OTVA NEWSLETTER - February 2008 - Volume 10 - Page 1CONTENTS President’s Message 1 COMING EVENTS [Top]
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE [Top] I trust all of the members of the OTVA had an enjoyable Christmas and a happy New Year. The Executive of the OTVA has completed its first committee meeting of the 2008 season and has affirmed it will continue its program of improved communication with our members. The committee unanimously acknowledged the excellent job being performed by:
All the quarterly Newsletters can now be read online. The latest newsletters are in HTML format for quicker downloading and easier viewing. The web site has a new Advanced Search feature which allows members to explore the Newsletter archives using keywords of their choice as far back as 1996. Test it out by searching for your own name or your old department name to see if you get a mention anywhere in the archives. You must however apply to Peter Bull for a member’s LOGIN and PASSWORD to gain access to the member pages of the web site. The web site also has a new Top Stories page that features the best of the stories sent in by our members and is being promoted by way of a quarterly competition with prizes (bottle of wine) for the nominator and nominee. If you come across a great story (amusing, interesting etc.) while browsing the archives why not nominate it and you could win a prize for yourself and the author. Anyone who has not yet applied for a UserID and Password for access to member’s section of the website should email eter.bull.noc@optus.com.au or call on 02-8082 0950. In addition to the web site activities, the committee will be seeking your feedback on how you would like to receive the OTVA Newsletters as a means of ensuring more efficient and effective access to printed information and photographs. The planning of the next social function for OTVA members is in its final stages and should prove to be a very interesting one. The venue for the Autumn Reunion has also been booked and details are available above. I wish you all a happy and healthy 2008. NEW MEMBERS [Top]Welcome to the following new members who have joined us in the last few months - Ghiath Khalil (NSW), Lindsay Harradine (NSW), Noel Sutherland (QLD), Kevan Bourke (WA) and David Laufer. It is intended to advise of new members in each Newsletter but you will have to negotiate with Allan Hennessy for the address. Send an email request to Will Whyte and he will pass your enquiry along. NEW SOUTH WALES - XMAS 2007 ANNUAL REUNION [Top] On 25 November, some 50 odd intrepid members and partners gathered in the Dining Room of the NSW Bowlers Club for the Annual Christmas Reunion. As usual there was much talking and catching up to do. Accordingly much food and a certain quantity of liquid was consumed to assist the process.
There were others in the room doing the same thing so the noise level was rather high. We are looking at having round tables and having the Christmas function a little earlier to avoid these problems in future. (It is most unlikely that our noise level will be reduced!) WEST AUSTRALIAN VETERANS
- 33RD AGM [Top]
Western Australian Veterans Toe Boe, Kevan Bourke, Ron Cocker, Jim Congdon, Keith Darwin, Kevin Hills, Reg Jones, Sean Leahy, Tom McKnight, Barry O’Keeffe, Wal Perryman, Bob Smallwood and Derek Walker gathered at the Perth International Telecommunications Centre, Gnangara on Tuesday 20th November for their 33rd Annual General Meeting. Apologies for absence had been received from Jim Bairstow, Allan Headley, Fred James, Derek Kaighin, Val Parker, Ray Parkinson, Rod Pernich and Bernd Wendpaap. One minute’s silence was held for ex-STO1 Paul Cooper, who died in February. President Des Kinnersley and Secretary/Treasurer Derek Walker were re-elected unopposed and three committee members were elected – Reg Jones, Kevan Bourke and Jim Congdon, representing the Telstra, Stratosglobal and Reach personnel (most of whom are ex-OTC) working in the PITC complex. The AGM was followed by lunch, after which those attending watched the DVD of “Memories – the OTC Story” The next meeting for the WA vets will be on Tuesday 18th November 2008. TALES OF THE GOWANLOCKS [Top] Maggie Gowanlock is collecting stories of her father and mother and wonders if anyone can help her? Harry is gone as we know but are there others who could help. Please contact her at the addresses below. “Recenly found a letter from Harry Stone,
sent to me a few years ago re my dear mother Aileen. I am putting
some memoirs together and would really appreciate your help here.
