Communications 1911-1985
As told to Annie Rushton by Doug Twigg, 23 February 1996
Doug Twigg, the ANARE Radio Supervisor, wintered in Antarctica three times with ANARE (1956, 1958 and 1978) and has made numerous summer trips to the continent between 1956 and 1992. He was the Senior Radio Technical Officer at the Antarctic Division Head Office in Melbourne, and for while in Kingston, Tasmania
Doug, I read not very long ago that the communications system that Douglas Mawson introduced was really still basically in use until the introduction of satellite communications in the eighties. Can you explain what sort of communications were used in Mawson's time?
Well, for Mawson's first expedition, from 1911 to 1914, the "wireless" equipment was supplied by the pre-runners of AWA. The equipment was made in Germany, I think by Telefunken.
The expedition planned to build three radio stations – one on Macquarie Island, one at Cape Denison, Commonwealth Bay, Adelie Land, and I think that there was meant to be a receiving set for the Western Party at Queen Mary Land.
The equipment operated in the Very Low Frequency (VLF) bands, in the 3000 metre band, about 100 kilohertz in today's terminology. The mode of operation was by the use of quench-gap or spark transmissions which used a fair bit of power, I think about 1 kilowatt. However, the effective range of the equipment was not very great. To bridge the distance from Adelie Land to Australia, Mawson had to install a relay station on Macquarie Island. (It should be noted that this was the first time that a radio station was to be installed and operated by anyone in Antarctica. Walter Hannam, the radio operator at Commonwealth Bay, later went on to found the Wireless Institute of Australia.)
Did Mawson use the Morse Code?
Yes. All radio communications used Morse Code telegraphy in those days, there was no voice or other modes as we know today. Telegrams were sent and received, usually weather information, also other telegrams both official and private. Macquarie Island got on the air first, the radio station was quickly assembled soon after the arrival of the expedition. They were able to communicate back to Australia and New Zealand and various ships around the coast. But it took a long time before the Commonwealth Bay installation got on the air.
The base was subjected by almost continuous hurricane force winds and extremely low temperatures, which made the erection of the radio masts and aerials very difficult and hazardous. The party spent about 8 or 9 months of that first year (1912) trying to get their antenna up. They only succeeded to raise the masts to 90 feet, instead of the required height of 120 feet, they found that this was insufficient to make good radio contact with Macquarie Island. Apparently, Macquarie did hear their calls faintly a few times, but Commonwealth Bay did not hear anything from Macquarie. However tragedy struck in August or September when the masts and antenna blew down in a particularly severe blizzard only a month after they were finally erected.
Dr Mawson decided then to stop all the further efforts of getting on the air as they had other important things to do for the oncoming summer activities. So nothing more was done with the wireless, until the arrival of the relief ship in January 1913.
The relief party soon erected the masts and antenna and serviced the wireless equipment, and good radio contact was soon made with Macquarie Island.
About this time Dr Mawson had not returned to base after his journey, and the ship was anxious to depart to relieve the Western Party in Queen Mary Land. As it turned out Dr Mawson was having a difficult time getting home; he was alone, after losing his two companions. As the ship could not wait any longer it had to leave. Dr Mawson appeared on the hill behind the base to see the ship in the distance.
When he arrived back at base he immediately radioed for the ship to return and pick up all the party, but after battling bad weather it could not make it back, so reluctantly sailed away and left the shore party to spend another winter there (1913). During that second winter the Commonwealth Bay radio station operated quite successfully, busily sending and receiving radio telegrams throughout the year.
They received all sorts of information when they first got on the air. For example, they learned that Captain Scott had reached the Pole that very summer, only to be beaten there by Amundsen. At the end of that second winter the relief ship returned a third time, and picked up the party for return home. The radio station was dismantled and returned to Australia.
I believe that there are still some remains though, the aerials are still there.
Yes, that's right, there are still some remnants of the masts lying around the hut at Commonwealth Bay, and at Macquarie Island there are some remnants there too. I was there first in 1956 and I found the mast footings up on Wireless Hill, also an old rusty generator lying about and rigging equipment, you know, turnbuckles and shackles, things like that.
I think that most of that has gone.
