Codan -_Outback_radio_to_global_communications.pdf Codan_-_Outback_radio_to_global_communications.pdf
CODAN - Outback radio to global communications - Part 1
by Malcolm R Haskard (VK5BA)
1. Introduction
The establishment of a radio communication system by Alf Traeger and later his company Traeger
Transceivers Pty Ltd, all part of the Rev. John Flynn's "mantle of safety", brought relief to the
Australian outback. Following WW2, advances in technology allowed significant upgrades,
including a move from AM to SSB, and these needed upgrades allowed three recent graduates,
through their a newly formed company Eilco, later Codan, to meet this challenge and run with it.
Over the past forty years this company has grown from a backyard operation to Australia's largest
supplier of commercial HF communication equipment, as well as a major manufacturer of
microwave systems, exporting some 85% of production to over 150 countries. Truly a global
service.
This article is divided into two parts, the first providing an overview of the history of Codan and a
discussion on their design philosophy and manufacturing methods, while the second gives a
summary of the HF products marketed.
2. The history of Codan
In the 1950s three young men attended the University of Adelaide, Ian Baker Wall, Alistair Edward
Rose Wood and Irvine James (Jim) Bettison, and while they were enrolled in different courses they
had common interests. Ian and Alistair had met previously at St. Peters College, Adelaide, but it
was during their first year at University that their interest in engineering and particularly electronics
drew them together and they became friends. Alistair was the first to graduate, his Degree of
Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering being awarded in 1954. Ian undertook a
Bachelors Degree in Electrical Engineering and even in 1954, his final year, there was the desire to
design and commercialise his knowledge and skills, so during that year he designed a power supply
for commercialisation. Ian and Alistair also obtained amateur radio certificates of proficiency being
allocated the call signs VK5IW and VK5ZAE respectively. Together they built UHF mobile
amateur radio equipment, perhaps their first joint venture into communications.
On graduation Alistair undertook part time lecturing in Mechanical Engineering while Ian was
employed by Philips at their factory Radio and TV Design Laboratories at Hendon, Adelaide. Even
during the early years of University and afterwards the two formed a working association that
designed and built electronic equipment. Known everywhere as Wood and Wall, they initially
operated out of Ian’s home at Hampstead Gardens. Alistair’s father, a marine engineer, had
previously had the stables at his Gilberton home converted into a workshop so when needed there
was access to this facility. The two designed and built equipment for the University, repaired taxi
receivers and gradually the home business grew until with normal day work it was like having two
jobs. A decision needed to be made whether or not to go full time into their own engineering
business.
Jim Bettison's interests were a little different to his University engineering friends. There were
common bonds such as a love of good cars (Ian having at the time an MG TC, Alistair a Triumph
TR3A and Jim a Triumph TR2, both with electric overdrive), and a desire to operate a business.
Jim's university fields of study were very different, yet complemented the two engineers, and
included history, law and commerce. In 1961 he graduated with an Honours Degree of Bachelor of
Arts in History. Having a love of theatre and the arts he secured for himself the agency for Strand
Electric, UK, theatre lighting equipment manufacturers. When needed Wood and Wall were
engaged to assist him designing variable reactors and such to control the lighting. With all three
friends having a desire to have their own business, it was but a small leap to form a joint company,
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Ian and Alistair providing the engineering side and Jim the needed skills in commerce and law. The
new company, The Electronic, Instrument and Lighting Company Limited was formed on the 1st
July 1959. With the financial help of parents, adjacent house properties at 7 - 9 Osmond Terrace,
Norwood were acquired, and early 1960 the company moved to this address.
In forming Eilco they saw as their main areas of operation those that were spelt out in their
company's name - electronics, instruments and lighting. The long name was often truncated to
Eilco, but there was opposition to this by EIL Services and it was many years before Eilco would
become a registered name. The strong motivating forces for forming the company was not simply
to apply their knowledge and skills, but also to bring professionalism to bear on the electronics
industry. The years servicing faulty instrumentation, control and mining equipment as well as
transceiver repairs had revealed that many items of equipment would not perform to the
specifications the manufacturers claimed. The lessons learned from those early days would stand
them in good stead both now and in the years ahead.
