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Earth Station for Nixon's Visit to China John Barkwith

A little background information .... Before President Nixon's visit to China in February 1972, China was almost completely isolated from the rest of the world - rather in the way that North Korea is today. It was in 1971 that things started to change. That year the US table tennis team visited China - I hope everyone remembers 'Ping Pong Diplomacy' As a consequence of this, sometime in 1971, the Shanghai Telecommunications Administration sent a telegram (via the Swiss Embassy) to RCA Globcom, headquartered in New York City, to re-establish telegraph communications. And this turned out to be the first step towards opening telecommunications services for government and press traffic during Nixon's planned visit to China. RCA Globcom proposed the establishment of a satellite earth station for this purpose and signed a contract on January 22, 1972 - just 30 days before the visit - scheduled for February 21, 1972. The earth station would form a link from Shanghai via an Intelsat IV satellite over the Pacific Ocean to an existing earth station at Jamesburg, California. RCA had already started to procure the various elements of the earth station from various sources but, most importantly, from RCA Montreal. We had the ground communications equipment (GCE) originally destined for East Pakistan stored in Montreal as a result of the India-Pakistan war. The story from my point of view .... You may have read Mike Morris's account of the Pakistan project and may be aware that the program came to an abrupt halt during the installation of the Karachi (West Pakistan) earth station as a result of the war between India and Pakistan. Along with a number of RCA people, I had been working on the installation and test of the station in Karachi when it became necessary to stop work and try to get out of the country. It was quite exciting with nightly air raids and each of the RCA people has a story about how he or she managed to get out. Someone should write a separate account of this aspect. In my case, I spent a lot of time poolside at the hotel and eventually left in a German Air Force (Luftwaffe) military plane along with Charlie Clark and Rudy Bergen. (For airplane aficionados, it was a Transall - a French/German design similar to a Hercules.) This plane trundled all the way to Cologne in Germany, stopping to refuel in Athens - many, many hours. After arriving home in Montreal, I was immediately sent down to Fairchild in California to chase them up to complete the production and test of solid-state sources needed for the Teleglobe and Telesat earth stations being implemented at that time. Spent Christmas in Palo Alto! In January, upon returning to Ste Anne de Bellevue, I found out about the (new) plans for the East Pakistan GCE as a result of RCA Globcom's contract for the Nixon trip to China. We unpacked the GCE and set it up on the shop floor for a final test before

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shipping it to Guam in the Pacific. Guam was the location selected by Globcom to integrate the various elements of the earth station destined for Shanghai. It was a convenient location from their point of view because they operated the Pulantat Intelsat Standard A Station in Guam. This station already had two equipment shelters on site and Globcom planned to install the GCE (from Montreal) into these along with other equipment and ship them by Hercules aircraft to Shanghai. The team from Montreal to support this effort included Mike Golder, system engineering chief and Helmut Schwarz, antenna expert. Globcom purchased the 10m antenna from the manufacturer in Texas and Helmut was to be responsible for its alignment and test. In Guam, Helmut and I worked hard against the clock to integrate the station. The Globcom guys felt they had been through all this before, having built the Pulantat station itself in record time to satisfy the US military who had needed it to play a part in the Vietnam war. Something interesting happened while we were in Guam. On January 24 local hunters discovered a Japanese soldier who had been hiding in the jungle since WW2. Even after 28 years he had been convinced his comrades would come back for him. When the integration and test was complete, the shelters with the equipment were airlifted to Shanghai while Helmut and I flew to Hong Kong where we joined up with Mike Golder and applied for visas to China. The visa process took a few days and we had plenty of time to see the sites in Hong Kong . Here we are on a guided tour of Hong Kong and Kowloon.

Mike Golder, me and Helmut Schwarz in Hong Kong

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On Feb 11 we took the train from Kowloon to Sumchung, the border crossing between Hong Kong and China. From there we took another train to Canton (now called Guangzhou) and next day we took a Russian-built turboprop airplane flight to Shanghai. In Shanghai we checked into the Hoping (Peace) Hotel located on the Bund on the banks of the Huangpu River. (Bund means embankment) The Bund was built in the 19th century when Shanghai was an "International Settlement" to allow foreign trade. This area has been preserved in its original condition to this day, even while the area directly across the river is now a huge science fiction collection of futuristic high rise buildings. The Peace Hotel was built by Sir Victor Sassoon and was a popular spot for famous people during its heyday in the 1920s and 30s.