I don't know of anyone else alive who may have some memories of
my Dad, so if you can help me there also, that would be appreciated. MORE ON COLOSSUS [Top] In previous issues we had an item about the Colossus computers which helped Britain crack encrypted messages during WWII. An article in the Sydney Morning Herald on 19 November 2007 adds another piece of the story. “PC TRUMPS WWII CODE-CRACKING COMPUTER: A rebuilt World War II code-cracking computer developed to intercept Nazi messages has lost to a desktop computer in a contest to decipher an encrypted radio message. The challenge marked the first time the Colossus machine had been used since former Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered models of the top secret computer destroyed, according to Britain's National Museum of Computing, which organized the contest. Churchill had feared Britain's national security would be threatened if the state of the art computer's technical details ever leaked out. However, not only was Colossus beaten by a home computer, but by one in Germany. Bonn-based software engineer Joachim Schueth deciphered the message, which was encrypted by a Nazi-era Lorenz cipher machine and transmitted by radio from Paderborn, Germany. It took him two hours Thursday, an hour and 35 minutes faster than the Colosssus. He used ham radio equipment and a computer program he wrote especially for the challenge. Schueth paid tribute to Colossus and those who used it during WWII at the Bletchley Park code-breaking centre, outside London, saying their work was important to Germans because "it helped to shorten the lifetime of the Nazi dictatorship." But Colossus, the world's first programable computer, was no match for its electronic descendants, he said. "Putting Colossus in a competition with modern computers may be a bit unfair," Schueth wrote on his website. Colossus eventually completed the challenge in three hours and 35 minutes, after overcoming difficulties intercepting the distant radio signal and repairing a blown valve. "We've lost appreciation of just how hard it was to intercept signals, interpret them and put them on Colossus and run them," said Andy Clark, director of the Bletchley Park-based computing museum. "The past two days have brought into sharp focus just how hard they had to work," he said. Experts spent 14 years rebuilding the Colossus using stolen design plans and by gleaning information from those who helped create the original. Ten Mark II Colossus machines enabled code breakers at Bletchley to decipher top-secret communications sent by the Nazi high command.
The rebuilt computer will continue to operate as the museum's Centrepiece, Clark said.” Web links: (When we consider the computing power represented by a modern PC versus the power of Colossus, the result for Colossus was very creditable!) THE BACKGROUND AND EVOLUTION OF MODERN MARITIME COMMUNICATIONS - by Henry Cranfield (Part 2) [Top] Lessons from the “Titanic!’ The ability of the wireless to help a ship summon help In times of distress was perhaps its greatest benefit. From the earliest days of regulated wireless telegraphy a distress call has had absolute priority over all other traffic. Because it was essential to have a special prefix for such calls, in 1912 the London Convention replaced the Marconi’s original letters “CQD” with the familiar “SOS,,. In those days there were several spectacular marine casualties that proved the value of wireless for saving lives at sea. Seventeen hundred lives were saved when, in the midst of thick fog, the White Star liner “Republic” ran into the Italian ship “Florida”. Though badly holed and with the wireless room damaged, Wireless Officer John Binns was able to send out a CQD call to summon assistance before his ship, the “Republic”, sank Nevertheless, the greatest disaster to a single ship in this period was the sinking of the White Star Line’s brand new ’Titanic”, the largest ship afloat at the time. Although there is much controversy over this accident, one aspect has never been doubted: from beginning to end, the wireless service came to the highest possible standard. The liner struck the iceberg at 23.40 hours on 14th April 1914 and at 00.15 hours the Captain summoned the senior wireless officer to send out a distress call. Some fifty miles away the small Cunard ship “Carpathia” was proceeding cautiously on her passage from New York to the Mediterranean. Her only wireless officer had already gone off watch, but decided at the critical moment to call the ‘Titanic” on a routine matter. As he put on his phones he heard the CQD. The “Carpathia”s commander immediately altered course and with a double watch of firemen shovelling coal into the furnaces drove his ship at forced full speed through the pitch-black night and the ice towards the position of the ‘Titanic”. The tragedy of the ‘Titanic” marked a turning point in the history of radio communications. There can be no question but that the value of wireless telegraphy for saving life at sea had already been proven by the time of this casualty, but the loss of the ‘Titanic” was so sensational that it brought home to everyone the existence and potential of wireless. During the two world wars and in between, the field of radio communications moved into sound broadcasting and the beginning of the era of television and the semi-conductor. From the local radio we moved on to one of the most spectacular advances in radio communications, the development of VHF and still higher frequencies for long-range and intercontinental communications. The telecommunications satellite, Telstar 1, was launched from an American base on the 10th July 1962. The following evening, a programme consisting of talks by President John F. Kennedy and other Washington officials, was successfully transmitted to Britain. In the few years that have passed since then. there have been many other advances in the use of communications satellites, and particularly in the development of mobile satellite communications. Communications satellites are radio-relay stations in space. They receive radio signals transmitted from the ground, amplify them, translate them in frequency, and then retransmit them back