With immense sadness, I must report the following from Judith Bedwell, Graham’s wife. UPDATE 27th July:
You will be pleased to hear the celebration of his life was very well
attended both in general and by RADARC members. I suspect there were many BBC folk there too. The church was full.
“It is with great sadness that I write to tell you that Graham passed away on 9th July 2022, having had a severe stroke on 6th May.
A service of thanksgiving for Graham has been arranged as follows:
Venue: Rose Street Methodist Church, Rose Street, Wokingham, Berkshire, RG40 1XS
Time: 2.30pm
Date: Wednesday 27th July 2022
Should you wish to attend, you would be most welcome to help the family celebrate Graham’s 80 years of life. As you probably know, Graham didn’t like formality, so we would encourage you to attend in bright and casual clothing.
We would ask you not to buy flowers, but would welcome any donations you might wish to make to one of two charities close to Graham’s heart; the RNLI (The Royal National Lifeboat Institution) and Action for Children.
Any donations in Graham’s memory may be made via:
Website: www.abwalker.co.uk
Email: heidi@abwalker.co.uk
Tel: 0118 978 4040
Please note that parking is limited in the car park adjacent to the church and in Rose Street itself, but there are two public car parks a short walk across town off Easthampstead Road (East Car Park, RG40 2EG and Easthampstead Road West Car Park, RG40 2EH).”
Chris G0JTN writes:
Graham,
Where ever you are I hope you are keeping all the PAT testing up to date and that all the PA systems are working well. I will miss our evenings about this time of year going through all your collection of excellently maintained audio gear. Inspection and test was always an important part of your maintenance regime keeping the equipment in tip top condition. The club benefited greatly from your outside broadcast skills that you learned at the BBC.
You will be greatly missed.
Chris G0JTN
Brett 2E0HFW writes:
If there was a film in the style of Oceans 11 of Radio Amateurs, Graham would be in it.
And like the film, Graham was one of the “A listers” in the local amateur club and brought with him many specialist skills. For starters he was a technical master in broadcast audio and above all an amazing Story Teller.
Graham had lived his life to the max, travelling the world and meeting many people, which gave him the material for many stories, which he would entertain us with on club evenings and nets.
One such net runs on 80m on a Tuesday morning, which I listen to occasionally. Once the net had finished today I popped up just to say my good bye to him, in the hope he was listening on his new fancy radio in heaven.
RIP Graham. You will be missed.
Brett 2E0HFW
“He was involved in a few different scout events that included Amateur radio, we had the RSGB satellite Van at Wings in Windsor park a week of International Scouts visiting the station, think he also did JOTA as well as many years at three Towers checkpoints including East Isley” — Ian G6IZA
From Charles Coultas:
During the pandemic, my doorbell rang. I gingerly opened the door and there stood Graham Bedwell, portable short wave receiver in his hand squealing away. Graham lives about 150 yards, line-of-sight from me. I got to know Graham through my work at Bletchley Park computer museum.
“There’s something broadcasting a strange noise on about 3.5Megs, and it seems to be coming from here.” he said.
“Well that’s very unlikely” said I, I am not an amateur but I do have have lot of electronic gear running in the house.
He stayed outside (distancing regs of course) while I went upstairs and started turning things off. He suspected a Chinese wall-plug power supply, I have lots of these. Eventually there was a triumphant shout from the open front door:
Graham: “That’s it, what did you turn off?”
Me: “The digital class D power amplifier that was driving two long unscreened cables to two loudspeakers”
Graham: “Well don’t turn it on again please!”
Me: “Very sorry, I now realise that class D amps modulate a carrier, up towards the megahertz region”
Graham: “Hmmph, that’s all right”. He walked back to his house standing a little taller.
Graham was a passionate defender of the airwaves – He cared deeply about the hobby and in particular, that the bands should be clear of man-made noise for the benefit of other amateurs.
That was the last time i saw Graham, my love and best wishes to Judith and his friends.
Charles Coultas
Ian Alderton G6IZA:
“He was involved in a few different scout events that included Amateur radio, we had the RSGB satellite Van at Wings in Windsor park a week of International Scouts visiting the station, think he also did JOTA as well as many years at three Towers checkpoints including East Isley”
From Simon G6ZTZ:
A photo of Graham “Ace” Bedwell (as he was known).
With Keith Burton on the right and Stanley Unwin centre
Colin M0XCA writes:
“Such sad news. I have often listened to Graham on the radio and the RaDARC Nets and will miss hearing him and his BBC memories.”
—
Graham was always someone I aspired to. Immensely talented and well known for his love of all things audio, it may be less well known his knowledge of radio and RF generally was second to none. Always miles ahead of me, his wit was always a pleasure to experience either in person or on air. But a kindler, gentler soul you could not wish to meet.
Graham was ever generous, particularly in his support for RADARC for which we owe a huge debt of gratitude.
RIP Graham. You will be missed.
John G4RDC
Tom
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