,the dawn of amateur radio in the ,u4,k4 and ,greece3 a personal view ,norman ,f4 ,joly4 ,,copyright #aiij ,london 3 ,joly1 #aiij4 - #aeap4 - #j-ieaefbh-j-j ,c ,o ,n ,t ,e ,n ,t ,s #j4 ,,prologue #a4 ,,the ,,development ,,of ,,electricity #b4 ,,the ,,birth ,,of ,,radio ,,communications #c4 ,,what ,,is ,a ,,radio ,,amateur8 #d4 ,,the #aiba ,,amateur ,,transatlantic ,,tests #e4 ,,the ,,first ,,greek ,,radio ,,amateurs #f4 ,,world ,,war ,,ii ,,and ,,after ,,in ,,greece #g4 ,,pioneers ,,in ,,greece #h4 ,,personal ,,reminiscences ,,anecdotes #i4 ,,miscellany #aj4 ,,glossary ,,for ,,non-,,technical ,,readers ,prologue ,thales of ,miletus4 ,thales1 who was born in #fdj ,b4,c41 was a man of exceptional wisdom and one of the ,seven ,sages of ,ancient ,greece4 ,he was the father of ,greek1 and consequently of ,european philosophy and science4 ,his speculations embraced a wide range of subjects relating to political as well as to celestial matters4 ,one must remember that even up to the #ahth century there was no clear distinction between philosophy and science1 both being products of the human mind in its attempts to explain reality4 ,thales had studied astronomy in ,egypt so he was able to draw up accurate tables forecasting when the ,river ,nile would be in flood4 ,but he first became widely known by anticipating an eclipse of the sun for ,may #ehe ,b4,c41 which happened to coincide with the final battle of the war between the ,lydians and the ,persians4 ,he had used some tables drawn up by ,babylonian astronomers1 but he did not succeed in forecasting the exact day 7,may #bhth7 or the hour of the spectacular event4 ,it can well be said that ,thales was the first man ever recorded to have cornered the market in a commodity3 having foreseen a three-year drought he bought up large quantities of olive oil and stored it for sale at a later date4 ,but who could possibly have imagined that one of ,thales' original speculations would affect the ,radio ,amateurs of the #bjth ,century8 ,he believed that certain inanimate substances1 like lodestones 7magnetic rocks7 and the resin amber1 possessed psyche 7a soul74 ,many centuries had to elapse before this soul was identified as static electricity and magnetism and harnessed for the generation of mains electricity which dramatically altered the pattern of life on our planet--and also led to the creation of our hobby of ,amateur ,radio4 ,about #djj years ago an ,english scientist called ,william ,gilbert 7#aedd-afjc71 who had read about the unexplained observation of ,thales1 also became interested in the intangible property and decided to call it electricity1 from the classical ,greek word for amber1 which is electron4 ,,chapter ,,one ,,the ,,development ,,of ,,electricity ,the phenomenon which ,thales had observed and recorded five centuries before the birth of ,christ aroused the interest of many scientists through the ages4 ,they made various practical experiments in their efforts to identify the elusive force which ,thales had likened to a 'soul' and which we now know to have been static electricity4 ,of all forms of energy1 electricity is the most baffling and difficult to describe4 ,an electric current cannot be seen4 ,in fact it does not exist outside the wires and other conductors which carry it4 ,a live wire carrying a current looks exactly the same and weighs exactly the same as it does when it is not carrying a current4 ,an electric current is simply a movement or flow of electrons4 ,benjamin ,franklin1 the ,american statesman and scientist born in ,boston in #agjf1 investigated the nature of thunder and lightning by flying a child's kite during a thunderstorm4 ,he had attached a metal spike to the kite1 and at the other end of the string to which the kite was tied he secured a key4 ,as the rain soaked into the string1 electricity flowed freely down the string and ,franklin was able to draw large sparks from the key4 ,of course this could have been very dangerous1 but he had foreseen it and had supported the string through an insulator4 ,he observed that this electricity had the same properties as the static electricity produced by friction4 ,but long before ,franklin many other scientists had carried out research into the nature of electricity4 ,in ,england ,william ,gilbert 7#aedd-afjc7 had noticed that the powers of attraction and repulsion of two non-metallic rods which he had rubbed briskly were similar to those of lodestone and amber--they had acquired the curious quality we call magnetism4 ,remembering ,thales of old he coined the word 'electricity'4 ,otto von ,guericke 7#afjb-afhf7 a ,mayor of ,magdeburg in ,germany1 was an amateur scientist who had constructed all manner of gadgets4 ,one of them was a machine consisting of two glass discs revolving in opposite directions which produced high voltage charges through friction4 ,ramsden and ,wimshurst built improved versions of the machine4 ,a significant breakthrough occurred when ,alessandro ,volta 7#agde-ahbg7 in ,italy constructed a simple electric cell 7in #agii7 which produced a flow of electrons by chemical means4 ,two plates1 one of copper and the other of zinc1 were placed in an acid solution and a current flowed through an external wire connecting the two plates4 ,later he connected cells in series 7voltaic pile7 which consisted of alternate layers of zinc and copper discs separated by flannel discs soaked in brine or acid which produced a higher electric pressure 7voltage74 ,but ,volta never found the right explanation of why his cell was working4 ,he thought the flow of electric current was due to the contact between the two metals1 whereas in fact it results from the chemical action of the electrolyte on the zinc plate4 ,however1 his discovery proved to be of incalculable value in research1 as it enabled scientists to carry out experiments which led to the discoveries of the heating1 lighting1 chemical and magnetic effects of electricity4 ,one of the many scientists and physicists who took advantage of the 'current electricity' made possible by ,volta's cells was ,hans ,christian ,oersted 7#aggg-ahea7 of ,denmark4 ,like many others he was looking for a connection between the age-old study of magnetism and electricity1 but now he was able to pass electric currents through wires and place magnets in various positions near the wires4 ,his epoch-making discovery which established for the first time the relationship between magnetism and electricity was in fact an accident4 ,while lecturing to students he showed them that the current flowing in a wire held over a magnetic compass needle and at right angles to it 7that is east-west7 had no effect on the needle4 ,oersted suggested to his assistant that he might try holding the wire parallel to the length of the needle 7north-south7 and hey presto1 the needle was deflected6 ,he had stumbled upon the electromagnetic effect in the first recorded instance of a wire behaving like a magnet when a current is passed through it4 ,a development of ,oersted's demonstration with the compass needle was used to construct the world's first system of signaling by the use of electricity4 ,in #ahcg ,charles ,wheatstone and ,william ,cooke took out a patent for the world's first ,five-needle ,telegraph1 which was installed between ,paddington railway station in west ,london and ,west ,drayton station a few miles away4 ,the five copper wires required for this system were embedded in blocks of wood4 ,electrolysis1 the chemical decomposition of a substance into its constituent elements by the action of an electric current1 was discovered by the ,english chemists ,carlisle and ,william ,nicholson 7#agec-ahae74 ,if an electric current is passed through water it is broken down into the two elements of which it is composed--hydrogen and oxygen4 ,the process is used extensively in modern industry for electroplating4 ,michael ,faraday 7#agia-ahfg7 who was employed as a chemist at the ,royal ,institution1 was responsible for introducing many of the technical terms connected with electrolysis1 like electrolyte for the liquid through which the electric current is passed1 and anode and cathode for the positive and negative electrodes respectively4 ,he also established the laws of the process itself4 ,but most people remember his name in connection with his practical demonstration of electromagnetic induction4 ,in ,france ,andre-,marie ,ampere 7#agge-ahcf7 carried out a complete mathematical study of the laws which govern the interaction between wires carrying electric currents4 ,in ,germany in #ahbf a ,bavarian schoolmaster ,georg ,ohm 7#aghi-ahed7 had defined the relationship between electric pressure 7voltage71 current 7flow rate7 and resistance in a circuit 7,ohm's law7 but #af years had to elapse before he received recognition for his work4 ,scientists were now convinced that since the flow of an electric current in a wire or a coil of wire caused it to acquire magnetic properties1 the opposite might also prove to be true3 a magnet could possibly be used to generate a flow of electricity4 ,michael ,faraday had worked on this problem for ten years when finally1 in #ahcj1 he gave his famous lecture in which he demonstrated1 for the first time in history1 the principle of electromagnetic induction4 ,he had constructed powerful electromagnets consisting of coils of wire4 ,when he caused the magnetic lines of force surrounding one coil to rise and fall by interrupting or varying the flow of current1 a similar current was induced in a neighbouring coil closely coupled to the first4 ,the colossal importance of ,faraday's discovery was that it paved the way for the generation of electricity by mechanical means4 ,however1 as can be seen from the drawing1 the basic generator produces an alternating flow of current47,a4,c47 ,rotating a coil of wire steadily through a complete revolution in the steady magnetic field between the north and south poles of a magnet results in an electromotive force 7,e4,m4,f47 at its terminals which rises in value1 falls back to zero1 reverses in a negative direction1 reaches a peak and again returns to zero4 ,this completes one cycle or sine wave4 7#a;,hz in ,s4,i4units74 ,in recent years other methods have been developed for generating electrical power in relatively small quantities for special applications4 ,semiconductors1 which combine heat insulation with good electrical conduction1 are used for thermoelectric generators to power isolated weather stations1 artificial satellites1 undersea cables and marker buoys4 ,specially developed diode valves are used as thermionic generators with an efficiency1 at present1 of only #bj but the heat taken away from the anode is used to raise steam for conventional power generation4 ,sir ,humphry ,davy 7#aggh-ahbi7 one of ,britain's leading chemists of the #ahth century1 is best remembered for his safety lamp for miners which cut down the risk of methane gas explosions in mines4 ,it was ,davy who first demonstrated that electricity could be used to produce light4 ,he connected two carbon rods to a heavy duty storage battery4 ,when he touched the tips of the rods together a very bright white light was produced4 ,as he drew the rods apart1 the arc light persisted until the tips had burnt away to the critical gap which extinguished the light4 ,as a researcher and lecturer at the ,royal ,institution ,davy worked closely with ,michael ,faraday who first joined the institution as his manservant and later became his secretary4 ,davy's crowning honour in the scientific world came in #ahbj1 when he was elected ,president of the ,royal ,society4 ,in the ,u4,s4,a4 the prolific inventor ,thomas ,alva ,edison 7#ahdg-aica7 who had invented the incandescent carbon filament bulb1 built a number of electricity generators in the vicinity of the ,niagara ,falls4 ,these used the power of the falling water to drive hydraulic turbines which were coupled to the dynamos4 ,these generators were fitted with a spinning switch or commutator 7one of the neatest gadgets ,edison ever invented7 to make the current flow in unidirectional pulses 7,d4,c47 ,in #ahgf all electrical equipment was powered by direct current4 ,today mains electricity plays a vital part in our everyday lives and its applications are widespread and staggering in their immensity4 ,but we must not forget that popular demand for this convenient form of power arose only about #ajj years ago1 mainly for illumination4 ,recent experiments in superconductivity1 using ceramic instead metal conductors have given us an exciting glimpse into what might be achieved for improving efficiency in the distribution of electric power4 ,historians of the future may well characterise the #bjth century as 'the century of electricity electronics'4 ,but ,edison's ,d4,c4 generators could not in themselves1 have achieved the spectacular progress that has been made4 ,all over the world we depend totally on a system of transmitting mains electricity over long distances which was originally created by an amazing inventor whose scientific discoveries changed1 and are still changing1 the whole world4 ,his name was scarcely known to the general public1 especially in ,europe1 where he was born4 ,who was this unknown pioneer8 ,some people reckon that it was this astonishing visionary who invented wireless1 remote control1 robotics and a form of ,x-ray photography using high frequency radio waves4 ,a patent which he took out in the ,u4,s4,a4 in #ahij ultimately led to the design of the humble ignition coil which energises billions and billions of spark plugs in all the motor cars of the world4 ,his ,american patents fill a book two inches thick4 ,his name was ,nicola ,tesla 7#ahef-aidc74 ,nicola ,tesla was born in a small village in ,croatia which at that time formed part of the great ,austro-,hungarian ,empire4 ,today it is a northern province of ,yugoslavia1 a state created after the #aiad-aiah war4 ,tesla studied at the ,graz ,technical ,university and later in ,budapest4 ,early in his studies he had the idea that a way had to be found to run electric motors directly from ,a4,c4 generators4 ,his professor in ,graz had assured him categorically that this was not possible4 ,but young ,tesla was not convinced4 ,when he went to ,budapest he got a job in the ,central ,telegraph ,office1 and one evening in #ahhb1 as he was sitting on a bench in the ,city ,park he had an inspiration which ultimately led to the solution of the problem4 ,tesla remembered a poem by the ,german poet ,goethe about the sun which supports life on the earth and when the day is over moves on to give life to the other side of the globe4 ,he picked up a twig and began to scratch a drawing on the soil in front of him4 ,he drew four coils arranged symmetrically round the circumference of a circle4 ,in the centre he drew a rotor or armature4 ,as each coil in turn was energised it attracted the rotor towards it and the rotary motion was established4 ,when he constructed the first practical models he used eight1 sixteen and even more coils4 ,the simple drawing on the ground led to the design of the first induction motor driven directly by ,a4,c4electricity4 ,tesla emigrated to the ,u4,s4,a4 in #ahhd4 ,during the first year he filed no less than #cj patents mostly in relation to the generation and distribution of ,a4,c4 mains electricity4 ,he designed and built his ',a4,c4 ,polyphase ,system' which generated three-phase alternating current at #be ,hz4 ,one particular unit delivered #dbb amperes at #ab1jjj volts4 ,the beauty of this system was that the voltage could be stepped down using transformers for local use1 or stepped up to many thousands of volts for transmission over long distances through relatively thin conductors4 ,edison's generating stations were incapable of any such thing4 ,tesla signed a lucrative contract with the famous railway engineer ,george ,westinghouse1 the inventor of the ,westinghouse ,air ,brake which is used by most railways all over the world to the present day4 ,their generating station was put into service in #ahie and was called the ,niagara ,falls ,electricity ,generating ,company4 ,it supplied power for the ,westinghouse network of trains and also for an industrial complex in ,buffalo1 ,new ,york4 ,after ten years ,tesla began to experiment with high frequencies4 ,the ,tesla ,coil which he had patented in #ahij was capable of raising voltages to unheard of levels such as #cjj1jjj volts4 ,edison1 who was still generating ,d4,c41 claimed ,a4,c4 was dangerous and to prove it contracted with the government to produce the first electric chair using ,a4,c4 for the execution of murderers condemned to death4 ,when it was first used it was a ghastly flop4 ,the condemned man moaned and groaned and foamed at the mouth4 ,after four minutes of repeated application of the ,a4,c4voltage smoke began to come out of his back4 ,it was obvious that the victim had suffered a horribly drawn-out death4 ,tesla said he could prove that ,a4,c4 was not dangerous4 ,he gave a demonstration of high voltage electricity flowing harmlessly over his body4 ,but in reality1 he cheated1 because he had used a frequency of #aj1jjj cycles 7#aj k,hz7 at extremely low current and because of the skin effect suffered no harm4 ,one of ,tesla's patents related to a system of lighting using glass tubes filled with fluorine 7not neon7 excited by ,h4,f4voltages4 ,his workshop was lit by this method4 ,several years before ,wilhelm ,roentgen demonstrated his system of ,x-rays ,tesla had been taking photographs of the bones in his hand and his foot from up to #dj feet away using ,h4,f4currents4 ,more astonishing still is the fact that in #ahic1 two years before ,marconi demonstrated his system of wireless signaling1 ,tesla had built a model boat in which he combined power to drive it with radio control and robotics4 ,he put the small boat in a lake in ,madison ,square ,gardens in ,new ,york4 ,standing on the shore with a control box1 he invited onlookers to suggest movements4 ,he was able to make the boat go forwards and backwards and round in circles4 ,we all know how model cars and aircraft are controlled by radio today1 but when ,tesla did it a century ago the motor car had not been invented1 and the only method by which man could cover long distances was on horseback6 ,many people believe that a modification of ,tesla's ',magnifying ,transmitter' was used by the ,soviet ,union when suddenly one day in ,october #aigf they produced an amazing noise which blotted out all radio transmissions between #f and #bj ,m,hz4 7,the ,woodpecker7 ,the ,b4,b4,c41 the ,n4,b4,c4 and most broadcasting and telecommunication organisations of the world complained to ,moscow 7the noise had persisted continuously for #aj hours on the first day71 but all the ,russians would say in reply was that they were carrying out an experiment4 ,at first nobody seemed to know what they were doing because it was obviously not intended as another form of jamming of foreign broadcasts1 an old ,russian custom as we all know4 ,it is believed that in the pursuit of his life's ambition to send power through the earth without the use of wires1 ,tesla had achieved a small measure of success at ,e4,l4,f4 7extremely low frequencies7 of the order of #g to #ab ,hz4 ,these frequencies are at present used by the military for communicating with submarines submerged in the oceans of the world4 ,tesla's career and private life have remained something of a mystery4 ,he lived alone and shunned public life4 ,he never read any of his papers before academic institutions1 though he was friendly with some journalists who wrote sensational stories about him4 ,they said he was terrified of microbes and that when he ate out at a restaurant he would ask for a number of clean napkins to wipe the cutlery and the glasses he drank out of4 ,for the last #bj years of his life until he died during ,world ,war ,,ii in #aidc he lived the life of a semi-recluse1 with a pigeon as his only companion4 ,a disastrous fire had destroyed his workshops and many of his experimental models and all his papers were lost for ever4 ,tesla had moved to ,colorado ,springs where he built his largest ever coil which was #eb feet in diameter4 ,he studied all the different forms of lightning in his unsuccessful quest for the transmission of power without wires4 ,in ,yugoslavia1 ,tesla is a national hero and a well-equipped museum in ,belgrade contains abundant proof of the genius of this extraordinary man4 ,,chapter ,,two ,,the ,,birth ,,of ,,radio ,,communications ,by #ahej most of the basic electrical phenomena had been investigated4 ,however1 ,james ,clerk ,maxwell 7#ahca-ahgi71 ,professor of ,experimental ,physics at ,cambridge then came up with something entirely new4 ,by some elegant mathematics he had shown the probable existence of electromagnetic waves of radiation4 ,but it was twenty four years later 7eight years after ,maxwell's death7 that ,heinrich ,hertz 7#aheg-ahid7 in ,germany gave a practical demonstration of the accuracy of this theory4 ,he generated and detected electromagnetic waves across the length of his laboratory on a wavelength of approximately one metre4 ,his own photograph of the equipment he had set up can be seen in the ,deutsches ,museum in ,munich4 ,to detect the electromagnetic waves ,hertz employed a simple form of oscillator1 which he termed a resonator4 ,but it was not sensitive enough to detect waves at any great distance4 ,before wireless telegraphy could become practicable1 a more delicate detector was necessary4 ,credit is due to ,edouard ,branly 7#ahdd-aidj7 of ,france for producing the first practical instrument for detecting ,hertzian waves1 the coherer4 ,it consisted of two metal cylinders with leads attached1 fitted tightly into the interior of a glass tube containing iron or steel filings4 ,the instant an electric discharge of any sort occurred the coherer became conductive1 and if it was tapped lightly its conducting property was immediately destroyed4 ,in practice the tapping was done automatically by a tapper which came into action the moment the coherer became conductive4 ,in ,russia the physicist ,aleksandr ,popov 7#ahei-aije7 had used a coherer while engaged in the investigation of the effects of lightning discharges4 ,he suggested that such discharges could possibly be used for signaling over long distances4 ,old timers may remember that about #ej years ago ,russian amateurs used to send out a ,,qsl card with a drawing of ,popov and a caption which claimed that he was 'the inventor of radio'4 ,in ,italy1 a young #bb-year-old electrician became interested in electromagnetic radiation after reading papers by ,professor ,augusto ,righi 7#ahej-aiba74 ,it was ,guglielmo ,marconi 7#ahgd-aicg71 the son of a well-to-do landowner who lived in ,bologna1 and who was married to ,annie ,jameson of the well known ,irish ,whiskey family4 ,guglielmo1 their second son1 had his early education at a private school in ,bedford1 ,england1 and later at ,livorno and ,florence in ,italy4 ,when he read about the experiments of ,heinrich ,hertz and about ,popov's suggestion1 he saw the possibility of using these waves as a means of signaling4 ,his first transmitter1 shown in the accompanying photograph1 did not radiate very far4 ,when he folded the metal plate into a cylinder and placed it on a pole #cj feet above the induction coil and connected to it by a vertical wire1 he was able to detect the radiation nearly two kilometres away4 ,marconi realised that his signaling system would be most useful to shipping1 and in those days ,england possessed the world's greatest navy