to the ground. Since they are at high altitude, these satellites can “see” across half of the earth and are thus insensitive to distance. This is their main communications advantage. Another one is that they can see all the microwave transmitters and receivers on almost half of the earth; they are thus able to connect any pair and that “considerable improvements to the maritime distress and safety systems, reliability of the communication link between ships and between ships and their management as well as between crew or passengers on board and persons on shore can be made by using satellites”. As early as 1966 IMO’s Maritime Safety Committee decided to study the operational requirement’s for a satellite system solely for Maritime use. The “World Administrative Radio Conference (Known as WARC) convened in New York in 1967 by the International Telecommunications Union ( ITU) asked IMO to continue this work. In 1971 IMO submitted to the ITU committee on space communications 2 resolutions . They specified that maritime satellite communications could be used for the exchange of information by telephony and telegraphy, as well as data transmissions , telex and fax. In particular they offered great advantages in alerting and locating ships in cases of emergency as well as a number of other essential functions such as the reporting of ships’ positions, automatic navigation and weather warnings and in the general management and operation of ships. In 1973, IMO at it’s assembly adopted the two resolutions which led to future work to establish a new satellite based Maritime safety system for both the “near and distant future” and the setting up of a Maritime satellite system. The conference met firstly in 1975 and three times later. In 1976, a convention adopted the formation of an International Maritime Satellite Organization (INMARSAT ) which entered into force in 1979. and became operational in 1982. Australia was a signatory to this agreement and holds a share in the organisation with OTC(A) being the Australian co-ordinating Authority at that time. The rest is history saved for another issue? THE TRANSISTOR AT 60:
(from the SMH) [Top]
The cover of Electronics magazine from September 1948 showing Bell Labs scientists William Shockley (seated), John Bardeen (left, standing) and Walter Brattain who invented the transistor (inset). That first device was the size of a modern mobile phone. Right now, 2 million transistors could fit in the full stop at the end of this sentence. Intel has just released its new Penryn processors, which have up to 820 million transistors, and soon the standard inch-wide microprocessor will have 1 billion transistors. Combined with advances in programming, we will see single-chip systems such as hand-held translators, in-car collision avoidance systems, and a raft of devices that react to voice and touch. It is extraordinary to reflect on how far the silicon revolution has come in such a short time. Soon after Bardeen and Brattain made their breakthrough, William Shockley, also at Bell Labs, invented the first semiconductor transistor. All three were awarded the 1956 Nobel prize for their efforts. Justin Rattner, chief technology officer of Intel, calls the transistor "the fundamental building block of the information age. It's hard even to think of a single invention that is responsible for as much change - you'd maybe have to go back to the Bronze Age, where a single invention changed the course of everything and had a lasting impact." But doubts are growing over how much further we can go with these technological building blocks of transistors and integrated circuits. To improve speed and keep power and heat under control, transistors have been getting smaller and smaller. Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel, came up with an eponymous law, that the number of transistors on a chip doubles every two years. But he believes his law is running out of steam. At the Intel developers' forum in September, Moore said that in "another decade, or decade and a half, we will hit something that is fairly fundamental". That fundamental problem was explained by IBM Fellow
Dr Bernie Meyerson as "atoms don't scale". The nanometre
- one-millionth of a millimetre - is the unit used to measuring
the tiniest elements of a silicon chip. Intel, IBM and others have
recently started production of 45 nm chips. But the silicon atom itself is more than a tenth of a nanometre across. Moore suggested there was a basic physical limit of five atomic layers. Today, the oxide layer in transistors is a mere five to six atoms thick, leading to challenges with current leakage. This is a quantum effect, where electrons "tunnel" through an insulating region instead of following their assigned path. Mr Rattner isn't so sure there's a brick wall ahead. "Gordon always adds a footnote along the lines of 'of course, we've never been able to see beyond about 10 years'. Typically we are seriously at work two generations ahead. We are in production with 45 nanometre and well along with 32 and 22 nm." Glenn Wightwick, an IBM distinguished engineer and director of the Australian Development Laboratory, agrees there are issues to overcome but doubts innovation will slow. "Until the late 1990s, the vast majority of the gains made have been the result of scaling - making things smaller. When the lithography moved to 180 nm, 90% of the relative improvement over the previous generation of semiconductor devices was derived from traditional scaling - that is, the application of Moore's Law. "Today, as we move from 65 nm to 45 nm and beyond to 32 nm, only 20% of relative improvement is derived from scaling alone. Innovation, in the form of novel materials, structures, processes and architectures delivers the rest. This is why IBM invests so heavily in R&D." IBM's researchers are experimenting with different materials and techniques to improve performance, such as copper in chips, silicon-on-insulator, strained silicon, multicore chips and air gap self-assembly. The current crown jewel is IBM's Power6 processor, which has 790 million transistors and runs at 4.7 GHz. Dr Wightwick acknowledges that physical limits are being approached. Mr