"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 the British Embassy returned to England I bought his Hallicrafter SX28.
"It was at Harry's house in Kolonaki that I had my first taste of amateur radio in action. He had a National HRO for reception and he had constructed a 50-watt transmitter using surplus components which were in plentiful supply at that time.
"Another friend of mine, Jim Liverios, was employed at the Civil Aviation transmitter site on a hill south of Nea Smyrni. The American Mission had set up their short wave transmitters on the same site and later Interpol installed their own equipment as well. Liverios was always on night shift because he attended the University during the day. I still don't know how he ever managed to get any sleep. When things were quiet he would 'borrow' a 5 Kw transmitter and tune it in the 20 metre band. Using a callsign of his own choice (probably a different one every night) he would have contacts with the whole world. On his invitation I went there at midnight one night and stayed until the morning. I remember we had QSOs with Cuba, Chile, New Zealand and Australia."
THE AFFAIR OF THE PIRAEUS POLICE.
In 1947, there was a war in northern Greece which some people called a civil war and others a war against the guerrillas, depending on whose side they were on. Suddenly one morning all the Athens newspapers came out with some amazing headlines:
"THE WIRELESS TRANSMITTERS OF THE COMMUNISTS HAVE BEEN SEIZED IN ATHENS"
"WIRELESS TRANSMITTERS FOUND IN COMMUNIST HANDS"
"HOW THE FIVE TRANSMITTERS OF THE COMMUNISTS WERE DISCOVERED"
"THE SIX INSTALLATIONS SEIZED BY THE POLICE"
Two of the newspapers printed the identical photograph (included in the montage) with the following caption, 'The Communist transmitters seized by the Piraeus police'. This was a photograph of the shack of Mikes Psalidas SV1AF. At the top right one can see a 2-inch home-made monitor oscilloscope, which the newspapers described as a 'powerful radar'!