KHO News - September 2004

The KHO News is published monthly

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Email: jbsymons@indo.net.id

September 2004

BALI: John celebrated his birthday over a full week with friends from Australia, Java and Lombok who all came specially for the big event.

First to arrive on the Monday was well known Film Critic and Gentleman Ian from Melbourne.

Next day, Ken, well known friend of the rich and famous, arrived from Melbourne.

On the Wednesday, Michael, cousin Simon, Graham and Gerry arrived from Melbourne. By the Friday the birthday eve friends Hamid and Pajo had arrived from Surabaya. Amang, Luke from Lombok and Oney from Jakarta.

Childhood days

1945, John at 6 months

Circa 1955 Ross (1) , Jack (43), John (11), Nancy (37) and Barry (8)

Circa 1948, The 3 Johns, John's grandfather (86), John's father (36) & John (4)

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The Weeks Events

Melody Kenangan

Wed Aug 25: The group of Australians, plus some locals went to Melody Kenangan Dance Hall in Denpasar for a Dinner Dance.

Jamal in full voice

Ken Rocks with Ayu

John & Michael

Birthday Eve Party

Fri Aug 27: The first important party. 31 guests gathered at Warung Sobat to celebrate John's transition to 60 at midnight. Pak Made served an excellent 3 course authentic Balinese meal. Ines organized some local drag queens to do a few numbers as a surprise.

Everyone was surprised, especially Wilhelm, who was so disappointed when he found they were not real.

Yvonne, Gerda & Wilhelm

John Jamal & Dede

Wiwin from Bali

John & Luke from Lombok

Gerry & Graham - Melbourne

Yvonne from London

One of the girls

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After the midnight cake Ian, Ken and Graham said many kind words.

Old friends, Ian and John

Gerry and Amang

Simon & Oney

Oney & Sofia - Jakarta

Sing along

Graham & Jamal

John & cousin Simon

Oney & Sofia

Norman & Bonita

Ian & Gerry

John Speaks

Cake shot for John's mum

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Birthday Night Dinner on the Terrace at the KHO

Wiwin Jamal John & Rob

Cutting the cake with a saw

Michael & Simon & Cake

Poor cake

Gerry & Wayan

Hamid Jamal & Dede

Oney & Sofia

Ken & Ian

John & Nanang

Gerry & Graham

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Sunday Film Night

Ian introduces the film

Sun Aug 29: The final night of the celebrations, where we had a film night in the house. Mr Movies, Ian Davey from Melbourne presented the new Jackie Chan film, Around the World in 80 days. After the film we went on to Warung Sobat for dinner.

Birthday Greetings

All the best for your birthday, Derek & Jenny - Perth. Hi John, You've reached that special age that be summed up in just one word. MAINTENANCE. Sorry we can't be with you, but we will certainly have a toast for you. Cheers from Dianne & Barry - Sydney. Well, I'll think to you next weekend , and so pity, I cannot be with all of you. Very friendly ... Albert - Paris. Greetings and Birthday Wishes to John warm regards Malcolm - Syd. John, Many Happy Returns for your birthday at the end of the week. I hope that the day is memorable. My regards to Jamal. Geof - Bangkok. Dear John, We wish you a very happy, salubrious and satisfying celebration. Lots of love, Peter & Jonathan - Melb. Happy 16th Birthday, the Crew at Marmara Restaurant - Melb. Dear John, have a fantastic 60th, all the very best, Wayne Ackerfeld - Melb. May all your wishes come true, happy birthday Amih & family (Jamal's mother - Bandung. Dear John, All the best - sorry we are not there, Love Denny & Bradley - Melb.

