and on the out-stations that never made the official histories.

‘Bedlam at the ITMC Paddo’

A motor cycle with no muffler roars through the darkened ITMC area at 2 am and disappears down the fire escape. Staff are left bewildered. I can now expose the rider’s identity as ex-OTC tech Paul Black. He once mixed up some ammonia and iodine crystals paste (an explosive) and daubed various on/off switches and door knobs throughout the building - always a joker.

‘Wrong Chain’

The day Jack Creswick ran down the main transmitter hall at Doonside, jumped out through the loading dock doors planning to grab the traveling crane block chain and swing back in. Sadly it was the free running chain he caught and plunged to the ground. As many people will attest, I don’t think he ever recovered.

Jack went on to further infamy with a home made compressed air tank made from a beer keg – the pressure relief valve failed (or wasn’t fitted) and blew a hole through the garage wall and neighbor’s fence.

He also attempted to test his home made 2 phase electric welder by borrowing a phase off Leo Mahoney who lived next door at the time. The pole fuses in the street blew! Council staff scratched their heads – pole fuses are rated at 1000 amps.

Last Word [Top]

A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all members of OTVA and their families.

It has been an interesting challenge taking on the newsletter editor’s role but I have thoroughly enjoyed it. I rely on your feedback to let me know how I’ve gone – don’t hesitate to tell me what you like, what you don’t like, what you’d like more of and what you’d like less of.

And - spotted in their local newspapers of late are Trevor Thatcher on amateur radio and Barry Stockbridge wielding the BBQ tongs.