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 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?

Lat