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Although about 200 European stations had indicated their intention to
listen only 30 actually submitted logs。 And not a single one of them was
able to report hearing anything that could be attributed to the American
transmissions。
The then Editor of QST wrote： 〃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 circuits。 We would bet our new Spring hat that if a
good U。S。 amateur with such a set and an Armstrong superheterodyne
could be sent to England； reception of the U。S。 transmissions would
straightaway become commonplace。〃 Strong language。
In September of the same year it was announced that a prominent U。S。
amateur Paul Godley 2ZE would be going to Europe to take part in the
second series of tests planned for December。 His expenses were being paid
by the A。R。R。L。 which already boasted having 15；000 transmitting
members。 In the U。S。A。 distances of over 2；000 miles had already been
achieved。
During his brief stay of a few hours in London Paul Godley was
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The dawn of amateur radio in the U。K。 and Greece ： a personal view
introduced to Senator Marconi； to Admiral of the Fleet Sir Henry Jackson；
to Alan A。Campbell Swinton and many other distinguished members of
the Wireless Society of London； as the R。S。G。B。 was then called。
Paul Godley first set up his receiving equipment at Wembley Park；
Middlesex but soon decided that the electrical noises in the area would not
permit reception of the weak transatlantic signals。 He therefore obtained
permission to set up the European receiving station at Ardrossan a coast
town near Glasgow； Scotland。 The actual site was a large field heavily
covered with seaweed。 He was assisted in the erection of his receiving
antenna by a member of the Marconi International Marine
Communications Company。 1；300 feet of phosphor…bronze wire was
stretched 12 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 resistor。 This was the first Beverage type receiving array ever
erected in the United Kingdom。 Before the actual tests took place the
length of the wire was reduced to 850 feet。
At 00。50 GMT on December 9th 1921 Godley identified signals from
1BCG located at Greenwich； Connecticut。 The station there was manned
by six members of the Radio Club of America。 One of the operators was
E。Howard Armstrong inventor of the regenerative detector； super…
regeneration and the supersonic heterodyne receiver； though the French
claim that the superhet was first designed by Lucien Levy of Paris。
Two days later the historic first complete message transmitted by U。S。
amateurs and received in Europe on the 〃short waves〃 （actually 230
metres） heralded a new era。 The message read：
No。1 de 1BCG。 WORDS 12。 NEW YORK DECEMBER 11 1921。 TO
PAUL GODLEY ARDROSSAN SCOTLAND。 HEARTY
CONGRATULATIONS。 SIGNED BURGHARD INMAN GRINAN
ARMSTRONG AMY CRONKHITE。
Eight British amateurs had also copied the message correctly。 One of
them was W。E。〃Bill〃 Corsham 2UV of Willesden； London who was later
credited by the R。S。G。B。 and the A。R。R。L。 as being the inventor of the
QSL card。 Bill had used a simple three valve receiver and an inverted…L
wire 100 feet long compared to Godley's huge Beverage array。
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The dawn of amateur radio in the U。K。 and Greece ： a personal view
In the summer of 1922 amateurs in France began to get licences and
Leon Deloy 8AB President of the Radio Club of Nice in southern France
started hearing British stations。 After a visit to the U。S。A。 Deloy was able
to improve his equipment and on November 27th 1923 he contacted Fred
Schnell 1MO of West Hartford； Connecticut for the first ever 2…way QSO
across the Atlantic。 They used the 〃useless〃 wavelengths around 100
metres。
INTERNATIONAL DX had come to stay。
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The dawn of amateur radio in the U。K。 and Greece ： a personal view
CHAPTER FIVE
THE FIRST GREEK RADIO AMATEURS
As no licences were issued for many years there are no official
records to be consulted。 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 capital。 At the time of writing （1987） four of
the original pioneers in the Athens area are alive and three of them are
currently active on the H。F。 bands。
Athanassis 'Takis' Coumbias has QSL cards addressed to him dated
1929 when he was a short wave listener in Odessa； Russia with the SWL
callsign RK…1136。 In 1931 his family； like many other Greek families in
Russia； moved to Athens where Takis built a 4…valve transmitter with
which he was very active on 40 and 20 metre CW using the callsign
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