OA7/LY3UM from FH46al

Murphy’s Law hasn’t let me down once again, kicking in right from the start.

I arrived in Madrid for my layover, and they had already announced boarding for the Lima flight. My luggage was on the plane, the boarding pass was in my hand, and then came the announcement: Iberia has an overbooking, and a few passengers won’t be flying today, but 24 hours later. Naturally, I was among the “lucky ones” and had to head to a hotel, feeling pretty gloom. Nobody cared that my Lima–Cusco flight for the next day was going to be wasted... Nothing to do, no one to complain to.

The next day, I bought a new ticket from Lima. Just in case, I left a 6-hour gap for any further “surprises.”

On Wednesday morning, January 21st, I landed on schedule. My luggage arrived, customs had no questions, and 6 hours later, I was on a LATAM flight from Lima to Cusco. After an hour and a half in the air, the gear went down for landing, but a minute later, I heard the wheels retracting as the plane gained altitude again. The captain announced strong winds and said we were heading back to Lima. They didn’t let us off the plane there, and after 4 hours, they announced we were taking off again. Instead of 2:00 PM, we finally landed at 7:00 PM. The luggage comes out: two cases of equipment are there, but the antenna is missing. Bingo!!! They promised to find it and send it on the next flight.

Late that night, I arrived at my rented QTH. The place seems decent—there’s a clear area in front of the house, though sunrise and sunset are blocked by trees. Luckily, since the Moon will be high, I think only the JA stations might face some difficulties, but I’ll know for sure once I’m set up.

On Thursday afternoon, January 22nd, I got a call from the airport—luckily, my case with the tripod and antenna was found, and I could pick it up. I’m planning to deploy everything and start operating this Saturday, January 24th, during my moonrise... provided nothing else goes wrong!

++++++++++++

Antenna is assembled, everything is connected. I’m hitting a snag with the amplifier output — I can’t push it past 300 watts. If I go higher, the IC-905 loses connection with the RF module. I added a couple of ferrite snap-ons, but it didn’t help much. On the bright side, a 10-meter cable run from the amp to the septum was enough, so I don’t have to leave any gear outside.

The sun popped out, so I did a quick sun noise check — got 7-8 dB with the newly resurfaced dish. I pressed the two buttons on the OE5JFL controller to calibrate and save the data. Everything seemed fine until I tried to lower the antenna to cover the connectors and LNA with rain protection. That’s when things went haywire.

When I press the “elevation down” button, the dish physically moves down, but the controller shows the elevation increasing. The azimuth readings are perfectly fine. The only thing that comes to mind is that being in the Southern Hemisphere might be triggering a firmware bug that hasn’t been tested with the OE5JFL controller before.

However, the Moon is already at 5 degrees and I’ve already lost three days, so there’s no time for troubleshooting. I’ll just have to run out and manually correct the elevation every 5 minutes.

At moonrise, there is a house standing right in the way, so I think I’ll only be able to operate starting from 15 degrees of elevation. At moonset, there are several pine trees growing nearby, so I expect the minimum elevation to be 15 degrees there as well.

So, JA and VK stations don't have much of a chance, but I’ll do my best. The Moon is behind the clouds, so I can't see where to aim. I called CQ, but no one saw me—which means my azimuth is off. A gust of wind must have shifted the settings I did earlier by the sun. I asked Sebastian, DG5CST, to start calling me with his 10-meter dish. I managed to find the correct azimuth right in the first sequence, and things finally started moving

