You possibly didn't notice the foto of Wyndham aeradio in one of them. That foto was of especial interest to me. In sept 1941 I was sent to WM and an old AWA chap Jimmy Twycross came up from Perth and we installed Wyndham Aeradio in a bare RAAF AOB (Advanced operational Base) hut in about 7 to 10 days working from daylight to dark 7 days a week. there was NO power on the aerodrome so all holes were by hand drill or brace and bit. all soldering was by blowlamp and a 8oz. copper bit and we installed a AWA C143A Bellini Tosi d/f including rigging the loops etc, a 2C2869 AWA rx which came from another station with the full AWA station, AS9 and a Delco charger on a concrete base which we poured. After getting the gear going and calibrating the D/F, Jimmy went south and left me to operate the stn and I remained there for nearly a year. So you can see that there were a lot of bits & pieces that I recognised in that foto. I noticed a tool kit on the wall which Jimmy Twy. never left me so that was an addition. The opr. had a cane chair - I bet that came from somebody's home when they were all evacuated to Perth waiting for the Japs. to arrive.. I had the straight backed chair which is in the background of the picture. This is on p.26 of "Nth. of Cap' so have a look at it when I send it back.
Delighted to hear of your UK trip. etc
Cheers Rod T
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Anyway, I heard your callsign and the mention of the Montoro, so pricked up my ears as I was with AWA Marine for a while back in 1939.
I looked up GAE in the callbook and when I saw your name, had an idea that I had seen it before so consulted my 1939 list and there you were.
I thought that you would apprreciate a copy of the list, so herewith, with my compliments.
Looking down the list, most likely a lot are silent keys; but some I know to be; Dudley Ogg, Bill Swanson, Les Dobleday, Geo. Fenton Bill Harris, and Bill Sim. Others, such as Stan Franks, Jack Faulkner, Cec Bardwell, Frank Brandon, bob Oakley, and Marc. Savage, I have hrd of within the last ten years or so.
I was wondering if you knew Jack Faulkner. He now VK2AZP and participates in a DCA nNet on 7090 kHz at 0900 local Monday and Friday. It is called the "EC Brown Aviation Net" after Ernie Brown VK2AJ, who diligently conducted the net with very few omissions. Ernie died last year.
Jack was in Marine (as you will seee from the list) that is why I thought your paths may have crossed, and I was at Groote Eylandt in Aeradio when Jack was at Daly Waters back in 1940 - 42. So, if you happen to know him, you can contact him there. He is now well over 80 (we all must abe close to that if not over!!!) and quite active in ham radio and still getting around by car.
So 73 for now and I trust that the list will bring back some memories for you.
de
Rod Torrington
16 MAR 1994
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I note that you were at the Marconi School two years before me. I spend six months there from July 1938 to the December '38. the instructors at this time were Palmer (I think he was the OIC) Marwick, Gray (ex Morinda) and John Willmot. Never hrd of what happened to Palmer but during the War Marwick went onto the Tanda (the ship I was on) and with bill Harris (my No.1 on the Tanda) the Tanda was torpedoed in the Indian ocean and they together with a lot of other was lost. "Morinda" Gray became a ham after the war and I worked him a few times but he passed on a long time ago - must be 15 years. John Wilmot left the school about 1939 and became a radio op. with Qantas on the flying boats and stayed with Qantas the rest of his life to retiring age I think. In Q. they retired at 60 and John went into a business at Bathurst. I see now that he is in the Moss Vale/Mittagong area His call is 2AJX.
In the Sept. 38 I got my 2nd Class Cert. and did the 1st Class in the December 1938. I also did the AWA Technician's exam and the 20 wpm Sounder that AWA wanted and the touch typing which I DON'T use now hi hi. So by the middle of Dec. 1938 i was thru my money and looking for a job. I can't recall whether I tried Red Funnel but I think I did and also Cam's and on the evening of 31st. December I steamed out of Sydney Heads pointing east!!!