and the world's biggest merchant fleet4 ,the ,italian government was not interested in young ,marconi's work1 so after a family conference he was brought to ,london by his mother1 who had influential relatives there4 ,not only did they finance his early experiments but they also put him in touch with the right sort of people4 ,one of these was ,alan ,a4 ,campbell ,swinton who became the first ,president of the ,radio ,society of ,london 7now the ,r4,s4,g4,b47 many years later1 in #aiac4 ,campbell ,swinton introduced the young ,italian to ,william ,preece1 then ,engineer-in-,chief of the ,british ,post ,office4 ,preece had already been investigating various methods of 'induction' telegraphy4 ,in a book entitled ,wireless ,telegraphy published in #aijh1 ,william ,j4 ,white of the ,engineer-in-,chief's department at the ,g4,p4,o4 wrote1 ,the work of ,sir 7then ,mr7 ,william ,preece1 important though it was1 did not attract the attention of the public to the extent that might have been expected4 ,this was due to the fact that no sooner had he demonstrated a method of wireless telegraphy which was a commercial possibility than his system was superseded by another1 and a better one1 brought to ,england by ,mr ,guglielmo ,marconi in #ahif4 ,the possibilities of ,mr ,marconi's system were at once recognised by ,mr ,william ,preece4 ,the experience of the elder and the genius of the younger man1 who must be given the credit of having devised the first practical system for wireless telegraphy1 combined to turn apparently disastrous failures into success1 and now 7in #aijh71 wireless telegraphy has become1 in less than a decade1 part and parcel of commercial and national life4 ,the world's first patent for wireless telegraphy was awarded to ,marconi on the #bnd ,june #ahif4 ,in it he stated that electrical action can be transmitted through the earth1 air or water1 by means of oscillations of high frequency4 ,in the first public demonstration of his equipment ,marconi spanned the #cfe metres between the ,g4,p4,o4 and ,victoria street4 ,later1 on ,salisbury ,plain1 in ,march #ahig1 his signals were detected over #g kilometres away4 ,on the #aath #ahth ,may #ahig messages were first exchanged over water4 ,on the #bgth of ,march #ahii1 during naval manoeuvres1 ,marconi bridged the ,english ,channel for the first time1 a distance of about #adj kilometres4 ,his transatlantic triumph came on the #abth ,december #aija when the morse letter ',s' was transmitted from ,poldhu1 in ,cornwall and received by ,marconi himself at ,st4 ,john's1 ,newfoundland1 who recorded the historic event in his pocket book simply ,sigs at #ab4bj1 #a4aj #b4bj4 ,the operation of ,marconi's transmitter was itself quite spectacular4 ,to produce the oscillations he employed the oscillator designed by ,augusto ,righi4 ,depressing the key closed the circuit and brought the inductor coil into action4 ,vivid sparks occurred between the balls of the oscillator1 to the accompaniment of a succession of sharp cracks1 like the reports of a pistol1 and some energy was sent off the square metal plate in the form of trains of electromagnetic waves1 which radiated out in all directions4 ,but the energy occupied a very large bandwidth and the receivers of that period could not separate two transmissions4 ,william ,j4 ,white of the ,post ,office wrote in #aijh1 ,the chief objection which has been raised against modern wireless telegraphy is its want of secrecy4 ,with a transmitter sending out waves in all directions1 it is possible for unscrupulous persons to receive the messages and make an improper use of them4 ,this form of 'scientific hooliganism' has1 in fact1 become somewhat notorious4 ,when two or three transmitters are each sending out their electromagnetic waves1 the result1 naturally1 is utter confusion4 ,white added that the ,british ,postal ,administration was refusing to grant licences for more than one system in the same area1 in spite of the fact that there had been some 'alleged' solutions of the problem4 ,the phenomenon of resonance was known and ,dr 7later ,sir ,oliver7 ,lodge had taken out various patents between #ahhi and #ahih in connection with receivers4 ,marconi and his assistants ultimately solved the problem by modifying ,lodge's syntonic ,leyden jar tuned circuit4 ,they added a tapped inductance in the aerial circuit of the transmitter and used variable capacitors instead of fixed ones4 ,this was probably the most significant modification made in the development of wireless telegraphy4 7,in ,greek the word syntonismos 'to bring to equal tone' is used for 'tuning'47 ,apart from the patents taken out by ,sir ,oliver ,lodge and ,dr ,alexander ,muirhead1 in #ahig1 patents were taken out in ,germany by ,professor ,braun of ,strasbourg1 who was joined by ,professor ,slaby and ,count ,d',arco in #aijc to form the ,telefunken company1 and in the ,u4,s4,a4 by ,dr ,lee ,de ,forest of the ,american ,de ,forest ,wireless ,telegraph ,company who was the first to use a high ,a4,c4 voltage of #bj1jjj volts to obtain the necessary high-potential discharges1 thus dispensing with the induction coil4 ,again in the ,u4,s4,a41 ,professor ,r4,o4,fessenden was responsible for the design of new types of transmitting and receiving apparatus4 ,during this period ,marconi had resisted all offers by financiers to acquire his patents4 ,in ,july #ahig he entrusted his cousin ,jameson ,davis to form ,the ,wireless ,telegraph ,signal ,company ,ltd which soon became ,marconi's ,wireless ,telegraph ,co41 and ultimately the ,marconi ,company4 ,william ,preece of the ,post ,office detached one of his assistants1 ,george ,s4 ,kemp1 to help ,marconi4 ,kemp was destined to become his right-hand man and served ,marconi faithfully throughout his life4 ,by today's standards1 ,marconi can be said to have been a highly successful entrepreneur4 ,he had the great knack of selecting the right man for the job1 and inspired deep loyalty in his staff4 ,he regarded himself as an 'amateur' and often paid tribute to the work of radio experimenters4 7,most of the above passages are quoted from ',a ,history of the ,marconi ,company' by ,w4,j4,baker1 published by ,methuen ,co ,ltd4 reprinted in #aigi47 ,,chapter ,,three ,,the ,,radio ,,amateur ,,movement ,from the turn of the century enthusiastic young men who built their own items of electrical and wireless apparatus were known as ,wireless ,experimenters4 ,many of them were later granted licences for the use of ,wireless ,telegraphy for experimental purposes 7in the ,united ,kingdom7 by the ,postmaster ,general under the terms of the #aijd ,wireless ,telegraphy ,act4 ,in his report to ,parliament for the years #aije-aijf the ,p4,m4,g4 stated that it was his wish to promote experimental investigations in this promising field4 ,in a book published in #aijh by ,r4,p4,howgrave-,graham entitled ,wireless ,telegraphy for ,amateurs the word amateur seems to have been used for the first time4 ,during the #aiad-aiah war all wireless apparatus in the possession of licensed amateurs was closed down under the ,defence of the ,realm ,act of #aiad4 ,experimental transmission licences numbered #a1fjj4 ,after the end of the war an ,inter-,departmental ,committee was set up and in its report to the ,postmaster ,general dated ,april #aiai it stated3 ,we are of the opinion that the number of stations existing in ,july #aiad was excessive from the point of view of government control in case of emergency and the necessity of preventing interference with government and commercial working2 further there was no justification for it from the point of view of the encouragement of research or development of industry4 ,but there was a magnanimous relaxation in the ,defence ,regulations when the ,post ,office notified manufacturers of electrical apparatus that restriction on the sale of buzzers had been removed4 ,buzzers could now be sold without enquiry as to the use to which the purchaser proposed to put them666 ,during #aiai many issues of ,,wireless ,,world considered the amateur position1 and a leading article in the ,march issue began with a quotation attributed to ,marconi3 ,i consider that the existence of a body of independent and often enthusiastic amateurs constitutes a valuable asset towards the further development of wireless telegraphy4 ,in a subsequent letter to the ,editor ,marconi wrote3 ,in my opinion it would be a mistaken policy to introduce legislation to prevent amateurs experimenting with wireless telegraphy 7which the authorities were contemplating74 ,had it not been for amateurs1 wireless telegraphy as a great world-fact might not have existed at all4 ,a great deal of the development and progress of wireless telegraphy is due to the efforts of amateurs4 ,john ,ambrose ,fleming1 the inventor of the diode valve1 also wrote to the ,editor of ,w4,w4 as follows3 ,it is a matter of common knowledge that a large part of the important inventions in connection with wireless telegraphy have been the work of amateurs and private research and not the outcome of official brains or the handiwork of military or naval organisations4 ,in fact we may say that wireless telegraphy itself in its inception was an amateur product4 ,numerous important inventions such as the crystal detector1 the oscillating valve1 the triode valve--have been due to private or amateur work4 ,if full opportunities for such non-official research work are not restored1 the progress of the art of radio telegraphy and radio telephony will be greatly hindered4 ,professor ,w4,h4 ,eccles wrote3 ,improvements and invention must be stimulated to the utmost4 ,it is not impossible to devise laws to impose restrictions upon the emission of wireless waves as will preclude interference with the public radio service of the future 7,r4,f4,i4 ,t4,v4,i48667 and yet allow liberal opportunities for the experimental study of wireless telegraphy4 ,,note4 ,the above passages are taken from ,,world ,,at ,,their ,,fingertips by ,john ,clarricoats1 ,o4,b4,e41 ,g#f;,,cl1 published by the ,r4,s4,g4,b4 in #aifh4 ,,chapter ,,four ,,the #aiba ,,transatlantic ,,tests ,most commercial experimental transmissions in wireless telegraphy before ,world ,war ,i were carried out on the long wavelengths1 though they were not called that at the time4 ,transmissions by amateurs in the ,united ,kingdom and the ,u4,s4,a4 on the other hand were made around #bjj metres 7#a4e,m,hz74 ,in the ,u4,s4,a4 amateurs were permitted to use a ,d4,c4input of #a1jjj watts to the anode of the final stage of their transmitters4 ,in the ,u4,k4 the maximum power allowed was #aj watts and the combined height and length of the transmitting aerial was not to exceed #ajj feet4 ,so when the first attempt to span the ,atlantic was made in ,february of #aiba it was natural that the ,american stations should do the transmitting and the ,europeans the listening4 ,about #be ,u4,s4 amateur stations participated in the tests1 which took place early in the morning on the #bnd1 #dth and #fth of ,february #aiba4 ,although about #bjj ,european stations had indicated their intention to listen only #cj actually submitted logs4 ,and not a single one of them was able to report hearing anything that could be attributed to the ,american transmissions4 ,the then ,editor of ,,qst wrote3 ,we have tested most of the circuits used by the ,britishers and find them one and all decidedly inferior to our standard ,american regenerative circuit using variometer tuning in secondary and tertiary circuits4 ,we would bet our new ,spring hat that if a good ,u4,s4 amateur with such a set and an ,armstrong superheterodyne could be sent to ,england1 reception of the ,u4,s4 transmissions would straightaway become commonplace4 ,strong language4 ,in ,september of the same year it was announced that a prominent ,u4,s4 amateur ,paul ,godley #b,,ze would be going to ,europe to take part in the second series of tests planned for ,december4 ,his expenses were being paid by the ,a4,r4,r4,l4 which already boasted having #ae1jjj transmitting members4 ,in the ,u4,s4,a4 distances of over #b1jjj miles had already been achieved4 ,during his brief stay of a few hours in ,london ,paul ,godley was introduced to ,senator ,marconi1 to ,admiral of the ,fleet ,sir ,henry ,jackson1 to ,alan ,a4 ,campbell ,swinton and many other distinguished members of the ,wireless ,society of ,london1 as the ,r4,s4,g4,b4 was then called4 ,paul ,godley first set up his receiving equipment at ,wembley ,park1 ,middlesex but soon decided that the electrical noises in the area would not permit reception of the weak transatlantic signals4 ,he therefore obtained permission to set up the ,european receiving station at ,ardrossan a coast town near ,glasgow1 ,scotland4 ,the actual site was a large field heavily covered with seaweed4 ,he was assisted in the erection of his receiving antenna by a member of the ,marconi ,international ,marine ,communications ,company4 #a1cjj feet of phosphor-bronze wire was stretched #ab feet above the ground on ten poles spaced equally along the full length of the wire which was earthed at the far end through a non-inductive resistor4 ,this was the first ,beverage type receiving array ever erected in the ,united ,kingdom4 ,before the actual tests took place the length of the wire was reduced to #hej feet4 ,at #jj4ej ,,gmt on ,december #ith #aiba ,godley identified signals from #a;,,bcg located at ,greenwich1 ,connecticut4 ,the station there was manned by six members of the ,radio ,club of ,america4 ,one of the operators was ,e4 ,howard ,armstrong inventor of the regenerative detector1 super-regeneration and the supersonic heterodyne receiver1 though the ,french claim that the superhet was first designed by ,lucien ,levy of ,paris4 ,two days later the historic first complete message transmitted by ,u4,s4 amateurs and received in ,europe on the short waves 7actually #bcj metres7 heralded a new era4 ,the message read3 ,no4#a de #a;,,bcg4 ,,words #ab4 ,,new ,,york ,,december #aa #aiba4 ,,to ,,paul ,,godley ,,ardrossan ,,scotland4 ,,hearty ,,congratulations4 ,,signed ,,burghard ,,inman ,,grinan ,,armstrong ,,amy ,,cronkhite4 ,eight ,british amateurs had also copied the message correctly4 ,one of them was ,w4,e4 ,bill ,corsham #b,,uv of ,willesden1 ,london who was later credited by the ,r4,s4,g4,b4 and the ,a4,r4,r4,l4 as being the inventor of the ,,qsl card4 ,bill had used a simple three valve receiver and an inverted-,l wire #ajj feet long compared to ,godley's huge ,beverage array4 ,in the summer of #aibb amateurs in ,france began to get licences and ,leon ,deloy #h;,,ab ,president of the ,radio ,club of ,nice in southern ,france started hearing ,british stations4 ,after a visit to the ,u4,s4,a4 ,deloy was able to improve his equipment and on ,november #bgth #aibc he contacted ,fred ,schnell #a,,mo of ,west ,hartford1 ,connecticut for the first ever #b-way ,,qso across the ,atlantic4 ,they used the useless wavelengths around #ajj metres4 ,,international ,,dx had come to stay4 ,,chapter ,,five ,,the ,,first ,,greek ,,radio ,,amateurs ,as no licences were issued for many years there are no official records to be consulted4 ,early activity was mainly in and around ,athens but there may have been one or two stations in other parts of the country which we never heard in the capital4 ,at the time of writing 7#aihg7 four of the original pioneers in the ,athens area are alive and three of them are currently active on the ,h4,f4 bands4 ,athanassis ',takis' ,coumbias has ,,qsl cards addressed to him dated #aibi when he was a short wave listener in ,odessa1 ,russia with the ,,swl callsign ,,rk-#aacf4 ,in #aica his family1 like many other ,greek families in ,russia1 moved to ,athens where ,takis built a #d-valve transmitter with which he was very active on #dj and #bj metre ,,cw using the callsign ,,sv#a;,,aaa4 ,i frequently operated his station myself and when ,i asked him why he had chosen that particular callsign he gave me what proved to be a truly prophetic answer4 ,it will be ages1 he said1 before the ,greek ,state officially recognizes the very existence of radio amateurs and begins to issue transmitting licences to them4 ,after that it might take another #ej years for them to get to the three-letter series beginning with ,,sv#a;,,aaa4 ,in actual fact this is what happened3 legislation was enacted #dj years later and the callsign ,,sv#a;,,aaa was officially allocated to ,nikita ,venizelos after #ed years had elapsed6 ,although at the time there was no official recognition of amateur radio in ,greece1 the existence and identity of the handful of 'under cover' operators was known to the ,head of the ,w_/,t section at the ,ministry of ,posts ,telegraphs 7,greek initials ,t4,t4,t47 ,stefanos ,eleftheriou who did more than anyone else to encourage and promote the development of our hobby4 ,in fact1 following a minor brush with the police in #aicg 7described by ,n#b;,,doe later in this book7 ,eleftheriou issued three licences 'for experimental research in connection with the propagation of short waves' on the basis of earlier legislation governing the use of wireless telegraphy which really had nothing to do with amateur radio4 ,the recipients of these three licences were ,costas ',bill' ,tavaniotis ,,sv#a,,ke1 ,aghis ,cazazis ,,sv#a;,,ca and ,nikos ,katselis ,,sv#a,,nk4 ,as there were no relevant regulations the choice of callsign was left to the individual operators4 ,for instance1 ,tavaniotis ran his own electrical and electronic business called ,,konstav ,,electric so he decided to use ,,ke as his callsign4 ,as far as ,i know the following ten amateurs were active in the ,athens area in #aicg3 #a4 ,takis ,coumbias444444444444444444444,,sv#a;,,a aa #b4 ',bill' ,tavaniotis444444444444444444,,sv#a,,ke 7silent key7 #c4 ,polycarpos ,psomiadis44444444444444,,sv#a;,,az 7now ,n#b;,,doe7 #d4 ,aghis ,cazazis4444444444444444444444,,sv#a;,,c a 7silent key7 #e4 ,nikos ,katselis444444444444444444444,,sv#a,,nk 7silent key7 #f4 ,george ,zarifis444444444444444,,sv#a,,sp_/,,sv# f,,sp 7now ,,sv#a;,,aa7 #g4 ,nasos ,coucoulis44444444444444444444,,sv#a,,sm 7silent key7 #h4 ,george ,yiapapas44444444444444444444,,sv#a;,,gy 7now ,,qrt7 #i4 ,menelaos ,paidousis44444444444444444,,sv#a,,mp #aj4 ,norman ,joly444444444444444444444444,,sv#a,,rx 7now ,g#c;,,fnj7 ,in #aieb ,costas ,karayiannis who ran a big business called ,,radio ,,karayianni published an amazingly comprehensive book entitled ,,elliniki ,,radiofonia which means ',greek ,broadcasting'4 ,it contained a vast treasure of information on many subjects allied to broadcasting1 and there was a page entitled ,,dawn 7#aicj-aidj7 which dealt with amateur radio activity in ,greece before ,world ,war ,,ii4 ,it confirmed most of the names listed above as can be seen in the photo-copy of the original ,greek text1 and it mentioned three others3 ,george ,gerardos ,,sv#a;,,ag1 7silent key71 ,s4 ,stefanou and ,mikes ,psalidas who was allocated the callsign ,,sv#a;,,af #bj years later1 though he1 like many others had come on the air after the end of the war with an unofficial callsign4 ,were all these operators who functioned strictly in accordance with international regulations pirates8 ,in my view they were certainly not pirates4 ,if the ,state was officially unaware of the existence of amateur radio how could they apply for licences and be issued with official callsigns8 ,later in this book ,n#b;,,doe describes how a handful of amateurs had prepared draft legislation in #aicg at the request of ,stefanos ,eleftheriou of the ,ministry but the outbreak of ,world ,war ,,ii in ,september #aici had prevented him from taking any action in this connection4 ,the island of ,crete in southern ,greece was first heard on the air in #aich when ,george ,zarifis came on #dj metre ,,cw using the callsign ,,sv#f,,sp4 ,his transmitter consisted of a single metal #f,l#f crystal oscillator with an input of about #g watts4 ,for reception he used an ,american ,,case broadcast receiver in which he had fitted a ,,bfo4 ,in a very short period he had about #ejj ,q,s,os4 ,forty four years later some of the younger generation of operators who had not heard of this early activity from ,crete allocated the prefix ,,sv#i to the island4 ,rather illogically they allocated ,,sv#h to all the other islands irrespective of their geographical position and with yet another exception--,,sv#e for the twelve ,dodecanese islands4 ,general ,george ,zarifis 7retired7 ,,sv#a;,,aa as he is now1 had started playing with 'wireless' a long long time before he went to ,crete4 ,in #aiba when he was in the #dth form at school he had bought two kits of parts from ,france and put them together with the help of his fellow-student ,george ,grabinger4 ,the kit consisted of a bright emitter triode in an oscillating circuit4 ,the heater supply was a #d volt accumulator1 and a dozen or so dry cells1 with an earphone in series1 supplied the anode voltage4 ,the tuned circuit consisted of a coil with a small pressure operated capacitor across it4 ,a carbon microphone with a dry cell in series was connected to two or three turns of wire wound over the coil4 ,the assembled kits were tested close to each other and they worked4 ,later1 when they had connected random length wire antennas to the circuits the two schoolboys were able to talk to each other across the #djj metres which separated their homes4 ,these contacts quite definitely heralded the dawn of amateur radio in ,greece at about the same time as the #aiba ,transatlantic tests were taking place4 ,on the #ast of ,september #aici ,hitler's armies invaded ,poland4 ,great ,britain which had a treaty with ,poland was compelled to declare war on ,germany two days later on the #crd1 followed by ,france4 ,canada and ,australia declared war on ,germany the next day4 ,all the radio amateurs in ,athens immediately dismantled their transmitters and dispersed the components4 ,so ended the first phase of amateur radio activity in ,greece4 ,,chapter ,,six ,,world ,,war ,,ii ,,and ,,after ,,in ,,greece ,socrates ,coutroubis ,,sv#a;,,ae described to me how his interest in radio was aroused in #aice when he was #ac years old4 ,his father had decided to buy a domestic radio receiver4 ,of course in #aice ,athens had no broadcasting service1 ,socrates said1 so the receiver had to be able to tune in to the short wave broadcasting bands4 ,as we already had a ,westinghouse refrigerator my father decided we should try one of their receivers4 ,when ,i say 'try' ,i must explain that it was the usual thing to ask a number of agents to submit their latest models for comparison at one's home4 ,i remember that together with the ,westinghouse1 we had an ,atwater ,kent1 ,philco1 ,,rca1 ,stromberg-,carlson and several sets of ,european manufacture such as ,philips1 ,blaupunkt1 ,saba etc4 ,we finally settled for the ,german ,saba because it was the prettiest and blended better with our living room furniture6 ,there were very few stations to be found on the short waves4 ,but ,i remember the ,dutch station ,,pcj run by the ,philips company in ,eindhoven4 ,the announcer was ,edward ,startz who spoke perfect ,english and about a dozen other languages4 ,this is the ,happy ,station1 broadcasting from the ,netherlands he would say cheerfully4 ,a couple of years after we had bought the radio we were returning from an open air movie round about midnight when ,i noticed a book on sale at a road-side kiosk4 ,it was entitled ,,the ,,radio ,,amateur',s ,,handbook published by the ,a4,r4,r4,l4 ,i had no idea what the initials stood for4 ,the price was astronomical for my pocket but after a