Yes, probably most would be nearly rusted away, they were in a bad state, even in '56. But there is still clear evidence of the mast bases there today.
So was Macquarie Island radio station used at all between Mawson going back and the ANARE first setting up in Macquarie?
No, not by the AAE. But after the second winter (1913) a party of Australian Weather Bureau people took over the station at Macquarie Island, that was about 1914. They operated the radio station to send weather information back to Australia.
This was after Commonwealth Bay had closed down. But apparently, the story goes, this party didn't reach home again. The First World War had just started then and I think that they then closed the station down and the party was picked up but didn't make it back to Australia, died at sea apparently.
I might be a little out on this but I believe that they didn't survive. So that was the end of communications from Australian expeditions from about that time.
Until 1947?
Yes. Before then though there were other expeditions that went South but didn't run radio stations to my knowledge, except perhaps by USA Admiral Byrd. Most ships were equipped with radio though, but many "private" expeditions did not maintain any communications back to their home lands during their trips. As far as I know, radio communications did not come back into expedition life until after the Second World War, when ANARE was one of the first ones back down there.
I think that the British had begun setting up stations in the Antarctic Peninsula area. Then Heard and Macquarie Islands were set up by Australia, including radio stations with full-time radio staff. The purpose of these was to maintain a link back to Head Office in Australia. These were built in the Summer of '47/'48.
So, has the actual means of communication changed very much or did they more or less continue on?
They still used Morse Code telegraphy, but on a different frequency band.
In the old days, Dr Mawson and his expeditions were using the Very Low Frequency (VLF) band. After the Second World War long distance communications were using the High Frequency (HF) bands.
What is the difference between HF and VLF?
The Very Low Frequency bands didn't propagate using the ionosphere, they were purely ground wave, and they had to use much higher power as possible to push the signal over the horizon.
So there would be a lot more problems?
There were a lot more problems with it. It was very noisy, and of course, the equipment in those days was not particularly sophisticated and wasn't as sensitive as we know it today.
And then after the Second World War High Frequency communications were used - this is in the short-wave band, as you know it on your short-wave radios. High Frequencies are propagated by bouncing them from an ionised layer in the upper atmosphere, called the ionosphere.
How high would that be?
About 300 kilometres. The signals were bounced off this layer and back to ground again, and consequently they were able to transmitted long distances that way.
They might have bounced even twice before they reached the destinations that they were aiming at. So that was a different idea. We didn't need so much power, and the installations were much smaller than the old Low Frequency ones.
So when Mawson base was established in '54, what happened with communications then? Were we still using the same sort of High Frequencies as in '47?
Yes, the High Frequency (HF) bands were still being used, as they still are to some extent.
Are they still used today?
Yes, HF hasn't gone. We've stopped using it as our main band to the Antarctic now with the introduction of ANARESAT, but HF is still used for remote field parties inland from the stations, also for aircraft out of VHF range.
However, satellites have replaced most ANARE radio communications these days. We still use HF to communicate with aircraft flying between stations.
And when Mawson Station was established in 1954, did it have to relay through Macquarie Island?
No. They transmitted directly to Perth Radio, using Morse Code. Perth Radio was their main link back to Australia until we started to increase the capacity of the radio circuits by the introduction of teleprinters.
When would that have been?
About 1960, or 1962. We used to relay through Wilkes, later Casey, who then completed the link to Sydney Radio.
So did that mark the end of the use of Morse Code?
It was the start of the finish. Morse Code was used a lot - even after the teleprinters were introduced - on other links, but was being phased out on the link to Australia.
We still used Morse Code to ships and sometimes when communicating with field parties. Voice began about that time too, we were able to make radio telephone calls.
That's the famous "radphone" is it?
Yes. There are some terrible tales about that ! You know, we were at the mercy of the ionosphere - you'd get fade-outs and blackouts and noise. And when a blizzard was around there was drift snow static similar to a dust storm as we know it in Australia, which would interfere with reception terribly.
You'd be trying to maintain a conversation on the radio telephone and people were only getting a fraction of what you were trying to tell them, and vice versa, so it was very frustrating. We wondered whether we were wise putting it in at the first place, as perhaps it was more of a frustration than of real use.
