Radio Technical Officers
Foreword
Acknowledgements
Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1: The Early Years
Chapter 2: The Training School
Chapter 3: Equipment Installation Records
Chapter 4: The 'Techs' in Antarctica
Chapter 5: The 'Techs' Tell Their Stories
Trevor Donald Tells It All; Life in the Bureau from 1947 to 1989
Ray Clarke Looks Back
Some Memories from Ralph Bulloch
Peter Copland Works in Meteorological Electronics
Some Titbits from Dave Grainger
A Very Modest Tale from Alf Svensson
Adrian Porter Pulls No Punches
Jack Tait Recalls
Some Stories by Colourful Freddie Soutter
Some Snippets from Noel Barrett
Stephen Courbêt Has His Penny Wworth
And a Flyspeck or Two from Lenny Dawson
Some Interesting Reminiscences from Jannes Keuken
Brief Stories from Phil Black
From Gloria West, Wife of the Late Bob West
The Life and Bureau Times of Graham Linnett
Tales Out of School from Bill Hite
Peter Copland on Cyclone Tracy
Peter Broughton Tells the Story of Maralinga
Appendix 1: 'Techs' Roll Call
Appendix 2: Trainee Intakes
Appendix 3: 'Techs' Who Have Served in the Antarctic Region
Appendix 4: Summary of Major Installation Projects
Appendix 5: Summary of Major Equipment Variously Installed at Sites and Maintained by Radio Technical Officers
Index
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Trevor Donald Tells It All; Life in the Bureau from 1947 to 1989 (continued)
When we set up the observing station at Vanikoro, we also visited a remote native community on the island of Tikopea. This small island community had restricted access to visitors; no missionaries or island traders were permitted. These people still retained their shark gods, eel gods and other such deities. In fact, the only reason we were there was to off-load about 30tonnes of rice to help alleviate a food shortage on the Island. We spent about five days there; very interesting. Apparently a severe storm had washed out the gardens. The people were suffering quite badly and some had committed suicide.Margaret Meade, the well known American anthropologist, lived with these people in the 1930s, studied their culture and wrote a book called We the Tikopeans. In 1952 a Canadian anthropologist, Jim Spillius, obtained permission from the Solomon Islands Protectorate Government to live with the Tikopeans to do an update on Margaret Meade's original field work. He got approval and before leaving Honiara arranged to make periodic radio contact via the meteorological network. Jim put in a successful year on the Island and it was on his advice that the rice was shipped in to help alleviate the situation.
Administration of the Solomon Islands was carried out by the British Colonial Service. The meteorological service in the Solomons, and for that matter in the New Hebrides (Vanuatu), was carried out by the Bureau on behalf of the South Pacific Air Transport Council which had its headquarters in Fiji and consisted of four member Governments.
Towards the end of 1952 I was allocated the amateur radio call sign VR4AC by the Post and Telegraph Department. I ran a modest 20 watt CW (continuous wave) on 20 metres. During 1952 I also passed departmental examinations in Met 1A (Theory) and Met 1B (Practice).
We were allocated a time slot on radio VQJ to handle the synoptic observations from our stations. At five minutes past the synoptic hour the duty Observer would take over the radio watch and clear the incoming reports.
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