I had little or no exposure to 50mhz before being thrust into the lions den that was ZC4, I’m not sure exactly how it came about, I had come into contact with some of the UKSMG group on 10m (quite by chance I think) and had been asked about the possibility of 50mhz in ZC4, I remember a couple of years before seeing the front cover of Radcomm showing the 5B4/ZC4VHF DXpedition to the top of Troodos, obviously 6m had not been permitted at the time on the SBA (Sovereign Base Area) but was allowed in main part of Cyprus on  5B4
I enquired with one or two of the local ZC4’s who I had become acquainted with to be told that it was unlikely that it would be allocated although they were looking at it, I asked a few different people and also I think Paul ZC4WP who was keen to access the band also was asking the question, eventually we were told that the authorities (the military) were considering opening up 6m along the same lines as the UK license and also in line with the 5B4 access, this was great news although I still didn’t realize the importance and significance of this access
Being new to Cyprus I hadn’t even realized at this point that as far as DXCC and the ARRL and other worldwide authorities were concerned Cyprus counted as Asia for WAC so little did I know that not only was ZC4 going to be a new and rare country on 6m if permission was granted but it would also count towards WAC for those chasing this award
I always had the feeling that due to the fact that 50mhz was in use in 5B4 and that it was on general release in the UK that we would be given permission in ZC4 to that end I started monitoring the band towards the later half of 1989, we had started getting into the TEP season by this time (I didn’t even know what TEP was back then) and I started to hear beacons from Africa on a regular basis, this amazed me on what was considered a VHF band, I soon started listening on 28.885mhz which was the 6m liaison freq on 10m, which would end up being a 2nd home for the next two years, this was in the days before the Internet so 28.885 was where diehard 6m ops congrated to liaise with each other and report what was being worked on the band, I was soon in contact with the likes of Hal ZS6WB and started to work Crossband, listening on 6m and transmitting on 10m, I worked many African stations this was and was always amazed by the method of propagation called TEP
It wasn’t long before we got the news that we had been waiting for and we had verbal permission to operate on 6m, I didn’t waste any time and was soon working all of the stations I had previously worked cross band