However, we persevered with it and sometimes you'd have some fabulous phone calls, but a lot of the time the connections were only very mediocre.
So what technology were you actually adopting? Where else had it been used in Australia?Oh, radio phone was being used in Australia a lot about that time - you know, the Flying Doctor Service, ships at sea and other services around Australia using High Frequency communications.
The mode of voice communications around that time was changing from the old amplitude modulation system to single-sideband - I'm sorry to throw these at you - but single sideband mode of voice communication was a great leap forward on the HF bands.
What did that mean in practical terms?
Well, it meant that you could concentrate your voice using less of the radio spectrum and it was able to use more power in the modulation process, and it was able to cut through noisy reception a lot better than amplitude modulation, which was a double sideband system.
So it used a narrow band which would filter out a lot of noise, and of course, the voice power was greatly increased.
Was this still in the sixties?
Yes. That's when we got the "radphone" started, and it was used until the satellite services began in the late eighties. The satellite was a completely new ball game when it was introduced.
Tell me about the difference that satellite made?
On the HF system we could only transmit telexes about 60 words a minute, but when the satellite was introduced transmission speed of telexes went up to about 300 words a minute, or more. Then people also began to use the facsimile - sending messages by fax, as we do today.
So is this the late-eighties we're talking about?
Yes. But we also had a facsimile system which we introduced back in the sixties, it was a picture gram system, as used mainly by the newspapers.
With this equipment on the stations, we could transmit a group photograph or some scientific records.
It was installed mainly for the medical people and scientists so that they could transmit a piece of data or information pictorially. You would first take a photograph of what you want to send and then you'd prepare it as a black and white print.
This would then be placed in the facsimile machine for transmission. The received signal was fed into another facsimile machine which made a photographic copy of the signal, this was now a picture gram. It was great technology at that time.
For example, the doctor on the station could take an x-ray, develop a black & white print, put it on the facsimile machine and transmit it to the Polar Medicine SMO at the Antarctic Division for them to assess, they may even call in a specialist.
Appropriate instructions or advice would then be sent back to the doctor at the station.
Now was all this done on the HF bands?
Yes. But you had to have good radio conditions, similar to those for voice conditions to do it.
Coming back to "radphone" in the early days, what was it usually used for ? Was it used for transmitting data or was it used for personal use ?
Both at first. The Met people used to track storm fronts and "lows" in the Southern Ocean and pass this data by voice to Melbourne every day. The radphone session would then be used for private phone calls.
Was it expensive?
Yes, I think it was about $2 a minute at that time. It wasn't cheap.
Some of the expeditioners used to run up pretty big bills at that rate. The "radphone" system was developed originally for the coastal shipping. It was then extended down to the Antarctic.
How were things like meteorological data transmitted?
That was transmitted as data on a teleprinter. The weather man would write out his weather telegram - it would be data of a weather observation - then drop it into the radio room, where the radio operator would type it up on his teleprinter and then transmit it back to Australia, also to other stations who wanted it.
And how long did the teleprinter exist for?
It was in use until the satellite system came in the late-eighties.
Morse code was used before the advent of teleprinters. AAD photograph (4215-C6)And it was through using the teleprinter system that we developed the "WYSSA". "WYSSA" is local ANARE jargon for a private telegram. They were called that back in the Heard Island days, before we settled Mawson in 1954. However, "WYSSA's" continued to be sent by teleprinters and then by satellite.
So did the first "WYSSAs" start using Morse Code?
Yes, initially, this was the only communications that the expeditioners had then, until the "radphone" came along, but they still continued sending "WYSSAs".
They'd be cheaper, I guess, than the "radphone", yes. Each expeditioner got so many free words a month, I think it was 175 free words a month. And if you exceeded that you paid about five cents a word.
This allocation was divided up, the expeditioner could use 100 of those and his next-of-kin could use 75, that is how it was supposed to have been divided up.
And then there was the code book, an adaptation of Bentleigh's Telegraphic Codes. A code word would be a substitute for commonly used phrases or sentences. It was an economic means to reduce the number of words in a telegram, both for the expeditioner and for the radio operator who had to transmit it letter-by-letter by Morse Code.
