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SV1AAA。
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 answer。 〃It will be ages〃； he said； 〃before the Greek State
officially recognizes the very existence of radio amateurs and begins to
issue transmitting licences to them。 After that it might take another 50
years for them to get to the three…letter series beginning with SV1AAA。〃
In actual fact this is what happened： legislation was enacted 40 years
later and the callsign SV1AAA was officially allocated to Nikita Venizelos
after 54 years had elapsed！
Although at the time there was no official recognition of amateur
radio in Greece； 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 （Greek initials T。T。T。） Stefanos Eleftheriou who did
more than anyone else to encourage and promote the development of our
hobby。 In fact； following a minor brush with the police in 1937 （described
by N2DOE later in this book） 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 radio。 The recipients of these
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three licences were Costas 'Bill' Tavaniotis SV1KE； Aghis Cazazis
SV1CA and Nikos Katselis SV1NK。 As there were no relevant regulations
the choice of callsign was left to the individual operators。 For instance；
Tavaniotis ran his own electrical and electronic business called KONSTAV
ELECTRIC so he decided to use 〃KE〃 as his callsign。
As far as I know the following ten amateurs were active in the Athens
area in 1937：
1。Takis Coumbias。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。SV1AAA 2。'Bill'
Tavaniotis。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。SV1KE （silent key） 3。Polycarpos
Psomiadis。。。。。。。。。。。。。。SV1AZ （now N2DOE） 4。Aghis
Cazazis。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。SV1CA （silent key） 5。Nikos
Katselis。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。SV1NK （silent key） 6。George
Zarifis。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。SV1SP/SV6SP （now SV1AA） 7。Nasos
Coucoulis。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。SV1SM （silent key） 8。George
Yiapapas。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。SV1GY （now QRT） 9。Menelaos
Paidousis。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。SV1MP 10。Norman Joly。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。SV1RX （now
G3FNJ）
In 1952 Costas Karayiannis who ran a big business called RADIO
KARAYIANNI published an amazingly comprehensive book entitled
ELLINIKI RADIOFONIA which means 'Greek Broadcasting'。 It
contained a vast treasure of information on many subjects allied to
broadcasting； and there was a page entitled DAWN （1930…1940） which
dealt with amateur radio activity in Greece before World War II。 It
confirmed most of the names listed above as can be seen in the photo…copy
of the original Greek text； and it mentioned three others： George Gerardos
SV1AG； （silent key）； S。Stefanou and Mikes Psalidas who was allocated
the callsign SV1AF 20 years later； though he； like many others had come
on the air after the end of the war with an unofficial callsign。
Were all these operators who functioned strictly in accordance with
international regulations pirates？ In my view they were certainly not
pirates。 If the State was officially unaware of the existence of amateur
radio how could they apply for licences and be issued with official
callsigns？
Later in this book N2DOE describes how a handful of amateurs had
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prepared draft legislation in 1937 at the request of Stefanos Eleftheriou of
the Ministry but the outbreak of World War II in September 1939 had
prevented him from taking any action in this connection。
The island of Crete in southern Greece was first heard on the air in
1938 when George Zarifis came on 40 metre CW using the callsign
SV6SP。 His transmitter consisted of a single metal 6L6 crystal oscillator
with an input of about 7 watts。 For reception he used an American CASE
broadcast receiver in which he had fitted a BFO。 In a very short period he
had about 500 QSOs。
Forty four years later some of the younger generation of operators
who had not heard of this early activity from Crete allocated the prefix
SV9 to the island。 Rather illogically they allocated SV8 to all the other
islands irrespective of their geographical position and with yet another
exception SV5 for the twelve Dodecanese islands。
General George Zarifis （retired） SV1AA as he is now； had started
playing with 'wireless' a long long time before he went to Crete。 In 1921
when he was in the 4th form at school he had bought two kits of parts
from France and put them together with the help of his fellow…student
George Grabinger。 The kit consisted of a bright emitter triode in an
oscillating circuit。 The heater supply was a 4 volt accumulator； and a
dozen or so dry cells； with an earphone in series； supplied the anode
voltage。 The tuned circuit consisted of a coil with a small pressure
operated capacitor across it。 A carbon microphone with a dry cell in series
was connected to two or three turns of wire wound over the coil。 The
assembled kits were tested close to each other and they worked。 Later；
when they had connected random length wire antennas to the circuits the
two schoolboys were able to talk to each other across the 400 metres
which separated their homes。 These contacts quite definitely heralded the
dawn of amateur radio in Greece at about the same time as the 1921
Transatlantic tests were taking place。
On the 1st of September 1939 Hitler's armies invaded Poland。 Great
Britain which had a treaty with Poland was compelled to declare war on
Germany two days later on the 3rd； followed by France。 Canada and
Australia declared war on Germany the next day。 All the radio amateurs in
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Athens immediately dismantled their transmitters and dispersed the
components。
So ended the first phase of amateur radio activity in Greece。
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The dawn of amateur radio in the U。K。 and Greece ： a personal view
CHAPTER SIX
WORLD WAR II AND AFTER IN GREECE
Socrates Coutroubis SV1AE descri