MHz. He gave me the
coordinates for the next pass and I rotated and raised my array in
anticipation. When the exact time arrived my modest receiver picked
up the satellite beacon loud and clear. The American got so excited he
asked me if he could use my telephone to call the University in the
U.S.A. He told them the satellite had been heard at last in Athens,
and by an amateur no less. Later I received a letter from NASA
thanking me for the assistance I had given. When the American left he
gave me that 50 MHz converter you can see there on the shelf."

Norman: "Tell me about your contribution to the transequatorial
tests of 1979."

SV1AB: "I had been in regular contact with ZS6LN on ten metres
long before Costas SV1DH appeared on the scene. I remember asking
ZS6LN why we should not receive South African stations on 2 metres
when we could hear them so well on 50 MHz. He had replied that the
two frequencies behaved in a very different manner, but there was no
harm in trying. He got ZS6PW and ZS6DN interested in the idea,
particularly ZS6DN who had much better aerials and a very good QTH.
He was the one who stood the better chance of being heard in Greece.
We arranged a schedule of transmitting and listening every evening.
First they transmitted and we listened, and then we transmitted and
they listened, and contact was maintained on ten metres."

Norman: "You said 'every evening'--do you mean that the Sun has
something to do with this type of propagation?"

George: "Most certainly. All the contacts that were made
subsequently were at least one hour after the relevant part of the
ionosphere was in darkness."

George then described how the first signals were heard via
transequatorial propagation.

George: "First we heard the beacon on 144.160 MHz set up by Ray
Cracknell ZE2JV in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). The date was
April 12th 1978 at 18.00 G.M.T. Ten months later I heard ZS6DN's
automatic beacon with a colossal signal, but he was not at home! I
went to 20 metres and put out a frantic CQ for any station in South
Africa but got no reply. I returned to the cross-band frequency on 10
metres which we used regularly for 28/50 MHz QSOs and managed to
contact a station in South Africa who was very far away from ZS6DN but
who kindly offered to QSP a message by telephone. He was told that
ZS6DN had gone out but would be back soon. I was terrified that the
opening would not last long