t the magazine of radical science and oeoples' technoloav
A SPECIAL ISSUE LIBERATION OF $--
DEDICATED TO THE COMMUNICATIONS """1-llt
UNDERCURRENTS is designed and edited b y Sally and Godfrey Boyle. Pat Coyne edited the News, and Tony Durham edited the Reviews and took pictures. Peter Harper was editor-withoutportfolio. Typesetting was by Jenny piinings, pictures were processed by Julian Stapleton on Time Out's camera, and Joy Watt handled the subscriptions, distribution and promotion before dropping out to make her contribution t o the population explosion (a girl}. Chris Hutton-Squire grappled manfully with the balance sheets and cash flow figures, and the people at Metro grappled personfully with the rising tide of mail. Martin Ince did astronomical work, Barbara Kern drew the nice diagrams, Gavin Browning turned us on t o SF, and Charlie Clutterbuck fearlessly sought out pollution. Support, both moral and practical, came from m quarters: David Gardiner, Pat Rivers, Sooty, Geoff Wat,ts,Lance and Penny Sucharov, Ian Hogan, Steve Boulter, John Wood, Cliff Harper, Lyn Gambles, and Robin Hall a t e a few among the dozens who deserveand have our grateful thanks.
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un DERCURREnTS CONTENTS Number Seven July-August 1974 EDDIES Air Crash .............. 1 Friggin' on the Rigs 3 Eddie Currents.. ....... . 5 Letters.. .............. 6 SCIENCE FICTION Incidental Dropped Realstate Inc ........... 7 SPECIAL FEATURES ON COMMUNICATIONS 10 Post Office Peepers. Confessions of a Phone Phreak ............... 15 Beneath the City 20 Streets-Interview. Above the City Streets. . 24 Peoples' Radio Primer. . 25 33 Ham Radio and TV Cable Television ....... 37 AT IN THE SHADEpart three of the Great Debate.. ............ 41 REVIEWS It Could Happen Here. .. 45 AT is not enough .46 BACK COVER STORYBehaviour Modification.
......
....
..... ....
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Undercurrents is published every two months (well, almost) by Undercurrents Limited, 275 Finchley Road, London NW3,England-a democratic, non-profit company without share capital and limited by Guarantee. Printed by SW Litho, Corbridge Crescent, London E2. Registered (no doubt) as a subversive periodical at the Post Office.
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It is Undercurrents policy not to carry display advertising, but we do accept Small Ads as a service to our readers. Small Ads cost l p per word, up to a maximum of 150 words (bigger ads may be acceptable in certain cases) and must be paid for in advance. Science f o r People. 9 Poland Street, London W1 V 3DG. 6 issues a year. 15p each or  £ annual subscription. Library subscriptions on application.
Radical Science Journal The doddering academics answer t o Undercurrents. Issue N o 1: Management 'Science' Anthropology and Imperialism Technology and Ideology. 30p per issue, or annual sub £1.0 From 9 Poland Street, London W1. We are a group of vegetarians setting up a self-supporting open community. Committed members, families or singles, still welcome. Interested? Phone Malcolm 01-886 0849.
Goldseal is attempting t o get a co-operative distribution network together t o cover the whole of Britain. I f it works it could carry anything like craftgoods, . records, literature etc. Any papers, shops, infopoints etc. AND ANYBODY WHO TRAVELS ANYWHERE REGULARLY please get i n touch with us as soon as possible. To: Dave Howard (ADN), Goldseal, Box 7,31 Bounces Road, London N9 8JD. Phone (01) 803 5084 Saturdays only.
The new Lancaster Peace and Conflict Research Programme. Newsletter is now available at 60p from Peace and Conflict Research Programme, Department o f Politics, University of Lancaster. The newsletter discusses the progress that has been made on the Chile community project and the network mentioned i n Undercurrents 4. The newsletter describes the expedition t o Aysen, the site, future stages of the project and the effect
of the coup, it also covers the P & GR. Vancouver community and a section on alternative energy with special reference t o British Columbia. The network concept is elaborated i n theoretical and speculative terms.
TSS-TOWARDS SURVIVAL SOCIETY: Resources/Environment/Population/Sustainable Policies. The purpose of TSS is t o create a small (though it is hoped, widely dispersed) movement from those conse~ationistslenvironmentalists/ survivalists who are deeply committed t o peaceable change towards the sustainable society. It is envisaged that the early years will be devoted t o preparation for a more overt role later. TSS will be suitable only for those who are prepared t o attend -and convene i f necessarylocal weekly meetings. The structure of TSS will be that o f autonomous weekly meetings with a considerable interchange
of visiting speakers and discussion-leaders. I f you are interested write t o me f o r fuller description: Keith Hudson, 7 9 Sutton Avenue, Eastern Green, Coventry CV5 7ER.
CRASH STOP PRESS Irish TV ran a documentary on the Viscount crash on June 18, and Hibernialdid a similar story on June 21. Latest reports suggest that new-found wing is from a U K pilotless drone. It's at times like these you regret that Undercurrents takes two weeks to print.
COPY RIGHT. All articles in Undercurrents are Copyright Gunless otherwise stated. But we will give permission freely to non-profit groups who wish t o reproduce our material, without charge, provided they credit Undercurrents.
HOW SAFE AR OUR AIR LANE
q .suspicions that the Aer Lingus Viscount aircraft which crashed suddenly steriously in the Irish Sea six years ago, killing all 61 people on board, may have been h ~
and tushPower Department with considerable of Transpo help from the UK governme sets out t o discover the reaso why Aer Lingus flight 712, a Viscount 803 aircraft en rou her conditions, should
th UK Military markings, only four miles from the spot where the ill-fated Viscount The accident happened on March 24.1968. Two years later, the Irish Department of Tra d Power issued a strangely-worded report on the affair which ended with the conclusion t ere was 'not enough evidence available on which to reach a conclusion of reasonable proba to the initial cause of the accident'. This rather lame verdict was preceded by 19 pages of detailed and much more suggestive ana
inutes of reaching Strumbie Head (in Wales), another aircraft, which could have b annedor unmanned aeroplane ormissile, passed in close proximity, possibly even with the tail of the Viscount, causing an upset which led to a manoeuvre which was fly thereafter for approximately 10 minutes over the sea before control was finall gh convinced that 'the conclusion that there was another aircraft in the area i s ine 'Sullivan, like the good civil servant he undoubtedly is, felt obliged t o take at face
day, 24 March, 1968'. he states with barely-concealed sarcasm at the end of a paragraph i ch he also points out that the evidence points t o a directly-opposite conclusion. e latest official statements about the newly-discoveredwing take great pains t o emphasise can have no possible connection with the Aer Lingus crash, and analyses are said t o have sho at least one eye-witness, James Maddock, a reporter from the Cork Examiner, who to1 rrents that the wing, t o judge from i t s barnacle encrustations, could well have been i n
eport gives a number of
tance what exactly was the type of aircraft t o which the wing was originally attached, a que n which could easily be answered by aviation experts. Moreover, even i f the wing does turn out to be unconnected with the Viscount crash, n xplanation has been offered for the curious presence of British military debris so close t o ores. Do UK aircraft regularly fly, and occasionally come t o grief, in Irish airspace? A n d i f s Even before the discovery of the wing, however, Roger Cox was investigating the myste r Undercurrents. As his enquiries proceeded, he encountered at every turn evidence of a oupled, however, with an inexplicable reluctance topublish anything that might call into que
Defence? I s the affair yet another manifestation of the risinu tide of censorship? Draw your \ \ \ own conclusions..
.
r acknowledging an iustru
g 'Twelve thousand feet descending spinning rapid No further communicatio were received from the ai
-..
Undcrcurrcnts 7 -
path with low forward speed (less than 130 knots). e "For a reason t h a t cannot ' determined. .the aircraf nt into a steep spin or
ral deformation, m o
the sea for a period in a disabled condition for period of at least ten
thought t o have happened, two positively saw the Viscount crash into the sea, but e remaining six saw an craft which, because
ribed as 'having wing and tail bright@ coloured . . as on fire'-a description that would fit R A F planes and
that the aircraft seen over Felthard-on-Sea had already hit the Viscount, & was itself
the 'sudden, sharp turn ou of the clouds* which could have been a last attempt t regain radio control of t h plane. The aircraft could have been above cloud Ie before it reached Fethard which would account for the fact that n o other ohs ers seem t o have seen it p
inflated l i t e r a l on board one of the searching lifeboats. A more convincing.
essels in the. vicinity.