Happy 60th Birthday John - Cheers Your former GS employee - Wayne Giles Melb. John, many happy returns for yesterday, we trust the day was worth waiting 60 years for, and all your friends who made the party, brought great joy and happiness to you. Love Liz and Peter Rintel - Darwin. John Just a note to say happy birthday and hope the celebrations go well Say hello to all that are in baili will enjoy reading this in the bali news letter Lots of Love Paul and Rodney - Melb. Hi John Hope you are enjoying your visitors from Oz. Enjoy and miss you. luv linda & girls xx. - Melbourne Hi John, Happy Birthday from me and I hope you have many more. Regards, Mark - Bali. Dear John, Wishing you a very wonderful birthday, I wish I could come to Bali & enjoy the celebration with you. Anyway have Happy 60 Th Birthday Love Yong Fu- Surabaya. May your 60th birthday be a time of fond memories of dreams come true, a time to celebrate you, happy birthday John, Love Clive and Wendy - Bali. Many Happy returns, Love Mum Ross and all of the family.

Lots of love and have a great day, Ian, Mandy, Nicholas, Simon and Mitchel - Bendigo. Dear John, I wish I could have been in Bali tonight. It just seems like yesterday I was standing on the Ballarat railway station with people like Shane, Kerry, Dooley ect. waiting for your birthday train to arrive......what a great night. You've had some great parties over the years and I feel really lucky to have known you and shared them with you. have a wonderful night and a great day tomorrow a big 60th birthday kiss from us all love John Cheryl Tess & Gina (Handby) - Melb. Hi Symo (and vast extended family). Best wishes for your milestone birthday on Saturday. I hope you have a abulous party, sorry I couldn't jet off to be there. Love, Bear Melb.

Thanks

Thanks to one and all for making my 60th Birthday one that no one will forget for a long time, especially me. Thanks to those that came from near and far and to all those that sent their best wishes ....... John

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Ian Davey tells of his return from Bali to Melbourne:

I got to the airport on Tues only to find the flight cancelled due to aircraft fault. Taken to Bali Haii hotel [very nice] that night, courtesy AirParadise with brekky in the morning and a 3 min IDD call to let home know the story. 2nd departure time cancelled that day and a move to the Risata Hotel 50 metres up the road for a day use and a 9pm departure Wed night. That failed as the aircraft was still in Singapore. So, lunch, dinner, another 3 min IDD call a and a 3rd cancellation. Went to bed last night with only a vague idea that maybe we might get out today at some time! 1am this morning the call came, 4:30am depart for Melb. arriving Midday no Sydney stop and a USD 400 refund to all of us for the trouble. So my fare in real terms was about $300.

News

SYDNEY, Australia (AP): The Australian Red Cross has finished distributing the A$15.4 million (US$11 million)

to Victims of the Bali bombings and boost medical services on the island. The Red Cross gave A$3.6 million to upgrade emergency services mainly at Sunglah hospital in Denpasar, Bali. Pity local people can't afford to use the services.

Garuda cuts Amsterdam

JAKARTA (AFP): Garuda Indonesia is planning halt services to Amsterdam in the upcoming winter season, due to lack of demand. Could it be because Dutch nationals are not eligible for the Pay-On-Arrival visa.

White Speakers at KHO

The speakers in the Tv lounge at the KHO have been remounted after painting. Neat hey?

Trenton MBA

John's nephew Trenton has just become a Master Builder, and accepted by the Master Builders Association. Congratulations!

Tourists up 35%

JAKARTA (Dow Jones): Some 35% more tourists visited Indonesia in the first half of the year, to a year ago, "undeterred by fears of election unrest and the imposition of new visa charges," says the Indonesian Government.

Kuta Beach Bali

The country played host to 2.13 million visitors, up from 1.58 million a year ago. However since the new pay-on-arrival visa, tourists are only staying an average of 7 days. The numbers of Europeans arriving has dropped dramatically.

Endless Paperwork

JAMAL fills out the forms that are required each month to renew John's visa, before he sets off for the endless wait at immigration. The renewal official fee is A$32, however we often pay double that.

Two-stroke bikes to go

The Jakarta administration has asked the Environment Minister to ban the production and sale of two-stroke motorcycles to minimize air pollution in the capital. A two -stroke motorcycle has emission levels equal to the emissions produced by 10 four-stroke motorcycles or 20 cars. Jakarta had only 25.55 days of "good" air quality last year. Of the 2.6 mill. motorcycles, in Jakarta, 1 mill. have two-stroke engines. The decree will take effect on Jan. 1, 2005.

