PERSONAL REMINISCENCES AND ANECDOTES
The eight items which follow are not strictly part of the story of the development of amateur radio, but they deal with some historical events which are connected with our hobby.Two are of particular interest: the account given to me by Takis Coumbias formerly SV1AAA of the early days of amateur radio in Russia and the story of the Greek broadcasts from Cairo, Egypt during the German/Italian occupation of Greece in World War II.
Nearly all the photographs of the period were taken by the author.
1.Athanasios 'Takis' Coumbias (1909-1987)When I met Takis in his office in May 1983 I told him I was thinking of writing a small book about the history of amateur radio in Greece before it was too late -- so many of the old timers had already passed away.Little did we both suspect at the time that he also would not live to see the finished project.I asked him how far back he could remember.
"Well, I can start from 1924 when I was about 15 and living in Odessa in the Soviet Union.There was a lot of interest in wireless and two magazines were published in Russia which dealt mainly with the construction of receivers.My interest was first aroused when a friend of mine at school proudly showed me something he had just made.It was, he told me, a variable capacitor and he was going to use it to make a radio receiver.The contraption was enormous by today's standards and must have weighed about half a kilo.My friend said it had a capacity of 250 micro-micro farads, which meant absolutely nothing to me at the time.
"When he completed his receiver I became very interested and decided I would build one too.But materials were hard to find and very expensive.Two items one had to buy: valves and headphones.
"I asked my friend where he had found the sheet metal to make the plates of the capacitor.He took me to a row of small shops which had a metal-faced ledge below the shop window.The metal was thin and seemed easy enough to remove.We sat on the ledge for a while and when the coast was clear we tore away a section and ran like mad.Later I ruined apair of my mother's dressmaking scissors cutting out the plates.I used rings of some thick copper wire to space the plates but I could not drill holes in the plates for the spindle so a friend did that for me.I used about 15 plates and to this day I have no idea what the capacity of the finished capacitor was.Some small items for the receiver could be found in a little shop owned by an old man who charged exorbitant prices, so I decided I must go to Moscow for the valve and a single headphone that I needed.
"But Moscow was three days and two nights away by train, and it was the middle of winter.So what, you may ask.Like many others I had to travel on the roof of a goods waggon.I took with me a loaf of bread, a piece of cheese and two hard-boiled eggs.My father said I must be mad but he gave me some spending money and his blessing.
"I had eaten my food by the end of the second day so when we stopped at Brensk which is famous for its 'piroushki' I decided to try them.They were kept warm in large metal tins ready for the arrival of the train.There were seven varieties and I had one made with liver and a savoury sauce.
"When I arrived in Moscow I went to see the Greek ambassador as I was carrying a letter of introduction from my father who was acting Consul for Greece in Odessa, but it was Saturday and the ambassador's office was closed.I learned later that only foreign establishments closed at the week-end.So I went to look for a cheap hotel.Looking out of the bedroom window I saw a lot of people running in one direction.At that moment a woman brought me a towel and a small bar of soap, so I asked her what was going on outside.She said the butcher near the hotel had just received some liver.Would she buy me some I said.I gave her some money and she returned nearly two hours later with the liver wrapped in newspaper.When I opened it I saw it was horse liver cooked with corn and it had an awful sour smell.I just could not face it, although I was starving by now."I asked Takis about the shops in Moscow.He said he had found several shops with parts and some made-up receivers in the State owned shops.He learned later that these receivers were made by amateurs because the factories only made equipment for the armed forces.Hebought a triode valve called 'MICRO' and was told it had an amplification factor of 7.He wrapped it carefully in cotton wool for the return journey to Odessa.He also bought a dry battery pack which gave 80 volts, and an enormous single headphone for one ear which was ex-army surplus.
When he returned home and began to build his receiver he raided his mother's kitchen to build things like terminals, switches etc.There was an electric bell circuit between the dining room and the kitchen and as they didn't use it his mother said he could dismantle it and use the wire, which was quite long because it went up into the loft and then down again to the kitchen.