In the beginning the company took on a wide range of electronics work for it was a matter of
survival. They applied their skills to redesign and manufacture medical instrumentation amplifiers
for the company Both Equipment, the servicing of electronic instruments for government
departments and other organisations, as well as the development of their own products such as
theatre sound and lighting systems. Ian remained at Philips until the end of 1959 and even in later
years used his TV knowledge and skills to do part time lecturing in TV at the SA Institute of
Technology, School of Electronic Engineering. The Anglican Bush Church Aid Society operated a
School of the Air from a base station located at Ceduna, South Australia and approached Eilco to
assemble some HF radio transceivers that had been designed by the late George Cameron. By 1961
there were two major new product initiatives, firstly the move into HF communications and
secondly into ultrasonics and while both produced rewards, it was particularly the first of the two.
The portable "lunch box" transceiver, type 6104 that eventuated was a blessing to the people of the
outback, its success enhancing the Eilco reputation. The transceiver was compact, rugged, reliable,
weighing 10 lbs, having its own in-built antenna tuner so that it could work with the simplest of
antennas, matching indicated by simply peaking the brightness of a lamp, and requiring only 3
amps current from a 12 volt battery or mains supply. This set became the standard for everyone,
mining companies, surveyors, church organisations, and government departments, all who were
using HF radio in the outback. Figure 1 shows the publicity leaflet for this set. At this stage it is
interesting to note the Eilco custom of issuing a product with a four digit type number, the first two
digits indicated the year the idea for that product originated (not the year released to market), while
the second two digits represented the product sequential number for that year. This numbering
system was retained up until the nineteen nineties, however with time the second two digits were
frequently selected to have a type number which simply had a good "ring" about it.
Eilco was now starting to grow. This growth is reflected in the entries in the original products book,
a hand written book where product orders and ideas were written and given a type number. In the
early years the products listed are below ten per year, rising to the twenties per year by the mid 60s
and peaking almost to forty by 1968. The company had diversified in many ways, including
relationships with other organisations as well as forming subsidiaries. George Ramsay ran a sheet
metal and machine shop, Ramsay Brothers Pty Ltd, Eliza Street, Adelaide, and being an amateur
radio operator (VK5GD) had assisted in building the studios of several of the local broadcast
stations. Eilco often employed him to do sheet metal and other construction work for them. This
relationship proved useful in the longer term for when the Ramsay business closed in the mid 70s,
Eilco purchased much of his plant for their own metal workshop.
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Printed circuit cards for Eilco were made by IMP Engineering and Associates, founded in 1965 by
Roy Pettet, Bob Hodgson and Fred Fischer and located at Wingfield an outer Adelaide suburb and
once again when the opportunity was right, namely when Roy and Fred in 1979 wished to retire,
Eilco purchased the company, initially establishing it at Newton as IMP Engineering Pty Ltd and
currently as IMP Printed Circuits Pty Ltd, at Cavan SA. Frank Choate had established a transformer
making business called E F Transformers and in 1965 this became part of the Eilco organisation,
housed in a weatherboard building at the back of Osmond Terrace, Norwood premises.
In the late 1960s there was an international move to change HF communication methods from AM
to SSB and although a more complex system, it was more efficient in its use of the HF spectrum.
