Message from Tony Bradney:

Ray was not a financial member of the OTVA but I have been advised of his passing last week.

 Apparently he worked in the Accounts Branch for many years.

Robert Brand has suggested:

There should be a huge celebration of the 50^th anniversary of the compact opening and Invite the Prime Minister, and/or Minister for Communications to attend with press, etc.

A re-enactment of that first phone call that was ever so important hooking up all the prime ministers can also be an achievable goal.

Overseas Telecommunications Veterans Newsletter

Backrow – John Bennet (PAD ITMC), Bill Newman (Mgr Offshore Network Operations), Dave Kidd (Telegraph and Data Senior Engineer), Alan West (BWY ISTC and CNCC). Frontrow – Bob E, Gary “Sammy” Samuels (BWY ISTC), Donna Rampling (BWY Admin), Jeff Thwaites (BWY ISTC), Bob Collins (BWY ISTC and CNCC), Michelle Collins.
Jennie and your editor recently went on holidays to the North Cast of NSW. Bob Collins kindly asked us to stay at his place at Fernvale, 7 km south of Murwillumbah. I knew that he and Bill Newman lived in the Tweed Valley, but at a Saturday BBQ at Bob’s I wasn’t expecting this!
Ten ex-OTC staff at a Saturday BBQ at Bob C’s! There is an enclave of ex-OTC staff living around the Tweed Valley and they all socialise together frequently.
Bill Newman grew up in the Tweed Valley and when upon retirement he and Maureen (Mo) moved back up there. Bobby Collins visited, and according to local legend, after 12 bottles of red decided the Tweed had a better view than Chipping Norton – so he moved up. Michelle followed (though, like me, she keeps a terrace in Sydney), as did Dave Kidd, John Bennet and Sammy. Sammy ran into Allan at the supermarket so he and Donna

joined in with the rest of the crew. Jeff and Gaye Thwaites are looking for a place to buy in the Tweed as well and join in the day to day fun. Bob’s daughter Michelle, the only instance of a father/daughter team in OTC, lives close-by.
The day before we arrived they had all been out big game fishing followed by a sashimi and BBQ lunch. I’ve been told not to mention that Maureen is the best fisher of them all, landing a huge snapper.
Bill Newman describes their enviable lifestyle as “six days of the week are Sunday, and then there’s Wednesday” because on Wednesdays they head off to a local club for a long lunch. The local cabbies love it.
Alan is working on an offshore oil rig in WA (3 weeks on, 3 weeks off, 3 weeks on, 6 weeks off), and Donna is with the Education Department.
Everyone else is retired and looking very relaxed and happy with life. Bob C has the most complete metal workshop I have ever seen which he uses often.
They all keep themselves busy looking after their acreages and socialising.
We had a ball and it won’t be our last trip to the Tweed.
____
Fellow Members of the OTVA,
I hope that you and your families are well and enjoying life.
The OTVA web page (http://www.otva.com) and the BLOGs (https://www.otva.com/blog/) continue to enjoy very good patronage. This will be as a direct result of the good stories and notices (including recent OTVA Newsletters) that can be found there which can be used to keep OTVA members up to date with circumstances and events associated with ex-OTC personnel and their families.
Email continues to be a great source of communication with you our members and your committee will continue to pursue efficiencies to reduce costs by channelling as much information as possible via email and the BLOG pages of the OTVA web site. If you send an email to president@otva.com I will review it and where appropriate email it out to those on the email distribution list as well as upload it to the BLOG site.
Unfortunately our Treasurer, Alex Ebert, has resigned from the position after 14 months of service. Alex has been forced to take this action to focus more on his family and his personal life as well as his accountancy practice. I thank Alex for the spirit in which he took on the role as treasurer of the OTVA and his efforts since taking on that role in June 2011. The members of the OTVA Executive wish him the best for his future and look forward to catching up with him at one of the OTVA social events in the future.
The project to digitise Transit and Contact magazines is about 85% complete. It is our intention to transfer the files to DVD which can then be made available to financial members of the OTVA upon request. Kevin O’Brien has processed the scanned images and is building a capability for a keyword search. The DVD may still be available by the end of 2012 but will be very dependent upon whether we can get access to the missing copies for scanning and burning to DVD. I will be sending an email via the distribution list asking for access to the missing copies. Your assistance in this endeavour will be greatly appreciated.
We, your committee, have also received other hard copy documents such as the OTC Annual Reports, Invisible Bridges and other material relating to OTC or the history of telecommunications in Australia in the 20th Century that may be suitable for scanning and distribution but that will be a project for 2013.
I extend my sincere condolences to the families of our ex-OTC brothers and/or their partners who have departed this life since I last addressed you. We are saddened by their passing but are gladdened by the fullness of their rich and long lives. May They Rest In Peace.
Warmest regards,
Peter Bull
0411 260542
peterbull@otva.com
________________________________
Paddington Intercontinental Exchange
Ref. from Wikipedia:- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TXK#TXK2
TXK1
This code was used for the Plessey 5005T exchanges which was a 4 wire version of the standard 5005 (separate pair for transmit & receive). In the UK TXK2s were only used as an international gateway, initially at Wood Street (WS) exchange in the City of London. This switch had been previously sold by Plessey to the Overseas Telecommunications Commission Australia (OTC) for use as an international gateway at Sydney.
The British Post Office was planning with Plessey Ltd for a switch at Wood Street but with advanced facilities. Plessey was in difficulty with this development and could not make Wood Street work on time and in-budget. As OTC had replaced their 5005T with an Ericsson switch, it was air-freighted back to the UK in desperation to be put into service at Wood Street.
The 5005T was identical to the 5005A except for the 4 wire switching, the lack of subscriber line circuits and concentration stage (i.e. no distributors).
Plessey further supplied the British Post Office with TXK2 switches at DeHavilland ISC (Burnt Oak) and Mondial ISC in Central London. The first switch was similar technically to the Wood St Relief Unit, but the latter was larger and came with the developments of Codesender Router and Line Terminations for CCITT R2 (MF(C) with E&M line signalling).