little coercion ,i got my father to buy it for me4 ,when ,i began to read it ,i discovered the existence of radio amateurs4 ,it was the #aici edition and ,i found a circuit for a receiver which looked simple enough for me to try4 ,it was described as a regenerative detector and audio amplifier4 ,at that time the best place to buy components in ,athens was at a store called ,radio ,karayianni1 but three others shops also stocked valves 7tubes7 and components4 ,one was the ,electron run by ,george ,spanos1 who was the agent for the ,dutch ,philips company4 ,then there was a shop in a basement next door1 ,konstav ,electric1 owned by ',bill' ,tavaniotis ,,sv#a,,ke4 ,a wide range of components were also stocked by the ,raytheon agent1 ,nick ,katselis ,,sv#a,,nk4 ,i obtained some plug-in forms and wound the coils carefully according to the instructions but unfortunately the receiver didn't work very well1 if at all4 ,when ,i asked a few friends they suggested ,i should shorten the very long wires ,i had used between the components1 and sure enough ,i had the greatest thrill of my life when for the first time ,i heard ,rome on short waves on my very own home-made receiver4 ,outstanding stations in the broadcast band in those days were ,trieste in northern ,italy1 ,katowice in ,poland1 ,breslau in ,germany and ,toulouse in south-west ,france4 ,although ,i had read about the activities of radio amateurs in the ,handbook ,i had not yet heard any of the half dozen or so stations that were already operating on ,,cw and ,,am telephony in the ,athens area4 ,my father used to buy the periodical ,,london ,,calling which contained the overseas programmes of the ,b4,b4,c4 as well as the programmes of the principal ,european broadcasting stations4 ,this publication also carried advertisements and it was there that ,i first saw an illustration of the ,hammarlund ,super ,pro and realised that there were receivers specially designed for the reception of short waves4 ,but during the ,german_/,italian occupation of ,greece between #aida and #aidd my little home-made receiver played a vital role in enabling us to listen 7secretly7 to the ,b4,b4,c4 broadcasts because the authorities had sealed all radios to the broadcast 7medium wave7 band and to the frequency of ,radio ,athens4 ,most people devised ingenuous methods of listening to stations other than ,athens4 ,after the end of the war a friend of mine who returned to ,athens from ,cairo brought me the #aide edition of the ,a4,r4,r4,l4,handbook1 which is still on the shelf as you can see4 ,socrates explained that in #aide there was complete political upheaval in ,greece1 owing to the events that had taken place during the foreign occupation1 so the ,general ,election of that year was carried out under the supervision of foreign observers from the ,u4,s4,a41 the ,united ,kingdom ,france4 ,the ,russians did not send a mission4 ,owing to my knowledge of ,english ,i was employed by the ,american mission to act as interpreter4 ,one day when ,i was off duty ,i was taken by a friend to a signals unit where there were many pieces of equipment which had been 'liberated'1 and ,i was able to buy a ,,bc #cdb receiver4 ,later when ,harry ,barnett ,,sv#a,,we who was in the ,press ,department of the ,british ,embassy returned to ,england ,i bought his ,hallicrafter ,,sx#bh4 ,it was at ,harry's house in ,kolonaki that ,i had my first taste of amateur radio in action4 ,he had a ,national ,,hro for reception and he had constructed a #ej-watt transmitter using surplus components which were in plentiful supply at that time4 ,another friend of mine1 ,jim ,liverios1 was employed at the ,civil ,aviation transmitter site on a hill south of ,nea ,smyrni4 ,the ,american ,mission had set up their short wave transmitters on the same site and later ,interpol installed their own equipment as well4 ,liverios was always on night shift because he attended the ,university during the day4 ,i still don't know how he ever managed to get any sleep4 ,when things were quiet he would 'borrow' a #e ,kw transmitter and tune it in the #bj metre band4 ,using a callsign of his own choice 7probably a different one every night7 he would have contacts with the whole world4 ,on his invitation ,i went there at midnight one night and stayed until the morning4 ,i remember we had ,q,s,os with ,cuba1 ,chile1 ,new ,zealand and ,australia4 ,,the ,,affair ,,of ,,the ,,piraeus ,,police4 ,in #aidg1 there was a war in northern ,greece which some people called a civil war and others a war against the guerrillas1 depending on whose side they were on4 ,suddenly one morning all the ,athens newspapers came out with some amazing headlines3 ,,the ,,wireless ,,transmitters ,,of ,,the ,,communists ,,have ,,been ,,seized ,,in ,,athens ,,wireless ,,transmitters ,,found ,,in ,,communist ,,hands ,,how ,,the ,,five ,,transmitters ,,of ,,the ,,communists ,,were ,,discovered ,,the ,,six ,,installations ,,seized ,,by ,,the ,,police ,two of the newspapers printed the identical photograph 7included in the montage7 with the following caption1 ',the ,communist transmitters seized by the ,piraeus police'4 ,this was a photograph of the shack of ,mikes ,psalidas ,,sv#a;,,af4 ,at the top right one can see a #b-;inch home-made monitor oscilloscope1 which the newspapers described as a 'powerful radar'6 ,during the last three days1 wrote one newspaper1 the police in ,piraeus have been investigating a very serious case implicating leading cadres of the ,communist party4 ,of course1 it was nothing of the sort4 ,the equipment they had seized belonged to five radio amateurs1 ,george ,gerardos ,,sv#a;,,ag1 ,mikes ,psalidas ,,sv#a;,,af1 ,nasos ,coucoulis ,,sv#a;,,ac1 ,aghis ,cazazis ,,sv#a;,,ca and ,sotiris ,stefanou who didn't have a callsign yet4 ,in fact ,mikes ,psalidas was not even at home at the time of the police raid1 as he was in a military camp in the outskirts of ,athens1 doing his compulsory military service4 ,the newspapers described in detail what had been found4 ,at the house of ,mikes ,psalidas1 who is a student at the ,athens ,polytechnic1 the police found wireless telegraphy receiving equipment 7a ,national ,,hro71 wireless telephony equipment in full working order1 that is1 two transmitting microphones1 a step-down transformer and various other items4 ,the same newspaper went on ,unfortunately1 at the house of ,aghis ,cazazis1 at #be ,tenedou street1 the search was inconclusive because a certain person1 well known to the police1 and whose arrest is imminent1 removed a high power transmitter just before the police arrived and disappeared with it4 ,another newspaper referred to telegrams in code1 received from abroad and from the secret headquarters of the ,communists1 which are now being deciphered by a special department4 ,these were ,,sv#a;,,ag's little collection of ,,qsl cards4 ,stefanos ,eleftheriou of the ,ministry immediately took up the matter4 ,firstly1 he pointed out to the ,piraeus police that ,athens did not come under their jurisdiction1 and they had no right to arrest anybody there without a warrant4 ,secondly1 all the five radio amateurs they had arrested were known for their nationalistic political convictions1 particularly ,psalidas whose father was a senior officer of the ,royal ,hellenic airforce4 ,before the 'suspects' were released and their confiscated equipment returned to them1 they were warned not to speak to newspaper reporters at the risk of getting a kick up their backsides4 ,this was to prevent the public from learning how ludicrous had been the accusations1 and how completely unjustified the arrests had been4 ,but one newspaper came out the following day with a banner headline ,,the ,,owners ,,of ,,the ,,wireless ,,and ,,radar ,,equipment ,,all ,,turned ,,out ,,to ,,be ,,staunch ,,royalists6 ,this paper sent a reporter to interview ,,sv#a;,,ac4 ,they wrote1 ,in reply to a question from our reporter1 ,mr ,coucoulis said that when the police realised the foolishness of their action1 they issued a summons against him under ,law #dgdi1 which has absolutely nothing to do with amateur radio4 ,during the ten years following the end of ,world ,war ,,ii there were about #ae to #bj very active amateurs in the ,athens area1 all using callsigns of their own choice because no government legislation had yet been enacted4 ,most of these operators subsequently obtained licences and had to change to the official series4 ,i remember two ,y,ls who were very popular in ,europe and the ,u4,s4,a4 because they spoke several languages fluently1 but they never re-appeared when licences began to be issued4 ,since #aide the ,u4,s4 and ,british signals units were authorised by the ,greek ,ministry of ,communications to issue calls to military and diplomatic personnel in the series ,,sv#j,,wa in the case of ,american staff and ,,sv#j;,,aa for the ,british4 ,socrates continued3 ,i heard that the ,americans had formed a club called ',attica ,amateur ,radio ,club' in ,kifissia1 a suburb to the north of ,athens1 and in due course ,i was able to become a member4 ,in #aied1 ,socrates continued1 ,george ,zarifis 7currently ,,sv#a;,,aa7 who was a regular army officer in the ,legal ,branch approached ,mr ,nicolis who was ,director of the ,wireless ,division at the ,ministry of ,communications and asked him ',since you have authorised the ,americans and the ,british to issue licences to their personnel1 why do you not grant the same facility to us ,greek amateurs8'4 ,to which ,nicolis had replied ',there is no law of the land recognising the very existence of radio amateurs so how can ,i issue licences to you8'4 ,it was then that we decided to form an association whose principal objective would be the enactment of legislation recognising officially the existence of radio amateurs in ,greece4 ,as a recognised body we would then be able to go back to ,nicolis and get him to pursue the matter4 ,that was how1 late in #aieg1 we formed the ,radio ,amateur ,association of ,greece1 ,r4,a4,a4,g41 ,greek initials ,e4,e4,r4 ,at the same time1 after considerable effort1 we got the ,ministry to issue #g licences based on the ,wireless ,telegraphy ,act of #aicj 7,no #dgig7 and the regulations relating to ,law #ajdi of #aidi1 as well as a document dated ,july #hth #aieg issued by the radio division of the ,central ,intelligence service 7,greek initials ,k4,y4,p4-,r74 ,this order authorised the installation of a #ej watt transmitter to an applicant under certain strict limitations1 one of which was that the station could only be operated from #jf4jj to #jh4jj hours and from #ac4jj to midnight4 ,the seven lucky recipients are shown in the accompanying photograph4 ,akis ,lianos ,,sv#a;,,ad1 ,socrates ,coutroubis ,,sv#a;,,ae1 ,nasos ,coucoulis ,,sv#a;,,ac 7silent key71 ,george ,zarifis ,,sv#a;,,aa1 ,mikes ,psalidas ,,sv#a;,,af1 ,george ,vernardakis ,,sv#a;,,ab and ,george ,gerardos ,,sv#a;,,ag 7silent key74 ,at that time 7#aieh7 my ,,am station consisted of a ,hammarlund ,,sp#fjj receiver and a home-built transmitter using an ,italian ,geloso ,,vfo-exciter driving a pair of #fadfs in the final1 with anode and screen modulation by a pair of #hjgs in class ,,ab#b4 ,i had also assembled a double conversion receiver using a ,geloso front end4 ,this was typical of the equipment used in ,greece and ,italy in the early #aifjs4 ,licences continued to be issued until #aifg when the ,junta ,colonels ,papadopoulos and ,patakos established the military dictatorship4 ,we were all ordered to seal our equipment and obtain written confirmation from the nearest ,police authority that the disablement had been carried out4 ,six months later1 in ,december of #aifg we started getting our licences back4 ,most of us believed that because some of the younger officers in the military government had received training at the ,pentagon in the ,u4,s4,a4 they convinced their superiors that it was better for the genuine amateurs to be allowed to operate their equipment under close supervision by the military and under new regulations1 rather than have under cover operators starting up all over again4 ,george ,gerardos ,,sv#a;,,ag had a friend ,oresti ,yiaka who was involved in government telecommunications and it was through him that draft legislation for the issue of amateur licences was instigated1 but not for the first time4 ,unsuccessful attempts had been made before the war4 ,in #aife when ,george ,papandreou was ,prime ,minister1 on the very day when the ,draft ,bill was going to be put before ,parliament the government resigned and another #aj years went by4 ,when legislation was finally published in the ,government ,gazette in #aigb1 owing to the prevailing political situation 7military dictatorship7 it had serious limitations imposed by some ,ministries which had to look after their own interests1 especially the ,ministry of ,national ,defence4 ,but ,george ,gerardos1 ,,sv#a;,,ag1 who had been closely involved1 decided that it would be better to overlook certain details which may seem strange to us at the present time--details which could be rectified at a later date1 provided the law was finally on the ,statute book4 ,for instance1 ,i refer to the very restricted frequencies we were allocated in the #hj-metre band1 #c4ejj to #c4fjj ,m,hz4 ,obviously when we began transmitting ,,ssb telephony below #c4fjj we were greeted with angry protestations from the ,,cw operators there4 ,and what was worse1 the voices of ,greek amateurs were not heard in the ,,dx portion of the phone allocation from #c4gej to #c4hjj ,m,hz4 ,unfortunately1 there was another and more serious snag4 ,the last paragraph of the ,law said that it would come into force only after publication in the ,government ,gazette of regulations clarifying certain details and procedures4 ,so we were back to square one4 ,but this did not prevent the ,general ,staff of the military dictatorship from continuing to issue new licences under the special restrictions they had laid down4 ,when the dictatorship came to an end the new government finally published ,regulation #bga on ,april #cjth #aigf1 which made the #aigb law fully operative4 ,during the period of the military dictatorship a break-away club was formed by ,dinos ,psiloyiannis ,,sv#a;,,db who added the word 'national' to its name making the ,greek initials ,e4,e4,e4,r4 ,his motives were rather dubious1 one of them being that he objected to a regulation which required an applicant for a licence to produce a declaration signed by the ,president and the ,secretary of ,radio ,amateur ,association of ,greece4 ,psiloyiannis1 who had contacts with the military authorities 7both his father and brother were officers7 declared ,i will form my own association and issue declarations myself4 ,by this manoeuvre he obtained licences for quite a few newcomers1 but after a year or two his club ceased to function and most if not all of its members joined the ,r4,a4,a4,g4 ,an amendment of ,law #abdd of #aigb published in the ,government ,gazette ,no4#aad dated ,june #crd #aihh finally abolished the requirement of the controversial declaration1 as well as the rule which said that before anyone could apply for a licence they had to join an officially recognised association or club4 ,,chapter ,,seven ,,pioneers ,,in ,,greece #a4 ,general ,george ,zarifis 7retired7 ,,sv#a;,,aa4 ,as recorded in detail in chapter #e1 ,george was undoubtedly the first ,greek amateur to have two-way contacts using radio telephony1 way back in #aiba4 ,he was also the first amateur to operate from the island of ,crete in #aich4 #b4 ,dr ,costas ,fimerelis ,,sv#a;,,dh4 7,transequatorial propagation74 ,on ,october #ith #aihh at #bc4aj ,,gmt a new world distance record was established on the #ej ,m,hz band by the ,greek experimental station ,,sz#b;,,dh operated by ,costas ,fimerelis ,,sv#a;,,dh and a station in ,tokyo1 when it was proved that the signals had travelled a distance of #cj1fej over the ,south ,american continent4 ,this is #ae1jjj kilometres more than the short path between the two stations1 over which there was absolutely no propagation at that moment in time4 ,a simple #e element ,yagi and a power of #ajj watts was used at ,,sz#b;,,dh4 ,the contact was on ,,cw but the signals were so strong that it might well have been on ,,ssb4 ,it is estimated that #h hops were needed to cover this record distance4 ,most people know by now that ,,sv#a;,,dh was one of the principal stations involved in the very successful ,transequatorial propagation tests which took place during the #bast sunspot cycle between #aigg and #aihc4 ,costas gave me a simplified explanation of the phenomenon first noticed by ,ray ,cracknell ,,ze#b;,,jv and ,roland ,whiting #e;,b#d,,wr way back in ,september #aieg1 namely that ,,vhf signals can travel great distances across the equator 7#e1jjj to #h1jjj kilometres7 during the years of high sunspot activity4 ,costas said that usually stations located approximately the same distance north and south of the magnetic 7not geographic7 equator can contact each other shortly after sunset at both locations4 ,the first such ,,qso took place on the #ajth ,april #aigh between ,,ze#b;,,jv and #e;,b#d,,wr4 ,two days later ,,ze#b;,,jv contacted ,george ,vernardakis ,,sv#a;,,ab and this contact was followed a few days later with ,q,s,os with ,,sv#a;,,dh and ,,sv#a;,,cs4 7,fuller details of these contacts are given later in this book in the interview with ,,sv#a;,,ab74 ,in ,october #aigf there was a rumour that #ade ,m,hz signals had been heard directly between ,argentina and ,venezuela4 ,with the imminent beginning of sunspot cycle #ba many amateurs in the northern and southern hemispheres began organizing tests on #ej1add1bbj and #dcb ,m,hz4 ,within less than a year successful #b-way contact was established between ,argentina and ,venezuela on #add ,m,hz4 ,greece is favourably placed for ,,tep to countries in ,africa where there is considerable amateur radio activity1 like ,zimbabwe and the ,union of ,south ,africa4 ,so towards the end of #aigg ,,sv#a;,,ab and ,,sv#a;,,dh began looking for colleagues in suitable geographic locations with the appropriate equipment and the time and inclination to engage in tests which could go on for months and months on end4 ,very soon the following stations agreed to participate in the tests4 ,the northern group included ,,sv#a;,,ab1 ,,sv#a;,,dh1 #e;,b#d,,wr and #e;,b#d;,,az4 ,in the southern hemisphere participants were ,,ze#b;,,jv 7now ,g#b;,,ahu71 ,,zs#f,,pw1 ,,zs#f;,,dn1 ,,zs#f,,ln and ,,zs#c;,b4 ,after #d months of daily test schedules1 early in #aigh1 successful contacts took place on #add ,m,hz1 some of which constituted world distance records for that time1 as can be seen in the accompanying table4 ,amateurs in ,malta1 ,italy1 ,france and ,spain soon began to participate in the tests1 as well as amateurs in other areas of ,south ,africa4 ,it can be seen from the world map that the magnetic dip 7shown as a heavy line7 is very different to the geographic equator4 ,the ,,qth of ,,sv#a;,,ab is in a suburb #aj kilometres north of ,,sv#a;,,dh's so ,george's contacts with the stations in ,africa always had that edge on them4 ,in ,south ,africa ,dave ,larson ,,zs#f;,,dn had set up a beacon which was first heard in ,athens by ,,sv#a;,,ab in ,february #aigi4 ,within a few days ,,zs#f;,,dn had ,q,s,os with ,,sv#a;,,dh and ,,sv#a;,,ab4 ,the latter contact was a world distance record via the ,f-regions of the ionosphere because of the extra distance involved owing to the locations of the two ,greek stations1 as mentioned in the previous paragraph4 ,for anyone who may be interested very comprehensive reports of the work done in transequatorial propagation during cycle #ba and earlier appeared in articles written by ,ray ,cracknell ,,ze#b;,,jv_/,g#b;,,ahu and ,roland ,whiting #e;,b#d,,wr_/,g#c,,uyo in the ,june_/,july_/,august #aihj issues of ,radio ,communuication1 the journal of the ,r4,s4,g4,b4 and in the ,november_/,december #aihj issues of ,,qst4 ,,record ,,transequatorial ,,propagation ,,contacts ,,during ,,sunspot ,,cyle #ba ,stations ,m,hz ,date ,,gmt ,km ,,yv#e,,zz_/#f - ,,lu#a;,,dau #ade4i #bi_/aj_/gg #jb4jj #e1jjj ,world record distance on #add ,m,hz4 ,first ,western hemisphere contact4 ,,jh#f,,tew - ,,vk#h,,wj #add4a #aj_/jb_/gh #aa4ej #e1jfj ,first ,pacific area contact4 ,,kp#d;,,eor - ,,lu#e;,,djz #ade4a #ab_/jb_/gh #jj4ab #f1cdj ,new world distance record on #add ,m,hz4 ,,yv#e,,zz - ,,lu#c;,,aat #dcb4a #ac_/jb_/gh #ja4aj #e1ajj ,first reception of #dcb ,m,hz signals in ,western hemisphere4 #e;,b#d,,wr - ,,ze#b;,,jv #add4a #aj_/jd_/gh #ag4dj #e1hjj ,first ,t4,e4,p4 contact between ,europe and ,africa4 ,,sv#a;,,ab - ,,ze#b;,,jv #add4a #ab_/jd_/gh #ah4jj #f1bfj ,first ,greek distance record on #add ,m,hz4 ,,sv#a;,,dh - ,,zs#f;,,dn #add4a #ac_/jb_/gi #ah4ae #g1abj ,new world distance record on #add ,m,hz4 ,,sv#a;,,dh - ,,ze#b;,,jv #dcb4c #bj_/jc_/gi #ah4bj #f1bej ,first reception of #dcb ,m,hz signals between ,europe and ,africa4 ,i#d;,,eat - ,,zs#c;,b #add4a #ca_/jc_/gi #ah4ej #g1hij ,world distance record 7reception7 on #add ,m,hz4 #c4 ,george ,vernardakis ,,sv#a;,,ab4 7,v4,h4,f47 ,in ,march #aihh ,i visited ,george ,vernardakis ,,sv#a;,,ab 7formerly ,f#i,,qn of ,marseilles1 ,france7 who spoke to me about his contribution to the transequatorial tests and his other experiments in connection with ,moonbounce1 ,meteor ,scatter and ,sporadic ,e propagation4 ,in #aife ,george told me1 ,i was the only ,,sv station equipped for contacts via meteor scatter so it was easy for me to make contacts with many ,european stations4 ,the longest distance ,i achieved was with ,,ua#a;,,dz a ,physics ,professor at the ,university of ,leningrad in the ,soviet ,union4 ,norman3 ,forgive me for interrupting you1 but please explain in simple terms what you mean by meteor scatter4 ,george3 ,meteor scatter is a way of making contacts on #b metres by reflection from meteorites--'shooting stars' as they are called colloquially--which we see on clear nights during the summer4 ,of course they are not falling stars at all--they are meteorites which burn up when they hit the earth's atmosphere1 leaving the trail that we see4 ,we take advantage of this phenomenon for bouncing our signals off the trail but unfortunately it is a very short-lived event4 ,once when there were a lot of meteorites ,i was able to maintain contact with ,,lx#a,,si of ,luxembourg for a whole three minutes on ,,ssb4 ,it was during the period of the ,persides which usually occur for a week in ,august when the earth's orbit takes it through this cloud of space debris4 ,millions of meteorites can be as small as a grain of sand and of course leave no visible trail when they strike the earth's atmosphere4 ,the earth goes through other major clusters in ,april and in ,december4 ,the phenomenon can also affect signals on lower frequencies4 ,one can be in ,,qso on #bj metres via ground wave with a station a couple of hundred miles away with signals around s#b to s#c4 ,suddenly one or two words are heard at s#i which indicates a momentary reflection off a meteorite trail4 ,george also explained that in order to defeat the brevity of the time when communication was possible it was customary to record a message on a tape recorder and transmit it at high speed4 ,the other station would also record at high speed and then play back at normal speed to hear the message normally4 ,i asked ,,sv#a;,,ab to tell me about ,sporadic ,e propagation4 ,in this form of contact the signals are reflected from an ionised area #ij to #abj kilometres above the surface of the earth4 ,i have been having contacts by this method