G3YGF Julian Gannaway

Julian Gannaway, G3YGF, sadly passed away suddenly on 18 Nov 2025 aged 72, after nearly 60 years as a very keen and highly competent radio amateur. His interest spanned VLF to microwaves. He served as President of the Radio Society of Great Britain (RSGB) for one year. His interest in EME began in the late 70s, where he worked with other members of the Oxford University Radio Club (G3OUR) to build a 432 MHz EME station using 4 x G3JVL loop yagis, located on a tennis court belonging to one of the Oxford colleges. Other members of the group later built a 20 foot dish for 432 and 1296, and Julian designed the mechanics and servo control system (Fox Box) for a rotatable polarisation 432 feed, that could swing up to 180 degrees in less than a second, to combat Faraday. He was also involved in the design of some early GaAs FET preamps, including measurement of noise figure using the hot/cold technique.

During his time at Oxford, Julian was involved in the development of practical narrow-band techniques for 10 GHz. His doctorate supervisor had been involved in the development of TWTs, and gave Julian a 10 W tube. He used this as part of a fixed station (on the top of the Oxford University Engineering building) to conduct daily tropo-scatter tests with Mike, G3JVL, over a 110 km path. During these tests they discovered massive enhancements due to rain scatter, which at the time was unknown to the amateur community.

Mike and Julian were also involved in very early attempts at 10 GHz EME. Mike had access to a 100 W tube, which he brought to Oxford on several in an attempt (unfortunately unsuccessful) to receive EME echoes on 10 GHz. The dish was a 3.65 m 4-petal dish that Julian had been given by RSGB, having originated from the Post Office Tower in London.

G3YGF History of G4RFR Dish

After completing his D. Phil, Julian moved from Oxford to work at Plessey Roke Manor Research, until his retirement. He joined the Flight Refuelling Club (G4RFR) and using the same 3.65 m dish, made the first G - G contact on 10 GHz EME, using a borrowed 20 W TWT. Working with other members of G4RFR, many refinements to the system were made in the decade which followed, including auto-tracking, a novel anti-backlash mechanism and acquisition of a high power 10 GHz TWT. G4RFR's strong signal will be known to many! In recent years, more bands were added, so that G4RFR is now QRV on 1.3 - 10 GHz. Julian was hoping to also become active on 24 GHz soon, and the club is planning to continue this project.

Julian also collaborated with other G4RFR club members, to design and construct the ambitious 5-band microwave beacon complex using the GB3SC series callsigns at IO80UU59.

He will be much missed by his many friends. RIP ("DROM") Julian, G3YGF

G3YGF with G4RFR Dish