From Kevin O’Brien who writes:-
After OTC installed & commissioned the Ericsson ARM, the British Post Office purchased the Paddo exchange from OTC.
It was installed in Wood Street, London and was named the “Wood Street Relief unit”.
I visited Wood Street in 1971 and asked if I could see the old Paddo exchange. There it was the same switch I used to work on in Sydney now “clacking” away on Atlantic circuits. To my surprise they had left the Australian labels on the test desk/rack key switches. I asked one of the guys working there at the time did he know the meaning of JTA and JFA.
He said he did not know what the letters stood for but he just knew them as one way outgoing/ incoming junctions.
We all had a chuckle after I informed them that the abbreviations stood for Junction from Australia JFA and junction to Australia JTA.
I don’t know if they ever changed the labels to Junction from/to England (JFE’s and JTE’s)??

________________________________
Communication Without Wires (1)
By Henry Cranfield

DEVELOPMENTS in radio technology in the late nineteenth century were rapid I and diverse.
In 1865, a Cambridge University Professor, James Clerk Maxwell, proposed his theory on the existence of electromagnetic waves. More than two decades later, their existence was confirmed in a practical demonstration by German physicist, Heinrich Hertz.
In the following decade, significant advances were made in refining Hertz’s experiments, including the work of Professor Eduard Branly in France and Sir Oliver Lodge in England.
But it was the work of a young Italian, Guglielmo Marconi, which took the new science out of the laboratory and into the ‘real’ world.
Marconi lived with his parents in Pontecchio, near Bologna. From boyhood, he had been fascinated with science and in 1894, after studying the work of Hertz, he began his first experiments using electromagnetic waves. Using refined equipment and incorporating a Morse key he found he could send signals from one part of the house to another.
Soon his experiments became more ambitious; his most significant advance beganing0 to attach aerials and earths to both transmitter and receiver. He then realised that the distance over which signals could be sent was relative to the size and eleva¬tion of the cylindrical aerials.
In 1895, Marconi offered to demonstrate his new signaling system to the Italian Government. His offer was declined. Undeterred, he sailed for England, hoping to interest the British Government in his inventions.
In June 1896 Marconi applied for, and was granted, the first patent for wireless telegraphy. The following year he formed the Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company and built the very first coastal radio station; an experimental station on the Isle of Wight.
Within a few years, a chain of radio stations had been completed around the English coast. Marconi continued to conduct some amazing demonstrations, the most spectacular of which was to pass radio signals across the Atlantic Ocean in 1901.
In 1901, the Marconi Company approached the Australian Government with a proposal to connect Australia and New Zealand by wireless, but it was not until 1906 that the company was granted a temporary licence to conduct trials between Devonport in Tasmania and Queenscliff in Victoria.
The Postmaster General’s Department was given full control of wireless commu¬nications in Australia under the Wireless Telegraphy Act, passed by the Australian Parliament in 1905.
By 1909, the threat of war was increasing, and the Government decided to estab¬lish wireless telegraphic stations around Australia’s coast as a means of gathering naval intelligence, and for the safety of life at sea.
Tenders were called to erect two high-powered stations in Sydney and Perth. The successful bidder was the newly formed Australasian Wireless Company.
The company’s activities were further broadened when, in 1910, it was granted a licence to operate an experimental radio station at the back of the Bulletin offices in Sydney.
This station later moved to the Australia Hotel, which became Australia’s first coastal radio station after the Australasian Wireless Company was granted a licence to handle public traffic to and from ships at sea. It closed in 1912 when the Pennant Hills radio station opened.
Another licence was granted to Father Archibald Shaw, a priest and former tele¬graphist, to build an experimental wireless station in Randwick, Sydney. Later, Father Shaw began manufacturing wireless equipment from a site next to this station; he also gained a licence to operate a radio station on King Island in Bass Strait.
With a change in Government in 1910, the Prime Minister appointed a wireless expert — Graham Balsillie — to speed up the construction of the wireless stations. Melbourne Radio was the first station completed, opening on 8 February 1912.
A series of legal disputes between the Australasian Wireless Company, Telefunken and the Marconi Company led to the formation of Amalgamated Wireless Australasia Ltd (AWA Ltd) in 1913.Meanwhile, the construction of coastal radio stations continued with 19 stations being erected between 1912 and 1914,
In 1912 the Australian Government passed the Navigation Act which made it compulsory for all ships in Australian waters carrying more than 50 passengers to have wireless apparatus.
The sinking of the Titanic in April 1912 led to nations around the world adopt¬ing a uniform code of marine safety standards and procedures — the SOLAS (Safety of Life at Sea) Convention of 1914. Some years earlier, SOS had been adopted as the standard distress signal.
During World War I, the Department of the Navy took control of the stations; this responsibility reverted to the Postmaster General’s Department in 1920.
Throughout this period, Ernest Fisk, managing director of AWA, had been expanding the company’s commercial ventures.
In 1918, he conducted successful trials from his home in Wahroonga, Sydney, in which the Australian Prime Minister, Billy Hughes, sent a message direct from London to Australia.
The British Post Office then proposed building a chain of stations at regular inter¬vals across the world, but the Australian Government strongly objected, fearing that Australia would be left isolated at the end of the chain.
In 1920, AWA submitted its own plan for a direct Australia-Britain wireless link; this proposal was accepted by the Australian Government in 1922.
The agreement gave AWA exclusive rights to build and operate any stations necessary to establish direct wireless contact between Australia and England. AWA also took control of the existing radio stations.
After it took over the Coastal Radio Service (CRS), AWA embarked on a program of modernisation and split the Coastal Radio Service into two administrative arms: The Coastal Radio Service, comprising the stations of mainland Australia, Thursday Island, and Port Moresby and its outstations in Papua; and the Island Radio Service, made up of the New Guinea stations and several remote island stations around Australia’s shores.
In England, Marconi was experimenting with short-wave technology; the first short-wave message was received in Australia on 6 March 1924.
In 1925, AWA introduced a radio telephone service for ships at sea, but the main form of communication still remained wireless telegraphy. On 8 April 1927, the Australia-Britain beam wireless service opened, and AWA established a new receiv¬ing station at La Perouse.
Most stations in the CRS were equipped with short-wave radio in the late 1920s and early 1930s. A direct service was opened between Fiji and Sydney Radio in 1928 and Sydney Radio became the radio hub of the Pacific.
By the mid-1930s several coastal radio stations were used as control centres for aeradio services.
The CRS played an important role in Australia’s defence during World War II; its stations participated in the vital Coast Watching Scheme and provided links between naval ships and the Royal Australian Navy communication stations.
After the war ended, the CRS was purchased from AWA by the Australian Government, who administered the service until OTC took operational control on 1’February 1947.

