K.

"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