You could send a lot of words, a lot of conversation, by using about 10 code words, which would result in about half a page of letter when you decoded the "WYSSA".
Some of the cleverer expeditioners used to "doctor" the code a bit, they would develop their own private meanings to the code words with their next-of-kin.
They might change the meaning for a code word about elephant seals or the sea ice, but in fact they were really talking with their own private code.
You got to know many of the commonly used code words without having to look them up in the code book. It was used for many years.
Going back to the "radphones" – I believe it was a real adventure.
It wasn't an easy system to use. You would go in to make your phone call, hoping that the radio conditions were good.
The radio operators on each end of the circuit would be testing it for commercial quality, finally they would say; "Oh yes, it sounds ok enough to make a phone call now". Then they put the party on the line and see how they'd go. It was hit-or-miss a little bit.
So, when your next-of-kin back in Australia got a call did it come through the telephone?
Yes, that's right. To make a phone call the expeditioner would come along to the radio room and book his call. They had a book on the counter there, and you'd just write in required phone number, the person you want to speak to and at what time you wanted the call.
Then at the appropriate time turn up for the phone call. By this time the radio operator had made the booking with Sydney Radio, who then put you through to the International Telephone Exchange in Sydney.
The International Operator would telephone the person being called in Australia: "Is that number 'so and so' ?" "Yes". Could we have Mrs Jones please ?" It was a person-to-person arrangement. When she came on the phone they then connected her through to the caller in Antarctica, and the phone call would proceed.
Was there much privacy?
Oh, no. Very little privacy. Anybody with a short-wave radio receiver could listen in. The whole world could be listening to you, not only other expeditioners at the station. So it was definitely not private.
So it was not for the "deep and meaningfuls" at the time?
Oh, no, no, definitely not.
Do you think that the communication developments impacted a great deal on the science and the field programs?
Yes. A lot of the scientists at the stations had supervisors back in Australia.
These supervisors were receiving regular scientific data messages from the stations. If they detected something wrong in the data the supervisor could then communicate with the scientist by "radphone" to discuss the anomaly, or suggest changes to the methods or modifications to the equipment.
Every day streams of data messages were being transmitted. Take cosmic ray physicists, for instance, they had a lot of data pouring from their equipment and being sent back to Hobart University, in a telex. Almost every day there'd be a query about some event that they had picked up from the data being monitored by the supervisor.
People were able to maintain continuity of good data coming back out of the Antarctic to the program managers.
And what about field work? Did field programs actually change a bit as the communications increased?
I don't think so. Radio communications didn't really change much, except the modes changed from the old Morse Code to voice, and much later to some form of digital system, such as telex (SITOR), and recently satellite (INMARSAT)
Everything is much more automatic in the transmission of data now.
People in the field can now type up a telegram and put it into the system. At the appropriate time they only have to press the "go" button and it automatically transmitted.
What was so good about INMARSAT?
INMARSAT was developed for ships. It is a separate world-wide system - a galaxy of satellites is the modern term – allowing ships to communicate around the world by this means. This was extended down to the ANARE stations back in the mid-eighties.
The first installations was at Mawson in 1984, then Casey, Davis and Macquarie Island on the system the following year. It proved an immediate success.
Now INMARSAT could do two things – it could transmit data using the keyboard, and people could also make telephone calls. That was the start of the satellite system. But it was expensive to use, about $10 a minute.
INMARSAT remains at the stations today as a backup facility.
Doug, you've really seen an incredible change in communications over the years.
Yes, I've seen a few changes, from Morse to satellites, been through the whole spectrum!!
What about the results of better communications – do you think that the loss of isolation that was so characteristic of the early days in the Antarctic is a good thing?
Well, now, that is an interesting one. I remember in the early days, Phil Law might dispute me on this, the introduction of radio telephone was 'resisted' a little bit.
Apart from the cost of providing it, it was beyond the Budget means at that time. It was thought that the men would be happier if they were completely cut off. If you haven't got day-to-day contact with your families at home you won't be worrying about the incidentals, whether the car is running well, or the cat's got kittens and little Johnny has broken his wrist.