' here is n o report of (t craft) having been o b by any radar station". e would have thought
but not the green and thard-on-Sea described it "coming out of three small ack c1ouds:with a sudden arp turn' as if fired from d that the nose and a por n of the wing were 'envel
hich is the most imp cause of the position e incident (not t o sed with the posit" e final crash, whic d in the sea some es later) midway he w eenore Point in Ireldn d Strumhle Head (a ra aeon point) in Wales, the strong speculatjon a t t h e in the National newsers that the Viscount
which travelled along with the aeroplane, 'swirling' All the witnesses agree the mystery aeroplane seen heading off in a S accounts", says the Repo "could be satisfactorily ex raft coming o u t o f a div ausing a boom and the
o back up this suggestio tnesses. One observers
m is also known t o ha
nges that day. The finger suspicion has been poin
d Naval aircraft were rambled' t o start the arch", that "aflorilla aval vessels changed course for the designat search area", and that less than four British he copters took off'. Th hypothetical 'myster
espite the provision o landing o n Welsh The Report itself spen Imost 2% pages discussin
aft were indeed a pilotle o m the Viscount was re missing-a missing aircraft comes much easier t o cona! if there is n o pilot.
indicate that they are o means as safe as the ritish public has been Ie
Undercurrents 7
F R I G G I N ' ,ON THE RIGS absorb heat and tail t o th bottom of the pit. The fi then lightly doused with water and the stones cove with a layer of earth. Broa took their
cnot.~ off
top of the earth, and the r re greenery and more
aware.have slielves.and c o ental shelves, as even the most ignorant must know olved. Expect an FRA continenthood t o be prop ed by the geographical whiz kids at the Department wer those well known land-mass Jersey and Guernsey. A median line was then d down the Channel whic neatly bisected the narr straits between the islan and the French mainlan
elf like the north Celtic a and North from the c Deny and Antrim, whic e a t the moment unequi y British, will not be if t
another of those meetings, thought. What's it about? 'Alternative Technology' hiptm'r 1 heard that somewhcrr before'' Ancl lllc surgesn 'maybe we should d o me practical things as w always say t h a t a n d thing ever gets done. But this one turned ferently. Hardly a w as said: people were h i i y m i k : i i ; l!!ini:s! Naiur.ilI t h e p~nii-:rt;were re-itrutfcd a token scale, but there
un anv sii-ale. Thc Maoris woulil use Ihcir breakf.isr3 fire t o steam their supper such 'ovens' while they ou hunting and having uppose the improv ature of the proje ted the fact that ine was or~anised people pnmari!" interested in 'c!iwsu'r ice'lnuloev' tflouds. arthquakes, etc) a n d i t seem here could be a lot of usefu oss-fertilisation between
became an intriguin rcise in Making Do 1 Savonius rotor w e out of wire and effietd where more sop
quences of their 'For God sake let's wash our hands Yet another snippet eland. Marathon oil, n negotiating with the Iris
arger described in UC is was constructed in rs, without welding ced a few hundred at about 10 volts in An amazing Heath
(see UC6) is 'comparati small'. Don't believe it That strike is the bigge A word of commis
ic sea before the dril d heen'spudded' , the erpreted the report c to mean that the compa Only snag is here tha only burning off excess diesel oil. It could happ t o the best of us.
out of a door, some glazed window frames and a lot o pitch. The water had t cycled by hand, and it perceptibly warm up conditions of almost sunshine. An attempt to co struct a more efficient ther
E SAINT CONFERRNC alzburg Assembly. Impac the New Technology) is ue t o be held 21-24 5epte r a t Schloss Leopoldskro Salzburg, Austria. The conence theme is Equilibriu hnology and for those o find themselves puzzl y yet another term in t h ternative glossary the c o
Iy) it might produce so thing combustible, whi others dammed the near wheel made principally o pram wheels. Perhaps th most effective and simp1 project was the 'earth ov To make an earth oven, a is due- and filled with woo and stones (in our case broken firebricks). The
International Solar Ene
act Dr JC McVeigh, hton Polvtechnic. Mo
Undercurrents
T GOES BOOM
7
m m
A load of old hay
hnoiogy" if you like-
summer's work will be rewe believe, large enou handle the job of a ational Centre' at least
autiful Welsh valley The Centre is itself
n of solar collectors on te roofs, the developmen very low cost water
tonomous services. The summer community already beginning t o semble, although there i great deal more room f o onle who can he10 with
If enough people
TABITHA'S FIRELE ER is a trendy version of the old-fashioned hay-box, developed by food-technologist Tabith: Beazeley, NDD. The idea is that almost any dish which needs fairly lengthy cooking-like casseroles, curries and Christmas puddings-can be boiled gently for 5 t o 25 minutes, quickly tucked into the cooker, and left, fully insulated to cook for a few hours, or overni&t, so that 'slow cooking takes place without the further use of fuel", and without burning the food. All you need t o provide is one double-handled metal pan with a lid, although the maximum size of hay allowed changes from 12 inches on one page of the instructions t o 8% inches on another. Tabitha's main argument against hay-boxes is their bulk, in today's cramped society, and the apparent lack of hay to make them with. She has come up with the idea of a cosy jacke made of some modern, nameless insulator, which wraps round your.cooking pot. There are pillows for the base and a folding box of the same material tucks up around it. Marketed by Low Impac Technology for Ă‚ÂŁ14.40exc ing postage, Tabitha's Fireless Cooker is a very expensive load of hav.
after. These amenities, rsion of the sheds into orkshops, the installatio
ehensive library. anwhile, there is rk t o be done. Wi
d so the Centre was b
d housing, and now concentrat etting up an alternative-mean ducing houses in a low-capital
uld like t o participate or visit t e for further details to:-
Undercurrents 7
These fuelish things A RECENT article in Detroit ternative paper. The Fifth tate, Daniel Tucker, an exarine, revealed that while statned in South East Asia he was dered to destroy thousands gallons of jet fuel a day. Tucker was stationed as a eler at the Nan Phong Marine se in Thailand from May 197 August of the same year. At e direct order of his superior icers he was burning 30,000 lons of jet fuel a day. His logok recorded that this proced' e had been in effect for 9 onths previously. According t o Tucker, who ly recently released from tive duty, his immediate s Lt Colonel JC Byram claimthat the fuel was contamina, but ordered him t o keep et about the disposal. "Hell, that fuel wasn't c o inated", Tucker inainta' t came out of the batch t sed t o refuel the aircraft on e base. I filtered it through e same 50 filters on my true that all the other gas was run
POOR HOME OIL of Canad They thought they had ma a gigantic natural gas strike land at Lockton in Yorkshi with the expected half-billio
Disaster switchboard
Mine, all mi
enzymes are different fr raw ...
MY METASYNERGISTIC friend Wes Thomas, whom the cosmos preserve, editor of Synergy Access, 'a Glob Newsletter of Futuristic Communications Media & Networking' (see UC6) informs me of yet more ac in his sector of Spaceship Earth. Apparently an International Psychic switchboard The jet fuel (which is m o is t o he set up which will , efined than petrol) was bur 'link ps.vc11icsand scientists n the pit where all the camp's via computer t o forecast garbage was disposed of. At a global catastrophes in real conservative estimate. Tucker time. It could plug into data suggests, 18 months of such from psychics, premonition fuel disposal would mean tha registries, world modelling 5 million gallons of jet fuel systems, Centre for Short ere destroyed at Nan Phone Lived Phenomena etc'. alone. News also comes in SA LiberationNews Service adds a Seminar on Survival whic "while it is not exactly clea: will discuss among other in the military benefited things 'co-operative consc m the fuel burning, one ness and advanced genius thifta!sfor sure-Shell Oil sold production '. environmentalists h a d
T o analyse the problem, the
ard headquarters the other day, our spies came across a survey t e Board has been undertaking for
ompted some cynics t o remark that
aders can, however, rest assured th ve been withheld. Reliable sources isolate some of the corrosion ing due t o the abnormally hig
om which they are made isn't lastin
lons have been known t o rot right
1
,,.-
d their total contradiction nything that y o u or I are in Surely this isn't Democra ree Speech rearing its foolis cad?
b"
. 2 % "
-
"vL
-/st"
"''"
LJ
A/h / 3
1
would add i f oermntted th points t o Peter's revised A switchboard. Even though means different things t o different people, I realiy have thought that the Sot Association deserved a ention. Okav, so they ar t o aarden shows and tea
Stowmarket, Suffolk, IP14 3 Tel tiaughlev 235,236. A couole of trans-sttantic a l o t t o me and clearly mean l o t t o many folks over that si of the Atlantic are Wendell Berry and Gary Snyder. White Berry writes novels and "onfiction about his home state o f Kentucky. Snvder writes ooetw.
