Activities 2009 & before

Fall 2m/qrp QSO PARTY (phone & digi)
We invited all radio amateurs to an 2m/qrp qso party in 22 November 2009. Our place was in Mt.Parnis (KM18ud), 1140m asl 20km NW of Athens. A good place for radio communications.
The crew: SW1JGW, SW1EIX, SW1KWZ & SV1GRN.
Activities like this are very rare in Athens area (I suppose this was the first 2m. qso party organized in Athens area and maybe in Greece) and many radio amateurs participated, so we are encouraged to continue our efforts!

SX1DL
We made a short expedition for the support of Greek-German friendship on the weekend 4 - 5.july 2009 through participating in Aegean VHF Contest.
The crew: SW1JGW, SW1EIX, SV1GRN, SW1KWZ, SW1IXP, DH5MK
We have been QRV on 6m, 2m, 70cm from Mt.Parnis (KM18ud), 1140m asl 20km NW of Athens.
We had some bad luck with QRM and the rotator, so satellite communication has to be stopped before it started. We feel very sad about that because it was our aim to make some long distance QSO´s from that amazing good QTH. Big sorry to all how waited for us on AO-7.

My special thanks to the complete crew, especially my friend Dimitrios SW1JGW! for the well made perfect organization and Michael DH5MK for travelling from Germany to participate the SX1DL.

"Deep breaths in my body.
Sailors of Columbus waked up.
Fire up now all the rockets.
and Marconi send the S.O.S."

from "Black and White" poem of N. Cavvadias

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SX1EPC
Special callsign issued summer 2008 the crew: SV8GXC/SV1, SW1JGW, SV1EEX & SV1GRN

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Fryktorias - Long distance communications in ancient Greece.
I tried many times to qso with Fryktorias stations from nearby of Kalamata city but I could n't hear them. Later while returning to Athens I was fortunate enough to have a mobile qso. Read the impressive whole story:

Fryktorias – Bridges of Friendship

Sunday July 13^th, 2008

The most important civilizations of history began within the area of Eastern Mediterranean from antiquity till now. The Greek civilization has influenced global history. With the development of sciences like medicine, astronomy, geography, geometry, architecture but also with the establishment of democracy, philosophy and the arts, the Greek civilization built the infrastructure of the European culture.

This fact left behind other achievements of ancient Greeks that have become less well-known. One of these accomplishments is the form of long distance communication with the use of fire or deep smoke that was widely used in times of peace and war. The word referring to this means of communication in Greek is “Fryktoria”.

The places that the ancient Greeks used were mostly in mountain tops or capes that offered distant visual contact. On many mountain tops are found the remnants of the ancient “Fryktorias”. With successive retransmissions the message could be delivered from top to top through vast distances either over land or sea. The messages were short, predefined and encoded according to needs.

The ancient scrolls of Orpheus that describe the expedition of Argonauts refer to the transmission of messages between the army units with the use of the Fryktorias. In Homeric Iliad and Odyssey, Homer describes the Fryktorias as a means of communication between the gods and humans in detail but also as a means of communication between the Aegean Islands! When the war that was raging outside the great walls of Troy was concluded, Agamemnon sent a message back to his palace in Mycenae. Thus, it didn’t take more than a night to announce the end of war from Troy to Mycenae with the employment of the Fryktorias. Aeschylus in his drama “Oresteia” reports one by one the mountain tops used to transfer the message about the end of the war.

On July 13^th, 2008 and after 3200 years we will be climbing up the same mountain tops that Aeschylus reported and along with Turkish Hams will transmit through the ham radio frequencies a message from Troy – located in N.W. Turkey up to Mycenae that is in Southern Greece using a special call on every mountain top that the original message passed through. The same mountain tops are mentioned from Aeschylus in his drama “Agamemnon” and they are the ones that brought back to the Mycenae city the message that Troy had fallen into the hands of the ancient siege army.

On July 13^th, 2008 the mountain tops that had made the end of the war known, will be activated by ham radio operators for the transmission of a message about peace. They will also make ham radio known to society as a means of propagation that promotes the values that support our culture and civilization. Furthermore, we will be active on all ham radio bands making as many contacts as possible.
If on July 13th you have a QSO with a station that participates in the event from the broader Aegean area, just stop for a minute and consider that on the same site 3200 years ago there was similar communication with much simpler means but equally effective.

The event is supported and sponsored by RAAG that is celebrating its 50^th anniversary this year and it will be conducted with the cooperation of Greek and Turkish ham radio operators.

For information: - R.A.A.G. : raag-hq@raag.org

Organizational committee

SV1BJY (danaos1@vodafone.net.gr)

SV1KP (sv1kp@raag.org)

SV1EM (exar@acci.gr)

The special calls that will be used through this campaign will be:

Turkey
Mountain Ida (Troy): to be announced.

Greece
Station 1 (Lemnos Isl): SX8FRA

Station 2 (Mt. Athos) * : SX2FRB/A

Station 3 (Mt. Kandili, Evia Isl): SX8FRC

Station 4 (Mt. Mesapio, Biotia): SX1FRD

Station 5 (Mt. Kitheronas): SX1FRE