2026-01-24,17:20:00,2026-01-24,17:22:07,DG5CST,JO60,1296.100994,Q65,-13,-15,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,17:23:00,2026-01-24,17:25:00,UA3PTW,,1296.100994,Q65,-16,-14,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,17:26:00,2026-01-24,17:28:00,RA4HL,,1296.100994,Q65,-17,-16,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,17:28:00,2026-01-24,17:30:00,DL4DTU,JO60,1296.100994,Q65,-22,-21,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,17:29:00,2026-01-24,17:31:01,RD4D,,1296.100994,Q65,-14,-17,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,17:34:00,2026-01-24,17:36:00,OK1KIR,,1296.100994,Q65,-12,-15,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,17:36:00,2026-01-24,17:38:00,SM5DGX,,1296.100994,Q65,-14,-16,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,17:38:00,2026-01-24,17:40:00,DK4RC,,1296.100994,Q65,-15,-13,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,17:41:30,2026-01-24,17:43:59,OK1UGA,JO80,1296.100994,Q65,-16,-16,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,17:43:00,2026-01-24,17:45:00,G4CCH,,1296.100994,Q65,-14,-13,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,17:46:00,2026-01-24,17:48:00,DF3RU,JN59,1296.100994,Q65,-13,-11,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,17:48:00,2026-01-24,17:50:00,OE9ERC,,1296.100994,Q65,-09,-07,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,17:50:30,2026-01-24,17:52:59,ON4AOI,JO21,1296.100994,Q65,-18,-16,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,17:53:00,2026-01-24,17:55:00,YL2GD,,1296.100994,Q65,-17,-20,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,17:55:00,2026-01-24,17:57:00,ON5GS,JO21,1296.100994,Q65,-17,-15,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,17:57:00,2026-01-24,17:59:00,DL7UDA,JO62,1296.100994,Q65,-18,-19,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,17:59:00,2026-01-24,18:01:00,I2FAK,,1296.100994,Q65,-18,-19,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,18:00:30,2026-01-24,18:02:59,OK1VUM,JN79,1296.100994,Q65,-18,-17,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,18:02:00,2026-01-24,18:04:00,PA3DZL,JO21,1296.100994,Q65,-13,-15,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,18:04:00,2026-01-24,18:06:00,PA0TBR,JO21,1296.100994,Q65,-20,-18,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,18:07:30,2026-01-24,18:08:32,NC1I,FN32,1296.100994,Q65,-20,-12,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,18:08:00,2026-01-24,18:10:00,W2HRO,FN20,1296.100994,Q65,-15,-19,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,18:10:00,2026-01-24,18:12:00,DG0FE,,1296.100994,Q65,-16,-17,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,18:13:30,2026-01-24,18:14:29,SP7EXY,,1296.100994,Q65,-23,-17,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,18:14:00,2026-01-24,18:16:00,HB9Q,,1296.100994,Q65,-05,-09,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,18:17:30,2026-01-24,18:19:59,ZS5Y,KF59,1296.100994,Q65,-23,-22,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,18:19:00,2026-01-24,18:21:00,PA3FXB,JO33,1296.100994,Q65,-20,-18,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,18:21:00,2026-01-24,18:23:00,ZS6JON,KG33,1296.100994,Q65,-18,-18,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,18:23:00,2026-01-24,18:25:00,IK5VLS,JN53,1296.100994,Q65,-20,-18,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,18:25:00,2026-01-24,18:27:00,IQ2DB,JN45,1296.100994,Q65,-20,-22,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,18:27:00,2026-01-24,18:29:00,DL1SUZ,JO53,1296.100994,Q65,-20,-20,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,18:29:00,2026-01-24,18:31:00,PA0BAT,,1296.100994,Q65,-17,-16,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,18:31:00,2026-01-24,18:33:00,ZS4TX,KG30,1296.100994,Q65,-23,-20,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,18:33:00,2026-01-24,18:35:00,OK1USW,,1296.100994,Q65,-20,-19,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,18:36:00,2026-01-24,18:38:07,G0LBK,,1296.100994,Q65,-18,-18,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,18:39:00,2026-01-24,18:41:03,GM0PJD,IO85,1296.100994,Q65,-20,-20,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,18:41:30,2026-01-24,18:43:59,OK1IL,JN69,1296.100994,Q65,-18,-21,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,18:43:30,2026-01-24,18:45:59,N1AV,DM43,1296.100994,Q65,-23,-21,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,18:47:00,2026-01-24,18:49:00,N5TM,EL29,1296.100994,Q65,-17,-21,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,18:49:30,2026-01-24,18:51:59,G4YTL,IO92,1296.100994,Q65,-25,-22,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,18:54:00,2026-01-24,18:56:00,ES3RF,KO29,1296.100994,Q65,-21,-20,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,18:57:30,2026-01-24,18:59:59,IZ8GGF,JN70,1296.100994,Q65,-18,-15,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,19:05:00,2026-01-24,19:07:01,W5LUA,EM13,1296.100994,Q65,-20,-23,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,19:10:00,2026-01-24,19:12:00,W1FKF,FN43,1296.100994,Q65,-20,-24,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,19:15:30,2026-01-24,19:17:59,SV3AAF,KM17,1296.100994,Q65,-18,-23,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,19:17:30,2026-01-24,19:19:59,DL8FBD,JO40,1296.100994,Q65,-24,-23,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,19:19:30,2026-01-24,19:21:59,DJ2DY,JN39,1296.100994,Q65,-21,-21,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,19:27:30,2026-01-24,19:29:59,N4BAA,EM79,1296.100994,Q65,-25,-25,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,19:33:00,2026-01-24,19:37:56,PE1CKK,JO22,1296.100994,Q65,-28,-24,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,19:40:00,2026-01-24,19:42:07,KA6U,EL87,1296.100994,Q65,-24,-25,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,19:42:00,2026-01-24,19:46:00,IK2DDR,,1296.100994,Q65,-17,-16,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,19:49:00,2026-01-24,19:53:56,VE6TA,DO33,1296.100994,Q65,-17,-22,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,20:00:00,2026-01-24,20:02:07,YO2LAM,KN05,1296.100994,Q65,-19,-20,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,21:31:00,2026-01-24,21:35:56,N0LWF,EN10,1296.100994,Q65,-21,-28,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,21:35:00,2026-01-24,21:39:56,PA1PS,JO21,1296.100994,Q65,-24,-23,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,21:42:00,2026-01-24,21:44:02,N4BAA,EM79,1296.100994,Q65,-23,-19,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,21:50:00,2026-01-24,21:54:00,KG0D,CN88,1296.100994,Q65,-28,-26,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,21:58:00,2026-01-24,22:00:05,W1FKF,FN43,1296.101926,Q65,-24,-22,,,,,,,