This was the first time that I had ever been outside Sydney Heads so sure was an experience for me. As you can imagine, I was very interested to hear that Red Funnel was still fishing in wartime. From what I have read most of Cams trawlers were grabbed by the Navy for Auxilliary minesweepers and the one that I experienced, the Olive Cam was grabbed within days of Sept. 3rd. I can sure appreciate that sitting out in the Tasman with all lites on would not be toogood in wartime. Yes, I know what you mean by the liteson. On the Olive there were bunks around the sides of the mess room (the only common room on the ship) where all the eating took place and sitting around waiting for the nets to be pulled. The lite was on day and nite and there were chaps talking or eating there most of the time so one came accustomed to trying to sleep under all conditions. I, fortunately, only did the one trip about 12 days and when we got back the good news from AWA that I was to go on the Tanda. I grabbed another chap who was at Marconi with me (Ray Moyes, I think he finished up at OTC) and took him down to introduce him to Cam's.
After the Tanda which went all ports to Yokahama, I was on the Bidelia One of John Burke's all ports to Cairns. When I got back to SY, the Marine Supt. wanted to see me (I thought, I know what this is for, as up near Cairns another chap from class was on a ship to Singapore and we had a bit of a yarn on about 705 metres. Think Marine Supt was Hugo Phillips, the Supt. Anyway, it wasn't that. AWA wanted to know if I was interested in transferring to Aeradio to Karumba or Groote Eylandt. Well, I was very happy at sea but as ;you know it wasn't easy to get a shore job in operating in those days so I decided to come ashore and go to Groote Eylandt. I had only been at sea a matter of about 4 to 5 months. So my marine life was very short.
At Groote, the flying boat base had been put in for the Qantas Flying boat service to Darwin and beyond and while there were only two services a week each way, we used to work the KLM aircraft between cloncurry & Darwin plus other services in that area. Also there was a lot of whr reports passed fronm DN Townsville. And we also handled any telegrams to and from GE to the mainland. I found the whole job and place quite interewting and was there for 2-1/2 years before going to Darwin in July '41. In sept. 41 was sent to Wyndham to establish an aeradio station in a RAAF hut on the aerodrome and stayed on there for nearly 12 months as the opr.
That was a most interesting place in those days. Whilst I was there, all the civilian population of the town was sent south as well as from the adjoining cattle stations and we experienced three raids from the Japs.
On looking over the end of that last page, I see I should have explained that I went to GE as an AWA employee. AWA in 1937 got a contract from the Defence Dept. to deisgn, install and operate about 15 aeradio stns. Then DCA (Dept of Civil Aviation) gradually took these ofer from the end of 1939 to middle of 1941. So in Sept 39 (just after the war broke out) I became a " Commonwealth public servant". Karumba was taken over at the same time. So my activities at DN and GE were for DCA and in fact I stopped with DCA for the rest of my working life in a variety of jobs all in radio or electronics.
After WM, I was transferred to Essendon Aeradio and within about 4 weeks, I was offered a transfer to the "new" 33 mhz Radio Range area. This was a track quidance system for aircraft and the first and only one in the world - a real orphan. However, it was the prime nav. aid in VK from 1939 to 1955 and when all the other countries were using low freq aids this was on VHF (at that time) it was a new system for me wut with a bit of experience mastered it OK and I later installed a number of systems and in fact used to start at Brisbane once a year and work my was down the Melbourne and across to the West servicing all the instlns.
Then in 1949, I got onto the aircraft radio installation side as an aircraft surveyor (radio) in Head Office. This position covered all aspects of the radio in a/c including the examination of the mtce engineers. As part of this job I used to do all the radio instln and mtce overseeing for the DCA a/c fleet which at that stage numbered over 20.
In 1962, DCA decided to create a separate section to handle all this work of the Departmental a/c as it was curring into the work of the surveyors. So I decided to transfer to the FLYING UNIT as it was called. However, at this stime i could see that the Public Service Board in Canberra were getting touchy on people acting as engineers when they didn't have the academic qualifications, and I could see that the day would come when acting engineers were not acceptable. So I did a part time courst at the RMIT. This took me 5 years but got the qualifications admitting to the Inst. of Engineers (Aust) and the Board was happy for me to remain with the Flying Unit.
As well as the normal mtce and instln jobs we were also involved in writing specs. for new a/c and then when the decision of the purchase was accepted by management there was the acceptance of the a/c at the manufactures. DCA brought a/c in England, america and the last was three F-28 a/c from Holland so I got about dozen trips to these places to do inspections and negotiations with the manufacturer and the final acceptance of the a/c before the money was paid over.
The delivery of the last f-28 a/c was very close to my 60th birthday and I had decided many years ago to get out at 60 so it was a good time to go. I was with DCA for 38 years (I think it was) and I must say I found them all very interesting.
So there you are Fred that is what occupied my time!!!
