Louis SZONDY (Australia)

The story of a very young Radio Officer

Well I love CW or “Morse” in particular. I learned it when around 8 years old from my Grandfather in Adelaide who did not know it by heart but knew what it was when I showed him CW coming out of the radio. He gave me the code with all the “dots and dashes” written out. I used to tune in to ship-shore communications, Interpol and others, and those coastal station auto CQ loops such as VVV VVV VVV CQ CQ CQ DE VIS5 VIS5 VIS5 QSX 4 6 8 12 MHZ K or whatever, each time it came around I’d write down a few more dots and dashes on my paper and look it up and work it all out. I’ve always been “auto dedactic” or whatever it is called, I usually don’t need a manual to figure things out. So I learned it the hard way, all alone, at that young age, by the time I was 11 years 11 months old and on board a Greek Chandris Lines passenger ship RHMS S.S. Ellinis (callsign was SWXX) leaving Australia to Europe in 1975 with my Mother, when most people were coming to Australia, she was emmigrating out. I had already probably over 20 WPM skill and knew all the telegram, weather report, calling frequencies, emergency and other radio procedures of ship-shore communications. So when I immediately set off for the radio room and called out “Sydney Radio” when hearing VIS come out of the radio, the Chief Operator on duty looked out, saw no one, then looked down and saw this small skinny little boy, amazed, he turned the dial… XSG XSG “Shanghai Radio” I called out… he came rushing out, grabbed me, sat me on the operator seat, tuned in a WX report asked me to write it down… it was easy, I filled the page or two without a single error, he immediately dragged me up to the Captain. Being Law-at-Sea he turned to me in English after hearing about the “miracle” from Chief R/O Manolis, and said “I hereby designate you Radio Officer, Rank of Apprentice, in my powers as Captain. Starting tomorrow you will have an 8 hour shift every day, and you will receive the officers uniform and R/O stripes with Apprentice rank. For the next 5 weeks I must have been the world’s youngest ships R/O and probably the world’s youngest ships officer.

Then a life in the RADIO…

I still love CW to this day and I became amateur radio.  My actual callsign is VK5EEE.
Currently my favoured band is 40m, though I know I’ll enjoy 20, 15 and 10 again. More on QRZ.COM callsign VK5EEE

OM Louis – VK5EEE today

Louis’s antenna park