Eilco initially set about designing a hybrid set utilising quick heat valve technology for the final
stage of the transmitter and elsewhere transistors. Fortunately, towards the end of the design phase
RF power transistors were just starting to appear on the market so the final version was delayed and
redesigned, so when released, as the type 6924, it was a fully solid state transceiver. Although the
delay caused some difficulties, as will be seen later, it laid the foundation for the years ahead. The
change to SSB meant that all of the Royal Flying Doctor Service bases needed to be upgraded and
so the Government called an initial tender in 1968. Eilco applied. At the time there was a feeling in
some quarters that a newly formed, small company like Eilco could never handle a half milliondollar project. Interestingly Eilco must have sensed this for they had previously approached Alf
Traeger to see if he was interested in a joint operation, he having the name and contacts while Eilco
the new technology. Their invitation was declined. As frequently happens with tenders for new
systems various additional considerations arose and so tenders were recalled. In June 1970 Eilco
received the purchase order to re-equip twelve RFDS base stations. In addition to these base
stations there was now the need for portable, mobile and home stations capable of receiving SSB, a
significant new market. Kingsley Hannaford from the Department of Supply and also representing
the RFDS, together with Jim Forsyth of Eilco visited each of the then twelve base stations (Alice
Springs, Broken Hill, Cairns, Carnarvon, Charleville, Derby, Kalgoorlie, Meekatharra, Mt. Isa, Pt.
Augusta, Pt Hedland and Wyndham) during August to October 1971 and systematically
documented what was there and what needed to be changed. This was done because the contract
required everything to be manufactured in Adelaide, transported to the sites and installed. The
project was completed in 1973, on time and within budget. Eilco continued to prosper.
Over these years the premises at Norwood had, with Sid Wall's assistance, been remodelled, for
Ian's father was now into building and property development. An extension to the original freestone
house at number 9, was added to the northern side for a laboratory and production assembly, area
while in 1965 the self standing weatherboard sleep out at the rear was upgraded to accommodate E
F Transformers, a company L Frank Choate had founded and brought with him when he joined
Eilco in that year. The second house at number 7, originally used for storage was demolished and
by mid 1967 a new building constructed into which G H Systems moved allowing Eilco Sales to
move into the front building. The increase in work meant that staff numbers had risen, so by the
early 1970s larger premises were needed. In October 1973 the company, now employing some 80
people, moved from Norwood to a new purpose built factory on two hectares of land at 81 Graves
Street, Newton, an area zoned as light industrial. Over the years two further factory buildings were
added the first of these in February 1981 and the second 1990.
During the early years agents had been set up to market the Eilco products, one in Western
Australia being Associated Electronic Services (AES). Because of the delay in releasing the type
6924 set, Eilco could not provide SSB transceivers for AES to market. AES was therefore told to
market sets it was able to get. At the time the US company Granger Associates were assembling
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SSB transceivers in Sydney, but now wanted to dispose of this facility. Consequently AES
purchased it allowing them to source their own transceivers from there, raising the potential of
becoming direct competitors with Eilco. The possibility of a joint AES/Eilco venture was explored
and an association was formed whereby each had a half share, AES contributing its manufacturing
facility as well as its marketing network while Eilco brought with it the RFDS contract. Basil
Reynolds the Director of AES suggested that the new association be called Codan, an industry
acronym for Carrier Operated Device (Delay*) Anti Noise, a squelch or muting system. Being a
simple name, a word already known in the industry it was accepted and proved to be a good
decision. Codan Ltd business grew. About 1981 it was resolved that Codan and Eilco should
amalgamate, AES remaining a separate entity, to concentrate on ticket machines and related
products. This decision was quickly followed by a second move in 1983 when Eilco acquired all of
the shares owned by the AES Director, Basil Reynolds, thus giving total control of Codan,
including the name, to Eilco. With the growing market for SSB equipment the Codan name had
now become better known than the parent name Eilco so in 1983 a decision was taken to rationalise
the whole activities of the company under the name of Codan Pty Ltd. Eilco became a brand name
only.