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Independence Day

On Aug 17, 1945, Sukarno ended 350 years of Dutch colonial rule by proclaiming the free REPUBLIK INDONESIA. The Japanese occupied the Dutch East Indies, from 1942, with their support, Sukarno formed a large militia ready to fight the Dutch on their return after the war. On April 9, 1946, the fledgling state, formed an Air Force, named ANGKATAN UDARA REPUBLIK INDONESIA, or AURI. Aircraft were mainly of Japanese origin. Only 30 to 50 aircraft were ever operational, and mostly used for pilot training. Strong Dutch offensives against the Indonesian Republic in July 1947 and Dec. 1948, completely destroyed the small air arm. Although the Republic faced military defeat, international outcry and pressure prevailed. On Dec 27, 1949, the Republic gained its sovereignty from The Netherlands.

What ever happened to Edwin Maher?

Melbourne readers would remember Edwin Maher as the weather man with

the quaint pointers, sent him by viewers. After retiring from ABC Tv he worked instructing hopeful news readers at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. One day he was at home listening to his short-wave radio and heard a broadcast from China's overseas broadcasting service. He was horrified by their bad English and presentation, he decide to send them an email, asking if they needed someone to train their announcers. Next thing he knew he was on his way the Beijing.

Maher on CCTV9 at the KHO

Maher worked for some months training announcers, then he was asked to be head anchor on CCTV9 's morning News broadcast. The program is beamed world wide and re-broadcast by SKY and is shown in prime time in the US. The program has 14 million viewers, 90% in China. CCTV9 is received at the KHO by digital satellite receiver.

Fiscal out by 2005

JAKARTA: Indonesia plans to scrap an unpopular exit tax (Fiscal) levied on citizens and foreign residents leaving the country that critics say has hurt business and regional tourism. The levy was introduced in 1979 but was quadrupled in 1997 to Rp 1 mill. (A$156) to raise revenues at the height of the Asian financial crisis. Since the introduction of low cost air carriers in the region, the Fiscal Tax is often more expensive than the airfare. Presidential Secretary Bambang Kesowo said that the government would scrap the tax by 2005. Southeast Asia governments have said the levy hurts regional tourist and business travel. Business leaders here have complained it made Indonesia less attractive to foreign investors.

Freefall Death in Bali

Aug: 12 (JP) Bali One-hundred and three skydivers from 16 countries managed to complete a mass freefall formation over Ngurah Rai International Airport here on Wednesday but the world record was overshadowed by the death of a participant, Theo P. Mandagi. Theo was fourth member of his family to die while skydiving after his three brothers were killed in a plane crash in 1986. After their second attempt of the day to break the world record, the skydivers boarded the Air Force C-130H Hercules plane for a victory jump.

Indonesian AF Hercules C-130

However, the festive mood turned somber after Theo's body was found south of the airport perimeter by villagers with his parachute unopened.

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Olympic Tv Blackout

INDONESIAN viewers have been denied Tv coverage of the Athens Olympics. Even after the price was greatly discounted to US$900,000 none of the 10 Indonesian networks believed they could recoup the cost with advertising. Given the significance of the Olympics, in which Indonesia will be one of the 220 countries with competitors in Athens, it is sad that the TV stations could not have come to some arrangement and worked together to share the costs.

Friday the 13th

Repairing the water main

The water main pipe in the street infront of the KHO blew out, PDAM staff worked around the clock from early friday until 0039 Sunday when water was restored. The KHO has an emergency 500 litre stainless steel header tank above the roof.

New Restaurant in Bali

BALI: Aug 6 we attended the opening of a new restaurant in

our area run by Rici and Fenny, the former owners of Lubung Padi, restaurant in Jl Raya Kerobokan.

The new RED DRAGON Restaurant is in Villa Kendil just a few doors from Batavia.