And when you're cut off like that and you've only got short telegrams (WYSSAs) coming in every so often, the belief was that the men were much more settled.
Now, I think that we've learnt since those days, that we're adult enough to cope with these outside situations, the men and women need to know more of what is happening at home, even though they cannot be of much help from their present location if a situation at home does occur.
You've experienced living there being cut off, and do you think you worried less?
Well, like most of the others, I liked to know what was going on at home. However, it didn't worry me much if I couldn't make a phone call every other day.
I suppose you never considered it?
No. It wasn't there so I never missed it.
But, you know, my wife and I had an arrangement, I used to send a telegram at the weekend and she'd send a reply before the next weekend. We had a weekly arrangement, but it was only just brief notes about what was going on. But some of the other men worried a little bit more about their families, a bit more than I did. I was fortunate that my family relationship was good and I didn't have to be concerned about the day-to-day things around the home. With all the trips I did, I was very lucky to be able to make these journeys and expeditions.
Just digressing a bit, the ham radio has been used for many years down south. Can you tell me about that?
Ham radio was used a lot in those early years by expeditioners – and not only as a hobby, which was the main reason that the expeditioner would have it, but occasionally he would link up with a ham back in Australia, such as a neighbour of his next-of-kin. Occasionally he would get this ham in Australia to arrange for his next-of-kin to come around and talk with him over the ham radio.
So that was by voice?
Yes, and some of those contacts were excellent quality. It depended on the ham radio installation in the neighbourhood, I guess. Some of them were fairly sophisticated and others were just so-so.
So if they could have such highly sophisticated ham radio why couldn't they use something like that on official levels?
Well, the Hams used a different mode of operations, called simplex, that is, transmitting one-way alternatively between both parties and saying 'over' before handing over to the other party – quite a laborious process.
ANARE had to use duplex, two-way transmissions through the official channels, which worked very well when conditions were good. Anyway, our primary function was to maintain a radio-telegram service, to pass administrative and scientific data. It all depended on the condition of the ionosphere at the time.
Would that have been more reliable?
Yes, much more reliable. The operations were much more professional, or commercial, at the Australian terminal as well in the Antarctic.
The Ham radio operator was only available when he was home, and if he was at work he couldn't use his ham radio, even though he was using a similar transmission modes as the official channels. The required route to Australia was by HF through the Overseas Telecommunications Commission (OTC) who had the charter for Australia's overseas communications links.
Of course. Do you know any good stories about ham radio operators?
I'm not to good on recalling stories, but it was a darn good hobby. I used to operate a ham station. In fact, I've still got one. And when I was down south I used to be quite active. It was like treating your job as your hobby I suppose.
I used to like talking around the world – not only back to Australia but also to other countries.
And I had a great leaning to talking to other Antarctic expeditioners, that's what I used to enjoy a lot. You'd get an expedition over the other side of Antarctica and link up with them and talk to them about what they were doing, and we'd compare notes, that used to be a buzz for me.
And were you able to do that fairly often?
Yes, quite often. Once you linked up with them you'd make a regular arrangement , "Oh, well, we'll see you next week, or next month", or whatever, and do it on a regular basis.
And not only talk with yourselves but bring in some other expeditioners on both ends, you know, it might be scientists or mechanics or electricians – or whoever. They would come along and they would compare notes. That was good. We even used to play chess on the ham radio!
Really?
Yes, particularly with the New Zealanders, also the French and Russians.
Well, that opens up whole new dimension to international co-operation. What would you see as being the best part of the new "communication revolution"?
I feel that the introduction of the satellite was amazing – it just all happened almost overnight.
We started our first satellite service in the mid-eighties with INMARSAT, and then ANARESAT came on the scene shortly after. That was the end of HF radio.
ANARESAT took over all of the links back to Australia and it added more of the modern modes of communications. We are now able to communicate just as well to the Antarctic as we do to anywhere else, whether it be between Melbourne and Sydney or Perth or overseas.
All these facilities are now available at the ANARE stations. You know, you've now got your internet and email facilities, you've got the telephone, of course, and the facsimile.
So it's no different communicating down there as anywhere else around the world. Antarctica is not isolated in the same way as it used to be.