The Bund in Shanghai (from a postcard sent home)

When we arrived at the worksite we found that the Chinese had already made a lot of progress. The earth station was located on the edge of the Shanghai International Airport tucked within a U-shaped earth berm originally intended as a parking spot for a fighter aircraft. The shelters from Guam had been assembled and the antenna was being erected. The foundation design had been relayed to them well in advance. We proceeded to install and test the equipment - Helmut concentrating on the antenna while Mike and I focussed on the communications equipment.

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Chinese Workers Erecting the Antenna

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Station Taking Shape - Note the Bamboo Scaffolding

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The equipment included the TV Uplink - to carry the Nixon-visit video to Jamesburg and thereafter to be broadcast to the world. In addition it included a two-way 24-channel telephony link also to Jamesburg. This was a 'permanent' link which stayed in operation until the next year when it was transferred to the new station also built by RCA. In the picture below I can also see some of the video test equipment, a Hewlett-Packard spectrum analyzer and a Marconi white noise test set. The usual conglomeration of test equipment found in all earth stations.

Inside the Equipment Shelter The installation and test went well and the so-called SSOG (Satellite System Operating Guide) tests over the satellite to Jamesburg were completed on time three days before Nixon arrived at the airport in the Air Force One Boeing 707 on February 21. Nixon spent the next few days visiting Shanghai and Hangzhou (a very beautiful nearby city) before proceeding on to Beijing. And I'm happy to say the earth station performed flawlessly!

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Impressions of China .... Our Chinese hosts treated us very well. The evening meals were absolutely delicious. No menus. We just sat at round tables in the magnificent dining room and they fed us multiple courses of spicy, tasty Chinese food. My favourite was the Peking Duck which was served with quite a ritual. First the beaming chef would come out of the kitchen and show us the roasted duck, then he would emerge later with it sliced into crispy pieces (mostly skin) and we would eat it wrapped in thin bread with raw spring onions and black sauce made from soybeans. Fantastic! When Mike, Helmut and I had arrived at the Peace Hotel we were advised by some of our colleagues that we were 'not allowed' or 'not encouraged' to go outside and wander the streets. One told a story about how he ventured out only to be tracked down and escorted back to the hotel. However, we did in fact go outside on multiple occasions without any official interference. Our presence on the streets attracted enormous interest among the population and we were followed by hundreds (yes, hundreds) of local people as we moved around. Their expressions were neutral (no smiles) except when they first glimpsed us when they exhibited open-mouthed amazement. Loud speakers in streets exhorted the people to live good lives (I assume) When I asked our interpreters what was being broadcast, they had to furrow their brows and think about it - they seemed to have tuned it out. I believe it included orders to kill flies - things like that. Quite often, they played the Internationale. This is the very rousing anthem of communism - if you don't recall the tune check it out on You Tube - it's great. Our hotel looked out over the Huangpu River, a branch of the Yangtze, and this was very busy with ocean-going tankers sharing space with old traditional craft.

Huangpu River. Is this a Junk?

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The official Chinese anthem at that time was "The East is Red." This was a relatively subdued tune and the only time I heard it was when it was played by the clock tower of the Customs House every morning. The Customs House was a nearby building on the Bund. There were bicycles everywhere but very few motorized vehicles. Typically, an intersection with traffic lights had a pillbox structure with a policeman inside. He would survey the traffic and when he saw a car he would arrange for the traffic light to be green for the vehicle. Cars would blow their horns constantly and when two cars approached each other from opposite directions they would adopt some sort of protocol of flashing their lights until they passed each other. The most common cars were Shanghai Sedans, locally built and apparently based on a Mercedes design. They were normally allocated to government officials and had curtains in the rear windows. The PLA (people's liberation army) people were everywhere in the streets. Their uniforms did not have any indication of rank except that the officers' jackets had an extra pair of pockets. Actually, I had the impression that the Chinese people did not show any special regard for people of a higher rank. Drivers, cleaners, tea ladies were quite relaxed in the presence of senior management and quite eager to contribute input to the conversation. Someone once explained to me that this is part of the Confucianism principal of having respect for one's elders not necessarily those with higher rank. Our hosts arranged entertainment for us in the evenings. One notable example was a trip to see a ballet called "The Red Detachment of Women." This was a robust account of some military action by the Chinese Army against the Japanese during the second world war. It was visually and musically very entertaining and the story line not difficult to follow. It ended with the Japanese war criminals being dispatched with off-stage gun shots followed by cheers from the cast and audience.