Initially Eilco set up a number of subsidiaries to handle different aspects of their business. In the
early 70s and again when the major rationalisation took place in the early 80s many of them were
sold off. The company Sound and Television Engineers Pty Ltd, owned by W (Bill) Harrison,
manufactured recording and Hi-Fi playback equipment and had their own recording studio at 233
Rundle Street, Adelaide. Eilco purchased their assets and name in the early 60s, becoming Eilco
Sales Pty Ltd where fully solid-state Hi-Fi amplifiers (product type number 6311 and based on
OC26 power transistors), were designed, manufactured, housed in wooden cabinets and sold. Eilco
Sales was also involved in lighting operations. After the new building was constructed at Norwood
in 1967, Eilco Sales moved into the front building. As stated earlier another avenue of product
development for Eilco was ultrasonic cleaning equipment. In 1966 a joint venture to make
ultrasonic cleaning equipment was formed with Gerald Hochmann, who in 1952 had established a
company G H Systems Ltd. One significant project was a very large industrial cleaning unit for
GMH to clean plated metal Holden parts. In 1970 G H Systems changed its name to Osmond
Electronics Pty Ltd, sold its ultrasonic cleaning business to K G Luke Group Ltd, a Victorian
company, and took over aspects of Eilco Sales so that it could pursue entertainment lighting and
stage mechanics. Still another Eilco subsidiary associated with theatre work was Stagesound Pty
Ltd and managed by Eric Penrose. Over the years Eilco made a significant contributions to the
setting up lighting and sound in theatres across South Australia, examples being Union Hall, Scott
Theatre, Elizabeth Theatres, Adelaide Town Hall, Arts Theatre, and the sound reinforcement and
intercommunications system for the second stage of the Adelaide Festival Theatre complex. A
further subsidiary was General Equipment Pty Ltd an importing company, established with Reg
Elvish and Alan Rawlinson, with Dave Richards appointed manager.
Under the Codan name the company became more focused and looked at ways of expanding its
communication products. There was three obvious ways. The first was to extend their HF range of
equipment, following up recent technology advances. Secondly to move up in frequency of
operation, even to satellite and earth station equipment and finally placing even greater emphasis
on the international market.
As part of the new Codan image, new styling for sets and a Codan logo were produced under
contract by Chris Myors (product designer) and Lyndon Whaite (graphic designer) respectively,
both lecturers in the School of Design, Adelaide School of Art at the Underdale Campus of the SA
College of Advanced Education. Chris had already assisted in the styling of the type HF 2000 and
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CODAN - Outback radio to global communications - Part 1
4000 series transceivers. The first of the new style sets released was the type 8525, having a black
front panel with white lettering, touch switches, and digital readout. In terms of technology it was a
frequency synthesized transceiver allowing up to 99 channels. This set won the Electronics
Association of South Australia's 1986 bi-annual Gold Cup, awarded for excellence in engineering
and commercialisation. More will be said about such developments in Part 2 of this article.
Codan had an interest in the satellite communication field as far back as 1972 when the Australian
Post Office published a study advocating Australian should enter it. In 1979 when the Hon A. A.
Staley announced that a domestic system was envisaged for Australia, Codan responded. An area of
unique need was identified, namely small earth terminals for two way communication and from
1980 Codan engineers, supported by the largest Industrial Research and Development Grant
awarded hitherto by the Commonwealth (in excess of $1M), became involved in developing such a
terminal for Ku-band using Australia's own Aussat satellites. It is Codan policy to devote 6% of its
annual turnover to research and development and by 1983 received its first satellite equipment
related order for five receive only earth terminals. Codan again diversified and moved into C-band
equipment giving wider market opportunities. In 1984 a joint venture was commenced with M/ACom Inc. of USA, called Microwave Associates Australia Pty Ltd and based in Sydney, to address
the growing market for microwave communication systems, both for terrestrial and satellite
communications. The expectations for the area was so great that in 1988 Codan reorganised itself
and separated HF Communications and Satellite Communications into two separate divisions. Early
1989 in conjunction with Sattel Technologies of California, they were awarded an OTC contract to
establish and operate a satellite based telephone service in the South Pacific Region. In the same
year Codan was awarded exclusive rights to manufacture and market Orbtrack, an antenna-tracking
controller, developed jointly by Newcastle University, CSIRO and OTC. During 1991 there was
difficulties in the industry and a widening customer base became imperative. The result of this
down turn meant the bringing together once more the HF and satellite communications divisions.