o w them from a friend me several years' w It was a short story c a generator that a far which turned o u t t r o u s applications. usible t o me. e device was a 'chi o f t w o concentric B
Warm air from ground s through the space be cylinders, so keeping ture rigid lit also use s a n d was brought t o cal initially b y pumping throughlAiralso rises ough the centre, drivi and attached genera The 'hero' of the st0 ntually built the thin
d t o answer some o f ms o f 'more entertai science'. I f the thing i m o n knowledge (I've n it mentioned elsewhere) impossible, it might make o d article i f it could be tra w i n m e o n e ' s 'Analog'
ates from various long sojourns Japan t o set u p a community the Californian sierras at wn with the delightful Kit-Kit-Dikke, the corn calling itseff the Allegh Range. Both are favour: tewart Brand who has
his country throti Frankly, 1 warmly welcome th apparent mushrooming i n the amount of people who are no only formulating theories b u t also putting them i n t o practi The people 1 am worried ab are certain national newspap et a1 that personify the hide practice o f co-option-if y o u beat them. co-opt 'em. I lust
is hard t o f i n d
s of twelve volt, five c The power generated and s fashion i s then used to a
Undercurrents 7
'The use o f the used compute
ney life support, is also his work e. Recently there have been rum at his real time shared access info btaining method o f research has b perseded by the small scale, field itiative methods o f Hoars and Co.
ch thousands of models can b 'Totafity is the weight of entr t has accumulated since Stan1 brick last thought about inner
. . .Prose is as much about v
THE ACCUSATION OF THE SE PORTRAIT. ART AS THE U L T I
facility. It i s the works of ART that ought to fear. Perfection is the drive towards total energy loss'. . . . . .'The wrinkles on the brain are more important than the weight of the grey mass. Texture is therefore more relevant than theme'.
cription of Pencil Sketches by rcoff Claimed to be In Possess! th o f sunflowers in the Nevada t s have convinced me that the
ve artist HERBERT MERCOFF . . .
of Herbert Mercoff is also the answe the underlying questions behind the artist's work. The sunflowers i n que tion, according to newly developed seed dating procedure, first began to appear i n 1987-the year of Mercoff
N T A L DROPPED REALSTATE nothing more than the inspiration this is not mon The following are extracts from rsonal work o f Mercoff gathered nder approved surveillance on cred me sharingequipmen
Art is an aberration currently P as such. But, increasingly, it i s t esentation that I find unaccepta
riable Model's Singular Dedu was the eye, really, I suppose, ve my first whiff o f the ultimate
at other great subjectivist, Vince
ALSTATE INC. While we found a ndance o f references to sunflowe good compost material and a valua
e this had always been the aim DENTAL DROPPED REAL-
e basis of some hastily accepte
of the research work done by my m. 1 offer the following random ctions; quotes from the activity e INCIDENTAL DROPPED
NG AS BLACK. ANNEAL
.
to do two things: firstly, to show how the existing structures of communication in Britai a r e used t o bolster-up the status quo and to perpetuate the basic injustices of our presen society; and secondly,to show how the communications media could be used in building a b ore humane society. e shortcomines - of e Post Office has far too much power - s o much, indeed, that the word monopoly seem under-statem erves And it do hroughout the popul s the rich who can afford to have a 'phone of their own; and every winter, thousands of old ck people die because they have no telephone with which to summon help in an emergenc ut to transfer the ould solve nothing. A far better model for the future would be a de-centralised federation of unicipally-contro rovides one rough example. e increasing use of postal r surveillance purposes etwork, shows yet again f injustice, a r e anxious d spy on political activ workers, decentralise p Brute force, though always there a s a weapon of last resort, is rapidly going out the primary means of r censorship and subtle tacticsin the fight to
.
ut the entire field of communications is far too vast t o be explored more than sup n one issue of a magazine. We hope that the articles in this issue will be prov ough to stimulate some healthy controversy. What about phone phreaking, for instan the Post Office, like Bell Telephone in the 'States, "fair game" for anyone who can f ay t o r i p it off? Or a r e such actions dishonest,irrelevant --even reactionary? Or i act which challenges the established order, especially if that order is founded on hnological expertise, worth supporting because it shows that the machine is not y incible? We'll be exploring these and many other questions in the issues of UNDE
9'
Undercurrents 7
aud, and complex paper crim So it's a good guess that the
ose services it is officially supposed to. It's not therefore surprising t o find that the Post Office is more qer t o help where it can t o keep the system and State that supports n business. It does so by making freely available t o the cops, the
ice. It's the Special Branch and MI t keep them i n business"'
oopinq into our letters and telephone calls.
mid-'72 (out o f about 158,000 pos addresses). About half these addre were political organisations.
pace where they get their mits on Ie
(some equipment sitting in local ex-
ices. It i s sent by special courier to
or in the course of transmission
ter i s opened and photocopied. T otocopies make their way to the arters of the operation, where th
ay spy and counter-spy try the inte ption game every once in a whi
an area surveillance office f o r e e seven major postal divisions ( , SW, N, EC, E and W). Letters ar ened i n each area office by a staff who usually manage to get a l e t
titicat intelligence-gathering, and the asional very serious crime tie, on
talog 2000 svstemcan record
Undercurrents 7 the quantity and quality o f post-opening :echniques available to the PO. Without coring you with the details, suffice it t o .ay that the PO can if they want get into
addressed and delivered to an MP at stminster^. Last year a letter sent the bookshop Rising Free (in WC1
film or paper can't then be easily replac-
monitored. And don't be surprised i the relevant letters just kind o f
'The well-known method of opening letters by holding them over a steaming kettle is effective but messy, and is not normally used by professionals. Indeed in many cases it is not necessary to open ah envelope in order to scrutinise the contents. Do-it-yourself enthusiasts can verify this by holding an unopened letter close to a strong light; in this way most typewritten letters can be read quite easily. The Security Service have specia apparatus for examining letters by this method, the device they use b rather like the viewing screen foun in X-ray departments of hospitals. this method proves unsatisfactory, the contents of an envelope can be extracted through one of the holes at the top of the gummed flaps. A instrument resembling a pair of ve slim long-nosed pliers is used to w the letter into a tight cylinder and extract it without visibly disturb' the sealed flap. (We undmstand rather more difficult to replace the letter). The commonest method is use the bottom flap as opposed to th top one. Chemical solvents, plus a host o f other equipment, enable th skilled interceptor to make copies correspondence very swiftly and without leaving outward sims . o.f h work. Cruder methods are simply to or destroy the letter, to use an 'Opened in Error' label, to write 'Misdirected' on it or 'Not known a t this address' to pretend misdelivery, to return it to the sender with an 'Insufficiently addressed note or to cover part of the address with the postage mark. If all else fails, the bottom of the letter can be slit. th letter photocopied, then the letter resealed using woodpulp and a cooke that restores the texture of the envel ope paper. Mail Interception and Telephone ping in Great Britain. Hampstead of the Committee o f 100 Pamphlet (seeRef I].
due t o Post Office employees wh
a militant revolutionary . . .) The ms little point in trying to make y ers 'unopenable'. There's no such hard to find in times o f need). Le
offices or police stations without benefit o f the IB's fine technolog Where postal interception o f p oliticals* i s done repeatedly in sue that it is obvious that it is bein e, another interpretation i s pass the IB, at the behest o f their cli
attention to their import
e material. Andthe best defense of all is to try n&to deal in secrets-tha their game, and they're pretty good a
Given this sophistication o f techniqu
'Opened in Error' stamped on e eg pp 4-6 of the Committee o f
ther miles away. Once a letter addr
there, they can probably d could, if you wanted, try p self pieces of unexposed lig nsitive paper or film i n light-pro
hen the PO is doing t ng is done from with
Undercurrents 7 d e from the straight cops, th a! police, the Po's Investiga ere don't seem t o be any other ob
many makes use of German
ther they have an equally cus ionship with the PO here i s n metcfi seem to be their standard too. for gctt:ng at phone Irciks. A piece b 1 l i t v 1 ~citedan ~1 ex-PO IB man a
ave relays o f aood men listening
11/10 '5 Done In ineory t ~ p p i n grcquirc-) ii warrant. he warrants are supposed to be i s hings, the presume nough that a perso ay for i t for three years or mor quency o f warrants was reporte the twenty years n unconfirmed report i he straight press in 1972(14' had it t 200 warrants for tapping were issue 1972 and that about 600 were issue
eet ready t o follow the su
o t denied in the House o f Commo
n't think tapping is worth
s o f twelve thousand taps don
ven i f accurate this view reflects
st, as distinct from th
he Special Branch and th e likely do routine intellige
ganisations' phones. Tapping litical intelligence purposes m without all the parapherna e-outs and continuous live mo
uzz in 1966 Take your pick. . . f course, quite a bit of tappin cularly political intelligence may he done without warra apping is known to have been ide assortment o f criminal case ng was widely used against th and Richardson gangs^151. so used to do a single bloke ceiving stolen goods in Oxford in 70116' . And the Committee o f hered a lot of hard evidence for th ular and systematic use of tapping oolitical activists'"'.