Part 2 Next Edition.
(My apologies for the inconsistent layout as I could not edit Henry’s copy – Ed).
_____________________________________

THE COMMERCIAL BRANCH, INTERPLEX AND
OTC’S NEW YORK OFFICE.

By Tom Barker

(Originally published in October 2006 Newsletter)

When George Maltby established the Commercial Branch, in the 1960’s, his intention was to get OTC involved with its customers more closely and to establish a better public recognition of OTC by showing an interest in business customers and learning of any problems which they may have encountered in their international communications.

At that time, our closest customers were those businesses which regularly sent telegrams to the overseas offices of their principals, customers or suppliers. These firms usually operated “Four Figure Accounts” which were used to identify the customer to OTC and simplify billings. Many of these customers were moving from telegrams to telex, as OTC’s international telex facilities became more efficient and more generally available.

Prior to the opening of the COMPAC cable, telex channels were derived from Hasler TOR Telegraphy On Radio) equipment, operating on HF radio paths and the circuit switching was performed manually by OTC operators, who supervised each call to ensure satisfactory service delivery.

With the opening of the COMPAC and SEACOM cables, telex channels were provided via FMVFT equipment operating over cable voice channels (24 channels per system) which not only provided more reliable services, but at a much lower cost to OTC.

The Australian domestic telex network, provided by the PMG Dept. at that time, was also growing quickly and after subscriber dialling between all Australian subscribers was introduced (using keyboard signalling, rather than rotary dials), the customer take-up was very fast. This presented OTC with an opportunity which had never existed before, to offer its customers an automated service, for which OTC could bill, within the terms of the Overseas Telecommunications Act of 1946.

This proved to be the most profitable service which OTC ever offered and was the basis for the its very politically popular Annual Reports and handsome dividends to its shareholder (the Australian Government) over many years. It was also the motivator for OTC to engage in vigorous debates with the PMG Dept and later, Telecom, about the introduction of International Subscriber Dialling for telephone services.

The first stage of OTC’s Automatic International Telex service was achieved by a novel use of Siemens and Halske tape reperforators (FRXD’s in the S & H language) which monitored each call, recording the answer-backs of the caller and the called number and the time of connection, plus a “MOM” entry at each completed minute of the connection.

The tapes from these machines were analysed by OTC Accounts Branch and the customers were billed directly by OTC.

The operating procedure for Australian telex customers was to dial 020, which would connect them to the international telex exchange (at Paddington) which would indicate by signalling “INTLX” that an international number could be called. Such calls had to prefixed with the appropriate country code, which was an opportunity for OTC to produce and distribute customer literature, which provided operating 124 instructions, country codes and rates for OTC telex services.

FRXD on display at Bankstown Museum.

These booklets were not mailed out to customers, but hand-delivered by OTC Commercial Branch representatives, who used the opportunity to establish a relationship with the customer and arrange for future regular visits to enquire about service related matters.

The first stage of this program was the opening of twenty automatic telex circuits to London and the customer response was so good that it was necessary to embark on a major engineering program, to meet the demand.

From my (imperfect) memory Ross Beaumont was the engineer who carried that first project, but it lead to the acquisition of the first international telex exchange with toll ticketing.

Once established, the automatic telex service became a vehicle for OTC to involve itself in customer service matters in a way which was never possible before. One of the things which developed out of that involvement was the realisation that OTC was being outsmarted by a competitor. With the benefit of detailed customer billings, which identified all international telex calls, Commercial Branch staff were able to identify customers who were making many calls to the same number, on a regular basis, which would justify their leasing a private line service to that particular overseas destination, which was often the office of their principals.

International Private Lines were almost invariably “sub-speed” telegraph circuits, at that time, a normal 50 baud (66 wpm) telex circuit being divided into four “quarter-speed” circuits by Hasler equipment.

OTC staff would analyse customer billings over several months, and prepare a written analysis for the customer’s information. This would be followed up by a sales proposal, which would cost-justify the customer leasing a private line to his most frequently called destination. OTC Commercial Branch Staff took this work very seriously and there was good-natured competition between staff, to achieve the best sales figures.

It was at this point that we would often become aware that the customer was installing a private line, not to London or New York, or where-ever his main overseas correspondent was, but to Hong Kong. The customer would use this line to transmit all his overseas telex traffic, not just to London or Hong Kong, but to everywhere. OTC had become the unwitting victim of the Cable and Wireless MSC (Message Switching Centre) in Hong Kong, a battery of Univac 418 mainframe computers, engineered to handle private telegraph networks, customised to the needs of each individual company.

Such systems and services were being offered by many international carriers, at that time, but the C & W MSC had embarked upon a campaign to target Australian telex customers, probably because they knew that OTC did not have this capability. It was apparent that OTC would continue to lose business this way, unless it had a computer-based message switching system to offer its customers, so that a network of private lines, connecting to every major office of any corporation around the world, could communicate, via the Sydney-based switch.

This entailed selling the service, not just to our Australian customers, but to the corporations (usually multi-national) whose headquarters could be based anywhere in the world.

After OTC management were made aware of the competitive disadvantage that OTC was suffering, in this situation, it was decided to install a message switching centre for private line networks and it was to be called Interplex.

At first the Interplex system comprised a number of small, stand-alone computer systems, allocated on a one-per-customer basis, but this arrangement proved too inflexible to meet all our customer needs, so an arrangement of General Automation (GA16/64) mini-computers, called “Mini-Plus” systems, was installed at Paddington, and these were capable of meeting a much
wider range of customer requirements.

