My old website was well past its sell by date ... so has been taken off line. Until I update it, here's some basic information.

Brief Summary of G4BEE

First licensed as G8EBK in September 1970 as a spotty faced oik at secondary school !

Licensed as G4BEE in May 1972. I also hold 9H3BR used when visiting Malta.

WAB Square: SD63

QRA: IO83RQ

Main activity at the moment is in the RSGB 2m and 70cms weekly cumulative contests using my FT991 or FT817 in the 'AL' sections. HF Band activity has increased a bit lately having got my end fed long wire (or garden twine as I like to call it) reasonably resonant on 80/40/20/15/10 and I've been fairly actve in the RSGB 80M CC events.

Member of the RSGB, GQRP Club and Tall Trees Contest Group.

Member of The Institution of Engineering and Technology (MIET)

Registered as a European Engineer (Eur Ing) and Chartered Engineer (CEng)

Member of The National Trust and an active volunteer at Rufford Old Hall

Special Calls:

• GE4BEE a long time ago for the Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977
• GR4BEE in April & May 2011 for the marriage of Prince William to Kate
• GQ4BEE from May 5th to June 10th 2012. (Queen's Diamond Jubilee)
• GO4BEE from July 21 to September 9 2012. (Olympics)
• GV4BEE from July 5th to July 31st 2013 (RSGB Centenary)

Current Stuff:

• HF: Icom 7400/Yaesu FT-991 + Homebrew End-Fed 66' wire + MFJ-949E. Hustler 6-BTV.
• VHF/UHF: Yaesu FT817/Yaesu FT-991 5 ele (2m) 9 ele (70cm) @10m
• 70MHz: FT-817 + UT5JCW Transverter, MOXON antenna.
• QRP/Portable: FT817 + Buddipole/Stick + Z817.SOTA 3 ele on 144MHz
• Mobile: Yaesu FT7800
• Walkabout: Yaesu FT60E

QSL Policy:

I prefer to use eQSL and LoTW. By default I don't send out paper QSLs anymore but I will respond to any I receive via the bureau. If you want a paper QSL, please email me and I'll fill one out for you. I upload my logs to both eQSL and LoTW regularly but not much up there for QSOs before 2008 or so as I can't be bothered to manually type them in !!

Not very active at the moment but you can catch me in the Tuesday evening VHF & UHF Cumulative Contests as a member of the Tall Trees Contest Group. Usually 144Mhz and 432MHz, with an occasional foray onto 50MHz... no higher than 432MHz though, too much like plumbing above 432MHz!! Recently started participating in the 80M CC series, SSB/CW and reluctantly DATA which is not one of my favourite activities!

Recently (2017) retired from 35 years in the IT industry following "offshoring"; initially in hardware design, but the last 20 years or so in software design and development. Can't say as I miss it I'm pleased to say. Hoping this will provide more time to "play radio" and improve my aerials.

Please note that I do not offer any items for sale on any forums etc. Please be aware of scammers pretending to be me. If in doubt, contact me at ray{at}g4bee.net.