And there's not too muc as to which of these are
include: I KO-inr' (Trunk OtferingJ. M i ~ sauto-manudl i exchanges (that is, hanges where manual boards, co olled by operators, are located) ha anual TKO boards. These boards' ficial use is to 'drop in' to enga bscribers circuits to see i f a call act in progress, or to see if there's a u l t on the line. They can also be u o break into ongoing calls in emerge ies. I n practice they can easily be us or tapping calls. An operator wantin jack' into a particular line merely
asier. Exchanges are currently bei nected up to a new transit syst r STD calls, called MF2. (see pho eeking articles). Users of MF2 are signed a class o f service, various c allowing access to various facilitie t necessarily available to other cia ass o f service 6 gives the user acces automatic diallable TKOing to an scriber number on any exchang h MF2 transit access. All o f wh eans that anyone the PO chooses e a class 6 user line to will be ab to dial up any number he wants to listen into from the comfort o f his own padded cell. Fortunately MF2
before TXE2 and
There seem to b
Printermetering does the guy who chan
as an occasional 'ping' o f the bell of y phone-often the same time each day, as printermeter, tapes tend to be chang at set times. But again, a lousy test fo
quipment to make such tests. I do think it would do much good to tel
s reserved for 'traffic analy e local to the interme,diate ex Post Office worker writing i n ere an average of 25 o f these lines n't need a warrant, do have to g ough the Post Office. Which pu
rs. The information i s used for billin a computer takes the record and
required for analysis is f i e d weekly, there's no
Undercurrents 7
the usual precautions apply. Be caref what you say, and if it's the sort of thing t h a t matters assume someon
3. In most local sorting offices the post would be set aside by t h e same person who delivers your post. Post when it arrives at a local office is sorted into 'walks'; each postman then sorts his own walk into streets. Before doing however he sorts a collection o f 'redirection' and 'retention' cards int o can ask for post t o be held unti
what number you dialled). And if you' doing something they think you
clivery system again for 'retention
ElectronicsScientists Thce,c"""~"t c"m-~.,,""d*""m, "","k,"C,*~" ~ > " w o r ,",k , r",,~-'6d*
,,,,
m&m.wm.
Communications Systems &ElectronicsR & D
ason in 1954. Maybe in the last wenty years they've become m o t phisticated . .); (13) that the IB h own fleet of postmen who deli ercepted letters . . an equally zaire suggestion.
20 June 197 1. 5. Time Out, as ( 2
t h e ones t h a t are made by people ing a n inordinate a m o u n t o f calling
70 t h a t 50 Danish PO men wer sily engaged in recording all in tional calls o u t of Denmark for ement of.Copenhagen Universit ho'd ever think t o look there?) n this country, all calls, telex a dio in and o u t of the country are
^
I I is progressing OK (technically, t
. if the content is juicy enough an things a t the exchange are quiet eno
for the National Security Age
course, "watching individuals carefull something that cannot be done excep by tapping. There's no way t o sort o u t "n Britain, published by the Ha
1971) which came from, say, urrents. There is n o voice rec
this was an authentic story 8. Times as (4)
d Group of the Committee of Hausman's B o o k s h o ~ It . was r published in 1973 by ~ t i i l Publications a
ice in several million a t the momen Publications (67 Vere Rozid, Brighto for 15p post paid, It's an excellent summary of the Post Office's Stat snooping activities up t o about 197 2. Time Out,'The 1B Men'. No 1 3 0
Ele 18 14. ' B i g ~ i s ein Phone ~ a p p i n g ' , Telegraph 19 Dec W Z . 15. Daily Telegraph as 16. 'Listening In Note 27 Fcb 1972. 17. 'Mail Fnterce~ti Tapping i n Britain', p p 718 Bryant, Tom, 'Secret room a t the Barracks'. Ev 4 July 1973 19. Times as (4 2 0 'A good we p 1 0 ~ u g u s 1973 t 21. The only sign o call is a so-called ' that is usually used t o indicate wheth the call was set up by an operator o r
CONFESSIONS EPHONES are interesting, and fun to
Now the
The heart ofthe STD equipment i
while the remaining dialled
om the translator and follows the
u bscri her does not waste
ese being the final routing digits minor exchanges) and the called num Having done this the equipment switc through the speech path and the
nown as the Strowger (or step system. This type of equipme
Some people get interested in
se relationship between the co lied and the way in which th I f one looks at the d
I about one needs first gives dialling cod e British Telephon
k routes. One way i n which t happen is that occasionallya
miles. I t is through
n Post Office engin hange wire up their
ic in the sense that one originati
a continuous 'number unobtai onnects as
ich routed the call from one cen
,
Undercurrents 7
cies out of a total o f six to represent
spite of such attempts at co
g* method to the nearest exchan ovidingsuch a trunk access. I f o cky, one's own exchange would
his distant switching centre then quests the original area code and ceipt o f this from the originating
um of 1 second when using AC9. gnals in the backward direction a
way. The intermediate RT is then re-
continues until the call reaches i t s as been seen that the control signal distant RT sends back a signal t the transfer of the contents o f t
work are audio signals within the pas band of the telephone circuit. Armed therefore with a set of audio oscillato
itate these signals. A device ca doing this is known as a 'blue
errupting this a t dial pulse spee ond telephone dial is a simple a
ternally i n other countries. This is subject o f Part 11 o f this article.
legality (or otherwise) o f 'phone eaking. Using a blue box one can ke a 'phone call to virtually anyw the world at the cost o f a local call
udulent and if caught you would fa
uld start by dialling an ordinary
elty o f having the world at the'
ational operators, who are very frien i s a pleasant diversion on a winte
art metering the call and it does so e rate appropriate to the initial ST I , for as long as the telephone i s o e hook. This occurs because the
eather with the Sydney operate One type of circuit that is qui
I STD call is chosen to give a I
Once one has unrestricted access
ferent signalling systems are empl d and these too are normally 'in-ban ystems, in that they use tones with
pendent exchanges got demolishe a bomb and all circuits from rry to this exchange
conference was born. Conferenc s o occur on an international seal
enthusiast and fairly harmless.
The world is but a Blue Box away m a national to an international scale. tricted access to trunk routes then one
only international operators were tho located at the gateway exchange itself
n exchange or Group Switchin ntre. There were no 'shared tra Utes terminating at the automati
ccess to international routes until
e assistance o f an operator i n the ordinary STD call, the subscriber nal circuits i s located at centres kno ailing code i s then the prefix 010 [lowed by the country code and th Upon receipt of the ISD prefix, the riginating RT examines the country de to check i t s validity and to dete ne the appropriate metering rate.
17
Undercurrents equipment at the London International Exchange, the originating RT being then released. Until recently, one could dial, either over a trunk access or by AC9 simulation, the appropriate routing code which gives GSC's access to the International exchange. By by-passing the RT's in this way, the equipment did not 'screen' the country code that you sent and so you could enjoy full international operator status. One example of this was Edinburgh, where the trunk routing code 51 5 gave you the International RTs in London. Such direct methods are no longer available owing to considerable misuse, apparently by Post Office employees. I t i s not obvious, by the way, why one would route the call via Edinburgh instead of going directly to London. The reason i s that London i s sufficiently large to justify the provision o f special trunk exchanges to handle STD and ISD calls exclusively and the only routes onto these i s via originating RTs at the local director exchanges: there is no way to bypass these or even gain access to them incoming into London. I t was Post Office policy to introduce ISD at provincial non-director areas only over the trunk transit network, so that i t was not until early 1 973 that the first of these (Cardiff) had ISD. Other exchanges soon followed but for the sake of illustration we shall consider Cardiff. In September 1 972 the first circuits between Cardiff and the London International Exchange appeared. By dialling Cardiff trunks and then the code 12 one received a signal intended to initialise the transfer of digits, in SSMF2 form, from the Cardiff RT to the international registers. I f one's Blue Box was capable of sending SSMF2 one could respond to this signal, send whatever country code one pleased into the international registers, and again achieve international operator status. Those lucky enough to possess an SSMF2 Blue Box enjoyed the novelty of this new route to the rest of the world. The Post Office was disconcerted at this traffic appearing as soon as the circuits were installed and very quickly (ie a year later) took steps to prevent such misuse. By the following February the Cardiff RTs had been programmed to accept 1SD calls and the service became available to the public. (Coin boxes in Cardiff, incidentally, could not handle the high metering rate on calls to North America and so these were free of charge).
