My name is Andy and this is the G1HBE homepage. My station is located at my home in Dukinfield, Cheshire, in the foothills of the Pennines at about 450ft ASL. VHF/UHF take-off from here is good from NNW around through West and down to the SSW, but every other direction is screened by hills.

My locator is IO83XL and my NGR is SJ954976.

I am currently active on FM and SSB on 70cm and 4m, FM on 23cm and AM and SSB on Topband (160m).

On these pages you will find details of my activities and equipment, and my antennas which spend their time rotting in the breeze. You can also read about my involvement with Radio Aquarius, Manchester's most famous pirate station in the 1970's.

I hope you will find the time to leave a message. Feel free to use the guestbook or you can E-mail me at g1.hbeNOSPAM@virgin.net. Please remove the NOSPAM before posting!

I'm currently updating this page to include some recent changes, so things might get a bit scrappy....

This is the 'radio desk' in my shack, shortly after a clear-out and re-decorating session. On the desk we have (l to r) a ten-way antenna selector which feeds the AR5000 receiver on the shelf above, then we see the Icom 910x VHF/UHF transceiver with a Kenwood SWR meter on top. In the middle is my homebrew topband rig, more of which later.  On the right is the rotator controller. Back up on the shelf is the SWR meter for topband and a homebrew QRM eliminator. UPDATE: The 910x has now been sold, mainly due to a severe lack of activity on 23cm. It has been replaced with an old 2/70 multimode (TS780) which I've converted to 4m/70cm.

Another update: I've just got hold of an FM-only TR531 for 23cm. Imagine it plonked on top of the rotator controller.

This is my fiddling and twiddling bench where I break things. On the left is a cheap and cheerful Thurlby 1.3GHz counter, supported by a Tektronics 2445 'scope. At the back are my tools and solder etc and on the right is a (whisper it) Maplin audio generator. Below that is a very nice Marconi 2022e RF generator, which goes from 10KHz to just over 1Gig. Another update: the 2022 has gone to a good home and has been replaced with a 2024, 9KHz to 2.4GHz.  That bin underneath still hasn't been emptied....

I've recently changed my antenna setup. I used to have two Maspro beams for 70cm, but I've removed one of them and put the other in 'slant' mode. This seems to work quite well on both FM and SSB. It looks a bit odd, but who cares? I've also recently uprated the mangy old UR67 feeder for 70cm to ECOFLEX-10. At the very top is the trusty old Dee-com vertical for 4 metres.

At the bottom of the feeders is an elderly TS780 which does very nicely on 70cm SSB (up to 10 watts) and 4m (yes, 4m!)). It's a lovely old rig and it keeps the shack warm. I must say I'm impressed with the little Maspro 70cm beam. As you can see, it is compact and sturdily built. On the left of the cross-arm you can see my homebrew 23cm beam, which is also slant-polarised.