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THE WAY I SEE IT By NEVILLE WILLIAMS Some things are enough to make a grown man cry! An anecdote in a recent historical Bicentennial Review paper by Dr E. G. Bowen struck a familiar chord in the writer's memory and suggested the theme for this present article. Whether in the past or present electronic scene, certain situations stand out as sufficiently incredible and frustrating to make a grown man cry. In order to set the scene for the quote from Dr Bowen's paper, it is necessary to recall the situation in which radio engineers, amateurs and hobbyists found themselves in the immediate postwar period. During the war, production and supply of civilian radio equipment and components had been severely curtailed, amateur stations had been shut down and the size and circulation of technical magazines pegged, along with other publications, to conserve paper. But quite suddenly, after years of personal and national trauma, the conflict ended and all concerned had to about-face and begin to rebuild their lives around former or newly acquired interests. For radio enthusiasts, it meant getting involved afresh in practical audio-hifi, receivers, DX or amateur radio, test equipment and other allied activities. New parts were scarce and expensive but before long, all sorts of bits and pieces began to appear in newly established disposals stores, ranging from "junk" and oddments, through ever-useful valves, meters and crystals, to much coveted lab equipment and multi-band HF communications receivers. 14 SILICON CHIP Most of us soon collected plenty of the smaller items but the really desirable equipment proved very elusive or disconcertingly expensive. Nor did it help to be told that job lots had been "cornered" and "gone for a song" at the disposals auction or that a lot of it never even went under the hammer. There were also stories about huge quantities of surplus military stores being dumped into worked-out clay pits and buried by bulldozers. The stories may have grown more colourful in the telling but they were rendered credible by the fact that some disposals dealers simply ran out of space to store any further purchases, either indoors or out in the open. To hear such stories and to walk through such places really was enough to make a grown man cry; all that potentially useful equipment just sitting there in the rain! At a professional level That brings me to the paper "From Wartime Radar to Postwar Radio Astronomy in Australia" by Dr E. G. Bowen, CBE, FRS, Honorary Fellow, CSIRO Division of Radiophysics (published in the Jour- nal of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Australia, Vol.8, No.1, March 1988). It describes how the team that kept Australia abreast of radar developments during the war (Division of Radiophysics/CSIR) was re-allocated in 1946 to peacetime research by the then chairman of the CSIR, Sir David Rivett. Not surprisingly, interest turned to further study of the electrical noise that had been observed by radar teams in England and Australia, coming from the Sun and from outer space generally. Such research was to become the starting point for present-day radio astronomy. Although it initially lacked specialist expertise in astronomy, the CSIR team was highly skilled in electronic and radio research and engineering. It had laboratory facilities and a large inventory of state-of-the-art equipment and components accumulated during the wartime years magnetrons, klystrons, pulse-forming networks, pulse counting circuits and so on. But no research and engineering team seems ever to have enough reserve resources and this is where the agony began, which paralleled on a grand scale that of individual amateurs and enthusiasts, described above. Looking back on the period immediately following the Japanese surrender, Dr Bowen recalls: "A Jorge segment of the Pacific f1eet had assembled in Sydney Harbour prior to its returning to the USA; already in Sydney were gigantic stores of radar and communications equipment assembled for the Reach For The Tissues Taxpayers: last month, in these columns, reference was made to the exasperation of a taxpayer who was apparently the victim of a major computer crash in the Taxation Department. Instead of a receipt, he received a final demand for payment and notification that the supposedly overdue debt was now incrementing at so many dollars per week. But that was nothing compared to the dismay of a taxpayer in Beecroft, NSW, as noted in Column-8 of the Sydney Morning Herald, May 4: "A Beecroft reader was expecting a $70 tax refund this year but instead, received a debt notice for $231,142.60 with an additional charge of $889.01 a week for late payment. The taxable income on which the demand was calculated was nearly 10 times the reader's actual salary." Hifi promoters: according to the same newspaper on May 19, a billboard on the railway station at Bondi Junction, NSW, was currently