From that time on, the competition between OTC’s Interplex service and the C & W MSC was very keen. We won some very good accounts and we lost some important ones to our competitors. It was an area of OTC’s business which was truly engaged in competition for business with an aggressive alternative supplier, an unfamiliar scenario for many who had spent their entire careers employed in monopoly carrier situations.

One of the facts which became apparent to those of us engaged in this business, was that 45% of OTC’s corporate business was with companies based in the USA. We began to participate in International Telecom Expos, (such as the ICA) in the U.S and we soon realised that OTC needed to have a permanent presence in the U.S. if we were to succeed in this area of business.

At that time, OTC management was not enthusiastic about having a representative office in another country, to talk to customers, because there was a mindset that OTC was a monopoly and didn’t need to compete for business. Fortunately this did not apply to people like George Maltby, who took the proposal to establish an office in New York, to the board a number of times, before finally gaining approval, in 1984.

The proviso which we were obliged to work with, was that no capital expenditure could be made, so everything had to be leased (presumably so we would not have to write anything off if the venture failed).

I walked the streets of New York, trying to find somewhere to hang up OTC’s shingle, and finally took a space in a serviced office business, located in Fifth Avenue, near the Rockefeller Centre.

I was assisted in the task of setting up this office by some good friends in British Telecom International, who were setting up their own New York office at that time, a much more elaborate, permanent and impressive affair than OTC’s modest presence.

This being OTC’s first overseas-based office, a number of things had to be considered which were unprecedented in its experience.

One important detail was the selection of staff and the length of their terms in that post. I decided that three years was probably the most sensible term length, as it takes some time to become accustomed to working in a foreign country and also time to prepare for ones return home, so three years would allow a useful time in the job, once settled in.

Trevor Duff was selected to fill the Manager position and Ravi Bahtia his assistant. For our official opening, George Maltby prevailed upon an old friend, the Australian Ambassador to the United States, Sir Robert Cotton, KCMG, to officiate, and George selected the Waldorf Astoria as the venue.

Our OTC PR section arranged for a New York firm to set up the location (the Ballroom) and the catering for the event.

Inviting Sir Robert to officiate was a masterstroke. Although Americans are proud not to be part of the British Empire (or what’s left of it) they salivate at the presence of Royalty or British Nobles. Their responses to our invitations were overwhelming. On the
night of the event we were blown away by the number of industry leaders who attended. It was a stunning success.

For me, the two biggest thrills were when I talked for some time to Warren Buffet (about his buying Western Union Telegraph) and when Mike Ford, the head of British Telecom International, said to me (very quietly) “You beat us, Tom”. They had held their New York Office official opening a week before us and we both knew that what Mike said was true.

The opening of the New York office not

(To be concluded. I thought this story was well worth publishing again – Ed).
__________________________________
COMPAC 50TH ANNIVERSARY
The 50th Anniversary of the opening of traffic on the COMPAC Cable in 2013 and you are invited to join in.
A subcommittee has been established an if you wish to contribute, contact Peter Bull, president@otva.com.
_______________
To renew your membership, you can (i) either do an electronic funds transfer of $10 to the OTVA Bank account (email president@otva.com to obtain the details), OR
(ii) mail a cheque for $10 to
PO Box 702 Riverwood 2210
For EFT transactions ensure your name is included in the transaction.

NSW SEPTEMBER REUNION
MIDDAY – SEPTEMBER 14TH
NSW BOWLERS CLUB 99YORK ST SYDNEY.

This story first published in 1974 was discovered by Robert Brand

Phreaking = Hacking when it comes to making calls via the backdoor. Either cheaper or free – both qualify. Manipulating the phone network. The author of the story below appears to be British but contains some pretty accurate details on 2VF.

I find the Australian telephone system much more interesting than American. There are two independent trunk networks Down Under—the (multi-frequency compelled), and the 2VF (two voice frequency), handling STD and operator-originated traffic respectively.

As far as I know, nobody outside of Australia has managed to simulate the MFC signalling, the difficulty being that the control signals are ‘outband’ (sent outside the normal 3000Hz voice frequency band). But provided that one is incoming into Australia with operator status one can gain access to the 2VF network at centres such as Melbourne or Brisbane. This assumes that one knows the appropriate access codes. The 2VF network employs the AC1 signalling system, which uses two signalling frequencies: 600Hz and 750Hz. Digits are sent in a similar to AC9 signals but use the 600Hz frequency. The supervisory signals are different, the forward clear for example, consistency of the 750Hz tone applied for 2 seconds followed by 0.7 seconds of the 600Hz tone. This signalling system preceded AC9 in this country and is still used to some extent. One can sometimes hear its very characteristic ‘forward clear’ tone over UK trunk routes when crosstalk occurs between channels using AC1.

Australia has one Gateway exchange, located in Sydney, and a second coming into operation shortly. Modern Crossbar switching is employed at the Gateway, and this has the facility of restricting the access to the outgoing circuits in the transit mode to the appropriate incoming routes. This means, for instance, that if you were incoming from London, the country code 44 for the UK would not be accepted, because the equipment can recognise that calls from one part of the UK to another are not normally routed via Sydney, even though a telephone enthusiast might consider it a reasonable thing to do. In practice, transit access from Sydney to New Zealand, Hong Kong and Malaga is all that is allowed to UK traffic—which is of restricted interest to the UK telephone enthusiast since these countries are available directly via the International Common Access System.

From the enthusiast’s point of view it is therefore fortunate that there is a way of gaining unrestricted access to the international exchange and this works as follows. Operators in certain large exchanges, such as Adelaide, can dial their own international calls, rather than having to rely upon the international operators in Sydney. This traffic is routed over the 2VF network and, as has been mentioned above, it is possible to gain access to this network incoming into Australia. This makes it possible to set up a telephone call all the way round the world.

Firstly, set-up a call to Adelaide via New York (or some other US Gateway) and then send the 2VF access code and the 2VF routing for Sydney, all using CCITT5/USA signalling. Having allowed this connection to complete, the distant 2VF circuit will now accept AC1 signals. Using the pulsed 600 Hz signalling for the digits, one next sends the digits 99 1 44 2 1 838 7603 followed by a short burst of tone at 750Hz to indicate end of signalling. The digits 99 are the access code for the Gateway exchange, the digit 1 is used for discrimination purposes and the country code 44 is for the UK. The next digit, 2, is known as a language digit and indicates in this case that the call is being set up by an English speaking operator. The area code for London is 1 and this is followed by the required London number. This rather cumbersome procedure follows from difficulty in interfacing an older type of signalling, AC1, with the international routing equipment. A call set up in this way will be routed, via the Indian ocean satellite, back to London. This feat was first achieved in the June of 1972.