for about #ah years now even before the advent of ,,ssb on two metres4 ,i have had contacts with ,england and with ,moscow to the north-east of ,athens4 ,the phenomenon occurs for three or four months during the summer1 and never during the winter4 ,the ionisation moves very rapidly sometimes--you may be talking to a station in ,malta and he suddenly disappears and a station in ,yugoslavia comes up on the same frequency4 ,every summer ,george continued1 we get ,troposcatter which allows communication on all frequencies from ,,vhf to #aj ,g,hz even4 ,this type of propagation occurs during certain special meteorological conditions1 like high barometric pressure and extreme heat4 ,we sometimes hear stations in ,malta and ,sicily with very loud signals4 ,in #aiff ,i built an aerial array consisting of #h nine-element ,yagis for #b metres with the axis of rotation pointing to the ,north ,star enabling me to track the ,moon automatically4 ,i was hoping to make some ,moonbounce contacts1 but at that time it was very difficult to construct low noise preamplifiers4 ,after many days and hours of trying ,i managed a single brief contact with ,f#h;,,do in ,france4 ,some time later ,i heard that ,mike ,staal ,k#f,,myc had heard me in ,california4 ,the funny thing about this aerial array was that it enabled me to receive television signals from ,nigeria on ,channel #c but only when ,i raised it up to an elevation of nearly #ij degrees4 ,norman3 ,i understand that ,costas ,georgiou ,,sv#a,,oe is the only ,greek amateur who has had successful ,q,s,os via ,moonbounce4 ,george3 ,yes indeed4 ,but it was many years later1 using a low noise ,,gasfet preamplifier4 ,k#a,,whs in the ,u4,s4,a4 has an array consisting of #dh ,yagis which enable him to contact stations with more modest installations4 ,in #aigj a technician from ,stanford ,university came to ,athens because the tracking station they had set up on ,mount ,pendeli could not pick the ,university's satellite1 whereas they were getting good signals from it in ,spain4 ,one of the assistants at the station told the ,american that he knew an amateur who could pick up signals from satellites1 meaning me4 ,the ,american1 who happened to be an amateur himself1 immediately asked to see me4 ,when he saw my #h antenna array he suggested we should use it to try and pick up the ,university satellite4 ,i pointed out to him that my array was for #add ,m,hz whereas the satellite beacon was transmitting on #acf ,m,hz4 ,he gave me the coordinates for the next pass and ,i rotated and raised my array in anticipation4 ,when the exact time arrived my modest receiver picked up the satellite beacon loud and clear4 ,the ,american got so excited he asked me if he could use my telephone to call the ,university in the ,u4,s4,a4 ,he told them the satellite had been heard at last in ,athens1 and by an amateur no less4 ,later ,i received a letter from ,,nasa thanking me for the assistance ,i had given4 ,when the ,american left he gave me that #ej ,m,hz converter you can see there on the shelf4 ,norman3 ,tell me about your contribution to the transequatorial tests of #aigi4 ,,sv#a;,,ab3 ,i had been in regular contact with ,,zs#f,,ln on ten metres long before ,costas ,,sv#a;,,dh appeared on the scene4 ,i remember asking ,,zs#f,,ln why we should not receive ,south ,african stations on #b metres when we could hear them so well on #ej ,m,hz4 ,he had replied that the two frequencies behaved in a very different manner1 but there was no harm in trying4 ,he got ,,zs#f,,pw and ,,zs#f;,,dn interested in the idea1 particularly ,,zs#f;,,dn who had much better aerials and a very good ,,qth4 ,he was the one who stood the better chance of being heard in ,greece4 ,we arranged a schedule of transmitting and listening every evening4 ,first they transmitted and we listened1 and then we transmitted and they listened1 and contact was maintained on ten metres4 ,norman3 ,you said 'every evening'--do you mean that the ,sun has something to do with this type of propagation8 ,george3 ,most certainly4 ,all the contacts that were made subsequently were at least one hour after the relevant part of the ionosphere was in darkness4 ,george then described how the first signals were heard via transequatorial propagation4 ,george3 ,first we heard the beacon on #add4afj ,m,hz set up by ,ray ,cracknell ,,ze#b;,,jv in ,southern ,rhodesia 7now ,zimbabwe74 ,the date was ,april #abth #aigh at #ah4jj ,g4,m4,t4 ,ten months later ,i heard ,,zs#f;,,dn's automatic beacon with a colossal signal1 but he was not at home6 ,i went to #bj metres and put out a frantic ,,cq for any station in ,south ,africa but got no reply4 ,i returned to the cross-band frequency on #aj metres which we used regularly for #bh_/ej ,m,hz ,q,s,os and managed to contact a station in ,south ,africa who was very far away from ,,zs#f;,,dn but who kindly offered to ,,qsp a message by telephone4 ,he was told that ,,zs#f;,,dn had gone out but would be back soon4 ,i was terrified that the opening would not last long enough4 ,but in a few minutes ,i heard him calling me slowly on ,,cw and we exchanged reports at #ag4bj ,g4,m4,t on ,february #afth #aigi4 ,this was a new world record for the longest distance on #b metres4 ,three days earlier1 however1 when ,i was not at home1 ,costas ,,sv#a;,,dh had established the first ,,tep contact between ,greece and ,south ,africa when he contacted ,,zs#f;,,dn4 ,as you know1 my location is a mere #aj kilometres north of ,,sv#a;,,dh's4 ,i have a tape recording of my ,,qso with ,,zs#f;,,dn as well as with ,,zs#f,,pw whose signals came through a few minutes later at #ag4cd ,g4,m4,t4 on that historic evening47,the local time in ,athens was #g4cd p4m474,of course the distance record was broken again on ,september #agth #aiha when ,i contacted ,,zs#d;,,bu who is #aaj kilometres further south than ,,zs#f;,,dn4 ,norman3 ,were all these contacts only on the key8 ,george3 ,yes1 all the contacts were on ,,cw4 ,on several occasions we tried ,,ssb but there was so much distortion that not a single word could be identified4 ,,tep has a lot of flutter and fading and as you can hear on the tapes even the morse comes through like a breathing noise1 not a clear tone4 ,this applies to contacts between ,greece and ,south ,africa4 ,contacts between ,japan and ,australia where the distances involved are smaller1 have been made on ,,ssb4 ,norman3 ,what about cycle #bb8 ,george3 see how things go4 ,if anything is achieved it should be in #aiij or later4 ,with modern equipment we shall be able to hear signals that were buried in the noise in #aigi4 #d4 ,dr ,spyros ,tsaltas ,,sv#a;,,at ,george ,delikaris ,,sv#a;,,am4 7,mobile74 ,the first two licensed amateurs to make contact on #b metres in ,greece were ,dr ,spyros ,tsaltas ,,sv#a;,,at and ,george ,delikaris ,,sv#a;,,am4 ,they had put together the famous ,heathkit ',,twoer'4 ,crystals were plentiful on the surplus market1 but it was not easy to find two of the same frequency4 ,,sv#a;,,at transmitted on #add4gbj and ,,sv#a;,,am on #ade4ace ,m,hz4 ,the first contact took place at #ac4cj local time on the #bast of ,december #aifc4 ,a few days later ,,sv#a;,,at had a cross-band ,,qso with ,george ,vernardakis ,,sv#a;,,ab who was transmitting in the #bj metre band on #ad4bej ,m,hz ,a4,m4 as he had not completed his ,,twoer yet4 ,at that time ,,sv#a;,,at was the ,secretary of the ,radio ,amateur ,association of ,greece4 ,he suggested to the ,committee that the ,club should apply for a temporary licence to be granted to ,,sv#a;,,am enabling him to transmit from his vehicle while in motion4 ,the licensing authority gave the licence for experimental purposes only1 and for a period not exceeding one month4 ,and so it was that the first 'mobile' ,,qso took place on #b metres between licensed ,greek amateurs on the #bgth of ,january #aife at #ai4be local time4 ,,sv#a;,,am was travelling in his car and ,,sv#a;,,at was at his home ,,qth4 #e4 ,costas ,tzezairlidis ,,sv#d;,,cg4 7,,sstv74 ,in #aigj ,costas ,tzezairlidis ,,sv#d;,,cg built a unique electro mechanical machine using two motors to achieve horizontal and vertical scanning4 ,he had found a motor which rotated at #ifj ,r4,p4,m4 which corresponds to #af revolutions per second1 the exact speed required for the horizontal scanning4 ,the speed of the second motor was #a revolution per second4 ,the reciprocal motion was produced by a cam through an #h3a reduction gear4 ,a weight attached to the microscope pulled it back to start the next line4 ,the microscope was focussed sharply on the drum carrying the picture to be transmitted4 ,resolution was excellent4 ,the 'microscope' consisted of a cardboard tube with a #ac cm focal length lens at one end and a ,philips ,,oap#ab photo-diode at the other with another lens in front of it4 ,this primitive microscope produced a picture of reasonable quality4 ,for reception ,,sv#d;,,cg made a converter using the long persistence ,p#g c4r4t4 ,with this set-up ,costas had his first ,,sstv contact on #dj metres with ,,sv#a;,,ab on ,february #bhth #aiga4 ,after that he had many contacts on #g and #ad ,m,hz as can be seen from the extract from his log4 7,the special commemorative prefix of ,,sz#j was used by all ,,sv stations during #aiga74 #f4 ,costas ,georgiou ,,sv#a,,oe4 7,e4,m4,e47 ,up to the end of #aihh the only ,greek amateur who had positively authenticated ,moonbounce contacts was ,costas ,georgiou ,,sv#a,,oe4 ,his very first contact was made in #aihb when he contacted ,,ve#g;,,bqh in ,canada on #b metres4 ,in the ensuing four years ,costas managed to work four more stations3 ,k#a,,whs1 ,,sm#d;,,gvf1 ,w#e,,un and ,,kb#h,,rq4 ,in #aihb ,costas had been trying for three years1 without success1 to hear his own signal via ,moonbounce4 ,the reason for his failure was that he was unaware of a very basic fact4 ,i was completely ignorant of the ,doppler shift effect1 ,costas told me4 ,the frequency of received signals varies according to the position of the moon4 ,if it is to the ,east of your own location the signals return #ejj to #a1jjj ,hz below the original transmitted frequency4 ,for years ,i had been sending long dashes slowly and waiting to hear my signals return on the same spot1 which they never did4 ,this happens for one instant only1 when the ,moon is at #ahj degrees azimuth1 exactly due south4 ,when it moves to the west of south the returning frequency is correspondingly higher4 ,using a #ej;,hz audio filter 7which is essential for ,moonbounce7 it is very easy to miss the weak signals4 ,soon after ,i found out my ridiculous mistake ,i began to hear my signals1 naturally with a delay of one or two seconds because of the enormous distance involved--#ggj1jjj kilometres1 #che1jjj there and #che1jjj back4 ,costas continued3 ,my next problem was finding the moon4 ,i had no computer at the time and no ,keplerian elements4 ,i mounted a small video camera in the centre of four #af-;element ,yagi antennas and rotated the elevation and azimuth motors until ,i could see the moon in the centre of the monitor in the shack4 ,of course when the sky was overcast ,i was out of business4 ,much later when ,i obtained a little ,sinclair ,,zx#hj computer life became easier4 ,when ,i made my first contact ,i was simultaneously in ,,qso with ,,sv#a;,,ab and ,,sv#a;,,io on #a1bif ,m,hz who could hear what was going on4 ,i remember ,,sv#a;,,ab got very excited and began shouting ',i can hear him1 ,i can hear him6' ,the ,,qso was with ,,ve#g;,,bqh4 ,later ,lionel sent me a very valuable present1 valuable not for its cost but for the fact that it was something quite unobtainable in ,greece at that time--a very low-noise preamplifier for #b metres4 ,after the successful launch of ,oscar #aj those amateurs who had complex antenna systems and low-noise receivers they had used for ,moonbounce congregated on #ade4iej and spoke to each other on ,,qrp which prevented ordinary mortals from hearing them4 ,by ,,qrp ,i mean outputs of half a watt or less4 ,but when finally one day ,i broke into a net ,,qso ,i arranged schedules for ,moonbounce with two stations in ,sweden4 ,i had a successful contact with one of them but never heard the other4 ,the reason may have been a very simple one3 the polarisation of signals returning from the ,moon varies from one moment to the other1 so if you have been transmitting with horizontal polarisation and go over to reception it is very easy to miss the answer of the other station if the polarisation has changed4 ,,sv#a,,oe then explained the very strict procedure which must be adhered to for ,moonbounce schedules4 ,schedules are arranged to last one hour4 ,the first station to start transmitting on the hour must be the one whose ,,qth lies to the east of the other4 ,the calling frequency for ,moonbounce is #add4jaa ,m,hz41 and the duration of the call is #b minutes1 but for the first minute and a half you call ,,cq ,,de ,,sv#a,,oe and during the last half minute you also give the call of the station you are trying to contact1 for instance ,g#c;,,fnj ,,de ,,sv#a,,oe4 ,you must on no account transmit for more than two minutes because at the beginning of the third minute the other station will begin transmitting the same pattern of signals4 ,but if he has heard you he will alter the pattern4 ,for the first half minute he will send ,,sv#a,,oe ,,de ,g#c;,,fnj and for the ensuing minute and a half he will transmit the letter ,o which signifies that he has heard your callsign completely and without difficulty i4e4 ,q#e in the ,q ,code4 ,if ,i have also heard your callsign completely ,i will send ,g#c;,,fnj for half a minute followed by ,,ro for a minute and a half1 which means that ,i have also received your callsign and your ,o4 ,and you will reply ,,ro #gc which concludes the successful contact4 ,there are one or two other letters that can be used4 ,sending ,m signifies that ,i hear you well but can only copy #ej of your transmission1 equivalent to ,q#c4 ,and the letter ,t signifies ,i hear you but cannot read you at all--,q#a4 ,it has been found by experience that the best sending speed is #h w4p4m4 ,sending slowly or very fast presents problems at the other end4 ,,chapter ,,eight ,,personal ,,reminiscences ,,and ,,anecdotes ,the eight items which follow are not strictly part of the story of the development of amateur radio1 but they deal with some historical events which are connected with our hobby4 ,two are of particular interest3 the account given to me by ,takis ,coumbias formerly ,,sv#a;,,aaa of the early days of amateur radio in ,russia and the story of the ,greek broadcasts from ,cairo1 ,egypt during the ,german_/,italian occupation of ,greece in ,world ,war ,,ii4 ,nearly all the photographs of the period were taken by the author4 #a4 ,athanasios ',takis' ,coumbias 7#aiji-aihg7 ,when ,i met ,takis in his office in ,may #aihc ,i told him ,i was thinking of writing a small book about the history of amateur radio in ,greece before it was too late--so many of the old timers had already passed away4 ,little did we both suspect at the time that he also would not live to see the finished project4 ,i asked him how far back he could remember4 ,well1 ,i can start from #aibd when ,i was about #ae and living in ,odessa in the ,soviet ,union4 ,there was a lot of interest in wireless and two magazines were published in ,russia which dealt mainly with the construction of receivers4 ,my interest was first aroused when a friend of mine at school proudly showed me something he had just made4 ,it was1 he told me1 a variable capacitor and he was going to use it to make a radio receiver4 ,the contraption was enormous by today's standards and must have weighed about half a kilo4 ,my friend said it had a capacity of #bej micro-micro farads1 which meant absolutely nothing to me at the time4 ,when he completed his receiver ,i became very interested and decided ,i would build one too4 ,but materials were hard to find and very expensive4 ,two items one had to buy3 valves and headphones4 ,i asked my friend where he had found the sheet metal to make the plates of the capacitor4 ,he took me to a row of small shops which had a metal-faced ledge below the shop window4 ,the metal was thin and seemed easy enough to remove4 ,we sat on the ledge for a while and when the coast was clear we tore away a section and ran like mad4 ,later ,i ruined a pair of my mother's dressmaking scissors cutting out the plates4 ,i used rings of some thick copper wire to space the plates but ,i could not drill holes in the plates for the spindle so a friend did that for me4 ,i used about #ae plates and to this day ,i have no idea what the capacity of the finished capacitor was4 ,some small items for the receiver could be found in a little shop owned by an old man who charged exorbitant prices1 so ,i decided ,i must go to ,moscow for the valve and a single headphone that ,i needed4 ,but ,moscow was three days and two nights away by train1 and it was the middle of winter4 ,so what1 you may ask4 ,like many others ,i had to travel on the roof of a goods waggon4 ,i took with me a loaf of bread1 a piece of cheese and two hard-boiled eggs4 ,my father said ,i must be mad but he gave me some spending money and his blessing4 ,i had eaten my food by the end of the second day so when we stopped at ,brensk which is famous for its 'piroushki' ,i decided to try them4 ,they were kept warm in large metal tins ready for the arrival of the train4 ,there were seven varieties and ,i had one made with liver and a savoury sauce4 ,when ,i arrived in ,moscow ,i went to see the ,greek ambassador as ,i was carrying a letter of introduction from my father who was acting ,consul for ,greece in ,odessa1 but it was ,saturday and the ambassador's office was closed4 ,i learned later that only foreign establishments closed at the week-end4 ,so ,i went to look for a cheap hotel4 ,looking out of the bedroom window ,i saw a lot of people running in one direction4 ,at that moment a woman brought me a towel and a small bar of soap1 so ,i asked her what was going on outside4 ,she said the butcher near the hotel had just received some liver4 ,would she buy me some ,i said4 ,i gave her some money and she returned nearly two hours later with the liver wrapped in newspaper4 ,when ,i opened it ,i saw it was horse liver cooked with corn and it had an awful sour smell4 ,i just could not face it1 although ,i was starving by now4 ,i asked ,takis about the shops in ,moscow4 ,he said he had found several shops with parts and some made-up receivers in the ,state owned shops4 ,he learned later that these receivers were made by amateurs because the factories only made equipment for the armed forces4 ,he bought a triode valve called ',,micro' and was told it had an amplification factor of #g4 ,he wrapped it carefully in cotton wool for the return journey to ,odessa4 ,he also bought a dry battery pack which gave #hj volts1 and an enormous single headphone for one ear which was ex-army surplus4 ,when he returned home and began to build his receiver he raided his mother's kitchen to build things like terminals1 switches etc4 ,there was an electric bell circuit between the dining room and the kitchen and as they didn't use it his mother said he could dismantle it and use the wire1 which was quite long because it went up into the loft and then down again to the kitchen4 ,i had acquired a small square of bakelite and ,i used a penknife to make a holder for the valve1 twisting a few turns of wire round the pins as ,i could find nothing to use as a socket4 ,i had no idea how to connect the various items ,i made or bought4 ,i had seen a circuit diagram in a ,french magazine of a detector with reaction4 ,i made the connections by twisting wires together and finally the receiver was complete4 ,the next thing was the aerial4 ,i made an enormous aerial with four parallel wires1 like the aerials ,i had seen on ships4 ,putting it up was a dangerous operation as our house had a rather steep tiled roof1 so ,i got some friends to help me4 ,some of them who had 'superior knowledge' told me the down-lead must have no bends4 ,i got hold of a stiff copper wire and supported the down-lead on two enormous bell insulators as used on telegraph poles4 ,i had to smash a corner of my bedroom window to bring the wire in4 ,i had bought a large knife switch which could be turned over to connect the aerial to ground4 ,i was afraid the large flat top of the aerial would attract thunderbolts4 ,when ,i finally connected the aerial to the receiver ,i heard ,,absolutely ,,nothing4 ,i asked him how he tuned the receiver4 ,he said he had put many taps on the coil and he twisted his antenna to these taps trying various combinations with the tuning capacitor4 ,all ,i heard was this breathing noise4 ,i learned later that it was the 'carrier wave' of a broadcasting station without modulation1 but ,i didn't know what that meant4 ,as my friends also heard the same noise ,i was convinced my receiver was working4 ,we soon found out that the long wave transmitter at ,ankara1 the capital of ,turkey was making test transmissions without modulation4 ,ankara was one of the first broadcasting stations in that part of the world4 ,norman3 ,regeneration should have produced a whistle4 ,takis3 ,yes1 indeed4 ,and in a peculiar way4 ,when ,i approached the receiver my hand produced the whistle4 ,norman3 ,hand capacity effect4 ,takis3 ,and foot capacity effect as well6 ,when ,i approached my knee to the metal leg of the work-bench ,i would lose the station ,i had been listening to4 ,he said the tuning capacitor he had made was obviously too small and he had to alter the taps on the coil continuously4 ,about three o'clock in the morning during a cold winter night he heard a new sound--the breathing 7carrier7 noise and a sort of regular ticking4 ,he later found out that it was the new broadcasting station in ,vienna1 ,austria1 which transmitted the sound of a metronome throughout the night4 ,this would have been about #aibf4 ,i asked ,takis about school4 ,in spite of the late nights listening ,i never missed a day at school4 ,my father was the ,chairman of the ,school ,committee and ,i couldn't let him down4 ,but ,i had to earn some pocket money to pay for the bits a pieces ,i needed4 ,particularly a decent pair of headphones2 ,i had to hold the army headphone to me ear with one hand which gave me pins and needles4 ,for some years ,i had kept goldfish and pigeons1 so ,i sold them4 ,a friend of mine had gone to sea as a cadet and his ship went abroad1 so ,i asked him to get me a pair of headphones4 ,i must explain to you that it was no easy matter for a ,russian seaman to serve on a vessel which visited foreign ports4 ,first one had to go through the ,communist ,party sieve and then he was told that if he jumped ship his family would suffer for it4 ,anyway1 he bought me a lovely pair of ,telefunken headphones when the ship berthed at ,constantinople 7,istanbul7 which ,i have to this day4 ,but not on his first trip1 when he was not allowed to go ashore4 ,and it was not the captain who decided who could go ashore4 ,a trusted member of the ,party would pick out a group of seamen who could land but they had to stay together the whole time4 ,i never managed to go abroad4 ,at the ,club ,i had obtained a morse test certificate for #dj letters a minute 7#h wpm7 in ,latin characters and #ij letters 7#ah wpm7 in the ,cyrillic alphabet 7,russian74 ,to go abroad one had to up-grade to #hj ,latin and #abj ,cyrillic letters4 7#af #bd wpm74 ,i was put on a small coastal ice-breaker which cleared the river estuaries in the ,black ,sea4 ,the ,black ,sea is one of