Rattner concurs. "We are reaching the limits of physics in some ways," he says. To achieve a 45 nm resolution, Intel had to use a new material - Hafnium - in the gates of the transistors. "We ran right into a physical limit," he says. "But what's happened again and again when you come upon the physical limits is we've been able to advance around them, and I think that will continue for at least the next several generations." Already, the scale of the detail on the chip is smaller than the wavelength of the light (193 nm) used to print it. This bizarre result is thanks to the use of "clever maths" while patterning transistors, Mr Rattner says. But this technique is going to reach a limit. Intel is looking at ways to use light with much smaller wavelengths, extreme ultraviolet and X-rays, but it is a tricky undertaking. "X-rays don't focus in traditional ways - it's all done with mirrors. "But I think a couple of generations out we will have to make the transition." There could be an even bigger transition to come, once the scale gets below 10 nm. Mr Rattner predicts that in a decade, the fundamental basis of electronics will change. Instead of using the electrostatic charge of an electron, devices will depend on another quality of electrons, their "spin". Mr Rattner says: "Spin-based devices will be based on different materials such as titanium cobalt alloys that have the required appropriate magnetic domain. When you get into the speculative area, then you are talking about molecular devices." Molecular devices are one of several new radical ideas around. Dr Wightwick says many research laboratories are looking for new and novel devices that could replace transistors inside computers. "Things like carbon nanotubes and molecular cascades. There is a lot of interesting work being done in quantum computing." But when the basic building blocks change, the entire architecture of information processing, and the silicon industry itself, will undergo a revolution. Already, says Dr Wightwick, the cost of a new "silicon foundry" is huge, driven by the cost of moving from one generation of lithography to the next. This has led to dramatic consolidation across the industry in order to share these costs. Moving to a whole new class of devices using different materials (probably still on top of a silicon substrate) will be even more difficult and costly. That's the bad news. The good news is that it's a bonanza in the making for users of technology. Mr Rattner says that when the first 22 nm silicon chips appear - just two chip generations out - it will prompt a generation of single-system chips that make it easier to interact with technology. "We are right at the start of the information age. We think we are so sophisticated with our hand-held devices and internet access. But we have asked an enormous amount from users to tolerate - why is it that my mother-in-law calls me up and says 'I've got this error 22 message'? "How do we soften those interfaces and make them more human? That's a very important next step. We are in that era of technology where we start to move away from machine imposed limitations. "We were doing an internal talk on computer perception and we've got a slide from Star Trek of Captain Kirk holding a universal translator and we ask, 'how far are we from that?'. I think it's probably not more than a decade into the future when devices like that will be practical." Dr Wightwick also predicts a bright future. "Creating new ideas, solving problems, inventing things and applying technology in new and novel ways, seems to be a basic human characteristic. One of the things I love about computing . .. is that innovation has been so fundamental to this field. I don't see any slowing down of the rate of innovation. In fact, I continue to see more innovation every day." Innovations that give us more processing power will spawn many other innovations, Mr Rattner says. Google "took a very powerful piece of software and ran trillions of bytes of examples of English and Arabic and trained it to recognise language statistically. It knew nothing about Arabic or English, though. "We have spent decades on artificial intelligence thinking we could do everything with rules. "The new thinking is statistical - which is how the brain works - and making use of access to a massive amount of training information from the internet. "This move to machine learning is going to open up a broad class of applications such as machine translation and continuous speech recognition. "That technology will move very quickly and then you begin to combine that with robotic technology and you move into the age of personal robots." Early next decade Mr Rattner envisages car companies developing autonomous vehicle technologies geared at collision avoidance that can take over control of the car, if the driver dozes off, and bring it safely to a stop "This is not so far fetched and not so far into the future." The next 60 years look set to be just as exciting a ride as the first. THE BIRTH OF INTEGRATION [Top] This is a short, edited extract of a talk given by Professor Ivan Kaminow at the University of Melbourne, organised by the national research institute NICTA, when he reflected on his early years at Bell Laboratories. Ivan P. Kaminow, adjunct professor at University of California, Berkeley, joined AT&T's Bell Labs in 1954, during the decade when the transistor was slowly taking over from valve-based electronics. He is now a respected pioneer of photonic integrated circuits - circuits that work on light instead of electricity. "I have learnt the lesson that if you try
to predict the future you have to expect the unexpected. My first
job was in the transistor circuit department (at Bell Labs), only
seven years after the transistor was invented. What they had me
do was take a vacuum tube circuit used to test telephone lines and
convert it to a transistor circuit. It had an aluminium chassis
where the vacuum tubes were plugged in. The transistor came in a
little can, a few millimetres on the sides, with three wires coming
out. It was pretty simple to convert the circuit. I went home and
told my wife the transistor probably wouldn't amount to very much.