Note that you know Laurie Meek. When I transferred from marine to aeradio AWA sent me to Mascot for abt ten days to learn aeradio communications etc (plus how Strowger - bimotional - switch operated, as this was the heart of the operation of the J2876 Tx that AWA designed for DCA and was in most aeradio stns) At the AWA section of the Qantas hangar at Mascot was Laurie. He had come ashore about 6 - 9 months earlier. Then when I was an a/c surveyor, I used to tour VK and P29 and came across Laurie at such places at Goroka and later Brisbase. then about the time I retired, my wife & I was walking one evening at Mermaid Beach Qld. and came face to face with L. & his wife out for an evening walk. he was living at Berowra at that time and was in the AWA H/O.
(Gee, this letter is getting longer that I expected Hi Hi)
We sort of kept in touch and in the late '70's and 80's we used to go to Surfers every few years for holidays and had the pleasure of visiting Laurie and Bess on nearly all occasions. Also at that time, there was an Aviation Net on 20m. every Sunday and as the participants were AWA chaps from the AWA aviation Service and I knew them all I used to participate in the net. Laurie was a regular. Well that net fell apart when they moved it to a moday (With all the contests, Sunday was not a good day on 20 m at 2300Z - to much qrm. Then later it was moved to 7 mhz but Laurie was always a participant whele he was at Sybil St.
I can't recall when I first met George 2GX. But it would have been when he transferred to AWA Aviation Service. I must ask him sometime when that was but it was sure manyu years ago. We have a sked once month ago. We have a sked once a month.
You mention that you were with Radio Corp in Sydney. I never knew that Radio Corp had a place in Sydney. I grew up in Sydney and got my ham licence in 1935 and was 2TJ . Accordingly, from '35 to '39 when I left to go to Groote I knew the radio trade in VIS quite well. I recall a firm in York St (maybe it was called Weldon Radio) that sold components made by radio corp in VIM. In fact they sold resistors capacitors, coils etc etc. under the name of SAXON and another name which escapes me at present. The finish of the products was very amateurish but they worked well. I recall at one stage it got around the radio coub (Zero Beat Radio Club) that Saxon 8"dynamic speakers (field coil 2500 ohms) were going for 8 shillings. I got one box and found a "SAXON MICA FIXED CONDENSER .001 MADE IN AUSTRALIA ECLIPSE RADIO PTY LET MELBOURNE" There are a couple of other words in very fine print but that has been oblitereted by wear and time !!! Yes, Eclipse was the other name that I was trying to think of. The capacitor is 3-1/2 cm by 3 cm, about 5mm thick with a large eyed terminal both ends and the metal foldovercase has an eyed lug for mounting. You may recall them. Maybe Radio Corp. came to VIS during wartime for the defence force work. I recall that they made a few small battery transceivers (transmitters-receivers)and also made some large power supplies for the RAAF to operate the aircraft tx type TA-2J (Made by Bendix) on land. These power units required 100 v. HT plus 24v. In the a/c the 1kv was p[roduced from a dynamotor operating from thje a/c 28v supply.
Well Fred, this will keep you occupied for sometime and I hope that you find some interest in my ramblings.
So 73 for now,
de
Rod Torrington
I first met Roger (Rod) Torrington in 1943. I had been sent by AWA to Essendon Aerodrome to work on aircraft radio maintenance, and I was given accommodation at Essendon Hotel. Here I shared a room with Roger. He also was working at Essendon. He was with the Department of Civil Aviation (DCA).
I subsequently learned that Roger had spent five months at sea as a Radio Officer when his employer, AWA, transferred him from Marine to Aeradio and sent him to Groote Eylandt. Here he was responsible for maintaining radio contact with Qantas and KLM flying boats. He was there for 2-1/2 years when he was transferred to Wyndham. This was in September, 1941. He was there for twelve months and survived three Jap air raids.
DCA had taken over control of the Aeradio stations from AWA by mid 1941 and so DCA became Roger's employer.
An aircraft guidance system operating on 33 MHz had been installed by DCA. This system was in operation in Australia from 1939 until 1955. Roger was responsible for installing some of the transmitters.
In 1949, he was working in DCA head office (Melbourne). One of his tasks was the examination of aircraft radio maintenance engineers. he had about a dozen trips overseas to England, Holland, and the USA in connection with aircraft which DCA had bought. He was with DCA for 38 years.
Submitted by George Craggs.
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