the most treacherous inland seas in the world4 ,during the winter its northern shores are frozen whereas the coast of ,asia ,minor keeps the southern shores relatively warm by comparison4 ,this results in gale force winds and rough seas4 ,waves follow each other very closely as opposed to the long swell one gets in the ,pacific4 ,ships have to leave port to avoid crashing into each other4 ,i was about #ah when ,i first went to sea as a cadet ,w_/,t operator4 ,one day when we came out of an estuary the sea was so rough that the captain decided to turn back4 ,as we turned to starboard we noticed an ,american freighter behind us heavily laden with wheat and very low down in the water4 ,to our horror it was caught between the crests of two enormous waves and broke in two roughly amidships4 ,although we were only about half a mile away the freighter sank before we could get to it4 ,we saw a few survivors in the water1 but it would have been impossible to put a boat into that treacherous sea4 ,apart from which a man cannot survive many minutes in a water temperature just above freezing4 ,it was all over in a flash and we returned to ,odessa in deep shock4 ,odessa used to have four harbours4 ,the callsign of the ,w_/,t station was ,,eu#e,,kao4 ,i remember it very well because it was my job to take the weather forecasts for shipping which it transmitted regularly4 ,takis spoke about some amusing misconceptions of that period4 ,when he first completed his receiver and was getting poor results with it he asked a more experienced amateur to look at it4 ,the 'expert' immediately found the first fault3 the downlead from the antenna had a bend in it of more than #de degrees which was quite unacceptable4 ,secondly1 the ground connection to the central heating radiator was no good because it was winter and the radiator was hot so it presented a very high resistance6 ,it must be soldered1 he said1 to a cold water tap4 ,i tried everything ,i could think of to solder the wire to the tap1 but to no avail4 ,then one day ,i had a brain-wave and ,i made a stupendous invention6 ,i wrapped a copper strip round the tap and bolted it tightly1 together with the ground wire4 ,i was really very proud of myself and wondered if anybody else had ever thought of doing it that way4 ,i asked ,takis if he had done any transmitting from home4 ,we amateurs of foreign origin were not allowed to own transmitters but we could operate the club station under close supervision by the ,party member who was always present4 ,my own ,,swl callsign was ,,rk-#aacf as you can see from the ,,qsl card ,i received from ,,eu#e;,,dn in #aibi4 ,i remember our excitement when we first contacted a station outside ,russia4 ,it was a station in ,saarbrueken and we were on a wavelength of #db metres4 ,all the members of the ,club sent him our ,,swl reports and he sent us back his cards and a photograph of his equipment which was published in the ,moscow amateur journal and so ,odessa became famous4 ,on #db metres most of our ,q,s,os were with ,german stations4 ,as a result of this success many young lads joined our club and we 'experts' would explain to them about bends in the aerial down-lead and the high resistance of a ground connection to a central heating radiator when the water in it was hot66 ,the club transmitter consisted of #d valves in a ,hartley parallel push-pull oscillator circuit which we considered to be of relative 'high power'--perhaps all of #aj watts4 ,takis continued3 ,in #aicj1 my family1 like many other families of ,greek origin1 moved to ,athens4 ,i built a cw transmitter using four ,philips valves4 ,i went and saw ,mr ,eleftheriou at the ,ministry and he informed me that there was no way that he could issue me with a transmitting licence1 but he thanked me all the same for telling him ,i had built a transmitter4 ,takis continued3 ,i would like you to notice these two ,,qsl cards ,i received in #aicc4 ,i#a;,,ip wrote on his card ',i am on the air since #aibd but you are the first ,,sv station ,i have heard'4 ,and the ,british listener ,,brs#aahc wrote ',dear old man1 very pleased to report your signals4 ,are you the only active station in ,,sv8' ,i think those comments speak for themselves4 ,norman3 ,had you not heard about ,tavaniotis1 who had also emigrated from ,russia8 ,takis3 ,no4 ,it was you who took me to the basement shack and introduced me4 ,i remember how ,i gaped when ,i saw the #aej watt transmitter ,bill had built4 ,takis then described how he had heard a distress signal on his home-made receiver4 ,it was in a language he could not understand so he called his father1 who was quite a linguist1 to listen4 ,it appeared that the vessel had caught fire as it was approaching the port of ,piraeus1 south of ,athens4 ,the captain of the ship said their predicament was complicated by the fact that they were transporting a large circus1 with many wild animals4 ,takis ran to the nearest ,police station and told his story1 but was greeted practically with derision4 ,how could a young lad like him know there had been a fire on a ship which was not even in sight of the shore8 ,anyway1 somebody was brought to the station and the officer said ,go with this man4 ,takis was taken to the coast at ,palaio ,faliro where he boarded a salvage tug1 and they set out to sea4 ,he said the vessel in distress had been bound for ,piraeus1 and sure enough the salvage tug located it1 but when they approached it there was no sign of fire as it had been put out1 before any of the animals could be harmed4 ,but the engine room had been damaged1 so the tug towed the vessel into harbour4 ,what ,coumbias didn't know was that by law he was entitled to a proportion of the salvage money1 and he never got anything4 ,another incident involving a small yacht which belonged to a friend of ,takis' led to an interesting assignment4 ,the yacht was considered to be not seaworthy any more1 and a ,w_/,t transmitter it carried was dismantled completely by an electrician who knew nothing about wireless4 ,i was asked to put it together again by the owner who wanted to sell it to the ship to shore ,w_/,t station where they did not have a short wave capability yet4 ,when ,i was shown the parts ,i was horrified to see that there was no circuit diagram or instructions of any sort4 ,it took me more than a month to figure it all out4 ,the transmitter was of ,french manufacture and consisted of two enormous triodes in a ,hartley oscillator circuit4 ,when ,i got it to work it was installed at the ,naval ,wireless station at ,votanikos1 where the ,director1 ,captain ,kyriakos ,pezopoulos used it for experimental transmissions4 ,there were already two other transmitters there1 one on ,long ,waves and one on #fjj metres4 ,the callsign of the station was ,,sxa4 ,as this was the third transmitter they used the callsign ,,sxa#c4 ,the operator1 ,lt4 ,george ,bassiacos1 had discovered some telegraphy stations which replied when he called them--he had accidentally stumbled upon the amateur #bj metre band6 ,with a transmitter supplied with unrectified ,a4,c4 at #djj ,hz4 and a power output of several kilowatts1 no wonder contacts with any part of the world were easy4 ,when ,captain ,pezopoulos met ,bill ,tavaniotis the latter suggested that if the 'experimental' transmissions were to continue in the amateurs bands1 the callsign should be altered to ,,sx#c;,a4 ,thousands of successful contacts were made as it was the beginning of sunspot cycle #af1 a very good one as old timers will know4 ,if anyone reading this has a ,,qsl card from ,,sx#c;,a it would be appreciated if he would donate it to the ,technical ,museum in ,greece4 7,takis ,coumbias died suddenly of a heart attack in ,september #aihg47 #b4 ,pol ,psomiadis ,n#b;,,doe 7formerly ,,sv#a;,,az74 ,the text which follows was written by ,pol ,n#b;,,doe of ,bergenfield ,,nj4 ,norman ,joly and ,i first met in #aice when ,i started working with ,bill ,,sv#a,,ke as his radio mechanic4 ,norman was then working for the local agents of ,,rca selling broadcast receivers4 ,the last time ,i saw him before the war1 was in ,september #aici4 ,i was still working with ,bill and ,i went to the ,british ,school of ,archaeology in ,athens to deliver a ,national ,,nc #ajj with a ,spiderweb all-band antenna4 ,norman had been recruited to set up a monitoring station for the ,press ,department of the ,british ,embassy1 which had been moved to a building in the grounds of the school4 ,after the end of the war ,i saw him again in #aidh in the uniform of a ,superintendent of ,police working in the ,british ,police ,mission to ,greece4 ,he told me he had obtained a special licence and was back on the air with his pre-war callsign ,,sv#a,,rx4 ,in #aiea ,i emigrated to ,brazil where ,i stayed for #ag years and then came to the ,u4,s4,a4 in #aifh1 where ,i have been ever since4 ,we had lost contact with each other and it was five years later that ,i found ,norman's address in the ,american callbook4 ,i wrote to him and in his reply he begged me to come on the air again4 ,owing to a prolonged family illness which culminated in the loss of my beloved wife it was #aihj before ,i was in the mood to take up amateur radio once again1 with my present callsign ,n#b;,,doe4 ,when ,i went to ,london in #aihd to spend a few weeks with ,norman he told me he had started recording some reminiscences on a tape recorder about the first radio amateurs in ,greece1 and he asked me if ,i would like to help4 ,as ,i was one of them myself ,i agreed4 ,when ,i left to return to the ,u4,s4,a4 he gave me a number of cassettes to transcribe4 ,although he speaks fluent ,greek without any accent at all1 he never attended a ,greek school and couldn't write the memories4 ,he told me to add anything else ,i could remember about those pioneering days long gone by4 ,so1 to start from the beginning1 let me say that ,i was born in ,constantinople 7now ,istanbul7 in ,turkey1 in ,october #aiaj1 of ,greek parents4 ,although we spoke ,greek at home ,i did not go to a ,greek school until ,i was nine4 ,but ,i soon moved to the ,french ,college where all the lessons were in ,french and ,greek was only taught as a foreign language for two hours every afternoon4 ,my elder brother had subscribed to a ,french magazine called ',la ,science et ,la ,vie' 7,science ,life7 and ,i had become fascinated by a subject called ',telegrafie sans fil' 7,telegraphy without wire74 ,the broadcasting of speech and music had not started yet in that part of the world1 though in #aibc1 a broadcasting station was built in ,ankara the capital of ,turkey4 ,broadcast receivers began to appear in the shops1 either with headphones or large horn loudspeakers1 but we never had one at home4 ,in #aibf we moved to ,athens1 ,greece1 where ,i went to school4 ,strangely enough1 as ,i found out later1 that was the year when ,norman also came to ,athens for the first time4 ,at school ,i met ,nasos ,coucoulis 7later ,,sv#a,,sm and ,,sv#a;,,ac7 who was also very interested in wireless4 ,i made a crystal receiver and was able to hear the ,greek ,royal ,navy station at ,votanikos ,,sxa and the old station at ,thiseon in ,athens itself1 which was still a spark station4 ,there just was nothing else to hear4 ,i acquired a ,philips ',e' type valve and built a grid-leak detector circuit1 but all ,i got was silence4 ,the four volt heater drew one amp and ,i had been trying to get it going with a small torch battery4 ,as ,i became more experienced ,i began repairing simple broadcast receivers for my friends and putting up wire antennas for reception for people who had bought broadcast receivers4 ,in #aibi ,nasos and ,i were in our final year at the ,megareos ,school4 ,we built a very simple ,,am transmitter tuned to about #ejj metres and we broadcast the performance of a play acted by the final year students4 ,i have no idea if anybody heard our transmission1 but it was certainly the first amateur broadcast in ,greece4 ,nasos and ,i spoke to each other with very simple ,,am transmitters across the #fj metres or so separating our homes1 again without knowing whether anybody else ever accidentally tuned in to our very low power transmissions4 ,in #aicb ,i was called up for my compulsory ,military service and ended up attending the ,reserve ,officers ,cadet ,school4 ,after my military training ,i started work at the ,lambropoulos ,brothers shop in the ,metohikon ,tameion building4 ,it was there that ,i made the acquaintance of ,takis ,coumbias1 who had come to ,greece from ,russia with his family4 ,takis had had eight years experience of amateur radio in ,russia1 and he told us how the radio clubs operated under the strict supervision of the ,communist ,party4 ,three years later1 in #aice1 ,i moved to ,tavaniotis' workshop as his mechanic4 ',bill' had built an ,,am and ,,cw transmitter with an output of #aej watts4 ,he used the callsign ,,sv#a,,ke4 ,we had regular contacts with ,george ,moens ,,su#a,,ro in ,cairo1 ,egypt4 ,george is still active in his native land of ,belgium with the callsign ,,on#e,,ro in ,brussels4 ,he should be well into his #hjs by now4 ,in #aich ,george came to ,athens with his wife ,beba and their little boy ,robert to visit her parents who were ,greek1 and of course they came to our shack and we had the pleasure of meeting them in person after many years of chatting over the air4 ,in ,greece we are #g hours ahead of ,eastern ,standard ,time and so our contacts with the ,u4,s4,a4 took place well after midnight1 our time4 ,one of the stations we contacted very regularly was ,charles ,mellen ,w#a;,,fh in ,boston4 ,chas was born in ,boston of ,greek parents4 ,his father came to ,greece in #aicf or #aicg with ,charles' younger sister1 a pretty little girl of about #ad4 ,they came to ,bill's shack and were able to speak to ,boston with the equipment shown in this photograph taken by ,norman4 ,after the end of ,world ,war ,,ii ,w#a;,,fh together with ,w#f;,,am of ,california were the two leading stations in the ,u4,s4,a4 topping all the achievement tables4 ,but ,w#f;,,am had a slight advantage2 he had bought a site previously belonging to ,press ,wireless which had #cf rhombics whereas ,w#a;,,fh always operated with his simple ,yagi at #fj feet4 ,another station with which we had frequent contacts on #bj metres was ,w#b;,,ixy owned by ,dorothy ,hall4 ,one night ,dorothy gave us a big surprise4 ,in the course of a ,,qso she told us to listen carefully4 ,suddenly the three or four of us in ,,sv#a,,ke's shack heard our voices coming back from ,new ,york4 ,dorothy had recorded our previous transmission on a disc4 ,a few days later we turned the tables on her4 ,we had hastily put together some recording equipment and played back her transmission4 ,dorothy said that was the first time she had heard her voice coming from #e1jjj miles away4 ,i must explain that at that time 7about #aicc7 home recording was a novelty even in the ,u4,s4,a4 ,recording on vinyl tape was invented by ,telefunken towards the end of the war in #aide4 ,today even little children play with cassette recorders1 and the latest revolutionary home recording system invented by ,japan ,,dat 7,digital ,audio ,tape7 provides high fidelity studio quality with no background noise2 really a 'super' version of the mini cassette recorder4 ,in ,athens we continued to operate even through the ,dictatorship of ,general ,metaxas which began with a coup in ,august #aicf1 but not without some problems4 ,the main target of the infamous ,maniadakis1 ,minister of the ,interior under ,metaxas1 were of course the ,communists1 but the handful of radio amateurs also came under suspicion of being subversive elements4 ,things got worse1 in fact1 when the newspaper ,,estia owned by ,k4 ,kyrou1 published an article blaming 'amateurs' for being responsible for interference to short wave reception4 ,i must explain that the writer was referring to the dozens of pirate low power broadcasting stations operating in the medium wave 7broadcast7 band4 ,regretably1 ,i have to place on record that owing to the late development of broadcasting and official recognition of amateur radio in ,greece1 the word 'amateur' in the minds of the general public embraces ,c,bers1 pirates of all kinds operating on medium waves and recently in the ,,fm band1 and genuine licensed amateurs as well4 ,so1 as ,i was working in the basement workshop at ,,sv#a,,ke's one afternoon1 three of ,maniadakis' plain-clothes men turned up and said they had come to seize 'the broadcasting equipment'4 ,fortunately ,bill was not in the shop when they came4 ,i asked them if they had a search warrant and they said no4 ,i replied that ,i was only an employee and could they call back a little later when ,mr ,tavaniotis himself would be there to answer their questions1 and thus managed to get rid of them4 ,when ,bill returned ,i told him about the incident and he left straight away and went to the ,ministry of ,posts ,telegraphs to see ,mr4 ,stefanos ,eleftheriou4 ,and so it came about that ,eleftheriou who knew all about our activity in the amateur bands issued the first three licences to ,,sv#a,,ke1 ,,sv#a;,,ca and ,,sv#a,,nk 'to carry out experimental transmissions relating to the study of propagation on the short waves'4 ,he knew that he had every right to do this as ,greece was a signatory to the international telecommunication treaties4 ,i would like to record at this point that ,aghis ,cazazis ,,sv#a;,,ca now a silent key1 has left his own 'monument' in ,athens4 ,after the end of ,world ,war ,,ii1 in his capacity as ,head of ,lighting ,development with the ,electricity authority1 he designed the magnificent floodlighting of the ,acropolis which is admired by tourists to the present day4 ,to return to #aicg3 ,mr ,eleftheriou entrusted us with the task of preparing draft legislation for legalising amateur radio activity4 ,we wrote to the ,u4,s4,a41 to ,england1 ,france and ,germany and obtained copies of the laws governing the issue of licences in all these countries1 and we began the long task of drafting a text which would be appropriate to the political situation then prevailing in our country 7military dictatorship74 ,norman ,joly1 then ,,sv#a,,rx1 had written a text in ,english1 but before we could translate it into ,greek or do anything about it1 all our hopes were dashed to the ground by the outbreak of war in ,september #aici4 ,in #aidd while serving as a reserve officer in the ,greek army1 ,i was seconded to the ,british ,military ,mission to ,greece 7,b4,m4,m47 because of my knowledge of ,english and ,french4 ,there ,i met several amateurs serving with the ,british forces1 and one of them gave me a small military transmitter1 so ,i was able to come on the air again with my old callsign of ,,sv#a;,,az4 #c4 ,constantine ',bill' ,tavaniotis 7formerly ,,sv#a,,ke74 ,there is no doubt that the most active and best known amateur in ,greece before ,world ,war ,,ii was ',bill' ,,sv#a,,ke4 ,he was active on #bj and #aj metres on ,,am phone and ,,cw1 using his famous ,mc,elroy 'bug' to good advantage4 7,no electronic keyers and no #ae metre band in those years74 ,tavaniotis was born in ,rostov1 ,,ussr1 of ,greek parents4 ,his father was a well-known doctor4 ,like many other ,greek families ,bill and his parents left ,russia in the early years of the ,communist regime and moved to ,istanbul1 ,turkey1 where he began his studies at the famous ,robert ,college4 ,later he went to ,london where he first came into contact with radio amateurs1 while studying ,electrical ,engineering4 ,after that he went to ,belgium4 ,bill had a knack of picking up languages and when ,i met him in ,athens in the early thirties he spoke at least seven to my knowledge3 ,russian1 ,greek1 ,english1 ,french1 ,italian1 ,turkish and ,german4 ,his pronunciation in all them was excellent4 ,on one occasion at a party in the ,athens suburb of ,palaio ,psyhico one of the guests was an amateur from ,italy who spoke no ,english1 so ,bill interpreted from that language into ,italian for his benefit4 ,he then translated what the ,italian had said into ,english for the others4 ,but suddenly their faces went blank4 ,quite unconsciously ,bill had translated the ,italian's remarks into ,turkish6 ,many years later ,bill was employed at the ,united ,nations in ,new ,york as a simultaneous translator4 ,in ,october #aidf ,bill and his wife ,artemis visited ,charles ,mellen ,w#a;,,fh in ,boston for an 'eyeball' after more than ten years of ,q,s,os over the air1 with the exception of the war years of course4 ,chas photographed ,bill outside the ,massachusetts ,institute of ,technology and ,bill photographed ,mary 7,chas' xyl71 ,chas and ,artemis standing in front of the ,w#a;,,fh tower4 ,the first transmitter he built can be seen in the photo taken from the book ,,greek ,,broadcasting published by ,radio ,karayianni in #aieb4 ,his shack was in the basement workshop at #ag;a1 ,bucharest ,street in ,athens1 an address which became known world-wide as the first ,,qsl bureau for ,greece4 ,the gang of enthusiasts who met at ,bill's included ,nasos ,coucoulis ,,sv#a,,sm1 ,aghis ,cazazis ,,sv#a;,,ca1 ,nick ,katselis ,,sv#a,,nk1 ,mikes ,paidousi ,,sv#a,,mp1 ,pol ,psomiadis ,,sv#a;,,az 7now ,n#b;,,doe7 and the writer of these memoirs1 ,,sv#a,,rx4 ,of course all visiting amateurs made a beeline for the shack in the basement4 ,as most of our contacts were with the ,u4,s4,a4 we were usually up most of the night because of the #g-;hour difference with ,eastern ,standard ,time4 ,none of us had motor-cars and public transport was not available during the night hours so we all got plenty of exercise walking back to our respective houses4 ,bill was closely in touch with two men who played a very important role in the development of amateur radio in ,greece4 ,i am referring to ,stefanos ,eleftheriou who was ,section ,head for ,telecommunications at the ,ministry 7,greek initials ,t4,t4,t4741 and to ,captain ,kyriakos ,pezopoulos1 ,director of ,d4,r4,y4,n4 7,greek initials for ,directorate of the ,wireless ,service of the ,navy74 ,the long wave spark transmitter at ,votanikos1 a suburb of ,athens1 7callsign ,,sxa7 had been built by the ,marconi company before ,world 7,bill ,tavaniotis died of cancer in #aidh47 #d4 ,harry ,barnett ,g#b;,,aiq 7formerly ,,sv#a,,we74 ,in ,july #aidf1 ,harry ,barnett1 a ,royal ,air ,force officer attached to the ,press ,department of the ,british ,embassy in ,athens obtained an experimental transmitting licence from the ,w_/,t section of the ,ministry of ,posts ,telegraphs1 with the callsign ,,sv#a,,we4 ,at that time he was living in a flat in ,athens and could not put up an antenna1 so it was not until ,june #aidg that he became active4 ,the terms of his licence were in themselves rather strange1 one might even say quite 'experimental'1 the final paragraph reading3 ,this experimental research must be carried out as follows3- #a4 ,with a maximum power of #ej watts4 #b4 ,in the frequency bands 7harmonics7 #acj1 #bfj1 #ebj ,mc_/s4 #c4 ,in the frequency bands #bh ,mc_/s and #ef ,mc_/s4 #d4 ,with the call sign ,,sv#a,,we4 ,from ,june #aidg until ,april #aidh ,harry worked #fa countries1 mostly on phone in the #aj #bj metre bands1 at a time when there were not many stations on the air--a minute fraction of the millions now active4 ,he used a ,national ,,hro receiver he had got off a scrap heap which he modified to take the efficient ,,ef#ej valves in the ,r4,f4 stages and ,,ef#cis in the ,i4,f4 ,the transmitter was completely 'home brew'1 consisting of a metal #f,l#f ,franklin oscillator on #c4e ,m,hz followed by two more #f,l#fs doubling to #ad ,m,hz4 ,in the final amplifier stage ,harry used a ,telefunken pentode1 the famous and very efficient ,,rl#ab,p#ce which was used in the ,german tank transmitters in all stages1 oscillator1 ,p4,a4 and audio amplifier_/suppressor grid modulator4 ,he adopted the same method of modulation using a record player amplifier and an ,astatic crystal microphone4 ,w4,a4,c4 was achieved by ,february #aidh with about #ej watts of ,r4,f4 into a simple dipole antenna4 ,during the ten months that ,,sv#a,,we was active #gej ,,qsl cards were sent out4 ,of the #fa countries worked only #di were confirmed4 ,today 7#aihi7 ,harry is still regularly on the air under his original callsign ,g#b;,,aiq which was first issued to him on the #ast of ,january #aich1 #ea years ago4 #e4 ,george ,yiapapas 7formerly ,,sv#a;,,gy74 ,george ,yiapapas is a ,greek amateur who was very active for over #be years yet nobody seems to have heard of him4 ,in #aice ,george and his father ,costas built a one-valve transmitter using a type #ei pentode with suppressor grid modulation1 and succeeded in contacting most of the world with this ,,qrp rig4 ,the electron coupled oscillator could not have put more than #d or #e watts into the antenna4 ,after the war ,george went to ,jordan in #aief to work for ,cable ,wireless the ,english company which operated the old ,eastern ,telegraph cable network4 ,he used the callsign ,,jy#a;,,gy for about a year and was then transferred to ,tripoli in the ,kingdom of ,lybia1 during the reign of ,king ,idris1 where he obtained an official licence with the call #e;,a#c,,ta4 ,in #aifj he was again transferred1 this time to ,kuwait1 where he operated the equipment of ,mohamet ,behbehani #i,k#b;,,am for over six years4 ,george now has a small shop in ,piraeus1 the port of ,athens and is no longer active on the amateur bands4 #f4 ,stefanos ,eleftheriou 7#ahie-aigi74 ,stefanos ,eleftheriou1 ,head of the ,telecommmunications section of the ,ministry of ,posts ,telegraphs 7,greek initials ,t4,t4,t47 played a vital role in the early development of amateur radio in ,greece4 ,when he returned from ,switzerland1 where he had studied ,electrical ,engineering1 he had to do his compulsory military service which had been deferred while he was completing his education4 ,a friend of his told him ,don't go into the ,army1 join the ,navy2 they have an amazing wireless station at ,votanikos with which they can contact the ,fleet anywhere in the world4 ,as it happened there was a vacancy for an officer and ,stefanos together with another young man called ,nikolis faced a ,selection ,board of naval officers who really didn't know what qualifications they were looking for4 ,he was successful whereas ,nikolis went to the ,ministry of ,posts ,telegraphs where he ended up as ,director-,general many years later4 ,the ,,marconi ,,company of ,england had built an impressive wireless station for the ,greek ,royal ,navy at ,votanikos1 a suburb of ,athens4 ,there was a transmitter which operated on #fjj metres and a larger one on long waves above #b1jjj metres which used the callsign ,,sxa4 ,stefanos told me how he was summoned by the ,director of the ,naval ,station ,admiral ,mezeviris who asked him ,tell me1 young man1 what do you know about wireless8 ,well sir1 replied ,eleftheriou1 ,i studied ,electrical ,engineering in ,switzerland--,i really don't anything about wireless4 ,neither do ,i1 replied the ,admiral candidly4 ,nor do most of my officers4 ,we must set up a school to train technicians and wireless operators4 ,i entrust you with the task of getting all the necessary books and other materials4 ,write to ,england1 the ,u4,s4,a41 ,france and ,germany and get whatever you need4 ,when you are ready ,i will appoint staff to assist you4 ,that was how ,eleftheriou became the head of the first school for training wireless officers for the ,greek ,royal ,navy4 ,a couple of years later ,eleftheriou joined the staff of the ,ministry of ,post ,telegraphs4 ,a newspaper of #aicj had a photograph of him with one of his triplet sons4 ,in his capacity of ,head of the ,telecommunications ,section at the ,ministry he worked hard to get official recognition of amateur radio4 ,a handful of us who were active 'under cover' so to speak1 frequently visited him in his office4 ,he was a very likeable person and had a talent for anecdotes4 ,one day he told us that he had attended a ,joint ,services ,committee which had been set up to study the requirements for building a broadcasting station in ,athens4 ,a station had been in regular operation in the northern city of ,thessaloniki 7,salonica7 since #aibh1 built by the pioneer of ,broadcasting in the ,balkans ,christos ,tsingeridis4 ,when the question of wavelength for the proposed station was considered somebody said a wavelength of #b1jjj metres might be appropriate4 ,one of the military officers1 who shall be nameless1 remarked angrily ,what6 #b1jjj metres4 ,we are spending all this money only to be received up to ,koukouvaounes8 ,this is outrageous6 7,koukouvaounes was then a small village with a funny name about #c miles south-west of ,athens4 ,eleftheriou lived to the ripe old age of #hd4 ,when ,i last saw him he promised to give me his collection of old photographs and a large number of books and documents relating to the development of radio communications in ,greece4 ,unfortunately1 shortly after his death his wife and three sons moved house temporarily and a packing case containing all these priceless papers was lost in #g4 ,norman ,f4 ,joly ,g#c;,,fnj4 7,formerly ,,sv#a,,rx74 ,i was born in ,izmir 7then known as ,smyrna71 on the west coast of ,turkey in ,asia ,minor1 in #aiaa1 of ,british parents4 ,my ,british nationality was established through the ,treaty of ,capitulation which was then in force between ,turkey and the ,united ,kingdom of ,great ,britain and ,northern ,ireland4 ,i remember there was a ,british ,post ,office in ,smyrna and we posted our letters with ,british postage stamps 7of ,king ,edward ,,vii7 overprinted with the word ,,levant4 ,my grandmother on my father's side had come from ,russia4 ,it is a strange coincidence that ,takis ,coumbias 7ex ,,sv#a;,,aaa71 ,bill ,tavaniotis 7ex ,,sv#a,,ke7 and ,i all had roots in southern ,russia4 ,my grandmother on my mother's side was the daughter of the ,dutch consul in ,smyrna4 ,quite a mixed bag4 ,in #aibb1 at the end of the war between ,turkey and ,greece1 the town of ,smyrna was destroyed by fire when the ,greek army was routed4 ,my widowed mother with four young children1 was advised to take us on board a ,british merchant vessel while the town changed hands4 ,we were told to take a little food with us just for a day or two4 ,we carried a large string bag with some bread1 cheese and fruit1 and one knife1 one fork and one spoon between the five of us4 ,i remember it was night and my mother put all her jewelry in a small leather bag4 ,as ,i pulled the cord to close it the pin of a large broach stuck out through the top4 ,my mother grabbed it and said ,i would hurt myself--,i was only #aa years old at the time4 ,she looked around the bedroom1 lifted up a corner of the mattress of her bed and hid the pouch 'safely' underneath it4 ,we hurried out of the house--and never went back4 ,we and many other families spent one night on the merchant vessel where there was no sleeping accommodation4 ,next morning we were transferred to a large hospital ship called ,,maine4 ,all day we watched small groups of the ,turkish and ,greek armies skirmishing on the sea-front and in the evening many fires broke out in the town4 ,in the middle of the night while we were sleeping the hospital ship sailed away to an unknown destination4 ,after two or three days we arrived in ,malta1 where most of us stayed for the next four years4 ,it was in ,malta that my interest in wireless telegraphy was first aroused4 ,we were housed in some military 'married quarters'4 ,close by there was a wireless station which produced bright greenish-blue sparks and crackling noises4 ,its antennas were supported on three very tall wooden masts painted bright yellow4 ,i soon discovered that it was ,,gyz belonging to the ,admiralty4 ,malta was then 7#aibb7 a very big base of the ,british ,navy1 in the good old days when ,england had an ,empire4 ,i bought a kit of parts and assembled a small receiver and being so close to the powerful spark transmitter that was all ,i ever heard4 ,in #aibf when ,i left school my family moved to ,greece and my brother who was #g years older than me1 opened up a shipping office on the island of ,mitylene1 in the ,aegean sea4 ,my father and grandfather had been in this business in ,turkey4 ,it was in ,mitylene in #aibg that ,i constructed my first short wave receiver4 ,it had #c valves with #d volt filaments1 heated by an accumulator 7storage battery74 ,h4,t of #acj volts was obtained from a bank of small accumulators in series4 ,as ,i had not learned how to make a charger ,i had to carry these two units to a local garage regularly for re-charging4 ,apart from commercial telegraph stations there was little else to hear4 ,i had still not heard about 'amateur' radio4 ,the ,b4,b4,c4 was carrying out test transmissions from ,chelmsford for what became the ,empire ,service 7now the ,world ,service7 using the callsign ,g#e,,sw4 ,there was also ,g#f,,rx which stood for ,rugby ,experimental1 operated by the ,british ,post ,office4 ,they were experimenting with ship-to-shore telephony1 and after setting up a circuit the operator used to say over to condition ,a 7and sometimes ,b7 which was very frustrating for me because the voices then became scrambled and quite unintelligible4 ,when ,i first began transmitting six years later1 having 'discovered' the amateurs1 ,i chose the callsign ,,rx as ,i had been a listener so long1 and also remembering the excitement of listening to ,g#f,,rx4 ,in #aicj ,i moved to ,athens and became a salesman for ,,rca radios4 ,it was there that ,i met ,bill ,tavaniotis1 ,,sv#a,,ke1 and his mechanic ,pol ,,sv#a;,,az 7now ,n#b;,,doe74 ,none of us had official licences because the ,greek ,state did not recognise the existence of amateur radio1 and in fact ,athens did not even have a broadcasting station until #aich1 although a station had been operating since #aibh in ,salonica 7,thessaloniki7 the second largest city of ,greece4 ,but the ,head of the ,w_/,t section at the ,ministry of ,posts ,telegraphs 7,greek initials ,t4,t4,t7 ,mr ,stefanos ,eleftheriou knew all about us and gave us his unofficial blessing4 ,my first transmitter was just an electron coupled oscillator using a type #ei output pentode from a radio4 ,with an input of around #e watts ,i was able to achieve ,w4,a4,c4 on #ad ,m,hz in #be minutes one very exciting afternoon4 ,there were very few stations around and single frequency working had not been heard of yet4 ,it was the middle of the sunspot cycle 7which ,i knew nothing of7 and propagation must have been exceptionally good4 ,another thing we had never heard of in those innocent days was ,,swr4 ,i had a ,hot ,wire ammeter and always tuned for maximum deflection1 completely oblivious of the fact that a large proportion of the indicated value was 'reflected power'4 ,i moved to 'high power' when ,i added a #baj ,p4,a4 to my rig4 ,obviously the prefix ,,sv was quite a rare one and ,,sv stations were much sought after1 particularly the handful who used ,,cw4 ,but as ,i described in a short article in the ,october #aidh issue of the ,,short ,,wave ,,magazine published in ,london1 it was not all fun being a rare ,,dx station4 ,a photo copy appears below3 ,to return to pre-,world ,war ,,ii operating3 ,most operators used crystal oscillators in order to have a clean '#ix' note4 ,it was quite normal procedure to call ,,cq on one's crystal frequency1 say #ad1jgf ,k,hz and then go over and start combing the band from #ad1jjj for replies4 ,at that time #bj metres covered #ad1jjj to #ad1djj ,k,hz41 and the #ae metre band had not been allocated to the amateur service4 ,in ,september #aici ,hitler invaded ,poland and all of us hastily and voluntarily dismantled our transmitters and scattered the components1 as there was nobody to order us to close down4 ,in the latter part of ,april #aida the ,german army marched into the northern suburbs of ,athens at #aa o'clock in the morning4 ,at #c o'clock in the afternoon of the same day1 a strong unit of the ,gestapo arrived in the southern suburb of ,kallithea and surrounded the block in which my house was situated and broke into it1 looking for me and my transmitter4 ,of course ,i had dismantled everything #ai months previously and even taken down the antenna4 ,so after this long period of ,,qrt how did they know where to find me8 ,well1 ,,four ,,years ,,earlier ,i had won the first prize for ,greece in the ,d4,a4,s4,d4 ,,dx ,contest for #aicg and the ,german society had sent me a nice certificate4 ,you can draw your own conclusions4 ,i heard later 7because ,i had left a few days earlier for ,egypt with the staff of the ,british ,embassy7 that the ,gestapo had visited all the active amateurs and had managed to arrest only one of them1 ,nasos ,coucoulis ,,sv#a,,sm 7later ,,sv#a;,,ac7 and put him in a concentration camp in ,italy for nearly a year4 ,i would like to sketch briefly the turbulent events of the following three years with some extracts from my diaries4 ,one year earlier1 in #aidj1 following the invasion of ,greece by the ,italian army operating from ,albania1 the broadcasting authority in ,athens 7,,ethnikon ,,idrima ,,radiofonias7 began a news service in ,english which was beamed to ,england and the ,u4,s4,a4 on the short waves4 ,in my capacity as a member of the ,press ,department staff of the ,british ,embassy ,i took part in the first programme1 and in fact read the first news bulletin1 which went out at #c a4m4 ,athens time4 ,as ,i said above1 early in ,april ,i was transferred to the ,british ,embassy in ,cairo1 ,egypt4 #aida3 ,very small contingents of the ,british army landed in ,greece to help the ,greek army4 ,but they proved totally incapable of standing up to the onslaught of the ,german army which followed soon after4 ,the ,greek army laid down its arms in ,epirus 7north-western ,greece74 ,general ,tsolakoglou became the first ',quisling' ,prime ,minister of ,greece4 ,king ,george and his government1 under ,premier ,emmanouil ,tsouderos had left for ,cairo4 #aidb3 ,in ,north ,africa ,general ,rommel had advanced to within #ajj miles of ,cairo1 but his supply lines had become very long4 ,one of the most important was the railway link through ,greece1 so the ,british strategists decided that attempts must be made to disrupt it4 ,the ,special ,operations ,executive 7,s4,o4,e47 in ,london1 despatched two small groups of saboteurs 7about a dozen men altogether7 under the command of ,brigadier ,eddie ,myers and ,major ,chris ,woodhouse who had the task of linking up with the various bands of ',andartes' 7,resistance movement fighters7 which had started forming in the mountains4 ,unfortunately1 the ,british officers were told nothing at all about the bitter rivalries between the various groups1 most probably because ,h4,q4 in ,cairo were themselves ignorant about the real situation4 ,it didn't take ,meyers and ,woodhouse long to discover that by far the largest group was ,e4,l4,a4,s4 7the ,popular ,liberation ,army7 under ,aris ,velouhiotis1 about #abj ill-equipped men operating in the ,pindus mountains4 ,another smaller group of about #fj men had rallied round a regular officer of the ,greek army1 ,colonel ,napoleon ,zervas4 ,they called themselves the ,national ,republican ,greek ,league 7,greek initials ,e4,d4,e4,s47 ,i met ,zervas personally years later when he was ,minister of the ,interior 7and therefore responsible for the ,police74 ,i was then acting as interpreter for the ,assistant-,head of the ,british ,police ,mission to ,greece4 ,i remember vividly with what relish he described to ,colonel ,prosser his method of torturing ,e4,l4,a4,s4 prisoners1 which left no physical marks on any part of the body4 ,it was in the course of a secret visit to ,athens that young ,chris ,woodhouse found out the real chain of command1 when he was introduced to ,george ,siantos1 the ,secretary of the ,greek ,communist ,party 7,greek initials ,k4,k4,e474 ,the ,k4,k4,e4 controlled ,e4,a4,m41 the ,national ,liberation ,front which1 in turn1 ran ,e4,l4,a4,s4 ,but with a title like that 7,national ,liberation ,front7 it was easy to see why ,e4,a4,m4 enjoyed such widespread support1 not only in the countryside1 but also among the intelligentsia in ,athens4 ,but the task of the ,s4,o4,e4 officers was made very difficult for various reasons3 ,winston ,churchill had given orders that they were to support1 as far as possible1 only those guerrilla leaders who favoured the ,king--but there were none1 or very few4 ,the ,s4,o4,e4 units had orders to cause the maximum disruption to the ,german occupation of the country4 ,and that was impossible without the support of ,e4,l4,a4,s41 which was controlled by the ,communists4 ,at the outset1 it became obvious to the ,s4,o4,e4 officers that military and political priorities were already in conflict4 ,e4,l4,a4,s4 forces were getting stronger every day and very soon they began attacking fellow ,greeks in non-communist ,andarte units4 ,the successful attack on the railway bridge over the ,gorgopotamos river on the #bfth of ,november was the first and last time that ,,elas and ,,edes co-operated against the common enemy under the coercion and technical guidance of the ,british4 #aidc3 ,friction between ,,edes and ,,elas continued to increase4 ,when ,eddie ,myers told them that he had been instructed to destroy the bridge over the ,asopos river1 ,,elas said it was too dangerous a target and refused to help1 so this became an all-,british operation4 ,a #bd-year-old demolition expert of the ,royal ,engineers ,captain ,ken ,scott1 was sent from ,cairo4 ,he was dropped by parachute1 and planned the successful attack on the bridge4 ,it took the ,germans four months to rebuild it4 ,on the #aath of ,september #ad1jjj ,italian troops in the north-west surrendered to the ,andartes with all their arms4 ,a month later ,,elas seized the weapons and attacked ,,edes4 ,the civil war had begun4 #aidd3 ,the friction between the various groups of the ,resistance movement erupted into full-scale war1 described as the 'civil war' or the 'guerrilla war' depending on whose side you were on4 ,,elas were determined that they alone would be in control when the ,allies arrived4 ,as a result of intense negotiations on the part of the ,british officers1 all the ,andarte leaders signed an ,armistice document on the #bith ,february #aidd agreeing to stop fighting each other and to concentrate all their efforts against the common enemy--the ,germans4 ,unfortunately1 barely a month later ,,elas attacked and completely annihilated the smallest andarte group ,e4,k4,k4,a4 ,now only ,,edes and the #bjj-strong ,s4,o4,e4 force stood between the #dj1jjj ,,elas ,communists and total control of the ,greek countryside4 ,in the ,middle ,east1 the ,lebanon ,conference1 attended by delegates from all parties1 including representatives of the ,andartes1 elected ,george ,papandreou 7father of ,andreas ,papandreou1 recently ,prime ,minister of ,greece71 to act as ,prime ,minister of the ,government of ,national ,unity in exile4 ,in ,september the government moved temporarily to ,italy4 ,in ,october1 following the withdrawal of the ,germans from ,athens1 ,british troops began landing in ,greece from ,greek and ,british warships4 ,by far the largest contingent landed near the port of ,piraeus and tens of thousands of ,greeks turned out to cheer and welcome the ,british forces as they marched through the streets4 ,on ,october #ah the members of the ,greek government returned to ,athens under the leadership of the ,premier ,george ,papandreou1 who was accompanied by ,lt4 ,general ,ronald ,scobie1 the ,allied military commander4 ,sadly though1 in ,december ,,elas marched on ,athens4 ,the ,british troops1 so recently feted and garlanded now found themselves fighting on the same streets of their earlier welcome4 ,s4,o4,e4 had been warning ,cairo for two years that this might happen4 ,after three or four weeks of intense fighting in the streets of ,athens and in the suburbs1 ,,elas withdrew4 ,winston ,churchill came to ,athens on ,christmas ,day to mediate4 ,a couple of ,,elas snipers hiding in a school a few hundred yards away from the ,british ,embassy took a few pot shots at him as he got out of an armoured vehicle which had brought him from the airport4 ,next day1 when he attended a meeting of all parties1 the ,,elas representative walked in wearing a military-style uniform with crossed bandoleers across his chest1 and carrying two pistols4 ,churchill turned to his interpreter and said quietly3 ,tell him to leave his toys outside1 or ,i fly back to ,london immediately1 to spend ,christmas properly with my family4 #aide3 ,on the #ast of ,january ,archbishop ,damaskinos was appointed ,regent4 7,it had been agreed that the ,king should not return to ,greece until his position had been clarified by a plebiscite74 ,plastiras replaced ,papandreou as ,prime ,minister4 ,after the ,varkiza agreement the guerrilla war 7or civil war7 was officially brought to an end4 ,years later in a broadcast1 ,chris ,woodhouse summarised what the ,s4,o4,e4 mission to ,greece had achieved4 #a4 ,it had provided the technical expertise1 such as the handling of explosives1 without which the major sabotage successes would have been impossible4 #b4 ,it had provided the tactical planning and supplied the communications which successfully harnessed the courage of the ,greeks to the strategic requirements of the ,allied commanders4 #c4 ,most important of all1 in the long run1 it assured that no armed force in occupied ,greece would gain a monopoly of power on the day of liberation4 ,the final aim of the mission was to leave the ,greeks with a free choice at the end of the war--a choice between a ,monarchy1 a ,republic or even a ,communist regime if they wanted it4 ,but the recent dramatic events in the closing months of #aihi in ,poland1 the ,u4,s4,s4,r41 ,hungary1 the ,east ,german ,democratic ,republic1 ,czechoslovakia and finally ,romania have proved that the last choice would have been an unwise one if the ,greeks had also opted for ,communism4 #aidf3 ,following a plebiscite ,king ,george ,,ii returned to ,greece at the end of ,september and appointed ,panayis ,tsaldaris as his ,prime ,minister4 ,when ,i returned to ,athens in ,october #aidd on ,h4,h4,m4,s4 ,,averof ,i had been appointed ,radio ,monitoring ,officer of the ,anglo-,greek ,information ,service 7,a4,g4,i4,s47 with a staff of about #be ,w_/,t operators and typists to assist me4 ,my unit was a section of the ,press ,department of the ,british ,embassy4 ,i think the choice of title was a rather unfortunate mistake4 ,the ,english words 'information' and 'intelligence' have only one equivalent word in ,greek pliroforiesq4 ,and most ,greeks hold peculiar views about the ,c4,i4,a4 and the ,british ,intelligence ,service4 ,so here ,i was strutting about in the uniform of a war correspondent bearing the flashes ',i4,s4'1 the butt of many a joke from my friends who accused me of being a master spy4 ,my boss1 ,colonel ,johnson1 who had been the ,british ,council representative in ,greece prior to the outbreak of war in #aici1 came to my office one morning and told me that he had heard a rumour that ,king ,george of the ,hellenes1 who was then in ,london1 