enough. But in a few minutes I heard him
calling me slowly on CW and we exchanged reports at 17.20 G.M.T on
February 16th 1979. This was a new world record for the longest
distance on 2 metres.

"Three days earlier, however, when I was not at home, Costas SV1DH
had established the first TEP contact between Greece and South Africa
when he contacted ZS6DN. As you know, my location is a mere 10
kilometres north of SV1DH's. I have a tape recording of my QSO with
ZS6DN as well as with ZS6PW whose signals came through a few minutes
later at 17.34 G.M.T. on that historic evening.(The local time in
Athens was 7.34 p.m.).Of course the distance record was broken again
on September 17th 1981 when I contacted ZS4BU who is 110 kilometres
further south than ZS6DN."

Norman: "Were all these contacts only on the key?"

George: "Yes, all the contacts were on CW. On several occasions we
tried SSB but there was so much distortion that not a single word
could be identified. TEP has a lot of flutter and fading and as you
can hear on the tapes even the morse comes through like a breathing
noise, not a clear tone. This applies to contacts between Greece and
South Africa. Contacts between Japan and Australia where the
distances involved are smaller, have been made on SSB."

Norman: "What about cycle 22?"

George: "see how things go. If anything is achieved it should be in
1990 or later. With modern equipment we shall be able to hear signals
that were buried in the noise in 1979."

4. Dr Spyros Tsaltas SV1AT & George Delikaris SV1AM. (Mobile).

The first two licensed amateurs to make contact on 2 metres in
Greece were Dr Spyros Tsaltas SV1AT and George Delikaris SV1AM. They
had put together the famous Heathkit 'TWOER'. Crystals were plentiful
on the surplus market, but it was not easy to find two of the same
frequency. SV1AT transmitted on 144.720 and SV1AM on 145.135 MHz. 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. He suggested to the Committee that the Club
should apply for a temporary licence to be granted to SV1AM enabling
him to transmit from his vehicle while in motion. The licensing
authority gave the