carrying an advertisement final stages of the Pacific war. It was impractical to return much of this to the United States and orders were given to destroy the surplus. So, huge quantities of technical equipment, including whole aircraft, were loaded on the decks of aircraft carriers, taken a few miles outside Sydney heads and bulldosed into the Pacific". No mention is made of anyone shedding visible tears . but Dr Bowen does admit that "our friends in both the US and Australian services were disturbed by all this destruction". Presumably the aforesaid friends were still in sufficiently high places to be useful because they were able to quietly encourage the CSIR research team to salvage all they could lay our hands on. So, and again I quote: "After a frantic few weeks loading our own trucks at the dockside, we ended up with a cornucopia of invaluable equipment, often brand new and in the original crates. I seem to remember two large for Miranda Hifi which read: "Talking to us about hifi and video is like talking to Captain Cook about the first fleet". That's not very reassuring: by the time the first fleet set sail, Captain Cook was dead! Servicemen: for decades, radio and TV servicemen have been routinely checking sets with intermittent faults by letting them run for long periods at the far end of the test bench, hoping to catch them out in the act of "intermitting". As often as not, the sets don't cooperate. Checking through recent publicity material, I came across information about a couple of new Philips digital oscilloscopes, the PM 3320 and PM 3340 which, among other high-tech facilities, offer the so-called "Stop/save" feature. Both CROs can store a waveform for future reference and continue thereafter to monitor it for as long as required. If the signal varies from the stored reference by more than a specified amount, the aber- warehouses full of these things near Botany Bay, which we were to draw on for many years to come". Laws and regulations In relating the above, I am reminded of another set of circumstances which obtained about this same period. One arm of the Australian Government, the military, was busily off-loading its own mountain of surplus equipment, including HF and VHF transceivers; dealers were buying them cheaply and advertising them for sale; and enthusiasts were purchasing them in large numbers at what was still an attractive price. To that point it was perfectly legal and above board but ironically, it then became the responsibility of another arm of government, the Radio Branch of the PMG's Department, to ensure that the transmitter sections were not used by those who had purchased them unless they were: • Licensed amateur operators, in ration is digitally recorded for subsequent playback on demand. Some earlier Philips analog CROs included a similar "baby sit" feature but few servicemen could afford them. Sadly, at around $20,000 to $30,000 apiece, the new digital CROs are even further out of their reach! Maybe, as the cost of the technology reduces, they will become more affordable. TV viewers: speaking of Philips: don't get upset if and when you discover that the latest series of TV receivers from that illustrious company do not provide 3D viewing - despite the logo "STEREO VISION" prominently displayed on the front of a 4-page brochure recently to hand. The sets may offer "brilliant 4-speaker stereo sound", an FSQ (flat square screen) image, teletext, integrated remote control and provision for peripheral audio, video and computer equipment but the simple fact is that there is no earthly way that a 3D (stereo?) image can be successfully simulated from 2D photographic information. conformity with the technical requirements applicable to amateur stations, or; • Other individuals or groups, licensed for a particular class of service and conditional on the equipment ·conforming to the relevant technical specifications. While departmental officers accepted the task with an official stiff upper lip, more .than one of them confided to me that they resented having to police an unprecedented "pirate" situation that had been created by the government in the first place. It added to the resentment they already felt at having to resolve interference problems affecting radio (and later TV) reception without firm legal support. Any authority that they had rested on an insecure tangle of regulations, which were wide open to challenge by anyone not inclined to accept their intervention. I still remember the dismay of one departmental official who had AUGUST 1988 15 Many of these departmental edicts made very definite interference with personal liberty .. been told to "go jump" by a manufacturer whose high-powered RF industrial heating equipment was interfering with the department's own radio communications facilities. Since it wasn't a wireless transmitter within the meaning of the Act, the RF heating equipment in question was outside the officer's jurisdiction. If