At the same time Codan joined a new mobile satellite communications consortium, which included
Auspace Pty Ltd, CSIRO, Mitec Pty Ltd, Mosaic Electronics, Net-Comm and the Digital
Communications Group at the University of South Australia. In 1998 Codan acquired Mitec, the
Brisbane based company specialising in microwave RF design. All this allowed Codan to
aggressively expand its existing range of satellite communications transceivers, to diversify into
terrestrial microwave links, and to acquire specialist defence projects. While the initial growth in
the satellite area had been slow it has currently reached the level where it is providing income at a
level similar to the HF products. It is also interesting to note that Codan had concerns that they had
nothing to market in the VHF and UHF range of frequencies so in 1985 an agreement was signed
with Midland International to market their range of VHF and UHF land mobile radio equipment in
Australia**.
Codan directors were well aware that for survival they needed to look beyond the Australian
market. Once the reliability of their products were established in Australia this gave opportunity to
look elsewhere, using Australian case histories to further the cause. African and South American
countries all needed HF communications and frequently aid money was available to purchase such
equipment. By 1975 they were selling HF equipment into African countries. About this time a
license to manufacture selected Codan products was granted to a New Zealand company owned by
W (Bill) E. Barlow, Electronic Products Ltd. In 1978 Codan acquired the major interest and
renamed the company in 1979 Codan (NZ) Pty Ltd. All this was to get behind NZ import licenses
and when such licenses between Australia and NZ were abolished Codan (NZ) was closed in 1989
and their operations transferred to Adelaide. In a similar way to get behind trade barriers and into
Europe Codan established in 1980 a marketing office and some manufacturing facilities at Fleet,
Hampshire, England. Again once barriers were abolished the manufacturing facilities closed, but a
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CODAN - Outback radio to global communications - Part 1
marketing office retained to cover Europe, Africa and the Middle East regions. An office,
previously in Vancouver, Canada, but now in Manassas, USA covers Canada, USA and South
American countries. At present Codan exports to over 150 countries, accounting for some 85% of
their production. Truly a global service.
3. Design and manufacturing philosophies
An original aim of the company was to bring professionalism to the electronics industry and this
was interpreted by the founders in several ways all evident in their HF products. Four ways that
reflected their professionalism in technical and business matters will now be considered.
Combined, these factors led to the development and marketing of reliable cost efficient products.
i) Utilising the latest advances in technology in products.
The original transceivers such as types 6104 and 6332 utilised semiconductors wherever possible.
Initially this was germanium transistors in the receivers, modulators and DC to DC converters
required to generate any voltage higher than the battery voltage. Vacuum tubes could only be used
for the transmitter. However, as soon as RF power transistors became available they were utilised
and resulted in new type 6801 and 6924 transceivers. Similarly to ensure good receiver selectivity
narrow band IF filters were incorporated, right from the outset. Initially for AM work ceramic
resonator filters were used in the first few sets, but from then on magnetostrictive resonator
mechanical filters were employed. The advent of SSB operation immediately brought a change
over to high quality narrow band crystal filters, raising the IF frequency from 455kHz to 1650kHz
to give a marked improvement in image suppression at the higher frequencies of operation.
Sets were always crystal controlled, a procedure necessary to achieve good frequency stability no
matter whether the sets were used in the outback, in vehicles or ships, locations where extremes in
temperature frequently occur. Printed circuit cards, a means of reproducing stray reactances
(important in RF circuits), and therefore overall set consistency in performance, were introduced in
1964 when a new single board receiver was made and designated the type 6415.
In about 1978 a decision was made to introduce thick film daughter board modules, each coated
with a non-transparent epoxy material. This not only simplified construction, but added a measure
of security to their products, in that what was in the modules remained confidential. The type 8525
set saw the introduction of microprocessor control and frequency synthesis and from then onwards
there were moves to employ software to provide improved performance and flexibility.
ii) Ensuring that products were appropriate for their application, both in terms of electronic,
mechanical and ergonomic performance, including appearance, robustness, reliability and
maintenance procedures.
