When he returned from Switzerland, where he had studied Electrical Engineering, he had to do his compulsory military service which had been deferred while he was completing his education.A friend of his told him "Don't go into the Army, join the Navy; they have an amazing wireless station at Votanikos with which they can contact the Fleet anywhere in the world".As it happened there was a vacancy for an officer and Stefanos together with another young man called Nikolis faced a Selection Board of naval officers who really didn't know what qualifications they were looking for.He was successful whereas Nikolis went to the Ministry of Posts & Telegraphs where he ended up as Director-General many years later.
The MARCONI COMPANY of England had built an impressive wireless station for the Greek Royal Navy at Votanikos, a suburb of Athens.There was a transmitter which operated on 600 metres and a larger one on long waves above 2,000 metres which used the callsign SXA.
Stefanos told me how he was summoned by the Director of the Naval Station Admiral Mezeviris who asked him "Tell me, young man, what do you know about wireless?""Well sir", replied Eleftheriou, "I studied Electrical Engineering in Switzerland - I really don't anything about wireless.""Neither do I", replied the Admiral candidly."Nor do most of my officers.We must set up a school to train technicians and wireless operators.I entrust you with the task of getting all the necessary books and other materials.Write to England, the U.S.A., France and Germany and get whatever you need.When you are ready I will appoint staff to assist you." That was how Eleftheriou became the head of the first school fortraining wireless officers for the Greek Royal Navy.
A couple of years later Eleftheriou joined the staff of the Ministry of Post & Telegraphs.A newspaper of 1930 had a photograph of him with one of his triplet sons.
In his capacity of Head of the Telecommunications Section at the Ministry he worked hard to get official recognition of amateur radio.A handful of us who were active 'under cover' so to speak, frequently visited him in his office.He was a very likeable person and had a talent for anecdotes.One day he told us that he had attended a Joint Services Committee which had been set up to study the requirements for building a broadcasting station in Athens.A station had been in regular operation in the northern city of Thessaloniki (Salonica) since 1928, built by the pioneer of Broadcasting in the Balkans Christos Tsingeridis.
When the question of wavelength for the proposed station was considered somebody said a wavelength of 2,000 metres might be appropriate.One of the military officers, who shall be nameless, remarked angrily "What! 2,000 metres.We are spending all this money only to be received up to Koukouvaounes? This is outrageous!" (Koukouvaounes was then a small village with a funny name about 3 miles south-west of Athens.
Eleftheriou lived to the ripe old age of 84.When I last saw him he promised to give me his collection of old photographs and a large number of books and documents relating to the development of radio communications in Greece.Unfortunately, shortly after his death his wife and three sons moved house temporarily and a packing case containing all these priceless papers was lost in7.Norman F.Joly G3FNJ.(Formerly SV1RX).
I was born in Izmir (then known as Smyrna), on the west coast of Turkey in Asia Minor, in 1911, of British parents.My British nationality was established through the Treaty of Capitulation which was then in force between Turkey and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.I remember there was a British Post Office in Smyrna and we posted our letters with British postage stamps (of King Edward VII) overprinted with the word LEVANT.
My grandmother on my father's side had come from Russia.It is a strange coincidence that Takis Coumbias (ex SV1AAA), Bill Tavaniotis (ex SV1KE) and I all had roots in southern Russia.My grandmother on my mother's side was the daughter of the Dutch consul in Smyrna.Quite a mixed bag.
In 1922, at the end of the war between Turkey and Greece, the town of Smyrna was destroyed by fire when the Greek army was routed.My widowed mother with four young children, was advised to take us on board a British merchant vessel while the town changed hands.We were told to take a little food with us just for a day or two.We carried a large string bag with some bread, cheese and fruit, and one knife, one fork and one spoon between the five of us.I remember it was night and my mother put all her jewelry in a small leather bag.As I pulled the cord to close it the pin of a large broach stuck out through the top.My mother grabbed it and said I would hurt myself - I was only 11 years old at the time.She looked around the bedroom, lifted up a corner of the mattress of her bed and hid the pouch `safely' underneath it.We hurried out of the house - and never went back.
We and many other families spent one night on the merchant vessel where there was no sleeping accommodation.Next morning we were transferred to a large hospital ship called MAINE.All day we watched small groups of the Turkish and Greek armies skirmishing on the sea-front and in the evening many fires broke out in the town.In the middle of the night while we were sleeping the hospital ship sailed away to an unknown destination.After two or three days we arrived in Malta, where most of us stayed for the next four years.
It was in Malta that my interest in wireless telegraphy was first aroused.We were housed in some military `married quarters'.Close by there was a wireless station which produced bright greenish-blue sparks and crackling noises.Its antennas were supported on three very tall wooden masts painted bright yellow.I soon discovered that it was GYZ belonging to the Admiralty.Malta was then (1922) a very big base of the British Navy, in the good old days when England had an Empire.
