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The "Training College Radio" venture started when we discovered that the whole Engineering School and Training College buidling area was interconnected by old communication cables installed when the aerodrome was being used as a military airport during the war.
We investigated the cable runs for a telephone connection, and having achieved that came up with the idea of connecting into the PA system that ran throughout the Training College hostel buildings.
We had first to make a connection at the Engineering School Office to connect the hostel to the TC cable.
We had to know the colour codes of the wire pair we wanted. The actual connection was made under the floor of the college office so the PABX itself was not tampered with. The PA system was adjacent to the headmasters office. We put a piece of wood on the output leads from the amp so it could not be pulled up. Thus the whole thing was invisible to anything but a detailed exploration. To complete the connection a hookup needed to be put in place between the PA system and the Training College Office PABX, it is probably still there today. The difficulty was that we had to get into the office to make the final connection, and we were stumped there.
While discussing the matter in the common room one of the quieter Engineers came up with a simple solution. He suggested we just put on our white lab coats and walk in broad daylight to the office and tell them we were looking for a telecom fault.
And he did just that, I don't remember who was there, I think there were three of us (the names escape me at present, anyone remember?). He went up to the secretary said a phone fault had been reported and she showed us to the switch-board.
I remember shifting the PA system amplifier which was in a high cabinet out from the wall so we could make the connection to the speakers. The cable was probably 100 pairs so we were able to hide the connection in the bundle, it is probably still there. We slid the cabinet back against the wall and walked out restraining the urge to run.
Being able to connect up at will to the PA system via the cable to Penelope's under the new hostel was quite an advantage.
Having made the connection we were able to play music and make announcements at will anytime, usually late at night.
I recall that the college authorities were so pissed that they pulled out the cables to their PA system speakers, and then were forced to reconnect them again as they could not make any PA announcements.
One real laugh during our hookup efforts was the situation with the great flood.
The hookup was a three year effort on our part starting with identifying what we thought (mistakenly) was the route of the cable out to the old radio shack. John distinctly recalls the look of dismay on my face when search for cable manholes I dislodged the ball valve on a fire hydrant with my pick (it was the actual pressure line we had found).
The ground shook with the water hammer and how that happened was a mystery to us at first until we understood that there must be something lodged under the ball. All as we stood in the spreading pond, a full 18000 gallons worth. We attempted to go up to the water source at the dam to turn it off but were unable to find the appropriate valve. Then we had to (very disguised and at night) tell the maintenance guy at the training college that there seemed to be a water leak and problem. We remember how pleased he was to see us and how he he thanked us: "Oh thanks... ". All the tanks were drained and he had bypassed the filters and was desperate to find the leaks. So desperate that he took absolutely no notice of who we were. |
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For one April 1st a new "medical school" site signage was erected in Newmarket to try and stir up a controversal topic at the time.
Another time a "radioactive" canister that fell out of the back of a van in Queens Street. Mark was the driver, I was one of the "pushers" in the back and John drove interference. The police of course could not find any radioactivity in spite of he very clear trefoil signage, but to be sure they carted it out in the Deodar to the middle of the Rangitoto channel and deep sixed it.
And then there was the wobbling lecture platform - when we put a small block under the platform and as the lecturers moved around it went clonk clonk from one side to the other. And how this worked well until after lunch when Titchener arrived to give a lecture and without batting an eyelid or any investigation corralled several of us to pend the platform and remove the block- a very practical engineer. Must have been a good topic for the staff during their lunchtime. |