The Chef Rici has worked in Australia for many years usually in International

Hotels. The menu is authentic Chinese at reasonable prices. Meals start at Rp15,000.

Beer is Rp 12,000 and a range of Hatten wines are available for Rp 60,000.

Jamal and Leon gossip

John & Jamal try the food

Victoria & Hari love it

Bangladesh Calling

Dear John, If remember my face after nearly three years. I was in Bali when the sad bomb blasted. I personally believe that I am one of the best friends

of Bali as I did not left after the bomb incidence. I receive KHO news from you regularly and read most part of it to know more about my favourite place BALI. I had plan this year to visit Bali again but I could not manage fund to afford. By this time we become flood effected so may be I can not join your Birthday Party at my favourite place Warung Sobat. Please convey my respect and love to Pak Made and his nice active working friends of Warung Sobat. I wish many many more return of your Birthday. Best Regards Raguib.

Raguib in Bali

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If you missed last episode

CLICK HERE

Episode 5

Starting in 1961, Channel 7's first regular drama program was "Consider Your Verdict" originally a successful radio drama on 3DB, produced byCrawford Productions. Only 3 hours was allocated for the production, the show was produced at Studio 1 in Dorcas St, then later at the Teletheater, which had an iron roof and was not sound proof, on one occasion production stopped due to rain, studio time was limited so taping had to continue.

Quick thinking Dorothy Crawford had the Judge say to a witness "Can you speak up, I can't hear you for the rain" , production continued with the rain pouring in the background. Crawford

Productions was established in 1945 by Hector Crawford and his sister Dorothy. They produced radio programs

as well as the "Music for the People" concerts at the Myer Music Bowl. Broadcast on radio 3DB & HSV7.

Court reporter Roland Strong

The first episode (not the pilot), 'The Stunt', went to air on HSV-7 at 7:30 October 20, 1964, with Ian Turpie playing the first victim

Ian Turpie & director Ian Jones

Ian Turpie currently appears on ABC Asia Pacific Tv in an Aust. passport info video.

Homicide was a milestone in Australian Tv, Hector Crawford believed Australians wanted to watch Australian drama's. The s

how regularly rating in the 60's. A rating of 20 is considered excellent these days.

I get involved

Late in the 60's I was to become the recording and post- production sound engineer on the second series of Homicide. The drama involved 2½ days of my week.

My audio console - Studio 1

Tues. afternoon we set up all the microphones after the set was constructed for the studio shoot which started at 7am on Wed's, we were scheduled to finish at 7pm, but often 9 or 10, one time 1am.

Mondays was integration day, where we completed the program, integrating the outdoor film segments with the studio footage.

Stars of the series, Jack Fegan, terry McDermott & Leonard Teal.

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The film sequences were all shot by Crawford Productions. The location sound was mixed in their sound studio and copied to 1/4 inch Rola 77 tape machine.

On integration day we would attempt to replay the synchronous audio with the silent location film. To roll the tape in sync a system was devised where 4 holed were punched in the 16mm film, 4 frames apart. The audio tape had 4 corresponding tone bips. The audio machine was lined up on the 4th bip. When the holes in the film were viewed the audio operator would press the play button on viewing the 4th hole. Often the sound would be out of sync if the audio operator did not press

Holes punched every 4 frames by a paper folder punch.

the play button in perfect time. Not that noticeable, until a detective slammed a car door, or someone was punched in a fight, you could see the action before or after you heard the sound. Many scenes featured car door slamming - a very important piece of dramatic action for the actors in Homicide, lead to many jokes about the show on opposing stations and in the press..

Rola Tape Machine

The Rola 77 audio tape machine was designed by Max Beyer who ran the Beyer factory just a few doors up from Channel 7 at 8 Dorcas Street. He made the 66 and 77 Mk1 model. Then the company was taken over by Rola, the well known audio speaker manufacturer. The recorder featured 3 motors and 3 heads, erase, record and playback. As the machine had instant playback, the machine was often used as a make-do echo device, by feeding the replay back to the audio mixing panel.

