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Welcome to G4ILO's Shack. I am Julian Moss, a UK licensed amateur radio operator or radio ham living in Cockermouth, Cumbria, NW England. G4ILO is my radio callsign. For more about the hobby of amateur radio see my article What is amateur radio?

Above you can see my radio room, which we hams call the shack. Due to restrictions on outside antennas and other local difficulties I operate a stealth amateur radio station. All my antennas are hidden from outside view in the attic of our small house and I mostly use low power to avoid the risk of interference.

One of the aims of this website is to show some of the things you can do with ham radio even if circumstances dictate that you must operate covertly. If you like the site, let me know by leaving a message in the Visitors Book. Thank you! For more information about me and my station see About G4ILO.

In 2009 I began writing G4ILO's Blog. In June 2011 I learned that I have an incurable brain tumour. I started another blog, One Foot in the Grave, to write about my battle against this cancer.

Fraud Alert!

I thought this was so important I put it on the front page. Many hams have been ripped off by fraudsters who respond to ham radio Wanted ads claiming to have the item you are after. These fraudsters impersonate real amateurs to make the offer seem genuine. After you send the money no item is sent. This is distressing for both the victim and the ham whom the fraudster impersonates.

Common factors in these fraud attempts:

• The seller uses an email address different from the one posted on qrz.com.
• The seller requires payment using an insecure service such as Western Union or MoneyGram.

If you are suspicious of an offer there are a few things you can try to see if the offer is genuine:

• Contact the seller to confirm details using the email address published on qrz.com or elsewhere. Do not reply to the address used by the seller. Fraudsters often create accounts at free email providers using the callsign of the ham they are impersonating.
• Request photos of the item. If sent, check they are not stolen images from manufacturer web pages or other websites. Google image search is your friend here.
• Ask the seller for a phone number so you can contact him.
• Ask for an address so you could inspect the item.

If the seller has a cock and bull story for being unable to provide the requested information or if they don't reply, you can be sure it's a scam.

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Copyright © 1998 - 2012 Julian, G4ILO. All rights reserved.