PIONEERS IN GREECE
1.General George Zarifis (retired) SV1AA.
As recorded in detail in chapter 5, George was undoubtedly the first Greek amateur to have two-way contacts using radio telephony, way back in 1921.He was also the first amateur to operate from the island of Crete in 1938.
2.Dr Costas Fimerelis SV1DH.(Transequatorial propagation).
On October 9th 1988 at 23.10 GMT a new world distance record was established on the 50 MHz band by the Greek experimental station SZ2DH operated by Costas Fimerelis SV1DH and a station in Tokyo, when it was proved that the signals had travelled a distance of 30,650 over the South American continent.This is 15,000 kilometres more than the short path between the two stations, over which there was absolutely no propagation at that moment in time.
A simple 5 element Yagi and a power of 100 watts was used at SZ2DH.The contact was on CW but the signals were so strong that it might well have been on SSB.It is estimated that 8 hops were needed to cover this record distance.
Most people know by now that SV1DH was one of the principal stations involved in the very successful Transequatorial propagation tests which took place during the 21st sunspot cycle between 1977 and 1983.Costas gave me a simplified explanation of the phenomenon first noticed by Ray Cracknell ZE2JV and Roland Whiting 5B4WR way back in September 1957, namely that VHF signals can travel great distances across the equator (5,000 to 8,000 kilometres) during the years of high sunspot activity.
Costas said that usually stations located approximately the same distance north and south of the magnetic (not geographic) equator can contact each other shortly after sunset at both locations.The first such QSO took place on the 10th April 1978 between ZE2JV and 5B4WR.Two days later ZE2JV contacted George Vernardakis SV1AB and this contact was followed a few days later with QSOs with SV1DH and SV1CS.
(Fuller details of these contacts are given later in this book in the interview with SV1AB).
In October 1976 there was a rumour that 145 MHz signals had been heard directly between Argentina and Venezuela.With the imminent beginning of sunspot cycle 21 many amateurs in the northern and southern hemispheres began organizing tests on 50,144,220 and 432 MHz.Within less than a year successful 2-way contact was established between Argentina and Venezuela on 144 MHz.
Greece is favourably placed for TEP to countries in Africa where there is considerable amateur radio activity, like Zimbabwe and the Union of South Africa.So towards the end of 1977 SV1AB and SV1DH began looking for colleagues in suitable geographic locations with the appropriate equipment and the time and inclination to engage in tests which could go on for months and months on end.Very soon the following stations agreed to participate in the tests.The northern group included SV1AB, SV1DH, 5B4WR and 5B4AZ.In the southern hemisphere participants were ZE2JV (now G2AHU), ZS6PW, ZS6DN, ZS6LN and ZS3B.
After 4 months of daily test schedules, early in 1978, successful contacts took place on 144 MHz, some of which constituted world distance records for that time, as can be seen in the accompanying table.Amateurs in Malta, Italy, France and Spain soon began to participate in the tests, as well as amateurs in other areas of South Africa.
It can be seen from the world map that the magnetic dip (shown as a heavy line) is very different to the geographic equator.The QTH of SV1AB is in a suburb 10 kilometres north of SV1DH's so George's contacts with the stations in Africa always had that edge on them.
In South Africa Dave Larson ZS6DN had set up a beacon which was first heard in Athens by SV1AB in February 1979.Within a few days ZS6DN had QSOs with SV1DH and SV1AB.The latter contact was a world distance record via the F-regions of the ionosphere because of the extra distance involved owing to the locations of the two Greek stations, as mentioned in the previous paragraph.
For anyone who may be interested very comprehensive reports of thework done in transequatorial propagation during cycle 21 and earlier appeared in articles written by Ray Cracknell ZE2JV/G2AHU and Roland Whiting 5B4WR/G3UYO in the June/July/August 1980 issues of Radio Communuication, the journal of the R.S.G.B.and in the November/December 1980 issues of QST.
RECORD TRANSEQUATORIAL PROPAGATION CONTACTS DURING SUNSPOT CYLE 21Stations MHz Date GMT Km
YV5ZZ/6 - LU1DAU 145.9 29/10/77 02.00 5,000~ World recorddistance on 144 MHz.First Western hemisphere contact.
JH6TEW - VK8WJ 144.1 10/02/78 11.50 5,060~ First Pacific area contact.
KP4EOR - LU5DJZ 145.1 12/02/78 00.12 6,340 New world distance record on 144 MHz.
YV5ZZ - LU3AAT 432.1 13/02/78 01.10 5,100 First reception of 432 MHz signals in Western hemisphere.
5B4WR - ZE2JV 144.1 10/04/78 17.40 5,800 First T.E.P.contactbetween Europe and Africa.
SV1AB - ZE2JV 144.1 12/04/78 18.00 6,260 First Greek distance record on 144 MHz.
SV1DH - ZS6DN 144.1 13/02/79 18.15 7,120 New world distance record on 144 MHz.
SV1DH - ZE2JV 432.3 20/03/79 18.20 6,250 First reception of 432 MHz signals between Europe and Africa.
I4EAT - ZS3B 144.1 31/03/79 18.50 7,890 World distance record (reception) on 144 MHz.
3.George Vernardakis SV1AB.(V.H.F.)
In March 1988 I visited George Vernardakis SV1AB (formerly F9QN of Marseilles, France) who spoke to me about his contribution to the transequatorial tests and his other experiments in connection with Moonbounce, Meteor Scatter and Sporadic E propagation.