Recording television

The first method of recording television programs was with the use of a kinescope machine, which was basically a 16mm film camera

pointed at a television screen. The picture quality was quite poor, but at the time better than nothing.

A Kinescope Recorder

Kinerecording Camera

The sound was recorded on a separate 16mm audio recording machine which was electro- mechanically locked to the recording camera.

Video Tape Arrives

In 1960 channel 7 received their first video tape recorder from RCA America. Video tape recording was

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developed in the 50's by Ampex & RCA engineers at the request of Bing Crosby, who wanted his national show, time delayed across America, so it would appear in the same time-slot. In England the BBC had produced a recorder with a very high tape speed allowing only 15 minutes recording time per reel.

The BBC machine

A very high tape speed of 16.5 feet per second, was needed to record a broadcast quality, black and white image of 5 megacycles (5 million pulses per second).

In America the problem was solved by using a 15,000 rpm, 4 rotating heads passing 2 inch tape, with a writing speed of 1500 inch/second.

This system was called quadraplex recording and became the industry standard for well over 25 years.

Early RCA Quad machine

The machines were huge and entirely valve, transistors were not used until later models.

They consumed a huge amount of power and even had an inbuilt aircompressor to supply the airbearing for the spinning head and a vacuum pump for the tape head pressure of 1,000lbs/sq inch.

The quadraplex tape head

Track pattern on the 2" tape

Each head recorded 16 lines of the 625 line television picture.

Machine adjustment was critical, if the tape tension was incorrect the picture would be distorted.

Unreliable

The first tape machines were very unreliable and subject to

mechanical and electronic break down. Often when a program when to air in primetime a kine-recording was run in Telecine as a back-up. So if the videotape machine broke down, the presentation director could switch ti the duplicate program running from telecine.

Primitive Editing

Initially it was impossible to edit video tape. Programs had to be recorded from one commercial break to another. If a mistake was made, the whole section would have to be recorded again. Eventually the Smith tape splicing system was devised, which physically cut the tape with a razor blade and then was spliced with

The Smith splicer

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sticky tape. The problem was to splice the tape at the end of a single frame otherwise the splice was obvious to the viewer.

An incorrect splice

To correct this, the Smith splicer came with a iron particle solution that was brushed on to the tape. With the aid of the microscope, the operator could identify the frame pulses and attempt to cut the tape exactly on the frame.

Visible frame pulses

Later Channel 7 installed Ampex Videotape machines that came with Editek which gave the ability to electronically edit the tape.

Ampex AVR1 Video recorder

Pre-Recording

Videotape recording dramatically changed television. No longer did programs have to go to air live, they could be recorded ahead of time and be distributed nationally. Many old timers lamented this, because they felt the "live" went out of television and recorded programs lacked spontaneity.

They often referred the television studio's to the Sausage Factory, Where we churned out hundreds of Quiz and Game shows, often recording 5 or more in a day. The accounts department loved videotape. Weekend programs could be recorded on weekdays saving staff penalties and overtime. Big stars could take a few weeks off by recording a number of shows in advance. The re-run was invented. Many years later the 2" quad recording system was replaced by the Sony, 1 inch helical system and today tapes are recorded digitally.

Roly Lau - 7 video-tape room in the 60's with the new Ampex machine and the old RCA machines in the background.

2003

The final demise of 2"

Secret Communications

One of my early jobs was to play the "Test Music" in the morning from 9am until we opened transmission at 11.30 am. The cost of phone calls to Mum and Dad in Leongatha were prohibitive. I devised a system to let mum know if I would be home for the week-end. I would play a track

from the musical "My Fair Lady", as the last track, before the 11.30am news. Mum would be tuned in to

channel 7. If she heard one of the tracks from the album, she new I would be home for the weekend.

To be continued......

The KHO is the affectionate name of our house in Bali, this a non - commercial site, to keep our many friends in touch with the local scene. Our aim is to help the local people through promoting tourism. The KHO web site: http://www.geocities.com/jbsymons_2000 If you wish to unsubscribe please email us at:jbsymons@indo.net.id

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