The term ‘language digit’ referred to above is rather a misnomer and originated in the days when most of the international circuits were operated manually. This meant that an originating international operator could not in general complete a call but would require the assistance of an operator in the distant country and the purpose of the language digit was to ensure that the call was routed to an assistance operator speaking a specified language. Today, the bulk of international traffic is switched automatically and furthermore the English language has become more or less universally used by international operators. A few countries such as France and Russia insist on using the French language. Spanish is used to some extent within South America but in the vast majority of cases the language digit has become redundant. Its use is however mandatory by international agreements and must be used.

Many countries now have ISD and with the increase in subscriber originated traffic international agreements have come into force that require such traffic to carry the language digit zero. This is to allow discrimination by the incoming equipment to prevent certain types of call. For example, a subscriber is not allowed access to an assistance operator. When ISD was first introduced to New York from London one could dial New York using the published dialling code 0101 212, followed by the New York number. But instead of dialling a New York number, one could dial a further North American area code and follow this by 1211 to reach the incoming assistance operator in that area, free of charge. This gave interesting possibilities, you could call the Montreal operator and ask for Sydney, then ask Sydney for Hong Kong. All of this is possible to a Blue Box (US MFC) user but in those days it was quite novel, and required no special equipment or dialling codes.

Today, discrimination by means of the language digit ‘0’ prevents all this. This language digit is automatically inserted by the London ICA equipment when accessed via ISD routes and it follows, therefore, that traffic to, say Australia (a non-ISD country) having this language digit can only have originated from a telephone enthusiast. In an attempt to thwart such activities the Australian authorities have arranged for the incoming equipment to reject incoming traffic from London with this language digit. This can only be a temporary measure since ISD to Australia will be introduced in two or three years time. In the meantime, one can route calls via the USA or, say, Copenhagen, using methods described above. Throughout the world the various telephone administrations are making increasing efforts to prevent the activities of the telephone enthusiast and it is this, I think, that will keep the hobby alive as new areas of exploration diminish. After all it’s nice to beat the system but even nicer to beat the people trying to stop you.

This anonymous but extremely well informed article was first published in Undercurrents, issue 7, July-August 1974.

This text was found on an American CD-ROM and is included purely for its historical interest.

The most famous trial of British phreaks was called the Old Bailey trial. Which started on 3 Oct. 1973. What the phreaks did was to dial a spare number at a local call rate but involving a trunk to another exchange then they send a ‘clear forward’ to their local exchange, indicating to it that the call is finished; but the distant exchange doesn’t realise because the caller’s phone is still off the hook. They now have an open line into the distant trunk exchange and sends to it a ‘seize’ signal: ’1′ which puts him onto its outgoing lines. Now, if they know the codes, the world is open to them. All other exchanges trust his local exchange to handle the billing; they just interpret the tones they hear. Meanwhile, the local exchange collects only for a local call. The investigators discovered the phreaks holding a conference somewhere in England surrounded by various phone equipment and bleeper boxes, also printouts listing ‘secret’ Post Office codes (they probably got them from trashing?). The judge said: “Some take to heroin, some take to telephones.” For them phone phreaking was not a crime but a hobby to be shared with fellow enthusiasts and discussed with the Post Office openly over dinner and by mail. Their approach and attitude to the world’s largest computer, the global telephone system, was that of scientists conducting experiments or programmers and engineers testing programs and systems. The judge appeared to agree, and even asked them for phreaking codes to use from his local exchange!!!

The story comes from here: http://strowger-net.telefoonmuseum.com/tel_hist_phreak.html

An interesting link:

http://ahzo7.blogspot.com.au/2011/03/signaling-for-analog-telephone-networks.html

From Tom Barker:
Jo Christoffersen phoned Saturday to advise of Dick’s passing.last week. Dick was one of the Inmarsat originals.

If anyone has any pictures or nice stories about Dick that may be of interest/comfort to his family and friends please add a ‘Comment’ or email me and I can upload to the BLOG.

From Tony Belts & Kevan Bourke:

On the morning of August 17, 2012, the Globe Wireless Seatex service was shut down, this was the last remaining HF service at Gnangara Maritime Coast Station which has been operating in its current form for Globe Wireless since 1997, and many years before that when owned by OTC.

This marks the end of an era with some 45 years of continuous HF service at the Maritime Coast Station, a sad day for many people. OTC moved to Gnangara from their old transmitting station at Bassendean in 1966, having operated from there for many years prior to that.

I have heard it said that Gnangara was once the largest commercial HF station in the southern hemisphere. In this time it has seen Seatex, Seaphone, Radio Telephone (Radphone – RTF), Radphone Direct Dial (RDD), Radio TeleGraph (Morse – RTG), Radio TeleType (RTT), Global Maritime Distress Surveillance System (GMDSS), Safety Of Life At Sea (SOLAS), Digital Selective Calling (DSC), Qantas and other aviation HF services, plus other services. It operated as VIP (Perth) and in later years added VID (Darwin) when that closed.

Gnangara had radio operators and staff working 24/7 for many years. The radio staff alone in 1995 had 7 staff working flat out.

14 August 2012: Message from Peter Burgess

Alison Young (eldest daughter of Dale and Margaret) passed away after a long and painful battle with liver cancer.

Her funeral will be held at 1.15pm Friday 17th August at Macquarie Park Crematorium, Sydney

Another one taken from us too early. RIP Alison.

