"I tried everything I could think of to solder the wire to the tap, but to no avail.Then one day I had a brain-wave and I made a stupendous invention! I wrapped a copper strip round the tap and bolted it tightly, together with the ground wire.I was really very proud of myself and wondered if anybody else had ever thought of doing it that way."I asked Takis if he had done any transmitting from home."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 present.My own SWL callsign was RK-1136 as you can see from the QSL card I received from EU5DN in 1929.
"I remember our excitement when we first contacted a station outside Russia.It was a station in Saarbrueken and we were on a wavelength of 42 metres.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 famous.On 42 metres most of our QSOs were with German stations.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 hot!!
The club transmitter consisted of 4 valves in a Hartley parallel push- pull oscillator circuit which we considered to be of relative 'high power' - perhaps all of 10 watts."Takis continued: "In 1930, my family, like many other families of Greek origin, moved to Athens.I built a cw transmitter using four Philips valves.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 licence, but he thanked me all the same for telling him I had built a transmitter."Takis continued: "I would like you to notice these two QSL cards I received in 1933.I1IP wrote on his card 'I am on the air since 1924 but you are the first SV station I have heard'.And the British listener BRS1183 wrote 'Dear old man, very pleased to report your signals.Are you the only active station in SV?' I think those comments speak for themselves."Norman: "Had you not heard about Tavaniotis, who had also emigrated from Russia?"Takis: "No.It was you who took me to the basement shack and introduced me.I remember how I gaped when I saw the 150 watt transmitter Bill had built."Takis then described how he had heard a distress signal on his home- made receiver.It was in a language he could not understand so he called his father, who was quite a linguist, to listen.It appeared that the vessel had caught fire as it was approaching the port of Piraeus, south of Athens.The captain of the ship said their predicament was complicated by the fact that they were transporting a large circus, with many wild animals.Takis ran to the nearest Police station and told his story, but was greeted practically with derision.How could a young lad like him know there had been a fire on a ship which was not even in sight of the shore? Anyway, somebody was brought to the station and the officer said "Go with this man." Takis was taken to the coast at Palaio Faliro where he boarded a salvage tug, and they set out to sea.He said the vessel in distress had been bound for Piraeus, and sure enough the salvage tug located it, but when they approached it there was no sign of fire as it had been put out, before any of the animals could be harmed.But the engine room had been damaged, so the tug towed the vessel into harbour.What Coumbias didn't know was that by law he was entitled to a proportion of the salvage money, and he never got anything.
Another incident involving a small yacht which belonged to a friend of Takis' led to an interesting assignment.The yacht was considered to be not seaworthy any more, and a W/T transmitter it carried was dismantled completely by an electrician who knew nothing about wireless.
"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 yet.When I was shown the parts I was horrified to see that there was no circuit diagram or instructions of any sort.It took me more than a month to figure it all out.The transmitter was of French manufacture and consisted of two enormous triodes in a Hartley oscillator circuit.When I got it to work it was installed at the Naval Wireless station at Votanikos,where the Director, Captain Kyriakos Pezopoulos used it for experimental transmissions.There were already two other transmitters there, one on Long Waves and one on 600 metres.The callsign of the station was SXA.As this was the third transmitter they used the callsign SXA3.The operator, Lt.George Bassiacos, had discovered some telegraphy stations which replied when he called them -- he had accidentally stumbled upon the amateur 20 metre band! With a transmitter supplied with unrectifiedA.C.at 400 Hz.and a power output of several kilowatts, no wonder contacts with any part of the world were easy.When Captain Pezopoulos met Bill Tavaniotis the latter suggested that if the 'experimental' transmissions were to continue in the amateurs bands, the callsign should be altered to SX3A.Thousands of successful contacts were made as it was the beginning of sunspot cycle 16, a very good one as old timers will know.If anyone reading this has a QSL card from SX3A it would be appreciated if he would donate it to the Technical Museum in Greece."(Takis Coumbias died suddenly of a heart attack in September 1987.)2.Pol Psomiadis N2DOE (formerly SV1AZ).
The text which follows was written by Pol N2DOE of BergenfieldNJ.