was going to broadcast in the ,greek service of the ,b4,b4,c4 ,i replied ,i had heard nothing1 but would try and find out if the rumour was true4 ,as he left my office ,i glanced at my watch2 it was #aa o'clock in the morning1 #i o'clock in ,london4 ,i telephoned the ,general ,manager of ,cable ,wireless1 ,mr ,briggs1 who was a personal friend4 ,i told him ,i wanted to make use of his facilities to ask an urgent question of the ,b4,b4,c4 in ,london4 ,he replied1 ,tell ,mc,taggert 7the engineer in charge of the ,central ,telegraph ,office7 that ,i said he should help you in any way possible4 ,mac1 ,i said over the telephone1 would you get one of your operators to ring the ,b4,b4,c4 in ,bush ,house 7from where the ,world ,service originates7 and ask them if they have any plans for a broadcast by ,king ,george of the ,hellenes4 ,i immediately tuned one of my receivers to the frequency of the ,london telegraph link1 which was carrying high speed morse traffic4 ,in a short while the tape was stopped and an operator1 using a hand key1 asked my question slowly in plain language1 and then the tape was put on again4 ,i waited anxiously for about five minutes4 ,again the tape was stopped1 a single letter ',r' 7for received7 was sent by hand1 and traffic returned to normal4 ,my telephone rang2 it was ,mc,taggert4 ,nothing doing1 old boy4 ,the ,b4,b4,c4 have no plans for such a broadcast4 ,i thanked him and looked at my watch4 ,it was #aa4be1 just #be minutes had elapsed4 ,i called my boss and told him the answer to his question4 ,how do you know8 he asked4 ,i asked the ,b4,b4,c41 sir4 ,you what8 he shouted at me4 ,don't you know there's a war on8 ,i'm coming to see you4 ,he stormed into my office and demanded an explanation1 so ,i told him what ,i had done4 ,good ,god1 what is this going to cost us84 ,nothing at all1 sir4 ,there is no provision for anything like that in the operating procedure4 ,then ,i must write a letter to ,cable ,wireless to thank them4 ,i thought to myself1 why don't you write a letter to ,norman and thank him for having friends in the right places4 ,but ,i kept my mouth shut4 ,my equipment and my staff of #bj men and #e girls were housed on the #fth floor of the ,metohikon ,tamion building4 ,when ,,elas marched on ,athens1 there was constant firing1 shelling and bombing throughout the #bd hours of the day and night for three or four weeks4 ,the bombing was by light aircraft of the ,r4,a4,f4 on the ,,elas positions in the suburbs and ,beaufighter aircraft straffing them with #bj mm cannon4 ,then ,,elas set up a #ge mm gun in the northern suburb of ,aharnon1 and started hitting us back4 ,when we had received several hits on and around our ,h4,q4 building1 ,i was ordered to move down to the second floor1 to safer accommodation4 ,i extended some of my antenna down-leads1 and resumed normal service4 ,one of our assignments was to transcribe1 every day1 what was said in the ,greek transmissions of nineteen different countries about the situation in ,greece1 and to produce a daily summary in ,english1 for the benefit of the ,press ,department4 ,in the summer of #aide we began having interference on ,,gin1 a station of the ,british ,post ,office which operated around #aj,m,hz1 transmitting a ,,reuter news service for ,europe on the ,german ,hellschreiber 7,hell printer7 system4 ,this was a sort of very course ,,tv picture of #di dots1 seven by seven4 ,the letter ',i' for instance came out as seven dots vertically1 and the letter ',t' just had another six dots across the top4 ,the letters were very crude but readable1 provided there was no interference1 or crashes of static4 ,the interference1 which made our tape quite unreadable1 used to start around #c in the afternoon and fade slowly away about three hours later1 when the tape became readable again4 ,i decided ,i would try and identify the source4 ,all ,i had in the way of recorders were office-type ,dictaphones using wax cylinders4 ,i removed the three weights from the speed governor1 and the cylinder spun round like mad4 ,i managed to record for about three minutes and when ,i played the recording on another machine at normal speed the cylinder yielded up its secret--it was high speed morse traffic in #e-;figure cypher4 ,i typed it all out and noticed that some of the paragraphs began with the letter ',b'4 ,i subsequently found out it was a characteristic of stations carrying ,royal ,air ,force traffic4 ,i sent my text to ,london1 and three weeks later the interference stopped4 ,it was more than a month later that ,i was told what had happened4 ,the transmitter causing the problem was located in ,kandy1 ,ceylon4 ,it operated with a rhombic antenna beamed to ,r4,a4,f4 ,calcutta4 ,its frequency was only #ejj ,hz away from ,,gin4 ,the department which had allocated the frequency never imagined that it could possibly cause interference in ,europe to the ,,reuter news service4 ,but sunspot cycle #bj1 which was a good one1 had decided otherwise4 ,in #aidg ,i was transferred to the ,british ,police ,mission to ,greece1 which was headed by ,sir ,charles ,wickham4 ,my principal duty was to interpret for ,sir ,charles1 and for his second in command ,colonel ,prosser4 ,my friend ,mr ,eleftheriou at the ,ministry issued me with a special licence and ,i came on the air again using my pre-war callsign ,,sv#a,,rx4 ,when the ,police ,mission closed down in #aidh ,i came to ,england and got the callsign ,g#c;,,fnj which ,i have now held for over #da years4 #h4 ,wartime ,broadcasts from ,cairo4 ,elias ,eliascos1 a former teacher of ,english at ,athens ,college 7a joint ,u4,s4_/,greek institution7 described to me how he came to be a news-reader at ,radio ,cairo in #aida together with his brother ,patroclos4 ,when ,hitler declared war on ,greece and after the collapse of the front in northern ,greece and in ,albania1 my brother ,patroclos and ,i were summoned to the ,british ,embassy in ,athens and told that owing to our close ties with the ,british ,council 7of ,cultural ,relations71 it would not be prudent for us to remain in ,athens or even ,greece after the ,german army had occupied the capital4 ,we were told that we would be helped to leave ,greece together with the ,british ,embassy staff1 the staff of the ,british ,council and all the ,british nationals in ,greece4 ,the ,british ,consul-,general provided us with the necessary documents for my brother and me to board the last evacuation vessel sailing from the port of ,piraeus4 ,it was the s_/s ',corinthia' which left ,piraeus on the #ahth of ,april #aida4 ,it happened to be ,good ,friday according to the ,greek-,orthodox calendar4 ,about five days later ,hitler's army marched into ,athens4 ,the ship was packed and the ,british ,embassy staff carried most of the ,embassy files with them4 ,one of the passengers was ,david ,balfour who was the vicar of the little chapel attached to the ,evangelismos ,hospital1 an impressive tall figure of a man sporting a large black beard4 ,although he had been ordained as a priest of the ,greek-,orthodox ,church he was a ,british national and it was widely rumoured that he was an agent of ,british ,intelligence4 ,his official title was ',father ,dimitrios'4 ,he was also the spiritual father of the ,greek ,royal family4 ,i refer to ,david ,balfour because recently the ',,athenian' which is the only ,english language magazine in ,athens1 in its issue dated ,january #aihh1 published a feature article about him1 saying that even before the ,germans had entered ,athens he had shaved off his beard and divested himself of his clerical robes4 ,i can say quite categorically that this was not true4 ,when the ',corinthia' sailed he was still ',father ,dimitrios' and in fact he officiated at a ,resurrection service while we were still at sea4 ,on the voyage we carried out lifeboat drill on two occasions1 once when it was thought that there was a ,u-boat in the vicinity1 and another time when an aircraft flew overhead which turned out to be friendly4 ,i shall never forget how ,i was moved with emotion when ,i saw the women getting into the boats1 most of them carrying babies or children in their arms1 calmly singing hymns in low voices4 ,some time later ,i met ,david ,balfour again in ,cairo1 and this time he ,,had shaved off his beard1 and he was wearing the uniform of a ,major in the ,intelligence ,corps which is a regular unit of the ,british army4 ,eliascos said he would like to quote a little more from the sensational article written by ,j4,m4 ,thursby in the ',,athenian'4 ,several years before war was even declared1 the ,abwehr 7,german military intelligence71 along with the ,nazi civilian secret service1 had highly trained undercover agents operating in ,greece4 ,with consummate skill they had catalogued all military and civil information that could be useful to the ,third ,reich1 and organised spy rings throughout the country4 ,as war became more and more inevitable1 it also became increasingly imperative that ,britain and other anti-fascist countries should gain specific and accurate knowledge of these operations4 ,during this period a monk1 who had embraced the ,orthodox faith in ,warsaw1 arrived from ,poland via ,mount ,athos1 to join the monastery of ,pendeli1 just outside ,athens4 ,according to his biographer ,john ,freeman1 his registration at ,pendeli reads1 ,cell #ajb ,serial number #ge ,secular name ,david ,balfour ,ecclesiastic name ,dimitri ,place of birth ,england ,age #ce ,inscribed order of ,his ,holiness the ,archbishop of ,athens4 ,coming from the ,russian ,church4 ,archbishopric ordinance number #caig of #i ,may #aicf4 ,father ,dimitri was obviously a well-educated and very courteous person4 ,he had studied in various parts of ,europe and spoke several languages fluently4 ,these included ancient1 ,byzantine and modern ,greek1 not to mention colloquial 'mangika' 7slang74 ,when a vacancy arose for a priest to serve the chapel at ,evangelismos ,hospital in central ,athens1 who should be more suitable for this post in the heart of the select neighbourhood of ,kolonaki than the well-educated1 well-bred1 charming and conscientious ,father ,dimitri4 7,david ,balfour died aged #hf on the #aath of ,october #aihi47 ,anyway1 let me continue my story of the ',corinthia trip1 ,eliascos went on4 ,we celebrated ,easter on board and when we arrived at ,alexandria some of us were sent on to ,cairo and others went to ,india4 ,my brother and ,i presented ourselves at the offices of the ,press ,department of the ,british ,embassy in the ,garden ,city4 ,we were received by the well-known ,byzantine scholar ,stephen ,runciman who was in charge of all foreign language broadcasts directed to ,europe1 that is1 the ,balkans1 ,yugoslavia1 ,romania1 ,bulgaria1 ,albania1 ,poland and several others4 ,one of our colleagues was ,lawrence ,durrell who later became the famous author of many successful books like the banned ',black ,book'1 ',bitter ,lemons'1 ',the ,alexandria ,quartet'1 ',prospero's ,cell' and others4 ,but at that time1 he used to entertain us daily with a fresh episode about his ,aunt ,agatha with the wooden leg4 ,eliascos continued3 ,my brother ,patroclos and ,i were told that we would be attached to the section producing the broadcasts in ,greek directed towards occupied ,greece1 acting as translators1 editors and newsreaders4 ,the ,head of this section was ,george ,haniotis the sports editor of the ,athens newspaper ',elefthero ,vima' who used to sign his sporting articles ',,geo'4 ,under him was the well-known literary figure of ,dimitri ,fotiadis1 who died in ,october #aihh4 ,when the broadcasts began early in ,may #aida ,i was the principal newsreader4 ,later when ,haniotis was posted to the ,greek ,embassy in ,washington ,d4,c4 as ,press ,attache1 my brother was appointed ,section ,head4 ,at that time the ,prime ,minister of the ,greek government in exile was ,emmanouil ,tsouderos1 a former ,director of the ,bank of ,greece4 ,the foreign language broadcasts from ,radio ,cairo were under the over-all control of the ,political ,warfare ,executive 7,p4,w4,e47 of the ,british ,ministry of ,information4 ,later1 in conjunction with the ,americans1 the title of the unit was changed to ,psychological ,warfare ,branch 7,p4,w4,b47 ,every evening we had two broadcasts1 at #g4cj and #aj4cj pm1 which went out on the medium wave transmitter of ,radio ,cairo at ,abu ,zabal1 run by the ,e4,s4,b4 7,egyptian ,state ,broadcasting74 ,the transmissions in eleven foreign languages were also relayed by three short wave transmitters1 two belonging to the telegraph company ,cable ,wireless 7callsigns ,,suv ,,suw71 and an experimental transmitter of #g4e kilowatts belonging to a ,british army signals unit1 with the odd callsign ,,jcjc1 operated by young corporal ,rowley ,shears ,g#h,,kw1 a radio amateur friend of ,norman ,joly4 ,the ,greek broadcasts began in ,may #aida and went on to the end of ,january #aide4 ,during this period many important personalities broadcast from ,studio #c1 which was also used by well-known war correspondents of the ,b4,b4,c41 the ,n4,b4,c4 and many other news organisations4 ,the people of occupied ,greece were addressed by ,mr ,tsouderos1 ,crown ,prince ,paul of ,greece1 ,sofoclis ,venizelos1 son of the famous ,cretan politician ,eleftherios ,venizelos who had played a leading role in the political fortunes of modern ,greece1 and ,panayiotis ,kanellopoulos ,minister for ,war4 ,after the naval mutiny in the port of ,alexandria ,admiral ,voulgaris spoke to the officers and naval ratings of the ,greek ,royal ,navy4 ,eliascos described in detail the negotiations of the ,lebanon ,conference which resulted in the appointment of ,george ,papandreou 7father of ,andreas ,papandreou who was recently ,prime ,minister71 as the new ,prime ,minister of the ,coalition government in exile4 ,he can be seen at the famous ,r4,c4,a velocity microphone type #dd;,,bx which was used throughout ,world ,war ,,ii and many years after4 ,this ribbon type microphone had a very large and heavy permanent magnet embodied in the design and must have weighed about #a1jjj times more than a modern electret lapel microphone4 ,i must explain that these war-time broadcasts were carried out in the presence of a ,switch ,censor who sat on the other side of the news reader's desk and was able to turn off the microphone in a split second if it ever became necessary4 ,during the three and a half years of the broadcasts this was done only on one special occasion and certainly not because the newsreader had gone berserk or something like that4 ,the ,chief ,censor was ,professor ,eric ,sloman who had been the first ,director of the ,police ,academy in ,kerkyra 7,corfu74 ,then there were censors for the eleven languages used in these broadcasts4 ,the censor for the ,polish broadcasts was the ,countess ,walevska1 grand-daughter of ,napoleon's lady friend4 ,the ,countess was a rather large lumbering woman who always came into the studio carrying lots of parcels4 ,one evening she came in and sat in an armchair on the other side of the studio to wait her turn for the ,polish broadcast which followed the ,greek4 ,as ,i was reading the news bulletin ,i suddenly became conscious of a regular ticking noise in the headphones ,i was wearing4 ,i made a sign to ,mr ,joly who was acting as switch censor at the time1 and he got up and walked over to the ,countess4 ,he whispered in her ear and asked her what was in her hand bag4 ,the ,countess blushed and replied that she had just collected her alarm clock from the watchmaker4 ,i don't know if any sharp-eared listener had heard the ticking and thought that we had a time bomb in the studio4 ,having mentioned my good friend ,mr ,norman ,joly ,i must record that he was the technical supervisor for the foreign language broadcasts1 handling such things as wavelengths for the short wave relays1 training the newsreaders 7of whom there must have been over #cj7 and acting as studio manager and switch censor for some of the languages which he knew4 ,a regular broadcaster in our studio was ,francis ,noel-,baker who later became a ,labour member of ,parliament in the ,british ,house of ,commons1 like his father4 ,the ,noel-,baker family are well-known in ,greece because for several generations they have owned a large property on the island of ,euboea 7,evia in ,greek74 ,francis speaks fluent ,greek1 and his mother was related to ,lord ,byron4 ,in recent years he has switched his allegiance to the ,conservative ,party led by his personal friend ,margaret ,thatcher4 ,major ,patrick ,leigh-,fermor the writer who had kidnapped ,major-,general ,heinrich ,kreipe in ,crete and spirited him away to ,allied headquarters in ,cairo1 came to our studio and described how this audacious operation had been carried out by him and ,captain ,william ,stanley ,moss1 ex-,coldstream ,guards1 with the considerable assistance of the ,cretan resistance movement partisans4 ,purely by coincidence1 it was the ,greek news bulletin from ,cairo which first announced to the world ,general ,montgomery's victory over ,general ,rommel at ,alamein4 ,i must explain that during a broadcast the two doors leading into the studio were kept closed and an armed officer of the ,military ,police sat outside 7in civilian clothes7 to prevent anyone from entering for any reason whatsoever4 ,i was in the middle of reading the news when suddenly1 without warning1 the inner door opened and a young despatch-rider1 still wearing his crash helmet1 walked in waving a piece of paper4 ,mr ,joly immediately switched off the microphone and asked the young man what he thought he was doing4 ',most ,immediate sir'1 he said4 7,this is the army's highest priority classification47 ',to be broadcast at once4' ,mr ,joly handed the document to me and ,i saw it was written in ,english4 ,taking a deep breath ,i began translating the text into ,greek1 with some excitement and trepidation owing to the difference in syntax between the two languages4 ,forty-six years later ,mr ,joly gave me the identical sheet of paper1 which he had kept as a souvenir4 ,it is printed here in full4 ,at the ,editorial offices1 where they were monitoring the newscast1 they thought ,i had gone out of my mind1 because the communique had not reached them yet4 ,when they tuned in to the short wave service of the ,b4,b4,c4 they heard the communique read out more than an hour after our ,greek broadcast4 ,a world scoop1 if ever there was one4 ,years later when ,i returned to ,athens1 many of my friends told me they had heard the first broadcast of the thrilling bulletin and they could still remember the excitement in my voice4 ,the ,greek section was the first to inaugurate the transmission of personal messages4 ,many people were escaping from occupied ,greece in sailing boats across to the shores of ,asia ,minor1 ending up in the ,middle ,east1 mostly in ,cairo4 ,they had no means of advising their relatives and friends in ,greece that they had survived the perilous journey4 ,we used to broadcast pre-arranged messages like ',john informs ,mary that he has arrived at the village'4 ,as ,i mentioned above1 ,george ,papandreou came to our studio and spoke to the people in ,greece about the formation of the government of ,national ,unity1 which had been agreed by all parties meeting in the ,lebanon1 including the representatives of the ,partisans operating in the mountains of ,greece4 ,papandreou and the government in exile moved to ,naples in ,italy for a short period and then returned to ,athens on ,october #abth #aidd for the ,liberation4 ,finally1 ,i would like to say that in the dark days before ,montgomery's breakthrough at ,alamein1 when it was quite on the cards that ,general ,rommel might take ,cairo1 ,mr ,joly and ,i were sent to ,jerusalem to make arrangements for the foreign language broadcasts to be continued from there4 ,fortunately the situation changed and we were recalled to ,cairo1 where we arrived just in time for me to broadcast the historic communique announcing the victory at ,alamein1 which marked the turning point of the war in the ,middle ,east4 ,,chapter ,,nine ,,miscellany #a4 ,the first broadcasting stations of the world4 ,speech was first transmitted for reception by the general public from ,washington ,d4,c4 in #aiae when ,europe was still at war4 ,during #aiaf the first 'broadcasting' station in the world began regular transmissions from a ,new ,york suburb4 ,in #aiai ,dr4 ,frank ,conrad1 then ,assistant ,chief ,engineer of the ,westinghouse ,electric ,manufacturing ,company1 set up1 in his own garage in ,wilkinsburg1 ,pennsylvania1 a #ge-watt transmitter 7#h,,xk7 from which he broadcast musical entertainment for other radio enthusiasts4 ,this was the first continued scheduled broadcasting in history4 ,the ,westinghouse ,company realised the potential value of ,conrad's work and built ,,kdka1 the first regular commercial broadcasting station in the world1 which began its career by announcing the results of the ,harding-,cox election returns on the ,november #bnd #aibj4 ,the first broadcasting station in ,europe was ,,pcgg which began transmitting on ,november #fth #aiai from the ,hague in ,holland4 ,hanso ,steringa ,idzerda1 a #ce year old engineer1 obtained the first licence granted in ,europe for the transmission of music and speech for general reception1 as opposed to the wireless telegraphy stations which had been operating point to point services4 ,from the end of #aiai to #aibd this station transmitted a series of musical programmes three times a week called ',the ,hague ,concerts'4 ,the original wavelength of #fgj metres was later changed to #a1aej metres4 ,at that time most of the people who heard these concerts would have been using headphones and they would not have been very critical about the quality of the sounds they were hearing compared to the magical novelty of snatching voices and music apparently out of thin air4 ,this historic transmitter can be seen in the museum of the ,dutch ,postal ,services in the ,hague4 ,the first transmissions of speech and music in ,england were made from ,chelmsford1 ,essex1 when a #aek,w transmitter of the ,marconi ,company began regular transmissions in ,february of #aibj4 ,in the summer of #aibd the world's greatest radio companies--,british ,marconi1 ,german ,telefunken1 ,french ,radio ,telegraphie and ,american ,r4,c4,a4--met in ,london to discuss transatlantic communications4 ,the learned gentlemen all agreed that the ,atlantic could only be spanned by ultra-long waves of #aj1jjj to #bj1jjj metres1 which would require the use of hundreds of kilowatts of power and receivers as large as a trunk1 not to speak of antennas more than a mile long4 ,dr4 ,frank ,conrad1 who was also present at the conference1 had brought with him a small short wave receiver less than a foot square4 ,when he connected it to a curtain rod as an antenna the faint but clear voices of his assistants in the ,u4,s4,a4 were heard from nearly four thousand miles away4 ,with this spectacular demonstration he administered the deathblow to all plans for high power ultra-long-wavelength transmitters1 and from then on the commercial companies concentrated their efforts on developing equipment for international communications on the short waves4 ,with present-day electronic news gathering and world-wide satellite links1 the problems faced by broadcasting organisations fifty years ago when transmitting programmes which did not originate in a studio were thought to be very complex4 ,in the ,b4,b4,c4 ,handbook for #aibh there was an article entitled ',outside ,broadcast ,problems' which said1 ,work outside the studio is often the most difficult that the broadcast engineer can be asked to undertake2 not so much from a technical as from a practical point of view4 ,very often he has to take his apparatus to some place he has never seen before1 set up his amplifiers in most awkward positions1 test his lines to the studio1 decide on his microphone placings and run out the wiring in the space of an hour or so1 with little previous experience to guide him4 ,it is in fairly echoey halls1 theatres and churches that the majority of outside broadcasts take place4 ,for example1 a sermon preached in a church would be intelligible probably to the whole of the congregation4 ,but to render it intelligibly on a loud-speaker1 the microphone would have to be1 say1 not more than ten feet from the speaker4 ,in broadcasting a play from a theatre1 when the speakers are moving about1 the only way of dealing with the problem is to use several microphones and a mixing device which enables the engineer to change silently from one microphone to another1 or to combine them in varying proportions4 ,some rapid switching may sometimes be necessary4 ,even with good microphones and amplifiers the engineer in the field may often experience difficulties with the lines connecting the outside point to the studio4 ,the majority of such lines do not transmit the higher frequencies adequately1 especially the longer ones4 ,the problems become immense when ,european simultaneous broadcasts are attempted4 ,experiments on the continental wireless link have done no more than reveal its unreliability4 ,the undersea telephone line1 however1 does not give either good or even intelligible quality of speech if it is longer than a couple of hundred miles1 and it is quite unusable for the transmission of a musical programme4 ,the ,b4,b4,c4 has been the first in the world to exploit ,simultaneous ,broadcasting to its fullest advantage for a national system1 and thanks to the co-operation of the ,post ,office engineers1 it is possible to pick up a programme wherever it may take place within the ,british ,isles and radiate it simultaneously from all distribution centres4 ,looking ahead still further and assuming that the wireless will supplement the wire line link1 there is no reason why a simultaneous broadcast of something of fundamental importance to the whole civilised world should not take place some time in the future4 ,in a book entitled ,radio ,goes to ,war published by ,faber ,faber in #aidc1 ,charles ,j4 ,rolo wrote1 ,radio went to war on five continents shortly after the ,nazi ,party came to power in ,germany4 ,in nine years it has been streamlined from a crude propaganda bludgeon into the most powerful single instrument of political warfare the world has ever known4 ,spreading with the speed of light1 it carries the human voice seven times round the globe in one second4 ,when ,hitler makes a speech in the ,kroll ,opera ,house in ,berlin1 listeners in ,america and the whole world hear his words by short wave even before his own immediate audience hears them4 ,radio speaks in all tongues to all classes4 ,all pervasive1 it penetrates beyond national frontiers1 spans the walls of censorship that bar the way to the written word1 and seeps through the fine net of the ,gestapo4 ,it reaches the illiterate and the informed1 the young and the old1 the civilian and the soldier in the front line1 the policy makers and the inarticulate masses4 ,so great is the importance of radio to-day that the seizure of a defeated nation's transmitters has become one of the primary spoils of war4 ,in ,greece1 broadcasting was started in the northern city of ,thessaloniki 7,salonica7 by the pioneer of ,balkan broadcasting ,christos ,tsingeridis1 in #aibh4 ,a museum in that city tells the full story of the first broadcasting station in the whole of the ,balkans4 ,broadcasting in the capital1 ,athens1 started on ,march #beth #aich when a second-hand #ae k,w ,telefunken transmitter was put into operation in the suburb of ,liosia4 ,the centre-fed ,t antenna was supported between two pylons of #he metres 7#bgi feet74 ,in #aidd when the ,german army was pulling out of ,athens they tried to blow the the pylons up but one of them remained standing at a crazy angle1 because one of the explosive charges had been placed incorrectly4 #b4 ,avlis ',the ,voice of ,hellas'4 ,the #eth ,programme of the ,greek broadcasting service 7,elliniki ,radiophonia7 is transmitted from the short wave transmitting centre at ,avlis1 about #gj kilometres north of ,athens4 ,the station was put into service in #aigb and has two #ajj,,kw ,marconi short wave transmitters and a veritable forest of antennas covering #a1ajj acres1 arranged in three lines to cover the desired directions1 as can be seen on the great circle map4 ,the pylons supporting the #f ,m,hz arrays are truly impressive at #cbh feet4 ,each line has eight separate antennas for the #f1 #g1 #i1 #aa1 #ae1 #ag and #ba ,m,hz broadcasting bands4 ,each antenna consists of two curtains with a total of #h horizontal dipoles4 ,the dipoles are all fed by open wire feeders which can be remotely switched to enable radiation in two directions #ahj degrees apart4 ,there are also three curtains for the #aa metre band 7#bf ,m,hz7 which may be put into service during sunspot cycle #bb if the ,m4,u4,f4 allows it4 ,for transmissions to neighbouring countries like ,cyprus1 ,turkey1 the ,balkans and the countries of the ,middle ,east1 there are two rotatable log periodic antennas with a high angle of vertical radiation 7#de degrees7 and a wide angle of #cb degrees in the horizontal plane4 ,the remotely controlled switching centre allows each of the two transmitters to be connected to any one of the #bc antennas4 ,electromechanical protection circuits ensure that a transmitter can only be connected to an antenna that is tuned to the same frequency4 ,the change of antennas and transmitting frequencies is made during the ten-minute interval between programmes1 which always begin on the hour1 preceded by the now familiar signature tune of a shepherd playing his flute with the tinkling of sheep-bells in the background1 recorded in #aicf1 followed by the ,greek ,national ,anthem4 ,the special programmes of news and features originate in the broadcasting headquarters in ,athens and go on the air throughout the #bd hours of the day in ,greek1 ,english and many foreign languages4 ,reports of reception are welcome and should be addressed to ,k4,e4,b4,a41 ,avlis1 ,greece4 7,the ,greek initials stand for short wave transmitting centre47 ,but ,avlis was 'in the news' long before the ,greek broadcasting service decided to install its short wave transmitters there4 ,in ancient times a great fleet of ships had been assembled in the harbour there1 ready to set sail for ,troy1 following the abduction of the beautiful ,helen of ,sparta by ,paris1 the young ,prince of ,troy4 ,but there had been no wind for many weeks1 and the sea was dead calm4 ,agamemnon1 the ,king of ,mycenae1 who had himself contributed over #ajj ships to the fleet1 decided to consult his ,seer4 ,as was the custom1 the ,seer slaughtered a young lamb and scrutinised its entrails4 ,he then announced that the wind would come up if ,agamemnon sacrificed his daughter ,iphigenia on the ,altar of ,sacrifice4 ,king ,agamemnon despatched a messenger to ,mycenae 7no ,,vhf repeater being available in those days7 to tell his wife ,queen ,klitemnestra to send their daughter ,iphigenia to ,avlis 7,aulis74 ,the ,king said he was planning to marry her off to ,achilles1 the most eligible bachelor of the day4 ,when poor ,iphigenia arrived she was quickly placed on the ,sacrificial ,altar--and had her pretty throat slit4 ,however1 there seems to be another version to the end of the story4 ,just before the human sacrifice was due to be made ,artemis 7,diana1 the famous ,goddess of ,hunting7 sent a small deer which was placed on the altar instead of the girl4 ,iphigenia was secretly spirited away to ,taurida1 in northern ,greece1 and put in charge of ,diana's temple there4 7,this story is the subject of a well-known classical ,greek play47 ,historical note on the ,marconi-,stille steel tape recording machine4 ,at the beginning of the century ,professor ,poulsen1 one of radio's earliest pioneers1 discovered that a magnetic impression could be made on a moving length of wire which remained on the wire even after it had been rolled up4 ,he used his machine to record the ,morse code only1 that is magnetism 'on' and 'off'4 ,in #aibd ,dr4 ,stille in ,germany made a machine which could record sounds4 ,the ,b4,b4,c4 sent two engineers to ,berlin1 and after a demonstration they offered to buy the machine1 but in the end they returned to ,england empty-handed4 ,in #aica ,mr ,louis ,blattner managed to buy a machine and bring it to ,england4 ,he called it the ,blattnerphone4 ,by this time ,dr4 ,stille had replaced ,poulsen's wire with a flat steel tape #f mm wide4 ,each reel of tape could only accommodate #bj minutes of recording4 ,there was a constant and heavy background hiss1 due to the inherent quality of the steel tape itself4 ,stille ,inventions ,ltd4 joined forces with ,marconi's ,wireless ,telegraph ,co4 ,ltd4 to produce1 with the close co-operation of the ,b4,b4,c4 ,research ,department1 the ,marconi-,stille machine which was put into use in #aicd4 ,the tape width was reduced to #c mm and the thickness to only #j4jh of a millimetre4 ,in order to secure the reproduction of the higher audio frequencies1 it was found necessary to run the tape at a rate of #ij metres per minute past the recording and reproducing heads4 ,this meant that the length of tape required for a half-hour's programme was nearly #c kilometres6 #d4 ,brief description of the ribbon or velocity microphone4 ,george ,papandreou1 ,greek ,prime ,minister of the war-time government of ,national ,unity in exile1 is seen with the famous ribbon microphone developed by the ,b4,b4,c4 in #aicd4 ,this microphone 7,r4,c4,a4 designation #dd;,,bx7 consists of a ribbon of corrugated aluminium foil only #j4jjjb of an inch thick suspended vertically in a very intense but narrow magnetic field4 ,when sounds vibrate the ribbon extremely low alternating voltages are developed at the ends of the ribbon1 which has a very low impedance of only #j4ae ohm1 necessitating the use of a step-up transformer of #a3de turns ratio very close to it4 ,the frequency response is #bj to #af1jjj ,hz4 ,a drawback is that the ribbon can be blown out of the magnetic gap by sudden puffs of air when a speaker gets too close to the microphone1 so the casing is lined with several layers of chiffon which let in the sounds but not the air4 ,without its base the ribbon microphone weighs #d kilograms1 nearly #i lbs4 #e4 ,an outstanding antenna system designed by ,rex ,g#d;,,juj for ,phase ,,iii amateur satellite communication4 ,the up-link section comprises four #hh-;element ,jaybeam multi-beams which provide a power gain of #bbe4 ,the two down-link #h element yagis are each fitted with a small ,d4,c4 motor directly coupled to a #i inch length of ,m#e brass studding rotating inside a block of ,,ptfe linked to a push rod which can move the antennas #ge degrees both sides of the vertical position1 either in unison or in opposite directions4 ,this system provides infinitely variable polarisation which optimises the down-link signal at any instant4 #f4 ,the saga of ,h4,h4,m4,s4 ,,adrias ,while fighting in the area of the ,dodecanese ,islands on the night of the #bbnd ,october #aidc the destroyer ,,adrias 7,l#fg7 was seriously damaged by a mine but refused to sink4 ,under the command of ,commander ,john ,toumbas the ship covered a distance of approximately #gjj nautical miles1 reaching the port of ,alexandria in ,egypt on the eve of the feast of ,saint ,nicholas1 the patron saint of all seamen4 ,the ,greek ,minister of the ,navy ,sofoclis ,venizelos1 and the ,british ,admiral in command of the ,royal ,navy in the ,eastern ,mediterranean1 provided an honorary escort for the brave little ship that had refused to die4 ,a few months later the snub-nosed ,l#fg joined the fleet of #ajj vessels of all sorts which sailed to ,greece for the ,liberation4 ,the photographs were taken by the author 7with the exception of the damaged ,l#fg7 who travelled back to ,greece on ,h4,h4,m4,s4 ,,averof in the same convoy4 ,the photograph of ,l#hd1 a similar type destroyer to ,,adrias shows how much of her bows was blown off by the collision with the mine4 7,h4,h4,m4,s4 stands for ,his ,hellenic ,majesty's ,ship47 #g4 ,german sabotage at the ,cable ,wireless station at ,pallini1 ,greece1 in ,world ,war ,,ii4 ,as the ,german army was pulling out of ,greece in ,october #aidd its engineers carried out extensive sabotage to installations of a strategic value4 ,at ,pallini1 not far from ,athens1 an attempt was made to destroy the transmitter hall by dropping one of the antenna towers onto it1 but the equipment was not damaged4 ,they were more successful at the ,royal ,navy transmitting site at ,votanikos4 ,here they tried to destroy six #cjj foot tubular masts4 ,one remained standing and also the lower part of another4 ,all the test gear in the lab was thrown out of a second floor window and burnt4 ,i was acting as official photographer for my unit at the time4 ,when ,i walked into a small store room ,i saw all the equipment had been thrown off the shelves on to the floor1 but appeared to be intact4 ,i spotted a box of brand new packed ,german navy morse keys and decided the time had come for me to acquire a small war trophy of my own4 ,as ,i bent down to pick up a key1 ,i was horrified to see two large sticks of gelignite perched perilously on the edge of a shelf4 ,the explosive was tied with white ribbon1 with a weight attached to the other end4 ,i froze to the spot4 ,gingerly ,i lifted my trophy out of the box and began to walk slowly backwards1 being very careful not to knock anything over4 ,i breathed a sigh of relief when ,i was out of the room and immediately alerted the engineers who came and defused the booby trap4 ,so this book might never have been written thanks to the ,german army4 ,at the ,athens broadcasting station transmitter site at ,liosia my unit erected a small temporary ',t' antenna which allowed the station to come on the air again1 but a short time later1 when the ,,elas guerrillas overran the area they began using the transmitter to broadcast their own view of events4 ,we provided the broadcasting authority with a ,,bc #faj mobile transmitter installed next to the ,parliament building in the centre of town1 using the same frequency of #faj ,k,hz4 ,listeners in ,cairo couldn't understand what was going on when one moment they heard an official government announcement and a little later a war communique issued by the ,communist guerrillas4 #h4 ,over-the-horizon or ,ionospheric ,,hf ,radar--,,othr ,as mentioned briefly in ,chapter #a1 it was in ,april #aigf that the then ,soviet ,union first unleashed a diabolical noise on the ,,hf bands which caused widespread interference to all broadcasting and telecommunication services between #f and #bj ,m,hz4 ,on the first day the knock-knock-knock went on continuously for over ten hours4 ,radio amateurs1 who were among the services that suffered from the interference1 soon came to call this noise the woodpecker4 ,by rotating their beams when tuned to the #ad ,m,hz band they established that the transmissions appeared to originate from the vicinity of the town of ,gomel in the ,u4,s4,s4,r4 ,the governments of many countries world-wide immediately protested to ,moscow1 and all they got in reply was a brief statement that the ,u4,s4,s4,r4 was carrying out an experiment4 ,the reason for the very strong on_/off pulses was probably because1 at first1 the ,russians were using existing radar antennas which permit the transmitting and receiving functions to share the same antenna4 ,modern ,,othr installations have different transmitting and receiving sites1 often located many miles apart4 ,from the early #aiejs pulsed oblique ionosphere sounders had shown that the normal ionosphere is much more stable than had previously been thought to be4 ,the physical reason for this is that the incredibly tenuous ionized gas which does the reflecting has a molasses-like viscosity4 ,of course1 there are daily and seasonal changes1 but over limited periods of half an hour or so1 the ,f layer at a given location is actually quite well-behaved4 ,it bounces back signals in a nearly constant direction and with nearly constant amplitude--just what is required for good radar performance4 ,over-the-horizon ,,hf radars use the ionosphere as a kind of mirror to see around the curvature of the earth4 ,they have a variety of uses1 both military and civilian4 ,and they have the advantage over line-of-sight microwave radars of being able to cover enormous areas with much less power and at a fraction of the cost of the latter4 ,a relocatable ,,othr system can track aircraft targets right down to ground level4 ,in an early experiment operators were puzzled by the sudden disappearance from their screen of an aircraft they had been tracking as it taxied along the ground4 ,they found out later that the reason for the disappearance was that the aircraft had gone into a metal hangar which did not show on the screen because it was not in motion1 as explained below4 ,in #aigi the ,united ,states ,air ,force began experimenting with an ,,othr system at a site near ,bangor1 ,maine4 ,because ,,hf frequencies were being used the power was kept very low to minimize interference to other services during the early tests4 ,at the time of writing 7#aihi7 it is believed that a full-power relocatable ,,othr system situated in ,virginia is being used in the anti-drug war4 ,as can be seen from the map this ,,rothr can cover a vast area of #a4f million nautical miles1 straddling the whole ,caribbean4 ,the scan area stretches from the coast of ,colombia in ,south ,america up through ,nicaragua and ,honduras to ,florida 7on its west boundary7 and then southwards through ,puerto ,rico1 to ,trinidad ,tobago and the northern coast of ,venezuela4 ,but this vast area is not covered continuously2 the system operator can provide surveillance in a number of sectors known as ,d,i,rs 7dwell information regions74 ,each one of the #agf ,d,i,rs can be illuminated for only a few seconds at a time4 ,small aircraft and small vessels can be detected by an ingenious method1 only when they move4 ,this is how it is done3 ,at the receiving site of the ,,rothr system a very large antenna stretches out over a distance of #h1djj feet4 ,it consists of #cgb dual-monopole vertical elements each #ai feet high1 backed by a huge reflector screen which makes the antenna substantially unidirectional4 ,each pair of vertical elements has its own receiver which digitizes the incoming signals4 ,all the digitized signals are then fed through a fibre-optic link to a master signal processor4 ,the main receiver can be programmed to pass on returns from one particular region while eliminating most of the other returns as unwanted noise or clutter4 ,but because the wanted target is moving1 while the clutter is not1 a filtering system based on the ,doppler ,shift principle 7even when the echo is only one or two ,hertz different7 will lock on to it and track it as long as it stays in motion4 ,furthermore1 the ,,rothr system has its own built-in automatic management assessment function and does not have to depend on external sounding data4 ,it measures the ionosphere height continuously and instantly selects the most appropriate frequency to use to scan the target area1 ideally in one hop4 ,this automatic function uses a quasi-vertical incidence sounder 7,,qvi7 to measure the height of the ionosphere near the transmitting and receiving sites1 which as mentioned earlier can be miles apart1 and a radar backscatter sounder to measure the height of the ionosphere downrange #ejj to #a1hjj nautical miles away4 ,the incoming real-time data from these soundings are compared with data stored in computer memory4 ,once real-time data are matched to a model of the ionosphere1 the model can be used to operate the system for the best results1 based on the prevailing propagation conditions4 ,the data for the ionospheric models take up more than #bjj megabytes of computer storage space4 ,operators thus know when and where to expect degraded performance4 ,of course1 strong solar activity can virtually make over-the-horizon ,,hf radar unusable4 ,a ,spectrum ,analyser display shows all the frequencies between #e and #bh ,m,hz4 ,in order to avoid possible interference to other services1 those frequencies which are known to be permanently allocated to fixed broadcasting and telecommunication stations are locked out1 as well as frequencies which happen to be used at any instant so that they can also be avoided by the ,,othr transmitter4 ,,glossary for non-technical readers4 ,a4,m4 ,a mode of modulation 7amplitude74 ,a4,r4,r4,l4 ,amateur ,radio ,relay ,league 7,u4,s4,a474 ,beacon ,transmitter radiating identification signal4 ,c4,q4 ,general call1 to any station4 ,c4,r4,t4 ,cathode ray tube 7like ,,tv screen74 ,c4,w4 ,continuous wave 7mode of sending telegraphy74 ,callsign ,station identification 7letters numbers74 ,coherer ,a device for making radio frequencies audible4 ,,de ,morse abbreviation for 'from' 7,french74 ,,dx ,communication over a long distance4 ,detector ,any device for making radio frequencies audible4 ,doppler shift ,change in pitch 7of sound7 or frequency of a 7radio7 wave ,e4,d4,e4,s4 ,initials of a war-time ,greek guerrilla organisation4 ,e4,e4,r4 ,equivalent ,greek initials for ,r4,a4,a4,g4 7q4v47 ,e4,l4,a4,s4 ,initials of a war-time ,greek guerrilla organisation4 ,e4,l4,f4 ,extremely ,low ,frequency4 ,e4,m4,e4 ,earth-moon-earth4 ,also ,moonbounce q4v4 ,h4,h4,m4,s4 ,his ,hellenic ,majesty's ,ship4 ,gasfet ,a type of transistor4 ,k,hz ,kilohertz--international unit for kilocycle4 ,m4,u4,f4 ,maximum usable frequency4 ,m,hz ,megahertz--international unit for megacycle4 ,moonbounce ,communication by reflection from the moon4 ,,othr ,over-the-horizon radar4 ,q code ,abbreviations used when communicating by telegraphy4 ,q#a ,unreadable4 ,q#b ,barely readable--only some words4 ,q#c ,readable with considerable difficulty4 ,q#d ,readable with practically no difficulty4 ,q#e ,perfectly readable4 ,,qro ,high power4 ,,qrp ,low power4 ,,qrt ,stop sending4 ,frequently used for shut up4 ,,qso ,two-way communication4 ,,qst ,call to all stations4 ,also title of journal of the ,a4,r4,r4,l4 ,,qth ,location or address of a station4 ,r4,a4,a4,g4 ,radio ,amateur ,association of ,greece4 ,r4,f4 ,radio frequency4 ,r4,s4,g4,b4 ,radio ,society of ,great ,britain4 ,,rst ,system of reporting readability1 strength tone of a signal4 ,,rx ,receiver4 ,s unit ,unit for reporting strength of received signal4 ,s4,i4 unit ,international system of definitions4 ,,ssb ,single side-band--a mode of modulation4 ,,swl ,room where radio equipment is set up4 ,shack ,room where radio equipment is set up4 ,silent key ,deceased radio amateur4 ,sporadic ,e4 ,propagation via the ,e layer of the ionosphere4 ,t4,e4,p4 ,transequatorial propagation4 ,,tx ,transmitter4 ,troposcatter ,propagation via the troposphere4 ,u4,h4,f4 ,ultra high frequency4 ,v4,h4,f4 ,very high frequency4 ,w4,a4,c4 ,worked 7contacted7 all continents4 ,,xyl ,wife of a radio amateur4 ,,yl ,young lady operator4 #gc ,morse abbreviation for best regards4 ,yagi ,a type of antenna designed by a ,japanese of that name4