1 How I became involved in Vietnam.

I was an engineer with OTC (Overseas Telecommunications Corporation) from 1973 to 1994 when I retired. From 1985 I worked as the Project Manager in charge of a number of projects most of which were offshore; mainly in Vietnam and Malta as well as Laos and Cambodia. Vietnam was both OTC’s and my first venture into Foreign construction projects. Factors which led to the decision to get involved in the Vietnam project included:

– OTC’s General Manager, George Maltby, was keen to expand our strong reputation in International Communications into Consulting and Construction areas.
– The Australian Ambassador to Vietnam saw the need for modern communications from Vietnam as essential to that country’s recovery from the war, and subsequent trade sanctions.
– Vietnam was keen to re-establish trading relations with the west, and saw good communications as being essential.
– DFaT was very supportive.

When offered the position of Project Manager for Vietnam I jumped at it.
My first trip was as head of the team to negotiate the contract, in Ha Noi, and to gather technical information, in Ho Chi Minh City, (which I will as the locals still do, call Saigon). OTC senior management’s last briefing comment was to “get the best deal you can” which I interpreted to mean that we were expected to come back with a contract. The delegation consisted of; a technical expert, Dave Wicks; a marketing expert, Brian Curran; an ex-member of DFaT whose name I will not mention because of his subsequent notoriety but who nevertheless proved invaluable as he had been two IC in Hanoi before joining OTC; and myself.

Although OTC was installing ES’s in Antarctica and Xmas Island the Vietnam project was a ‘first’ in that it was in a foreign, communist, non English speaking country.

However, I was keen and when I met my opposite number in Vietnam I felt very comfortable…. he was my size !

2 First Impressions

We didn’t realise it then but the flight from Bang Kock to Ha Noi gave us a good indication of what to expect

As we waited in the departure lounge to board the Air Vietnam aircraft, a Russian Tupolov 132, which stood about 50 metres from the glass doors of the departure lounge, our expert from DFaT ushered us to the front of the crowd milling around the locked doors.

When boarding was announced the doors opened and we were swept up in a most undignified stampede of sometimes aging and portly officials running the 50 metres to the aircraft, constantly being encouraged to run faster by our one experienced member. The reason was clear when we got into the aircraft.

Many of the seats had minimal or no padding, sometimes the backs were falling onto the following seats. First in got the good seats. Luggage was piled inside the entrance door without any restraint and the carpet down the aisle was worn through to the aluminium deck. Naturally this did nothing to bolster my confidence. However, while the plane was very underpowered by western standards and took forever to actually get off the ground; once in the air all went well and the pilot got us down to a perfect landing at Hanoi.

In Ha Noi there was very little sign that the country had been through two major wars in the previous 30 years. On approach to Ha Noi we could see a few strings of bomb craters in the paddy fields and in Ha Noi the bridge over the Red River had been bombed and the destroyed spans replaced by military style “Bailey” bridges. These spans are still there. I checked satellite photographs on Google Earth yesterday.

Everything was seriously in need of renewal and maintenance. The degree of decay had to be seen to be believed. When we got to Saigon the situation was better but still very run down.

3 Accommodation.

When I first visited Vietnam the only Europeans in Hanoi were Embassy staff and in Saigon, one or two who had stayed on with their Vietnamese families after the war, and the very rare businessman trying to develop import/export business. We met one of the expats in Saigon when he heard we were in town and decided to organise a birthday party for himself. Fortunately, none of us needed to drive home.

Consequently there was very little call for Western Quality Accommodation. Only one hotel in Ha Noi and one in Saigon made any attempt at all to supply this market. The Thong Ngat in Ha Noi was built by the architect of the Raffles Hotel in Singapore. During the early 1900’s it was a magnificent building in keeping with the Opera House and many other buildings from that era in Ha Noi. Ha Noi was known as the “Jewel” or the “Pearl of the Orient”. The French architecture and landscaping, while in 1986 terribly decayed were clearly magnificent when new. An artificial lake of some 10 to 20 hectares with surrounding gardens in the centre of Ha Noi had deteriated essentially to a cess pool.

A little story about the Thong Ngat. Early in 1987 my wife, Colleen travelled with me to Vietnam – her visit is a story in itself – and we stayed in the Thong Ngat. There was no hot water in our room – well suite actually – and sometimes no water at all. Hotel staff kept promising to fix it but to no avail. After several days of cold showers we were reluctantly accepting that any improvement was unlikely. Until one day I arrived back from a meeting in mid afternoon to find that there was hot water. I yelled to Colleen and we could not strip off fast enough to get our first hot shower for several days. How it happened I don’t know but the hot water came out of the “cold” tap and after about 30 minutes disappeared never to return on that visit.

Saigon has been a more commercial and utilitarian city and this is reflected in the buildings – less decayed as the South was a productive economy until 1975. In Saigon I stayed in the Ben Than. For any of you who may have been in Saigon before 1975 it was then known as the Rex. Despite being operated by the Communist Regime since 1975 the large decorative Crown was still on the lobby wall with its outlining lights still switched on. This hotel was known for its practice of placing small flags of the countries of the diners on their tables in the dining room. When Colleen and I were there they found Australian and New Zealand flags to continue the tradition for us.

4 The People

Most of the people I worked with were well educated and capable – and were excellent and tough negotiators, always looking for that little bit extra. However, once agreement was reached they carried out their side of the deal meticulously. My opposite number was a northerner who spoke Vietnamese, French and German but no English. The director Foreign Relations of the Vietnamese Communications Department was Madam Nga, a fascinating lady. She had fought in the hills with Ho Chi Minh as an 18 year old. After the French were defeated she was sent to Moscow to study engineering. She spoke 7 languages fluently including English and on many occasions was able to discretely correct the interpreters. OTC organised for her to visit Sydney and Colleen and I were able to have her to dinner at our house in Epping.

Vietnam was an absolute economic basket case in 1986 and children would frequently beg from the foreigners. The adults, particularly the men, were very much down on this and would chase the children away if they saw any begging. Nevertheless we used to give any spare cash or small notes we had to the children when the opportunity arose. One story in particular comes to mind. In Saigon there were many Eurasian street kids abandoned by their fathers when the war ended. One of these, a bright little fellow of about 11 years old, who I will call Harry, was attracted to me and each time I came to Saigon he would appear and want to chat with me. He walked with a limp and had one arm that dangled awkwardly because of polio but this in no way detracted from his bubbling and friendly personality. More about him later. Needless to say these kids always got any spare cash that I had.