While excellent electronic design was essential so too was the mechanical construction and
appearance aspects. Cadmium plated sheet steel of 16 and 18 gauges were normally used for
construction, providing strength, lightness and resistance to corrosive materials. Aluminium of 18
gauge was employed for the front panel escutcheon. Controls and operating procedures were kept
to a minimum so that people of all ages had little difficulty in using them. Initial sets utilised armed
service styled knobs and colours (blue grey) giving the impression that these sets were equally
rugged. The change to the standard grey and green colours with tear drop shaped knobs in 1968
conveyed the elegance seen on some American equipment of that era. A still later change in 1984
to the black panels with black collet knobs not only kept the sets aesthetically pleasing, made touch
up/restoration easier, but allowed older reliable sets to be "disguised" as if they were truly a new
generation of products. Figure 2 shows four stages in the development of the portable 6924 set.
Further, the company maintained a comprehensive in house manufacturing facility under Terry
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McDonough, for this enabled it to maintain good quality control and quality assurance procedures
on all products.
No matter how well a set is designed, failures and/or upgrades will occur, so sets had to be repaired
or modified. The manuals made available with each product were of a standard that allowed people
with the necessary skills to do this. Placement of components on PCB drawings, step-by-step
descriptions of operation, upgrades, tuning, etc. were all included. True some sets had components
that were difficult to replace (such as those on the RF board of the original 6924), but by and large
there was easy access to boards and components with boards either having cable connectors
between them or plug in card connectors used.
iii) Incorporating flexibility in products, that is, sufficient options given so all sectors of the market
could be satisfied.
Even the original type 6104 set was offered in four variations. The standard was a 5 channel set, but
there was also a single channel one, a 12 channel set in a larger case, plus a 5 channel version for
light aircraft. Later sets had an even greater range of options, examples being, number of channels,
single and two frequency simplex; modes offered AM (H3E), CW, LSB, USB or combinations;
clarifier - narrow or wide range, two tone call encoder, noise blanker, mute facility; battery pack;
vehicle installation kit; whip antenna. Marine versions were available and these had an added
option of output power level.
iv) Using the process of incremental product design to gradually improve the overall performance
of products.
The original 6104 set was constructed using valve techniques. Transistors were held in rubber
grommets in the chassis with other circuit components mounted on tag strips. Both valves and
transistor circuits could now be assembled in the same way. Once the 6415, a single PCB receiver
was developed, it became the receiver section of the 6104 set, which was now called the 6104 Mark
2. This same combination was then used in the type 6332 transceiver, a self contained set having a
screw on portable battery pack, whip antenna and carry bag. This idea of utilising modules
developed in a range of products became even more common when SSB sets were made. The
company developed a modular system of generation and reception of SSB signals, shown in Figure
3, and it became their standard. Improved blocks or modules developed for next generation sets
could then be utilised in older type sets, resulting in an upgraded type number. A good example is
the type 6924 set. After thick film modules were developed and improved RF power transistors
became available a new version the type 6924 Mark 2 was released. Next there was a cosmetic
change from the green/grey/teardrop knobs styling to the black/silver grey/black knobs version,
which was renumbered 6924B. The 6924C version is a ruggedised, waterproof version of the 6924
Mk 2 (Refer to Figure 2). Similar circuits, concepts and flow can be seen in the sister sets type
6801 and 6801 Mk 2, that is, these sets match the 6924 to 6924 Mk 2 upgrade, but have a higher
power RF amplifier with 50 ohm output impedance. Some sets were so similar that the one manual
covered a series of transceivers. Naturally this process makes good engineering sense for it allows a
steady progress in updating products, shares and minimises design and production costs as well as
making life easier for those undertaking set maintenance.
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