The reason was that these transistors cost $50 and these vacuum
tubes cost only a dollar. I was only 24, so you can forgive me for
making that dumb mistake but I can't forgive Bell Labs for missing
the idea of integrated circuits. I can see two reasons. Yields (the
amount of working transistors in a batch of silicon) were poor,
so if you have a 10% yield and put two (transistors) on the same
device the yield would be 10% of 10%. That was a short-sighted way
of looking at things; also, the guy who was in charge of this was
pretty arrogant. About 1958 (electrical engineer Jack S.) Kilby,
a new hire at Texas Instruments during summer vacation when everybody
was out of the labs, decided to put several transistors on the same
chip. And that was the origin of the integrated circuit. He connected
them with resistors and capacitors with external wires, so it wasn't
really fully integrated. A few months later (Robert) Noyce at Fairchild
Semiconductor, which later became Intel, he made an integrated circuit
where the wiring was integrated on the chip. Since then there have
been quite a few surprises. According to Gordon Moore, in the 1990s,
more transistors were made each year than raindrops in California.
I'm sure that 10 years later you can multiply that by several orders
of magnitude. Ten to the 18th (power, that is, a billion billion)
transistors are made each year, more than existed at the beginning
of the year. That's 10 to 100 times the number of ants on Earth.
So all these advances are based on a design for transistors." THE HYBRID INTEGRATED NETWORK [Top] While the transistor and the integrated circuit displaced the valve in new equipment there was much equipment which was valve operated which could not be replaced immediately. The device described below was “invented”
by Western Electric for retrofitting in lots of transmission equipment
to reduce the onerous maintenance load of valve based equipment
until it could be replaced by more modern solid state equipment.
I picked up this sample and the story when visiting Western Electric
in the early 70’s. “What is a HIN? It is a Hybrid Integrated
Network composed of semiconductor devices, interconnected in such
a manner as to duplicate the electrical properties of a vacuum tube.
HIN's are used in all phases of voice transmission in the Bell System. They are used in repeaters, carrier terminals and microwave equipment. The main advantages are that they are cooler, more stable, longer lived and require practically no adjustment in the circuits. These features translate into many dollars of savings for the Bell System. Contrary to the normal product design procedure, where we receive the finished design from the Bell Telephone Laboratories, the HIN project was conceived, designed and developed by engineers at the Kansas City Western Electric Works. This is a "first" for Kansas City. (Bob Lions) MICROSOFT HAIKU [Top] In Japan, they have replaced the impersonal Microsoft error messages with Haiku poetry messages. Haiku Poetry has strict construction rules: Each poem has only 17 Syllables - 5 syllables in the first line, 7 in the second, 5 in the third. They often achieve a wistful, yearning, and powerful insight through extreme brevity. Aren't these better than the normal "your computer has performed an illegal operation?” The Web site you seek Chaos reigns within. Program aborting. Windows NT crashed. Yesterday it worked. Your file was so big. Stay the patient course. A crash reduces Three things are certain: Having been erased, Serious error. VALE - TOM HARRIS [Top] aka Evelyn Thomas Constance Harris or ETCH (from Maurie O’Connor.) Those who had the pleasure of working with him will be saddened by the news that Tom Harris suffered a fatal heart attack at his London home in March, 2007. His wife, Mary, has been thoughtful enough to let me know. OTC recruited Tom from the External Telecommunications Executive of the British Post Office in the mid-sixties and he worked with us as a Senior Engineer on various transmission projects, notably SEACOM. Bob Lions and Henry Cranfield will remember him fondly from their time together building the Madang Cable Station. The tropical climate would have been bad enough for Tom but, as a further challenge, our installation team included such colourful characters as Paul Beezley, the likes of whom would rarely be encountered on an English village green. These must have been huge cultural shocks for Tom who, at all times, was the epitome of an English gentleman, softly spoken and given to subtle bon mots which, for the most part, we were all a bit slow to "get". He was the Engineering Branch's authority on transmission theory and practice, extending from line systems such as submarine coaxial cables to radio systems and antennas. While living in Sydney, he, Mary and their two lovely young daughters lived in Fairlight where his peculiar English eccentricities would have provided endless interest for the neighbours. He was a keen watchmaker and another one of his recreations was to cut the "lawn" in his backyard with a monstrous scythe which, I suspect, he must have left to the advertising agency that a few years later put on the "Grim Reaper" TV ads. In his younger days, as I understand, he was a
keen soccer player; I don't know how he was then at cricket then
but his innings of 92 active years was his crowning achievement.
