A Real Archeology is Not Impossible

It’s from my latest visit to Gunung Puntang. I went there with Endro Purwanto and his wife. We felt like we wanted to have lunch together with all of the officers at Gunung Puntang while at the same time we welcome a ham friend of mine named Agus S. Gustian (YB1ALL). He was to do the mapping of the area around Radio Malabar where five radio stations are planned to be built for the 5th of May next year.

After we let him took some pictures, Endro leaded us to have a walk thru a small path, which was actually a way to the right side of Radio Malabar. It was heavily bushed. Along the way I could see there were more traces of the ruin :

That might look like lower part of a wall made from a mix of stones and concrete. I always know that old buildings from the era of Dutch Colonialization have a very robust construction quality. That is to say that it has become what it is today because of a conscious effort to demolish it.

This one clearly shows that there used to be a wall here. However not all of the traces are those that flat-to-the-ground. I found something curious. There was a wall, curiously hiding something behind it :

It might not be clearly seen here from the above picture, but that black background is actually a wall. I wish I could go around it to see the other side, but I suppose it would require removing the thick bushes here and there.

I also found some relics. This is obviously fraction of antenna insulators :

I conclude that from what I have found and seen, (at least) the reconstruction of the foundation of the building is possible. That is assuming that an archeological excavation is carried out in advance, and not to mention an involvement of a serious benefactor.

If we just browse through the pictures of the internal part of Radio Malabar, we would have this images that there were a lot of machineries and equipments: anything made of steel. My question for that has been: where have they all gone ? Could we still find anything at all ? A small museum is planned to be built here, but it will mostly contain printed old photographs. I think (if) anything found in the ruin should be worthed as a collection for the museum.

Yes, a real archeology is not impossible, even if Radio Malabar is not anything ancient. It is not ancient, but it is not less historical.

Communication 90 Years Afterwards

As usual, there are some developments here in Bandung with the plan, but I only have little time to put them all here. Now I have even started my regular teaching job, leaving me tired by the end of the day. However, should there be chances, I make time for this web. Actually not-updating it is something that bugs me … LoL. Minding that there are things that worth writing.

So let me do it with something trivial. This is what I posted as my Facebook status, as I had contact with Jan Willem using Skype :

I wrote the caption :

“About 90 years ago, telecommunication was so difficult and expensive. It took great effort to build Radio Malabar to enable contact from Gunung Puntang in West Java to Radio Kootwijk in Netherland: an event that should have been recognized and noted in history of Human Communication as the first long-range wireless communication accross two continents.
Just now, I manage to contact Jan-Willem (PA0JWU) who lives only about 200 meters from Radio Kootwijk, using Skype. It was so easy and free (assuming Internet connection, of course). The mode was text, voice, and even video. I had a chat with him for almost an hour.
It turns out that 90 years of human communication history has really made a significant difference … :)”