Hello from a sunny summer in Athens.
OBSERVATIONS FROM GREECE. Amateur
radio in Greece.
2008_06_16
Hello from a sunny summer in Athens.
We are a small but active team and although Greek operators on Satellites are
few, I am sure that most of you have definitely talked to someone from Greece.
The last six months that I have been working on satellites I have heard amongst
others SV2KGA and SV8ALQ but the main cell that systematically make satellite
contacts consistently are SV1BSX Mak, SW1IXP Costas and myself SW1JGW Jim.
From our group, the most experienced member is Mak, who has been active for more
than 10 years. He has great skills in construction, and always has lots of
interesting suggestions for making things with low cost and high performance,
like antenna systems, pre amplifiers etc.
Mak is always ready to help us and to encourage us to become better constructors
and better operators. Personally, without Maks' encouragement, I wouldn’t have
been on Satellites at all. He was the only one who believed in me when everyone
else didn’t, and for that I am very grateful. On satellites, I found what I was
really looking for in the radio amateur hobby.
You can find more things about Mak's work on his webpage
http://sv1bsx.50webs.com/
Another member of our team is Costas, SW1IXP, a very remarkable person. He is a new scientist and he is studying Physics in Athens University. Although he is very young, he is only satisfied when he uses something that he has constructed himself. As you can imagine, he has built his own antenna system, the motors and in fact, the complete satellite tracking system. You can find more about Costas’ constructions on http://www.sw1jgw.com/friends/sw1ixp/sw1ixp.htm
I think that Costas prefers construction and experimentation rather than
contacts (QSO'ing and QSL'ing), which he uses only to confirm the proper
operation and performance of his constructions.
Finally, a few words about myself. I have been a radio amateur class 2 since
2005. My knowledge of construction is still in its initial stages. The only
thing that I have made completely on my own is a portable self supporting 5el
VHF, 9el UHF antenna - (that's a excellent !!! start.....LA2QAA) - which we will
test in the near future.
You can find more things about me on my webpage at
http://www.sw1jgw.com
I really enjoy QSO's and collecting QSL cards ... as art, but also as the
personal signature of every radio amateur, rather like stamp collecting but with
much more value, because the QSL card represents the contact between two people
and transcends age, culture and religion.
Our dream is to see the Amateur Satellite Service blooming again. A new HEO
satellite will contribute to this dream because it will rejuvenate the interest
of all radio amateurs. It will give us the opportunity to experience situations
that we've only heard about from Maks’ stories.
Our plans for the near future is the construction of a powerful portable station
which we are going to use as an event that is organized by the Radio Amateur
Association of Greece and it is called FRYKTORIES.
Fryktories is an ancient Greek system of communication with fire from torches
above mountaintops -(akin to Semaphore, using flags.....LA2QAA) - and called "Fryktories"
... from fryktos, which means “the torch” in ancient Greek.
On the 13th of July 2008 and after 3200 years we will be climbing up the same
mountaintops with Turkish Hams and will transmit through the ham radio
frequencies a message from Troy – located in N.W Turkey up to Mykines that is in
Southern Greece using a special call on every mountaintop that the original
message passed through.
The same mountaintops are mentioned from AESCHYLUS in his drama “Agamemnon” and
they are the ones that brought back to the city of Mykines the message that
Troy, under siege, had fallen into the hands of the enemy.
The transmitted message will be relayed along the nodes on the 2m band from one
station to another.
If our transmission is effective and the collaboration between our team members
is effective, then we will make other efforts from other mountaintops with the
aim of making long distance contacts through AO7.
Mak's experience will be very useful because he is an excellent CW operator and
we hope that our station will cover a lots of miles.
For the time being these were our observations from Greece. Others will follow
so watch this space (!).
73 de SW1JGW.
(Now that's what "Observations" is all about..... excellent !! ... LA2QAA).