In 1947, there was a war in northern Greece which some people
called a civil war and others a war against the guerrillas, depending
on whose side they were on. Suddenly one morning all the Athens
newspapers came out with some amazing headlines:
"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 (included
in the montage) with the following caption, 'The Communist
transmitters seized by the Piraeus police'. This was a photograph of
the shack of Mikes Psalidas SV1AF. At the top right one can see a
2-inch home-made monitor oscilloscope, which the newspapers described
as a 'powerful radar'!
"During the last three days," wrote one newspaper, "the police in
Piraeus have been investigating a very serious case implicating
leading cadres of the Communist party." Of course, it was nothing of
the sort. The equipment they had seized belonged to five radio
amateurs, George Gerardos SV1AG, Mikes Psalidas SV1AF, Nasos Coucoulis
SV1AC, Aghis Cazazis SV1CA and Sotiris Stefanou who didn't have a
callsign yet. In fact Mikes Psalidas was not even at home at the time
of the police raid, as he was in a military camp in the outskirts of
Athens, doing his compulsory military service. The newspapers
described in detail what had been found. "At the house of Mikes
Psalidas, who is a student at the Athens Polytechnic, the police found
wireless telegraphy receiving equipment (a National HRO), wireless
telephony equipment in full working order, that is, two transmitting
microphones, a step-down transformer and various other items."
The same newspaper went on "Unfortunately, at the house of Aghis
Cazazis, at 25 Tenedou street, the search was inconclusive because a
certain person, well known to the police, and whose arrest is
imminent, removed a high power transmitter just before the police
arrived and disappeared with it."
Another newspaper referred to "telegrams in code", received from
abroad and from the secret headquarters of the Communists, "which are
now being deciphered by a special department". These were SV1AG's
little collection of QSL cards.
Stefanos Eleftheriou of the Ministry immediately took up the
matter. Firstly, he pointed out to the Piraeus police that Athens did
not come under their jurisdiction, and they had no right to arrest
anybody there without a warrant. Secondly, all the five radio
amateurs they had arrested were known for their nationalistic
political convictions, particularly Psalidas whose father was a senior
officer of the Royal Hellenic airforce.
Before the 'suspects' were released and their confiscated
equipment returned to them, they were warned not to speak to newspaper
reporters at the risk of getting a kick up their backsides. This was
to prevent the public from learning how ludicrous had been the
accusations, and how completely unjustified the arrests had been. 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 ROYALISTS!" This paper sent a reporter to interview SV1AC.
They wrote, "In reply to a question from our reporter, Mr Coucoulis
said that when the police realised the foolishness of their action,
they issued a summons against him under Law 4749, which has absolutely
nothing to do with amateur radio."
"During the ten years following the end of World War II there were
about 15 to 20 very active amateurs in the Athens area, all using
callsigns of their own choice because no government legislation had
yet been enacted. Most of these operators subsequently obtained
licences and had to change to the official series. I remember two YLs
who were very popular in Europe and the U.S.A. because they spoke
several languages fluently, but they never re-appeared when licences
began to be issued."
Since 1945 the U.S. and British signals units were authorised by
the Greek Ministry of Communications to issue calls to military and
diplomatic personnel in the series SV0WA in the case of American staff
and SV0AA for the British.
Socrates continued: "I heard that the Americans had formed a club
called 'Attica Amateur Radio Club' in Kifissia, a suburb to the north
of Athens, and in due course I was able to become a member."
"In 1954," Socrates continued, "George Zarifis (currently SV1AA)
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 personnel, why do you not
grant the same facility to us Greek amateurs?'. 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 you?'.
"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 Greece. As a recognised
body we would then be able to go back to Nicolis and get him to pursue
the matter.
"That was how, late in 1957, we formed the Radio Amateur
Association of Greece, R.A.A.G., Greek initials E.E.R.
"At the same time, after considerable effort, we got the Ministry
to issue 7 licences based on the Wireless Telegraphy Act of 1930 (No
4797) and the regulations relating to Law 1049 of 1949, as well as a
document dated July 8th 1957 issued by the radio division of the
Central Intelligence service (Greek initials K.Y.P.-R). This order
authorised the installation of a 50 watt transmitter to an applicant
under certain strict limitations, one of which was that the station
could only be operated from 06.00 to 08.00 hours and from 13.00 to
midnight. The seven lucky recipients are shown in the accompanying
photograph.
Akis Lianos SV1AD, Socrates Coutroubis SV1AE, Nasos Coucoulis
SV1AC (silent key), George Zarifis SV1AA, Mikes Psalidas SV1AF, George
Vernardakis SV1AB and George Gerardos SV1AG (silent key).
"At that time (1958) my AM station consisted of a Hammarlund SP600
receiver and a home-built transmitter using an Italian Geloso
VFO-exciter driving a pair of 6146s in the final, with anode and
screen modulation by a pair of 807s in class AB2. I had also assembled
a double conversion receiver using a Geloso front end. This was
typical of the equipment used in Greece and Italy in the early 1960s.
"Licences continued to be issued until 1967 when the Junta
Colonels Papadopoulos and Patakos established the military
dictatorship. We were all ordered to seal our equipment and obtain
written confirmation from the nearest Police authority that the
disablement had been carried out.
"Six months later, in December of 1967 we started getting our
licences back. Most of us believed that because some of the younger
officers in the military government had received training at the
Pentagon in the U.S.A. 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
regulations, rather than have under cover operators starting up all
over again.
"George Gerardos SV1AG 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 instigated, but not
for the first time. Unsuccessful attempts had been made before the war.
"In 1965 when George Papandreou was Prime Minister, on the very
day when the Draft Bill was going to be put before Parliament the
government resigned and another 10 years went by. When legislation
was finally published in the Government Gazette in 1972, owing to the
prevailing political situation (military dictatorship) it had serious
limitations imposed by some Ministries which had to look after their
own interests, especially the Ministry of National Defence. But George
Gerardos, SV1AG, who had been closely involved, 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 date,
provided the law was finally on the Statute book. For instance, I
refer to the very restricted frequencies we were allocated in the
80-metre band, 3.500 to 3.600 MHz. Obviously when we began
transmitting SSB telephony below 3.600 we were greeted with angry
protestations from the CW operators there. And what was worse, the
voices of Greek amateurs were not heard in the DX portion of the phone
allocation from 3.750 to 3.800 MHz.
"Unfortunately, there was another and more serious snag. 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 procedures. So we were back to square one.
"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 down. When the dictatorship came to an end
the new government finally published Regulation 271 on April 30th
1976, which made the 1972 law fully operative."
During the period of the military dictatorship a break-away club
was formed by Dinos Psiloyiannis SV1DB who added the word 'national'
to its name making the Greek initials E.E.E.R. His motives were
rather dubious, 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 Greece. Psiloyiannis, who had contacts with the military
authorities (both his father and brother were officers) declared "I
will form my own association and issue declarations myself." By this
manoeuvre he obtained licences for quite a few newcomers, but after a
year or two his club ceased to function and most if not all of its
members joined the R.A.A.G.
An amendment of Law 1244 of 1972 published in the Government
Gazette No.114 dated June 3rd 1988 finally abolished the requirement
of the controversial declaration, as well as the rule which said that
before anyone could apply for a licence they had to join an officially
recognised association or club.