The world will miss Evelyn Thomas Constance Harris, truly a gentleman
and scholar. VALE - BOB LONG [Top] Bob Long passed away on 11 December at the age
of 92 years young. VALE
- EAMON BRIAN FITZPATRICK [Top] We are here to celebrate the life of EBF and to grieve at his passing. I am humbled to have bestowed on me the privilege of saying a few words on behalf of his mates, work colleagues and his many friends. Eamon was Eamon, there was no other, what you saw is what you got. He had no ‘airs’ about him. He treated everyone the same no matter what station of life you came from. He had a spirit about him that revolved around the basics in life. He always gave more than he received and we were always welcome to share a beer (or 2 or 3…) with him from his beer fridge and discuss the qualities of a particular method for polishing a piece of brass. As far as the environment was concerned, it could be said he was the original ‘greenie’ for his choice of not owning a car for about 20 years. However, it didn’t take into account the fact that Judy had to do the shopping by public transport and carry everything home including the two kids. He showed it could be done without hardship and a small inconvenience and at the same time he would stay fit…he was ahead of his time. Eamon hated waste and resurrected a variety of materials and items from the tip and had the skill to turn them into pieces of art as well as securing them for their historical significance for a place in the future. (However, defining art as good or bad relies on the eyes of the beholder - I really hope you did not bequeath me the 40kg key tree mobile…not one of your better ones!!!) I don’t know anyone that has actually worn out the treads of a wheelbarrow wheel – Eamon wore out 3! His wheelbarrow was the equivalent to a ‘blokes Ute’. He could be seen through the suburb carting 6m lengths of hardwood, sand, bricks …you name it, if he saw a use for an item it did not get to the tip. A place called Tullochs, just down the road, came in very handy for providing a focus point for his recycling adventures. Again, recycling in a time when this was not a done thing. He was a true mate, he never got angry, never was judgmental, always willing to help. Eamon always took the time to listen to our problems or issues and it always stayed confidential. He never lied but he was known to embellish stories of which he knew many. He was a larrikin, in the truest sense, never in malice, always in good humour, however, it is noted that he was always around when a practical joke was being executed and he was good at coming up with ideas and finding other mates to action…..I can find no record of Eamon having actually performed one….if some one knows please enlighten me later. If a mate needed that particular small screw to fix a model railway, a special bracket to hang something, a ‘whatsamacallit for a thingamajig’, Eamon would find it, more often than not from his ‘Aladdin’s Cave’ of a shed but if he did not have it he would source it and you would get a call saying where it could be purchased or more often than not, source it himself. Again he never wanted any reward because that is what mates do. Once you were a mate of Eamon you were a mate forever. He could and would talk to any one from the Cleaner to the General Manager, Politician and has even been known to interrupt the speech of the Duke of Edinburgh (though this was unintentional), as we all know he was a monarchist. In respect of a mate it could be said he was a ‘Great’ man. A testimony to this fact is the presence of all of us here. There is no common link in this congregation other than Eamon. That alone is testimony to his greatness. (Though he most probably is turning over at this thought). He applied himself to every task with a 110% effort. He was a skilled tradesman and through his working life he was also a procurer of all hard-to-find items. He also was the first to introduce trainees and new comers into the work place by introducing them to staff and taking them on a tour. He had an enthusiasm that, at times was misunderstood, particularly by the “young-uns”. In wanting to impart his experience and skills, in certain instances he seemed to be always correcting our work…but in hindsight, many of us are here now which stands in testimony of his teaching. He had a knack of knowing well before anyone else, including the Works Supervisor, when the ‘good’ away jobs were to be scheduled and was always well positioned to be chosen. He became a symbol of keeping the mateship of the OTC group together to what is now known as the OTC Family. One of his favorite work experiences was while he was working in Cambodia at the UNTAC military base as a logistics officer ensuring that supplies for works were on shipped to the remote sites in Cambodia for expanding the communications systems in remote areas. The equipment was shipped alongside Red Cross and Medical supplies and somehow Eamon was always able to get/arrange a quantity of Australian beer to the teams in the bush. Eamon had a skill for finding that particular hard to find item, or