WELCOME to THE MALABAR PROJECT. Anything offline / online about Radio Malabar are planned to be compiled here. Should you have any related information undocumented here, please let me know. Feel free to contact me at malabaradio at gmail.com. Any comments and suggestions would be appreciated :)
At the end of the day, I thought everything was not perfect. Nobody is perfect, but I certainly have done my best. Here are some pictures after Minister Rudiantara has clicked the TX button on the computer screen :
At last, the time came for the Minister to go to Gunung Puntang. There I was. Not even sure with whom I could join the ride to go there. For sure, I had no choice but leaving all the preparation on site with Gustian. I thought I had to arrive to Gunung Puntang before the Minister did, but as it happened, he went there with the escort of some voorijders, so fast that I got disoriented as how I could manage go there myself. Luckily, I met with YB1BML (Pak Wowon) and YB1MBA (Pak Anil). I was with them in the same car, driven by Pak Wowon.
The minister was supposed to arrive at the location ahead of us, but as we were there, we were told that he had to attend invitation from the locals. They wanted him to taste the Coffee of Gunung Puntang (which is said to be the most expensive one in the world). I took the chance to go to see Gustian even as Pak Wowon having the hard time finding the parking lot. What I knew later afterwards, the minister had to attend just another event: welcoming ceremony from the locals just before the road to the location.
I rushed to where Gustian was supposed to be ready with all the rigs. Along the way the road was hardly smooth; muddy & slippery. Not going to be a problem for the minister because it was planned he would go there with an off-road car. Out of breath, I touched down my feet to the spot. Thank God, everything was ready. Gustian said, we just wait for the minister to come.
Yes, we had to wait for him, but that took just way too long, not for our patience, but for the exact time I had an agreement before with Jan-Willem to start sending the RTTY message, that was 16.00. During the wait, the propagation at 21.080 Mhz was worsen, so we asked Jan-Willem to QSY to 14.080 Mhz.
At about 16.50, the minister arrived :
In brief, the message was then sent from both sides. From our side the message was this :
“Greeting from Indonesia, Here, we are gathering in Gunung Puntang (QTH Loc OI32TV) to commemorate the 95th Anniversary of Radio Malabar. We are just few meters away from the ruin of the historic transmitter building. Some activities are arranged for this occasion, involving Amateur Radio Members and public in general. (PS REF yc1zah.com). May this communication inspires good friendship & goodwill between the people of Indonesia and the Netherland. TU, 73.”
From the Netherlands side (Jan-Willem’s) :
YE95PK YE95PK YE95PK the PI4VRZ/A-PCG the PI4VRZ/A-PCG calling.
Radio Kootwijk, Saturday 24 March 2018. 0800 h– 10:00 h gmt.
21070 PSK / 21080 RTTY (or QSY 14 Mhz) OTH Locator: JO22VE
“Special message from Radio Kootwijk by the association headquater station
PI4VRZ/A-PCG of the VRZA, Association of Radio Zend Amateurs.
“Hello Malabar, here Radio Kootwijk” is a widely used saying when we talk about the origin of the creation of the wireless connection between Radio Kootwijk and the transmitting station in the Malabar near Bandung on the island of Java. Almost 95 years after the official opening of the telegraph facility on the long wave, a new connection is now made from the Malabar amid the ruins of the radio station destroyed in 1947, to the center parts of the Netherlands. The ‘short wave’ now serves as a carrier for this special commemorative message by radio amateurs of the Netherlands. We wish the Orari Amateur Radio Origination and radio amateurs from Bandung this weekend much success their many activities from the Gunung Puntang. Over five years’ time, we will be commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Malabar-Radio Kootwijk radio link. We hope to be able to meet each other via the ether than”. =
End of this special message”. Good luck to all.
Radio Kootwijk, 2018-03-24. 73’s cuagn in 2023. Crew PI4VRZ/A-PCG
And then this :
“We are honored that after so many years, there is still communication over the air from Radio Kootwijk. In the beginning by the government, today by voluntarily’s.
Congratulations with the 95 anniversary with your radio station.”
With best regards, The team of Staatsbosbeheer Radio Kootwijk
The Indonesian Minister of Communication, Mr. Rudiantara, arrived at the main hall of Graha Sabilulungan at last. Some ceremonial speeches are delivered from the Major of Bandung Regency (Dadang M. Nasser), The Chief of Indonesian Amateur Radio organization (H. Abidin), and from Mr. Rudiantara himself.
A movie that is said about Radio Malabar was played on the big screen. It’s a compilation of old photos and some clips. Nothing new for me because I have seen most of them, but I am interested in getting a copy of the movie because it could be an introduction for what Radio Malabar was. There were some error in the narration and text anyway. I told YC1CDN that I could improve the information in the movie.
The best part of the show for me was when suddenly a lady arised from the bottom of the stage. She sang Willy Derby’s Hallo Bandung. Oh my God, she was excellent! : (I did the recording with my smartphone. Sorry, it was not right from the beginning)
The original version was sung by a male singer. But there’s another version sung by a female. The latter was the one that played in looping just about everywhere in the venue. This one :
For those who speak Dutch, I wonder if the spelling of the singer was correct. I didn’t speak Dutch, but for sure, I was deeply touched by the song. When it was played live, it makes all the difference!
I was feasting my eyes on a homebrew of HF Radio made by YD1OSC when someone approached and asked me to meet YC1CDN. YC1CDN is Prof. Dadan Wildan, an amateur who also works in the Secretarial State Office. I have been communicating with him during the preparation, and that was the first time I saw him face to face. We were in the VIP room and he waited for the first program to commence: a workshop where he and the Netherland Ambassador for Indonesia were supposed to be the speakers. As it turned out, the Ambassador didn’t come.
Strangely, I didn’t sense any atmosphere of worries from anybody in the room. I wondered if this has been anticipated, as YC1CDN asked me if I could be the next speaker in the workshop. I didn’t take it right away. A workshop about the history of Radio in Indonesia ? I thought, what was I supposed to deliver ? Then he said I could just tell the audience the story / history of Radio Malabar / what I have done in 2013.
The show must go on, so I just rely on my memory. If he just let me know long before, I could have made a presentation of my own :(
My turn to speak :
The way I thought about the “workshop”, it’s not a workshop at all :) It’s more like a presentation, maybe a seminar-like one. I have done it anyway.
THE MALABAR PROJECT 