that's not enough to make a grown public servant cry, I don't know what is! Problems evident in 1933 ding act in 1920 adding the words 'and telephonic' after the word 'telegraphic' in the original act. Big deal! "Small though the addition was", continued Dr Louat, "it was all that officialdam needed. With the arrival of public broadcasting as a new public institution, batch after batch of regulations was issued. "These had the effect of limiting rights and imposing duties in a widening field, which thenceforth was to become a matter of personal moment to every citizen of the Commonwealth. Many of these departmental edicts made very definite interference with personal liberty .... "An Act was passed last year (1932) controlling stations and their programs. Except in this one respect, the regulations have been left as the only law on the matter". The ironic aspect of the above is that I have in my files a copy of an article from Wireless Weekly, July 24, 1933, page 11. It summarises an address at Mosman, NSW, by a young Frank Louat, who had just previously received his doctorate of law for a thesis dealing with the growth of bureaucracy in Australia. With the Postmaster-General, Mr After 80 long years Archdale Parkhill, in the audience, Despite these protestations and Dr Louat cited the field of radio . many more since, the original broadcasting as providing: "a Wireless Telegraphy Act was still remarkable instance of the way in being used as a basis for prosecuwhich the laws of the country are tions up to the end of 1985, when it being made for us by public depart- was finally superseded by the ments instead of Parliament". By Radiocommunications Act, 1983. way of explanation, he pointed out Retired radio inspectors must have felt forlorn indeed, to be greeted by that: "The present broadcasting law headlines like: "New Act gives Rl's almost entirely consists of regula- greater clout!" But while the new Radiocomtions made by ministers on the advice of officials. It imposes on the munications Act may have racitizens stringent obligations which tionalised some of the routine adthe people's elected represen- ministrative matters, there's still a tatives never even considered, let way to go in the overall management of the air waves, with Federal alone discussed.'' The statuary authority under Parliament in a bind over broadcast which all this had been done, accor- television. In a recent address to the ding to Dr Louat, was the Wireless Telegraphy Act, passed by the Com- Australian Telecommunications monwealth Parliament way back in Users' Group (ATUG) 1988 Con1905. Enacted at a time when ference in Melbourne, Senator wireless broadcasting was un- Evans (Minister for Transport and dreamed of, it consisted of ten sec- Communications) indicated the tions only and dealt mainly with possible need, after a series of policy reviews, for a new Act to wireless installations on ships. Belatedly, and "dimly aware that replace seven existing Acts and new doors were being opened by their associated regulations which the unresting hand of science", have a bearing on Australia's elecParliament passed a small amen- tronic communications. 16 SILICON CHIP Efforts to make the existing regulatory framework more rational, effective and cost efficient, he said, have made it apparent that "some (such) simplification will be necessary to ensure effective administration''. Networks or nondescripts? I may stand accused of oversimplification but as I see it, certain propositions in relation to television broadcasting are reasonably logical and supportable: (1). With present technology, the number of TV stations which can be accommodated in the available band space is limited. It is therefore a waste of time to rave on about "freeing up" the system to accommodate all-comers. (2). Experience seems to indicate that in the Australian context, five channels (ABC, SBS and three commercial), as in the major capitals, offer a reasonable choice of broadcast programs while at the same time being technically and commercially viable. (3). A smaller number of channels, as in provincial centres, provides an unacceptably limited choice of TV fare. There is little chance of any improvement in this situation other than by the introduction of networking, with local overheads reduced to a minimum. (4). The 7, 9 and 10 networks are already in a highly competitive situation by reason of their involvement in the major capital cities. What provincial viewers need is for that sort of competition to be extended into their particular area, hopefully with the injection of some local news and advertising. (5). Concern about networks controlling media other than their local TV outlet could readily be covered by the multi-media legislation currently under consideration. That's the way I see it. But thenI'm not obliged to look at the situation through polarised spectacles, as issued from time to time by the various political parties. ~