its alternative, wherever he was. The job in Cambodia was the one he liked best and became recognized at the base as “the Aussie with the Bush hat”. However, Eamon was not perfect. He was tenacious and enthusiastic at what ever job he was involved with and sometimes you just had to say ‘NO’ but the number of times you would come back and find your ‘No’ was modified back to the way he wanted to do it anyway…….but that was Eamon and in hindsight we would not have him any other way. He was the best storeman you could have. His store at Paddington was exemplary. He catalogued everything and had everything in its place and boy did he let you know it if you didn’t sign the item out and in correctly. When tools came back damaged he was the one to sharpen and get the item fixed. He hated cheap tools and it was to his credit that Paddington had one of the best tool stores in OTC. (Mind you he didn’t care about budgets too much and invariably the Works Supervisor would have to write an explanation on budget blow outs….but we did get the right tools for the job and that was a cost saving in itself at the end of the day.) Numerous emails have been received in respect to the passing of Eamon there was one that I feel says it all: “Eamon’s energy and sense of humour was always evident and even when things got bad he was the one who proceeded to re-arrange the deck chairs and the day’s entertainment on our various ‘Titanics’ to ensure good humour and reason may reside”. Eamon, you fought hard for the last 2 years against your illness and many of your friends were not aware of the seriousness of your state. You kept a lot to yourself and in the end you passed away quickly and peacefully. The quickness of your departure took away the opportunity for many of us to say how we felt about you and the effect you had on our lives. - A better man for a mate we could not want. - You can be proud of your achievements - they are many. - We want you to know how much valued and respected you are. - You are a teacher of life. You showed how through simplicity you can achieve anything you wanted. Though you were not a simple man. - You’re honest and completely trustworthy. - We would like to thank you for all your support and your help in solving problems, small & big. - Thank you for being a great listener and the time you spent with us. For no reward other than our company. - While having a few with the boys, thank you for being the last to leave and ensuring we get on the right train home. Even for the notes you pinned to our shirt to ensure the conductor would kick us off at say, Toonagabbie. You will be missed. But Eamon you could not pick a better day to go, New Years eve! How will any of us not remember it and you can be assured we will have a beer in our hand and what better reason than to have another one as a toast to you for the years to come. Be assured ‘ole mate’ we will all meet
with you again but, please don’t be offended, the intent is
not in the immediate future…..but who knows, life has its
own schedule to which we have no input. Good-bye ole mate have a
good journey and we know you will be having one, as we will, to
celebrate your life (Edward Philip Healy) (29/11/1924 – 6/1/2008) Phil Healy was born 83 years ago in 1924. He had a happy childhood at West Ryde in Sydney, doing such things as playing in the mangrove swamps in the Parramatta River, where he later learned to swim, throwing eggs off the railway bridge at West Ryde at passers-by and, of course, making and riding Billy carts. In those early days, radio, known as wireless, was in its infancy. Only the rich could afford to own one. Crystal radio sets were commonly constructed in backyard sheds. Young Phil took an interest in these new gadgets and found he had a natural talent in this field. His sister, Beth, remembers that even as a young boy, his bedroom on the side verandah of their home, was always a mess of wires, valves and capacitors, which prevented anyone from cleaning it. When he was only 8 years old Phil managed to repair a broken radio belonging to his uncle, who edited the local newspaper. His uncle was so impressed that he published an article in the paper, praising the boy’s talent. To no one’s surprise, Phil’s first job was building radios in a workshop in Eastwood for John Britton, who pioneered the building of radio receivers in Australia. Phil then worked for radio 2GB, back in the days when radio equipment needed constant attention. He was also involved in making the old heavy black 78rpm records for EMI, a record company in Sydney. In WW2 Phil volunteered to join the RAAF. Phil himself did not know his birth name was Edward Philip until he went to enlist in the air force at the age of 20, and was reprimanded by officers for misrepresenting himself on his application. It was only then that he discovered his birth name was Edward – but to everyone, he has always been and will always be Phil Healy. He spent the war in Darwin doing “seat-of-the-pants” maintenance on radar and radio equipment in air force fighters and bombers. The lives of pilots and crew depended