TELEPHONE SYSTEMS IN OTHER COUNTRIES Once a call has been set up to another country it i s possible to simulate the signalling employed over the international route and to explore the internal net-
work of the distant country. The two most important signalling systems used over international circuits are known as CCITT4 and CCITT5. In the signalling system CCITT4 digits are sent as four-bit binary numbers using two frequencies, 2400 H3 and 2040 H3, to represent 0 and 1 respectively. The control signals also use these frequencies. Digits are sent in response to signals received from the distant equipment, and the transit method of working i s generally employed between different countries. (The principles of the transit-working have been described in the first part of this article, as they apply to the internal trunk network in the UK). This signalling system i s unsuitable for use over satellite circuits since these introduce a return signal path of about 100,000 miles in length- corresponding to a time delay of some 600 milliseconds. In a'compelledsignalling system such as CCITT4 this delay i s added to the sending time of each digit which makes the overall setting-up time for a call for too high, bearing in mind the need for efficient use of expensive satellite circuits. CCITT4 finds i t s main application over shorter international routes, the main areas being Europe, South America and Africa. Over intercontinental and satellite circuits the system CCITT5 is normally used. This i s a high speed signalling system. Digits are sent in multifrequency (MF) form similar to the SSMF2 system already described but using different frequencies. The CCITTS frequencies are the same as those used by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT & T) for the North American internal signalling system, which i s very convenient for the Blue Box user. The two signalling systems differ only in the supervisory or control signals. The simulation of CCITT4 was of great interest to the telephone enthusiast in the early days of ISD when the international RT's handing ISD traffic had access only to those countries to which ISD was allowed. For example, Russia was first reached in this way; a call to Switzerland (which was allowed) was made and then extended to Moscow via the Warsaw transit. Since then, the equipment known as International Common Access (ICA) over which intcrnationdl operators connect calls, has become available for ISD traffic and most countries are now directly available to the enthusiast by the methods described above. With the availability of ICA interest in CCITT4 simulation has diminished. Simulation of CCITT5 is simpler than for CCITT4 since one does not have to respond to backward signals and the procedure i s simpler. Furthermore, with
the addition of a single frequency, 2600 Hz, the simulator can be used within North America. I f one i s actually in North America then the procedure is indeed very simple and i t requires very little effort to make calls free of charge to almost anywhere in the wor This accounts for the tremendous popularity of Blue Box in that contin ent, the vast majority being primarily interested in saving money on telephone bills. There are only a handful of enthusiasts interested in telephones for their own sake. I t i s possible to simulate the North American signalling system from the UK. The procedure i s best described by means of an example. Suppose you felt inclined to telephone an adjacent 'phone box via America you would proceed as follows. First set up a call to, say, the Philadelphia weather forecast. Having done this you would send a short burst of 2600 Hz. This is a 'tone on idle' supervisory frequency-that is, the application of this tone will 'clear down' the US internal circuit and i t s removal will reseize a circuit, the international circuit from the UK to the USA being unaffected. Next you would send (in MF form) the following digits-KP212183ST. The signals KP (Key Pulse) and ST (Start) are MF signals which must enclose blocks o f digits sent. This will connect you to area 21 2 (New York) and to the 'overseas sender' in that Gateway, the code 183 being i t s internal access code. When this equipment i s ready to receive digits it returns a continuous tone whereupon you send KP0441 838 7062 ST . The initial Lero i s a dummy digit, 44 i s the country code for the UK, 1 i s the area code for London and this i s followed, in this example, by the required London number. I find the Australian telephone system much more interesting than the American. There are two in dependent trunk networks. Down Under-the MFC (multifrequency compelled), and the 2VF (two voice frequency), handling STD and operator-originated traffic respectively. As far as I know, nobody outside of Australia has managed to simulate the MFC signalling, the difficulty being that the control signals are 'outband' (sent outside the normal 3000 H L voice frequency band). But provided that one i s incoming into Australia with operator status one can gain access to the 2VF network at centres such as Melbourne or Brisbane. This assumes that one knows the appropriate access codes. The 2VF network employs the AC1 signalling system, which uses two signalling frequencies: 600 Hz and 750 HL. Digits are sent in a similar way to AC9 signals but use the 600 HL frequency. The supervisory signals are
1
Undercurrents 7
r 2 seconds followed by 0.7 second the 600 Hz tone. This signalling
en mentioned above, it i s possible in access to this network incoming to Australia. This makes it possible e bulk of international traffic is Firstly, set-up a call to Adelai ew York (or some other US Ga
Australia has one Gateway exc ated in Sydney, and a second corn o operation shortly. Modern Cros switching is employed at the Gat y, and this has the facility of rest g the access t o the outgoing circui he transit mode to the appropria
perators. A few countries such as ITT5/USAsignalling. Having all connection to complete, the d
ench language. Spanish i s used me extent within South Americ the vast majority of cases the langu
digits, one next sends the digi 1 44 2 1.838 7603 followed r t burst of tone at 750 Hz to i
to allow discrimination by the incom equipment to prevent certain types of call. For cxampler, a subscriber is not allowed access to an assistance operat When ISD was first introduced to Ne! York from London one could dial New York using the published dialling code 0101 212, followed by the New York number. But instead o f diallin a New York number, one could dal further North American area code a follow this by 1211 to reach the inco ing assistance operator in that area.
pcrator and ask For Sydney, then dney for Hong Kong..... AII of ossible to a Blue Box user but in t ays it was quite novel, and require Today, discrimination by means of language digit '0' prevents all this. T "
"
"
the London ICA equipment when end of signalling. The digits 99 are the ess code for the Gateway exchang
en though a telephone enthusias ight consider i t a reasonable thin o. In practice, transit access from he required London number. This
the UK telephone enthusiast sine
horities have arranged for the inc equipment to reject incoming fic from London with this langu git. This can only be a temporary asure since ISD to Australia wil
difficulty in interfacing an o of signalling, AC1, with the i
ian ocean satellite, back to Lon
roughout the world the vario
s feat was first achieved in the j
reasing efforts to prevent the a way o f gaining unrestricted acces the international exchange and th ks as follows. Operators in ccrtai e exchanges, such as Adelaide, c
The term 'language digit' referre above is rather a misnomer and iginated in the days when most
Undercurrents PETER LAURIE'S book Beneath the City Streets* caused a l o t of interest first appeared i n 1970. Though a major part of it was devoted t o a descripti nuclear warfare and its effects, the most fascinating chapter for ma on 'Government Citadels i n Britain', i n which Laurie described the of tunnels and shelters that runs beneath London's pavements, the Government to which civil servants and members of the Cabinet would be parsed i n time of war or revolution, and the 'hardened' communications syste which would link all the Government's vital installations i n an emergency. Anyo who tries t o probe below the surface gfoss of Britain's Civil and Military defence obviously runs the risk of falling foul of the dreaded Official Secrets Act. To fin out how Laurie has managed t o stay on the right side of the bureaucrats, and t o discover how he now views some of the topics raised i n his book. Undercurrents went along t o interview h i m . .
ay, that was that. And the last brush Ihad with them
ve antennae.
.
aravate the Ministry o f Defen ordness. . and the thing abo e of shoot' of Orfordness. If arry on the Great Circle, it goes rough Plesetsk and Tyurata hich are the two Russian roc unching sites.so obviously so
started the job and we said "you' better be right about this because going to look pretty stupid if i t isn
dar in nineteen forty-five-o
r t of river of megawatts trun ross the middle o f Russia?"
overnment circles about Spies for P , . . , ~ ~ you . kno,., somelh,ng hdd out t h i ~ shouldn't h ~ v got c uut. The I cxciirment w3-i hri-duir thcv were
ten years time and they come nning round saying 'Jessus, there u c ~ I I C K hoks in thr giitund' me :.in ,J\ O i l , UI co~r'ie r~ic!n'i\ ou rrad was just a journalist-but you k
you know, ' M r g ~ d e ~W t hc e U y ' they lust go .ihi-dd ant'puhlish hat it looks like, how it works-b
candal, MP's had stood up 'You're spending a thousan
that if something's been me around once. 1 think they w 16, or relatives of someone in M blish something y o u are render) urself very likely to be prosecu
e any o f that. Afterwards, e way it works.. I n the old and hasn't been seen since, an was a spy, you know' and I sa thought you were both spies'.
1
Undercurrents 7
pleased about being in
at's also crap. A guy from Dollis Hill
funnel, on the way t o Bristol. Ha had any more feedback about tha
, there's no external reason eserving secrecy but there is still ternal reason for it.
t into the works, and they got up door and there were people on the
Undercurrents 7
tube stations have tal
t there's an awful l o t rbed wire, and you sa it i s that at such and
own, and the airshaft g the middle between th
ually discussed at Ca
lance stations and so on.
