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I remember SV1AB got very excited and began shouting 'I can hear him, I can hear him! The QSO was with VE7BQH. Later Lionel sent me a very valuable present, valuable not for its cost but for the fact that it was something quite unobtainable in Greece at that time a very low-noise preamplifier for 2 metres.
The other station would also record at high speed and then play back at normal speed to hear the message normally. I asked SV1AB to tell me about Sporadic E propagation. "In this form of contact the signals are reflected from an ionised area 90 to 120 kilometres above the surface of the earth.
Amateurs in Malta, Italy, France and Spain soon began to participate in the tests, as well as amateurs in other areas of South Africa. 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.
5B4WR ZE2JV 144.1 10/04/78 17.40 5,800 First T.E.P. contact between 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.
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.
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.
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.
For reception SV4CG made a converter using the long persistence P7 c.r.t. With this set-up Costas had his first SSTV contact on 40 metres with SV1AB on February 28th 1971. After that he had many contacts on 7 and 14 MHz as can be seen from the extract from his log.
The first contact took place at 13.30 local time on the 21st of December 1963. A few days later SV1AT had a cross-band QSO with George Vernardakis SV1AB who was transmitting in the 20 metre band on 14.250 MHz A.M. as he had not completed his TWOER yet. At that time SV1AT was the Secretary of the Radio Amateur Association of Greece.
"When I made my first contact I was simultaneously in QSO with SV1AB and SV1IO on 1,296 MHz who could hear what was going on.
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