on the reliability of this equipment. Phil’s marvelous electronics talent enabled him to design and install the ground to air instrument landing gear used by the RAAF. After the war, Phil started back at 2GB, but did not find the work challenging enough. So, when the opportunity arose he started work with the then fledgling TV station, Channel 9. After seeing in the start of television in Australia, he moved across to the ABC. Again, after a while, he needed more challenges and started work with the department of civil aviation. His electronics talent impelled Phil into a life of adventure. Because of his expertise in designing and installing the first aeroplane instruments landing system at Mascot airport, he was contracted to do the same for other cities and towns around Australia. Then he was asked if he would like to do a similar job in New Guinea. He accepted, and with his new wife Maureen, left Sydney in 1959 to spend 3 years in New Guinea. Phil and Maureen spent their honeymoon on a slow cargo boat going to New Guinea. They had a marvelous time on this boat and Phil never forgot a special morning when they saw the sunrise in the Whitsunday Passage. Phil’s work in New Guinea required him and his crew to traverse the mountainous countryside. He kept a copy of the job report for the VHF Propagation Tests that had to be performed on Mount Albert Edward, a 13 thousand feet series of ridges in the Owen Stanley Ranges, 80 air miles from Port Moresby. The 4 technicians in the crew were accompanied by, and I quote “2 native policeman, 1 native medical assistant, 2 native interpreters, 92 native carriers.” The total weight of all the supplies was 3 thousand 500 pounds. Extra blankets had to be supplied to the carriers because they were working above 10 thousand feet and nights were cold. The journey took 2 days of hard slog via a steep native track described as “impassable to horse and mule” that initially traversed lower areas characterized by swamps and soaks. There were no hard ship allowances in those days. This was just part of the job. On later jobs, actually building the VHF aerials, they worked at altitudes where the air was so thin that they had to work on hands and knees to conserve oxygen. On their return from New Guinea, Maureen took a job as a secretary while Phil continued to work for the civil aviation authority. His work involved such things as the erection of many of the first series of telecommunication towers around the country. Phil later worked for OTC (Overseas Telecommunications), which kept Australia in touch with the world. He was based at Doonside for the last years of his working life. When he retired, Phil and Maureen moved to their 7-acre block at Broughton Vale, which they bought in the early 1980’s. They designed the house, although Maureen had the greater influence in this instance and had the house built. Phil continued to spend most of his time on his beloved electronics, while Maureen spent most of her time in implementing the landscaping. Both Phil and Maureen thoroughly enjoyed living in the Berry area, on their beautiful secluded property. Sadly, Maureen passed away in 1993 and Phil spent many years alone, although during this time his generosity to others came to the fore. Then, as chance would have it, he fell in love again. He courted Jill, popped the question (how could she resist after 4 dozen oysters and 2 bottles of bubbly!) and married into a life of bliss. Phil and Jill have had 8 very happy years together. Phil was the laughter and love in Jill’s life. Sadly, Phil passed away last Sunday (6/1/2008). He was a ‘no bullshit’ man as his nephew Graham put it, who was humble about his achievements and experiences. Even though he lived a long, full and adventurous life, he will be greatly missed by all who knew and loved him. VALE - LANG, DULCIE MARY: (nee Campbell) [Top] From Robert hall 16 Jan 2008 Merle Teresa (Shorty) Short from MOR died peacefully on Thursday evening 24th January 2008, aged 82 years. In a long and interesting life, Merle worked in many places, including a communications career which started with AWA in 1942 and moved to MOR where she worked till 1966 when she retired as Secretary to the Traffic Superindent. Away from work, she loved sports, playing tennis, cricket, golf and softball. She became involved in softball administration and was inducted into the Softball Hall of Fame for her work. There was a funeral service at St. Peter's Catholic Church in East Keilor on Friday 1st February 2008 THE LAST WORD [Top] Welcome to the Year of the Rat. A Rat Year is a time of hard work, activity, and renewal. In Chinese, the Rat is respected and considered a courageous, enterprising person. I am sure 2008 is to be a good year! I hope you approve the new header as it is derived
from our new look letterhead. The fact that Will doesn’t write
many letters means that you won’t often see it. Thus it was
natural that I plagiarise it for the Newsletter. Please send material
for the next issue by mid May thanks. And I need lots of it! |
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