Undercurrents 7
vate Branch Exch
the Government system. An
through Liverpool, and the to observation tower Justcomes
to be installed i n Central London st Operators i n the control centre will This would eliminate the,need for special coaxial cables, since an ord telephone circuitcan usually hand 1 MHz, at least as far as the teleph
t Office Teleco
cameras and the Yard. Some cables will run under the pav decision by the GLC to extend the for added security.
y have noticed them on blocks o f sat Shepherds Bush and North
.
watched at any given moment.. it was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time."
tine and planned, there i s onother for 'crowd conrol'. Sites mentioned hy the Nrw Sricntiit (30 May 197-4, were Tr.-ilalear - Snuare, . . Whitehall and Grosvenor Square, three of the usual locations for demonstrations and public meetings. The traffic and cro control systems can, according to t same article, be interfaced at any ti -though this can only be regarded a n added electronic convenience, sin even if the systems were not capable o f interconnection, there would alw be room in the control room for a Soecial Branch man t o stand lookin er the traffic cop's shoulder. The next stage of the CITR heme may call for a further cameras in outer London, and said that similar schemes are envis many o f the larger towns in this country during the next decade. T Post Office is already developing cheaper CCTV transmission syste
i e expertise needed to send somewh rainy T V pictures zapping around eneath the pavements everywhere i ready in the PO'Sgrasp. And cities lesperate t o clear the traffic-jams o f 'ie seventies will find themselves ( hance or by intention?) ready to i o n the mass riots of the eighties. Knightsbridge: Next time you shop at Harrods, someone may be watching.
,
undercurrents
I
goods and services to such station Very few offshore stations su ' legislation, but some o f the mor sual modes o f broadcasting (such
The cohesion and community spi oked by the radio stations in such
groups t o exploit them 'for domestic
his, at any rate, is the dream.
read a circuit diagram b) some
rystal set' level of competence i n ronics, any more than you woul
icient to ensure that the little o f expertise and familiarity ne
self books on the market. I recently, the main Act o f
legraphy Act, 1949, which most ople considered very wide-ranging
onveyance, through the agency o f lectric, magnetic, electro-magnetic, ectro-chemical or electro-mechani
countries where such devices are legal! permissible, or to that bright future da when all these repressive Acts have en repealed or, better still, governme elf abolished, and ordinary mortals e you and I have the freedom o f the
any matter otherwise than in rm o f sound or visual images;
The penalties under the act ar e not exceeding Ă‚ÂŁ400two ye prisonment; or both. So, most of the items describe article are, in a word, illegal.
most everyone inside that radius be able to receive the station The disadvantages are:possible interference from ght when ionospheric cond ause a large number of Con
h censorship would not be tolerat
h respect to the spoken or written arine Offences Act. This made it
unaercurrents
network, named b semblance to the Greek
1
Undercurrents 7 he second and more important etering point is point X, where at all possible) a milli-ammeter with cale reading 1-100 mA should be
nsitivity by suitable shunting. The gative meter lead is in this case
00 pf. I f the meter has a DC distance in excess o f 1 ohm or
he
e also suitable. 807 (now solete) i s excellent as are most trodes, but few perform as well on
'net' position allows the oscill bufferldriver to be switched o ithout the PA, which is useful for ning the transmitter to a 'blank' nel, checking for interference ation n y very brief details can be give ough experience on-the-air will s in the gaps. The operations are mbered so that this section may b ed as a 'check-list* when operatin Connect mains, aerial, earth and
1.
TAPPIN
ETvaoRK
COIL
-
Of
S.k
CJWJçM-C^
*PPlti^s Ev&y 5 TURNS oç -TURNS f t W R t t .
7 Function switch.
esents a transmitter power o f 1 ts, 50 ma a power of 12.5 watt difference to a listener i s bare
his power i n audio to modulate the ignal fully - and much more when thi nodulation transformer i s an output learned about the gen;ral healtl transmitter by observing the brig
ie
Fig. 11). For mediu arth system I
inimum current reading nodulation') causes distorted receptioi ind interference ('splatter') t o adjacen ,tations. Insufficient modulation men [with the meter anywhere other th a t the bottom of i t s 'dip
he effective range o f the sign In this brief section we hav
ipped together at the top provide alternative. In an emergency, a
..
lear, as far ~bjectssucl 'quipment,
vire would be ideal). However, haifvave end-fed wires pay'present loadin roblems, and quarter wa ore recommended.
ir more) rolls o f foil are me1 led to the ceiling and foine
n the design of VHF frequency modu ated (FM) transmitters for entertainnew broadcasting purposes. The ma1
Undercurrents 7
Tune the receiver
struments for setting up and al criminate very strongly against can be 'deceived' by a mixture
orks. Frequency drif d by good screening a
plished by a novel and q tive system employing o
u l d be mounted inside a leaving holes for adjus nimise 'hand capacity' and 0th urces o f frequency 'pulling'. A ggested lay-out i s shown below n no respect critical. Some f o
One). It consists of two power output calves, one used as an oscillator for the carrier-borne modes, the other as an
mounted Upright OA81 or any smal 1000 pF. C.2.
the more expensive receivers in which the earpiece socket i s not linked directly to the speaker but to a pre-amplifier
-
.
the receiver is in use as an amplifier) quite automatically. To use the receiver as a 'universal 8
19).
s a check that this has been done
involves interrupting or breaking one af the inputs to the volume control.
Usually the volume control is wired c
fleet it outwards. This
) GROUND CONDUCT
OD R£-RAtirt
HAM RADIO AND TV The Big Switch-on HERE IN THE United States we're exploring some alternative uses o f amaeur radio. The basic idea is t o out mateur hardware and frequencies i e hands o f people actively trying t t their own lives and their world omewhat better shape. In Peter Harper T spectrum (see Undercurrents 6 ) it uld probably be classified as 'RAT/ ' w i t h such features as user control, cost per mile-hour o f communicaion over the life of the equipment, an elatively low environmental impact. T uipment itself uses high technolog mponents which are not readily nufacturable on a cottage indust asis. It i s very much survival techno , however, i f you get your rig and ba spare parts before the industrial While there are some people ru eir hands gleefully i n anticipation o f such a collapse, they must he envisio asort o f gentle disintegration. An abrupt collapse would probably resul in the starvation of millions, with mar ding bands of armed people combin countryside for food. There would be no escaoe. even for hack-to-the-land
running'. We're trying to establish
.
.
.