'Red Detachment of Women' Ballet

(from a postcard sent home)

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Acrobatic Show Remember the bamboo scaffolding at the earth station? At one of the acrobatic shows we saw, one of the acts featured a strong man wielding a length of bamboo which supported several other acrobats. What amazed me was not his strength but the strength of the bamboo. From what I could tell all stage productions, movies, literature - everything - was a form of political indoctrination. There were political slogans everywhere in Chinese and English. "Down with Imperialist American Aggressors and their Running Dogs" was a favourite. In spite of this, all the people we worked with were unfailingly friendly and polite and we never encountered any hostility. The clothing worn by the local people was uniformly drab (khaki, grey or blue) and padded for warmth. Trousers and Mao jackets were worn by both men and women over several layers of other clothing. Our hosts provided warm military Khaki overcoats for us. These were useful since the buildings were unheated and they left the windows open even though it was winter with the temperature hovering around freezing.

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Street Scene in Shanghai. (They are all studiously avoiding eye contact with the camera)

Periodically during the installation our Chinese hosts would hold banquets. These were excruciatingly formal affairs held in the dining room of the Peace Hotel with a Chinese dignitary at each table together with an interpreter and a group of us. The conversation was very stilted with the dignitary quoting Chairman Mao's words every now and then while we nodded gravely. I don't know how many times Norman Bethune's name came up. He was the Canadian doctor who had helped the Chinese in their war with the Japanese. He had died of blood poisoning in 1939 and was held in tremendous regard by the Chinese - perhaps third in line behind Mao and Lenin. I remember one occasion when Helmut and one of the American engineers thought they could avoid attending one of these banquets by saying it was essential that they work late at the earth station. This was quite a plausible excuse since some antenna alignment had to be carried out at night when the antenna can assume a stable temperature. The hosts did their best to persuade them to attend but they stuck to their guns and the banquet went ahead without them. However ... when they finally arrived back at the hotel they were in for a surprise. The banquet was repeated for their exclusive benefit! I believe it was a case of an order being issued at high level that the banquet had to include all the foreigners and so there was no choice - it had to be done!

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The behaviour of the Chinese was largely a product of the Cultural Revolution which lasted from 1966 to 1976. This was Mao's movement to regain complete control of China and to get rid of anyone deemed to have bourgeois or capitalist ideas. Anyone occupying a respected position in society (such as university professors, doctors and the like) were liable to be subject to public humiliation and banishment to the countryside for 're-education.' Millions of people were forcibly displaced and young people's education was interrupted for about a decade. As a result people tended to adopt a low profile and avoid doing anything which could be regarded as an effort to put themselves above their comrades. There were exceptions however and I remember during one of the banquets the American antenna engineers praised one of the local technicians by saying he was a 'real go-getter.' It could have been my imagination but I felt that this little tribute was received very frostily by the Chinese bosses present. Some or all of my letters home were opened by Chinese censors or by disgruntled postal workers. This was clear because some had comments written into the letters.. These comments, in English, were not always comprehensible but in general seemed to be criticisms of the government. "Too much politics is useless in one's life" was one such comment I remember. Souvenirs .... Mao's 'Little Red Book' was made available to everyone free of charge I believe and English versions were available in the hotel, together with other pamphlets promoting the Chinese socialist way of life and I still have some of these.

Mao's Little Red Book

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Here are a couple of pictures of Mao from postcards and pamphlets I picked up at the time.

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Back Home in Montreal .... The project attracted quite a lot of attention within the company and there were a few items in the newspapers. The only clipping I have managed to keep (barely) is from a Montreal French language newspaper and it's shown below.

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The China story didn't end there .... The successful execution of the earth station for Nixon's visit was a forerunner to many other contracts and China became a significant market for RCA (and later Spar) over the next couple of decades. In 1973 we installed two Intelsat Standard A stations in - one in Beijing and one in Shanghai (replacing the 'Nixon' one.) These were very large structures with 30m antennas and formed China's main international gateways, carrying hundreds (perhaps thousands) of telephone circuits as well as television. I was involved in the installation of both these stations was able to see the changes in the country and the attitude of the Chinese people since my first visit. Within the space of one year China had 'opened up' to the west and they now considered foreigners as friends. The slogans had all been painted over and we were greeted with smiles and "Hello" wherever we went. Quite a heady experience! Later contracts for other stations and domestic networks took Spar people to all regions of China and these experiences will perhaps form the basis for other written accounts - but for now I'll finish this one here. John Barkwith January 2016