Also in Saigon I was fortunate enough to meet Madam Di. Again any of you who have been in Vietnam may have heard of Madam Di. She was widely known for the quality of a restaurant she owned before 1975. I met her through our ex DFaT member who took us to her, then much smaller restaurant; it was one room in the house where she and many other Vietnamese lived. We had an excellent meal of steak with French Wine. Lord knows how she got it. It could be because she frequently hosted dinners for members of the Government.

While in Ha Noi on my first visit the Australian Ambassador hosted a dinner for both the negotiating teams and selected members of the Vietnamese Government. That was where I met Mr. Wang. Over coffee and port I was talking to Mr Wang who was the Vietnamese Finance Minister and he was expansively and surprisingly openly criticising the Vietnamese Government and the Communist System. Although there were no other government officials within earshot I had visions of him being taken away and shot the next day. Later I told our ex DFaT member about my discussion with Wang. He said no problems and told me Wang was:
– From the South;
– Married to an Indian film star who had acted in one of the early Bond films;
– Had been Finance Minister for the South before 1975;
– Was a past President of the World Bank; and
– Was very good at his job.
Consequently his intransigence was tolerated provided he was reasonably discrete and in any case if he became too much of a problem the Gov’t would simply pension him off as he was in his seventies at that time. Did I mention that the Vietnamese are a very pragmatic people?.

5 Conclusion

I feel privileged to have been involved in the start of an economic revolution in Vietnam. The Satellite Earth Station in Saigon that I Project Managed was noted for:
– providing the first modern communications to the West since 1975;
– its first 4 voice channels were fully occupied 24 hrs/day from switch-on;
– within 3 months capacity had been expanded to 12 channels;
– within 6 months capacity was up to 24 channels;
– within 12 months capacity was up to 48 channels;
– within 2 years a second ES was planned for Saigon and as well as a new ES in Ha Noi.

From 1986 to 1990 I saw:
– bicycles largely replaced by motor cycles in Saigon,
– beginnings of the same change in Ha Noi;
– Vietnam had moved from a net importer of food to an exporter;
– development of coal mines in the north by Joint Venture Aust. companies;
– development of offshore oil exploration by Joint Venture Aust. Companies;
– development of a fish export business by Joint Venture Aust. Companies;
– the tourist industry beginning to boom.

This economic revolution was, I believe, largely due to the pragmatism of the Vietnamese Government in turning a blind eye to capitalistic type development in the South and a “Can Do” attitude of the Vietnamese people.

This is perhaps best illustrated by the rest of the story about my little Eurasian friend, Harry. It was after I had seen Harry several times that he asked me in broken English if I could get him some soap. I said I didn’t have any and why did he want it? He said “to get the nits out of his hair”. He also suggested that “I could get some from the hotel room”. I was on my way to a meeting and told him to meet me next day. Next day Harry is no where to be seen but immediately I walk out of the Hotel a tall Eurasian girl of about 14 years old approaches and by imitating her brother’s limp and swinging arm (presumably from Harry having contracted polio) indicates she has been sent to get the soap. A couple of days later Harry appears again thanking me for the soap and apologising in broken English for not coming himself. I asked where was he?. He says he was at Madam Di’s. This surprised me as why would a proprietor of an up market restaurant have any interest in a Street Kid. ……. Harry said she runs a school for Street Kids teaching English and Mathematics.

Just to round this off I should tell you that the deal that OTC negotiated with the Vietnamese cost the Vietnamese nothing except the commitment to route their traffic through Australia for five years. By virtue of the peculiarities of International Communications Traffic Accounting this generated very substantial cash flows to Vietnam, and, needless to say, it was extremely profitable to OTC. And hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese refugees in Canada, USA, France, and of course Australia were able to talk to their families in Vietnam.

eLONG DISTANCE BLIND DATE VIA OTC

Introduction
I was talking to my Aerobics instructor a little while ago at the YMCA in Alice Springs and she told me of her story about finding her future husband (living in Canada) on the Internet. Happily, several years and a couple of kids later they are still together.
This made me think of my own experience in the area of long distance blind dating courtesy of OTC. It started in 1974 when I was doing a stint of field training at the Paddington Telephone exchange.

Paddington ARM Exchange
It was late February, 1974 and I had my field training orders to report to Jim Hulme on the Third floor at Paddington OTT. I was one of those trainees that got my Technical course over in the first two years so that the final two years were left over to field training and system courses.
I soon got into the swing of things learning the ropes as to what a trainee technician was supposed to do – apart from the obvious smoko and lunch boy duties. I learned that if I had someone to ring I could make long distance phone calls. As it happened my parents were overseas at that time – in England on a holiday. I had the phone number for the hotel they were staying at in London so I asked if I could make a call.

Calling England
I think the tech that helped me was a guy named Cliff Varcoe – I gave him the number and he dialled on an FDR tester then left me alone. The operator at the hotel answered and I asked if this was the Eaton House Hotel. Apparently I had the wrong hotel but in the next breath she exclaimed ‘ Your Australian aren’t you’ and so began what seemed like a long conversation.
The operator’s name was Eileen, an Irish girl living and working in London. I told her my name and then we exchanged phone numbers.

London calling
I had almost forgotten about the incident – although initially I did have some qualms about whether the ‘phone police’ would have me for making a ‘bodgie call’. One Saturday afternoon I was at home when a call came – my brother said it was somebody calling from England.

Long Distance Blind date
Eileen started calling on a regular basis – she was working as a night telephonist at a hotel so it wasn’t too hard to get the timing right. I couldn’t return the calls easily because I had moved on from the exchange but I did write regularly – I even sent her a photo of myself. Eileen was supposed to send one back of herself but never did get round to this.
I had been planning a trip overseas for a little while (it was supposed to be to the U.S) but eventually my focus turned to the U.K. It was now the middle of 1974 and decided to take the trip in early 1975 to ensure that it would fit in with the final year of my training program.
Interestingly Eileen’s wrong number was not the only one that occurred that year and lead me to a meeting with another woman courtesy of OTC.