riented to alternatives and change . ransients, however, often represent th tionary majority of the ham poput , and we've had a few out-and-out cists advocating "retroactive birth ntrol' and world-war Ill as solutio the world's problems. I think of these folks as fellow v a culture that has screwed us all u his helps me to continue to regard th human kines while disaereeine with eir point of view. Also, Goking bac er my own changes of outlook duri e last ten years helps to keep me fro ing too strongly convinced that I f have the answer! The only real fficulties we have encountered so far are the same ones that affect all amate radio activities: the erratic nature o f t nosphere as a radio mirror, and inte rence from other stations sharing th me band o f frequencies. The Roundtable stations use sing! eband voice transmission which is standard practice on the HF (high fr quency or shortwave) amateur band these days. Reception o f these sign requires either a receiver designed fo ham use, or a shortwave receiver w i BFO (beat frequency oscillator). Si most home-type shortwave receivers not have this feature, broadcasting to neral ~ ~at home ~in ,$,in d ,,eS ~ ~ public~is a technical ~ impod y , even i f we wanted to (which is ham radio and SSTV equipment. The 't). Our philosophy has been to nit with the round screen is an e strictly by the rules. Thes oscilloscope he converted into a sl es allow us to do almost anyth monitor. (Slow-scan pictures a do. The law in this case prot normally viewed with subdued roo ur activities, and we arc happy t o liahtina to maximize contrast. 1 perate. I might mention that the U nusually liberal about the conten
book reviews (Limits to Growth and
forementioned Robert Theobald
ge;-Don Marier of Alternative Sour Energy magazine, and Nicholas
en to fifteen stations involv up size is small enough to al participation by everyone. For t
between us, and limit international munications between amateur static technical nature relating to tests, and
Undercurrents 7
fashion must be
Undercurrents 7
young, I'm quite happy with progr us far. Much of the credit goes to hn Shuttleworth and the others a
of magazine space to nurturing t
The standards are shown in Table he slight differences in standards di
on signals from both areas. The sts of 1200Hz subcarrier. This s carrier is frequency shifted by th eo signal to transmit various sha
r a single voice channel. I n essen ombines T V pickup and display hniques with radio facsimile rno n and demodulation techniques ow transmission of a 120 by 120 V picture in an 8 second period. Conventional T V requires a very rge bandwidth because each pictu
ansatlantic tests in 1959, and me
720 line amateur slow-scan TV tures. (One-frametime exposures o
mode o f transmit
elecommunications came around
ness on peaks of sp e modulated beam, ns of a lens or, prefer
uch with each ot
T ROOT. the commercial-based mass dia are industrial and commercial anisations, which produce and ri bute commodities. Their profi i t y , and hence their dcvelopmen therefore inextricably hound up ith the general economic situatio For a variety o f reasons, the sec alf o f the sixties saw a decline in t ate o f profit (ie the return on capi xpressed as a percentage of the cap mployed). Whereas, in 1964, the pr x profit stood at 11 per cent, by 19 had fallen away to 5.8 per cent ne of the responses to this situatio w.,s the boom n mcrgers and t.~<eovers a-i companies ,iitempicd to con50 i d ~ t e
^'*
Dimensions of Concentration Under the general heading o f tion' we can distinguish three inter-rela ted but separable processes: horizonta and vertical integration; diversification Horizontal integration refers to th cess whereby firms acquire ad sat the same level o f produc table examples include: the a n o f the Times and Sunday Times e Thomson Organisation; Rupert urdoc h's acquisition o f the News e World and the Sun; and Pearso oneman's acauisition o f Penguin ~ o o k < As i . a result 01 lhc->eand other mrxcrs and tdi<cuver-> at the lhori/ont~l vel, key sectors of the communicat dustry are increasingly dominated
ass media sector acquires interests her in other media sectors or i n rts o f enterprises. One of the ch e tendency o f media companies t xpand their interests into other luc ' e areas of leisure provision such a ting out, drink and holiday accom ation. For example, the Rank Organis ion, which has substantial interests i ide range of media and leisure sec uding cinema exhibition and broa cast te~evision'~', recently acquired Butlin hol'd:^ cdmps. and narro\vlv failed in us lb'd fiir t ' i i ' i\'irncv Mdnn
I morning and Sunday newspapers, aperback publishing and cinema hibition for example, the five Ie ere enmeshed in the same web of
ompanies with interests in a partic
lowed those devised by other sec industry. The result was an increa
e provision of raw materials and ganisation of distribution and ret notable instance of this 'vertical ovement was the acquisition by
) o f the Associated British
terests, these two acquisitions ga e company a stake i n practically apers, commercial television an
er cent o f the total circulation of a1
for six o f the top twenty box off? cesscs; and EM1 cinemas accounte
27.6 per cent o f the company's 1 turnover). By the same token, co panies which already have interes
I , the sugar manufacturi
, for
example, have adde
Undercurrents 7 aders ' . . has been sold to ndon weekday contract0
re more or less split exactly equal1 h 49 per cent from the diversified
ess: intermeshing. Not only i s t rol of the mass communication
the turnover o f commercial tele anies was increased, and i n the ctorships and reciprocal arrang
were Ă&#x201A;ÂŁ5. mllion, a reduction of 5.4 per cent on the previous year. Of the total. onlv 1 1 oer cent was accounted he network television ope
er, sustained considerably g tions i n profit margins; 5 9 p n t tn the case of Westward TV,
ttern of inter-relationships i s imm complex, but a relatively simple example will suffice to iliustratc the general point. 7 he institutional shareholders in ATC incluile Rcrd InternationI and Beaverbrook Newspapers L t d
intermediary o f the Birming t and Mail Group Ltd), Pear ngman, whose operating compa
quotation also underlines a furt y factor i n the present situation o f itish mass communications; growin ternationalisation. The multi-medi mpanies operating in Britain are i n creasingly also multi-national concern Internationalisation has several facet The most ohv;ous dnd t h most ~ widely publicised is the extent of forciqn, and more oarticuI.irk American. ownersiiio
tantial interests and holdings i n th America. The Rank Organisa rests i n the Xerox Corporation, 's ownership o f the Capitol rec
rangements. Often such arrangemen ave the function of facilitating the ion for export, and the growth of iprocal arrangements between B
Undercurrents 7 and publishing, and between MGM in feature film distribut
ternationai interests. The logic o f the present eco
0th these series feature an Ameri
inite cost advantages. Original oductions, for example, are exp
quite likely to attract two or t h times the audience at a quarter o t costm. Again, given the economic gic underlying the situation, con
In practice, around two thirds of connected to cable systems rent t
The logic of the situation ais
ak market conditions-reorga eliminate activities unlike me profitable, to promot
more particularly commodities wh will sell in the American market. Pr duction for export as a means of ium on material which will be inte places at most times. In terms o f tel
n material featuring international ame stars against international 'ie ackgrounds, or on material which
and 'The Protectors' exemplify the first of these genres*, while the sec
levision is one obvious example. The ema provides another. The top two x office films o f 1972, 'The Godher' and 'Diamonds are Forever'
further 10 DOT centI9'. Initially the main advantages systems was the strength and cia
s these processes, that the potenti s of new communications techno!
the need to remain competiti
themselves in the position of more search for ways o f increasing the on their substantial investment in systems. Basically two options pre ed themselves: firstly to increase subscriber density in the existing a and secondly, to actuatise what the Chairman o f British Relay has calle
Undercurrents 7 mpanies' investments in the present ble experiments give them an impor
could weft be that the extended age of the systems. . may develop when the growth period o f coiour television is coming to an end'. :. We attach great importance to experiment which we see as the op ing for cable systems to provide se vices which will lead to additional
sidiaries include Rediffusion Cable Ltd, the company operating the '6 Channel' station, owns Rediffusion Holdings Ltd, whose subsidiaries inclu Wembley Stadium Ltd.(14' This place the company i n an advantageous posit1 with respect to the other main function
eo cassettes and local commer
roducts and services.
woufd open doors to a new era neighbourhood communication
nel similar to the current experis, a community arts channel ,an education channel, a citizens' nel for the expression o f rninori s, a shop window for local trade
the transmission and reception o f various cable facilities. Given favourabl decisions by the various European
d e n t from other sources that
'Like other Innovations since wi telegraphy, cable has been introduce to the public with a vision of a bette life for a slight additional charge . . The public is asked to believe that e same entrepreneurs
at a commercial cable system wou simultaneously provide 'the broadcast
e 'Box Office' and 'Second Chance'
c t as public relations exerci at establishing the present cable o f running a domest
sectors, however, this assumption tha the private interests of the companie are synonymous with the public need of the communities they serve, i s ope to considerable doubt.
currently operating would control the stations and provide a significant derived from a basic customer su tion, supplemented by various mixes relay o f commodity and stock hange prices to hotels and offices The companies involved in the
The CTA's proposals rest on a d
Undercurrents 7 between control over'hardware'and control over 'software'. The fact th the cable companies will be separat from the programme companies i argued, provides a sufficient guarant against the extension of conglomerat control. This argument is, however, belied by the emerging pattern of in relationships between 'hardware' an 'software' interests. So far,British provisions for the regulation o f co mercial mass communications syst have conspicuously failed to addres the phenomenon o f intermeshing. I no longer sufficient to confine att to instances o f horizontal integra (as in the case o f the Monopolies mission report on film exhibition or to focus on the cross ownership of newspaper publishing and commercia broadcasting. It i s now necessary t o consider any further extension o f commercial provision against the ba ground o f the increasing concentra of conglomerate control over t h e w field o f mass communications and leisure provision. Similarly, it i s impe tive to consider the extent to which rseas control o f local cable syste be congruent with the needs an erests o f the people in these areas. The most satisfactory alternative t piecemeal commercial expansion e systems i s to incorporate cable tionally planned communications system provided and maintained by the Post Planning the future development f cable as part o f an integrated system covering telephone and data transmission facilities as well as rzdio and TV has two main advantages. Firstly, it avoids the wasteful duplication and underutilisation o f existing Post Office plant and facilities. Secondly, it ensures that public needs take precedence over In the area o f programming, two key issues need to be considered: access, and accountability. Under the system proposed by the CTA, the extent o f public access to programme making facilities would be determined by the company holding the licence for the station. I t would, therefore, be an e tension o f access by courtesy o f th ompanies, as in the case o f the let olumns i n newspapers and the 'acces rogrammes such as 'Open Door* o roadcast television. It would not cess guaranteed as a right, but ace ranted as a privilege. The question f access, however, cannot be adequa y discussed or resolved in isolation. must be considered as part o f the ider question of accountability. Commercial cable programming uld be caught up in the same netw of economic pressures as other sectors of the mass communications industry, Continued on page 51
Scrapi
The Botto
the
Skeptic
Tan
Dear Comrades
commented on the obituary 1 wro UC5. I n editing their letters I obvi
sides) :but I hope they will not feel to victimised.
