Socrates Coutroubis SV1AE described to me how his interest in
radio was aroused in 1935 when he was 13 years old. His father had
decided to buy a domestic radio receiver.
"Of course in 1935 Athens had no broadcasting service," Socrates
said, "so the receiver had to be able to tune in to the short wave
broadcasting bands. As we already had a Westinghouse refrigerator my
father decided we should try one of their receivers. 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 home. I
remember that together with the Westinghouse, we had an Atwater Kent,
Philco, RCA, Stromberg-Carlson and several sets of European
manufacture such as Philips, Blaupunkt, Saba etc. We finally settled
for the German Saba because it was the prettiest and blended better
with our living room furniture!
"There were very few stations to be found on the short waves. But
I remember the Dutch station PCJ run by the Philips company in
Eindhoven. The announcer was Edward Startz who spoke perfect English
and about a dozen other languages. "This is the Happy Station,
broadcasting from the Netherlands" he would say cheerfully.
"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 kiosk. It was entitled THE RADIO AMATEUR'S
HANDBOOK published by the A.R.R.L. I had no idea what the initials
stood for. The price was astronomical for my pocket but after a
little coercion I got my father to buy it for me. When I began to
read it I discovered the existence of radio amateurs. It was the 1939
edition and I found a circuit for a receiver which looked simple
enough for me to try. It was described as a regenerative detector and
audio amplifier.
"At that time the best place to buy components in Athens was at a
store called Radio Karayianni, but three others shops also stocked
valves (tubes) and components. One was the Electron run by George
Spanos, who was the agent for the Dutch Philips company. Then there
was a shop in a basement next door, Konstav Electric, owned by 'Bill'
Tavaniotis SV1KE. A wide range of components were also stocked by the
Raytheon agent, Nick Katselis SV1NK.
"I obtained some plug-in forms and wound the coils carefully
according to the instructions but unfortunately the receiver didn't
work very well, if at all. When I asked a few friends they suggested I
should shorten the very long wires I had used between the components,
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
receiver. Outstanding stations in the broadcast band in those days
were Trieste in northern Italy, Katowice in Poland, Breslau in Germany
and Toulouse in south-west France.
"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 area.
"My father used to buy the periodical LONDON CALLING which
contained the overseas programmes of the B.B.C. as well as the
programmes of the principal European broadcasting stations. 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
waves.
"But during the German/Italian occupation of Greece between 1941
and 1944 my little home-made receiver played a vital role in enabling
us to listen (secretly) to the B.B.C. broadcasts because the
authorities had sealed all radios to the broadcast (medium wave) band
and to the frequency of Radio Athens. Most people devised ingenuous
methods of listening to stations other than Athens.
"After the end of the war a friend of mine who returned to Athens
from Cairo brought me the 1945 edition of the A.R.R.L.Handbook, which
is still on the shelf as you can see."
Socrates explained that in 1945 there was complete political
upheaval in Greece, owing to the events that had taken place during
the foreign occupation, so the General Election of that year was
carried out under the supervision of foreign observers from the
U.S.A., the United Kingdom & France. The Russians did not send a
mission.
"Owing to my knowledge of English I was employed by the American
mission to act as interpreter. 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', and I was able to buy a BC 342
receiver. Later when Harry Barnett SV1WE who was in the Press
Department of the British Embassy returned to England I bought his
Hallicrafter SX28.
"It was at Harry's house in Kolonaki that I had my first taste of
amateur radio in action. He had a National HRO for reception and he
had constructed a 50-watt transmitter using surplus components which
were in plentiful supply at that time.
"Another friend of mine, Jim Liverios, was employed at the Civil
Aviation transmitter site on a hill south of Nea Smyrni. The American
Mission had set up their short wave transmitters on the same site and
later Interpol installed their own equipment as well. Liverios was
always on night shift because he attended the University during the
day. I still don't know how he ever managed to get any sleep. When
things were quiet he would 'borrow' a 5 Kw transmitter and tune it in
the 20 metre band. Using a callsign of his own choice (probably a
different one every night) he would have contacts with the whole
world. On his invitation I went there at midnight one night and
stayed until the morning. I remember we had QSOs with Cuba, Chile,
New Zealand and Australia."