Another Wrong Number
I had been sent to Operations branch – Head Office in early 1974 and sat next to a gentleman that I often thought was an interesting character (some might say other words) named Bill Breeze.
Bill had a frantic way of dialling on the PABX handset which eventually rubbed off on me – I happened to be using the Breeze method one day when (as often happened ) I got a wrong number. A young lady answered and it turned out to be George Maltby’s personal secretary.
I started up a conversation with her and she told me her name was Janice – we even met for coffee once where she told me she was engaged – we agreed to stay friends and I would see her at Christmas parties and other staff functions whenever I was based in town over the next few years.
Several years later we would even go out together for a while but that is a story for another time. Looking back I was probably lucky that I didn’t dial George Maltby direct.

The rest of 1974
The remainder of 1974 was a mixture of field training postings and courses. I was down to do a Satellite course with Roy Docherty and had various postings at Broadway and Paddington.
I can remember doing my time with Tony (buddy) Bertoni at Paddington in the back of ISTC listening to him talking about building his boat. I ended up with a group of apprentices making relay sets for the upgrade to the ARM exchange under the control of Bill Kay. One of the most interesting visits to Paddington that year happened after dark.

Television servicing course
At the start of 1974 I decided to do a night course on Television receiver servicing. The course was run over a year two nights per week – Thursday and Friday. There were several other OTC personnel on the course – one of them I recall was Carlo Vigiliante.
Often we would make a night of it after the lectures – particularly on Friday nights and I remember one night Carlo said he just had to duck back to work to pick up something. At that time Carlo worked on the first floor at Paddo in the ITMC.
It was very interesting see how Paddo ran after hours – the guys from the various floors contributed to a veritable banquet – I think I heard that they even had the only Chines Ju (Peter on the third floor) in OTC helping with the cooking effort – I don’t think it happened every week but I certainly thought it might be a good place to work when I finished my training.

The trip
In 1975 I went on my great adventure arriving in London in mid January. I still didn’t know what I Eileen looked like because she had not sent the promised photo. We agreed to meet in front of a Sports Store outside Liverpool St Station (I was coming in on a train from the Cross channel ferry).
I stood in front of that sports store for about two hours when I decided to walk around a little and found at least two other similar stores close by. Taking matters into my own hands I made my way to the address I had for her in Hammersmith. We had a tearful meeting on her front door and the rest was everything a young relatively inexperienced bloke could ask for – she was a little older than me (one of the original cougars) but it didn’t worry me in the least.

Going home
I had only scheduled a trip of about 5 weeks due to training commitments that were scheduled for the rest of 1975. In late February I was on the way back to Australia – it probably would have been the end of the story but we agreed to keep in touch – we even looked at the possibility of her emigrating or at least coming out for a holiday.
Meanwhile training had to go on which included several course including another satellite based course under Roy Docherty and longer field trips to Moree and Carnarvon.

Moree, Carnarvon and Ceduna
I was sitting in the tearoom at Moree Earth Station in early 1975 when the secretary came in and said I had a call from England. It was Eileen and she had found me before I had a chance to write and tell her my telephone number.
I talked to her for a while and later went back to the Pub I was staying at in town. The publican told me that one of her staff members (an English backpacker) had come up to her and asked where was “ London – Nothern NSW “ because he had a call for one of the guests from there.
This started a pattern that would continue for the rest of the year and into 1976 where I would be posted to places such as Carnarvon and Ceduna but Eileen would always manage to find me by phone.
Leo Mahoney was the king of Carnarvon (or should I say station manager) and his deputy was Stan Perry – my time over there corresponded with the sacking of Gough Whitlam which I recall was a hot topic of debate in the tearoom.
Late in 1975 I got a call from Barry Stockbridge who was the works supervisor at the time asking me whether I would be able to go to Ceduna for 6 months as leave relief for one of the technicians. I wasn’t too keen on the idea but eventually decided to go ending up there in early 1976.

London calling Ceduna
I hadn’t settled into work at the earth station very long when one morning I was called to the main control desk to take a phone call. Of course it was Eileen and we talked for a short while. It was later after I hung up that the technician manning the shift desk – Bob Pearson – told me something interesting.
To set the scene it needs to be remembered that although I was working at this state of the art Earth Station in Ceduna – the town itself was still using a manual exchange with magneto ringers on the telephones.
When Bob answered the phone and said that I would answer he heard several go aheads down the line as various operators linked up the call.

Back to Sydney
I eventually escaped to Sydney (6 months later) – away from the clutches of Austin Houseman and Kerry Adams. I returned to my original posting in Engineering branch and after doing a few courses ended up in Building services under Wal Donald.
I kept corresponding with Eileen for and she kept ringing – but after a while the calls gradually dropped off – I believe she eventually found someone closer to home and closer to her own age. However over the next few years I would occasionally get a call and I could tell it was international but the person would never speak.

Going 12,000 miles for it
I continued on my time in Building services for the next few years working on the redevelopment of Paddington and La Perouse. Eventually I was sent to Paddington in the late 70s where I initially worked under Dave Alder. Later I worked under Bill Dunne doing battery room jobs on the ground and second floors.
I looked back on that wonderful adventure that I had experienced because of a wrong number (courtesy of OTC). I was never a great one with the ladies and some of my mates would often say that they knew a bloke that
“ Had to go 12,000 miles for it”

From Kevin O’Brien

Attached is a bit of Trivia from Wiki for you from the past about a second life for Australia’s first Intercontinental Telephone Exchange.

After OTC installed & commissioned the Ericsson ARM, the British Post Office purchased the Paddo exchange from OTC. It was installed in Wood Street, London and was named the “Wood Street Relief unit”.

I visited Wood Street in 1971 and asked if I could see the old Paddo exchange. There it was the same switch I used  to work on in Sydney now “clacking” away on Atlantic circuits. To my surprise they had left the Australian labels on the test desk/rack key switches. I asked one of the guys working there at the time did he know the meaning of JTA and JFA.

He said he did not know what the letters stood for but he just  knew them as one way outgoing/ incoming junctions.

We all had a chuckle after I informed them that the abbreviations stood for Junction from Australia JFA and junction to Australia JTA.

I don’t know if they ever changed the labels to Junction from/to England???    (JFE’s and JTE’s)

Paddington Intercontinental Exchange