spontaneous flavour and d i fact that I didn't always un
advanced in UC5: a) 'Alternative Technology' (singular does not exist in the sense o f an 'obv consistent and widely-held set of principles. b) 1. 'Alternative Technologies' (plu don't really work except under speci circumstances which restrict them to minorities with eccentric tastes, lots money, or a willingnes'i to muck abou with their life-styles. 2: Alternative Technologies are the fore either financiaiiy or culturally unacceptable to the vast majority of people and can be criticised as
rms demonstrating its effectivene
ve a growing number o f une d, andare in any event as a n overfed, we feel the argume my part, I have never r
and severally, with a set of (possibl unpleasant) choices among mutuall
an ethical and political stand. The purpose of the article i n UC was to start exploring some o f the possible choices, and I hoped other people would do the same. Most of the responses I had,however, conte the premises of the argument and the fore did not feel obliged to commit themselves. Miserable finks. just whe
e freaks may revel in this, but I do
But of course, that is exactly what asked for-reasons why my 'pessimi was mistaken. The replies felt more less into the following categories.
tconventiona te
41
is raises the whole question of automy and communality, both com-
afraid I feel there Is little of
ent as and insofar as i t exist p easurable pastime for those wi
imitive and/or neo-te erne goal o f the system: eve
t Harold is not particularly an e ak. He i s a romantic socialist w h ess his heart) sees the essence of
s of working that give mean
palling accountancy, capital rather, technocratic mass p r
Tenthusiasts are in the m terested in windmills or b
and and coupling this t o a ve olic attitude to social and sex
cy and time-consumin 'ng by means of tradit
anted that choosing a te all these goals may be u polluting to some degree, but sue hnology can hardly fail to be tter than the main cast of dev
nocratic state.
tively opposing the exploitation. 0 e other hand, while this 'freak-out'
'ciency and demy there cannot fall t ast escapes the charge of elitis
antages but we must be honest ab disadvantages. In this particular cas
AT, but as with environmental act, substitutes one form for anot arrot-pulling backache instea embly line blues); and only
And then, when we have learn
so many suburbanites, be risoned by the separation
not. The question t o ask i s
vement) is dead, or a? rmous stash of e the impact o f man is no
The distribution of wealth a among us is surely what we
.system. Only when we turn o backs on it can we hope to b
backwater based on an
I cdn't decide whether that. was
rucial change that must be a oinq, and b) parallel to those
n that case, another respon
manent revolution (stand
Most important,you raise stion of economics, which
hanging the nature o f cost inp
masses. What? But this is an a orsement of philistine values ere
'Blueprintism*, 'fre ining the Gadaren
und, and it would be nice i f w d find some softer versions ur co-operation rather than r a i l that bullshit about Takin nd). Blueprintism for example Really 1believe that 'a/tern
constitutes a crucial contrf o the process of continuou
k obsolete, Iwouldsay y o u
be pages trying to commen
've put these and a few o t a diagram. All parts shou rate with all the other parts, a Technology will ultimately re e made flesh. It should at least t, AT'S cannot be wheeled into
opianism . . is a concept to creep into UC far too e all aware o f the mind-fuc
sonable cost. They are only pra in conjunction with changes e and standards of consum
drawn it as i f it's 'balanced', ourse anyone else will think it's
Undercurrents 7
the British public for two months. An when it did come out, the torture w hitewashed by the Compton repor advantage o f the innoce unding nature of the procedures; g against a wall with a hood over y white noise is played into ounds unusual but hard! tal. ( i n fact, the Government ad ater that some internees suffere mental damage, and pai trick Shivers, Ă&#x201A;ÂŁ5,000 dam ages in the Belfast High Court). That particular style of interrogat was fluicklv banned but even the ban
SSRS paper No 2. 52 pages. 30p vailable from The British Society
om Jonathan Roscnhead's conferen aper on 'Technology', and also some ackground and historical material hich shows the influence of the ot I this material is that after Irelan Army expects i t s next assignmen in Britain itself. The joint operati th the police at Heathrow, the ma
e. The authorities in an advanced
statements by senior soldiers o f enty of that, simultaneously conceal e political logic which underlies the each technological weapon in a spe uation. In Ireland, British forces are
Army's thirty-odd counter-insurgency operations around the world since the second world war has not all been wast
have that class struggle in Britain is
uch too complacent about the n hnologies of riot control and re n introduced in Ireland. We cou
t to get hurt ourselves, but not so ay that our magnificent work for t ose gadgets in a war where the
utality of the Kenyan concent mps makes way for the subtler rturc of sensory deprivation. The BSSRS paper finds little e
SRS paper makes this clear, thou must still wait for a full analysis workings of Army PR in Ireland, nd the manipulation of the British ews media. The most interesting cas
ill at an early stage, but the BS
ed into houses In Andersonstown
his wasn't really intended to extract
ceiving the attention o f Her rces. I t should also stop the
ung children were playing-not a astly mistake but a typical event, desb e d by the children's mother at the
IRA. The object appears to have bee terrorise the population outside. Thu
and suffering, as the Army som es. CS gas, for example, i s not a
e population as a whole. Canislers are
Undercurrents 7
rsive books to app rs. Books, particular y mass mar erback ones, hold the potential to h through into the minds of ence, but the mere availabili of ideas and arguments at a I
Undercurrents. For us, I think we admire his marshalling of the
activity and be disappointed with the coverage of practical experimentation But such a reaction would somehow
hat whilst one must not see tec
appearance o f respectability is goin enable it to act as a Trojan horse
nology and in a following one, mediate technology (he does t quately but without conveying an d arbitrarilydefined subject ar
extraordinarily well-read-his thropology, politics, philosop
m all without arousing too mu
erent 'world-view' o f the idea
ney, I think he oversta the non-determinist, his
tical requirements seems to akin to another eternal unan
e must be very grateful. The f ost insiders will probably want pply some degree of corrective t
ethnology' for the conventional om of 'progress through science
ne, what now becomes at s t all along, i f only we were aw
Undercurrents 7
welcome than a society dominated b
It i s this personal worry about ho hange' i s to be effected that conce
r t to crumble as technologists eir own minds up about how the
After an amazing ac
rid where one company (Burmah) 280 subsidiaries, where companies
lear energy with a succinct t the coal situation - but, after
But buy the report, and see h o
The da/zling hypocrisy
size (48 A4 pages); as well as start UP to date. The Troubleshooters arc live and cynical, from Hull to Housto Maureen Brent e Oil Fix: An Inve'iti~ationinto the ntrol and Costs of Energy. 60p +
olesalers is that they just ant to know about new magaFORE YOU rush off earch project on meth
mind. Yes, solar water-pumps
Field work was necessarily limi t some o f the students concern
me from developing countries t
Labour Exchange.
.. nd-power experiments are well-kn
ect done by Alex Weir when at UMIST led to the design
E MAGAZINE which tries to re1 r Weir was Needham's 5c vi/isution in Chino. Other projects likely to dercurrents readers include the-art review of wind pow tical survey of power suppi
er cover (like Stefan Szcze rgy Scrapbook, if you've s ). I understand th
61-page book of synopses, an project reports themselves.
Continued from page 41 with the same consequences. That is, pressure on profitability is likely t .. . . ..
mission has no intention of encouragi the expansion of 'public a c ~ e s s ' . " ( ~ ~ 1 he starting point for formulat'
'it potential. This means that the :ofitable 'community' options are y t o be allocated minimum staffin
unlikely t o make any effort
mum necessary to retain their licence. There is, therefore, a gap between wha delivcrcd, hetwccn the possibilities public access and democratic
and local community, on which th community members have a major And the final guarantee o f genuine primarily to their shareholders rather than t o the community; as long as accountability issubordinated to accountancy. I n response t o these kinds o f
.. --...-. .. - 8
.
ship. iz41 This sort o f alternative rais number of problems, most no the question o f finding alternative
ever t o be properly explored, it is essential that the feasibility o f these alternatives should be adequately
16) Electronics manufacture acc or 2 3 per cent o f EMI's 1971-2 I
,., ,,cL L,cL,vGu fro ,and the 7 per cent attributable
a , l L a L LL,c
Public regulating bodie alter the basic economic dynam underlying the situation, and the they cannot prevent the criteria o profitability from becoming the the IBA's recurrent failure to ens
franchise applications makes clear, in the final analysis profitability takes precedence over promises. There is no reason to suppose that this equation will be reversed in the case of cable television. Indeed, extrapolating from the record of the American Federal Communication Commission i n cable suppose that it won' .
...
Idhause, Cable Bu c d that what the F minimum' was ma cable operators do not have an t o grant more than one 'public
See Andrew Glyn and Be ( I 972) British Capitalism, W the Profits Squeeze (Penguin Glyn anil Sutcliffe, op c i ~ (3) For full details o f the figi sources referred t o in this se< Graham Murdock and Peter i
. ... u.
W..b.U".
--".,
7.7 (London : The. Merlin Pr 234. e company holds 37.6 per
ordinary shares i n Souther on