2026-01-24,23:54:00,2026-01-24,23:58:00,K6FOD,DM04,1296.100994,Q65,-26,-27,,,,,,,

2026-01-25,00:12:00,2026-01-25,00:14:05,KH6FA,BK29,1296.100994,Q65,-24,-22,,,,,,,

2026-01-25,00:33:00,2026-01-25,00:35:21,NC1I,FN32,1296.100994,Q65,-17,-12,,,,,,,

2026-01-25,00:44:00,2026-01-25,00:46:54,KB2SA,DM13,1296.100994,Q65,-24,-25,,,,,,,

2026-01-25,00:53:00,2026-01-25,00:57:56,PY2BS,GG66,1296.100994,Q65,-23,-27,,,,,,,

2026-01-25,01:45:00,2026-01-25,01:47:56,JJ3JHP,PM75,1296.100994,Q65,-23,-25,,,,,,,

2026-01-25,01:51:00,2026-01-25,01:55:56,JQ3JWF,PM75,1296.100994,Q65,-23,-23,,,,,,,

2026-01-25,02:06:00,2026-01-25,02:08:00,JH3AZC,PM85,1296.100994,Q65,-22,-25,,,,,,,

Total for the first pass: 66 QSOs (65 inits).

I started in 30B mode — it’s very fast. Considering I have to constantly run outside to check the azimuth and elevation, I simply didn’t have time to write in the chat or confirm QSOs. On top of that, many people were messaging me on WhatsApp simultaneously. In the heat of the pile-up, I just pushed the chat laptop aside and focused entirely on the radio. My apologies for that.

It rained during the night, but everything seems fine and still working. I hope to be back on the air in about 4 hours.

++++++++++++++

It was pouring rain all night, but luckily it calmed down by moonrise. Today, I took my time to check the takeoff angles, and unfortunately, at low elevation, the antenna shoots right through the trees. The signal only clears the treetops starting from about 25 degrees. This means for those in Siberia or anyone with low power, working me will require a lot of luck.

I’m not very happy with how the antenna is performing on this trip — the radiation pattern is skewed down and to the left. It seems the Lycra fabric, which is covered with aluminum foil, is simply losing its stretch. It has about 20 patches on it now, and I’m afraid it’s no longer holding its shape.

I was actually preparing to fly with an antenna made from car sunshades (the reflective ones used on dashboards). However, I only managed to get half of it done because the seamstress I hired ran into some issues and took a three-week leave. As a result, I had to urgently patch up the old Lycra and rush the foiling process.

Total in the log today:

2026-01-25,17:35:00,2026-01-25,17:39:56,RY4C,LO42,1296.100994,Q65,-18,-20,,,,,,,

2026-01-25,17:41:00,2026-01-25,17:45:56,RW6HM,LN14,1296.100994,Q65,-23,-27,,,,,,,

2026-01-25,17:49:00,2026-01-25,17:53:56,DL6ZG,JO21,1296.100994,Q65,-22,-23,,,,,,,

2026-01-25,18:05:00,2026-01-25,18:07:10,PA3EXV,JO32,1296.101495,Q65,-24,-23,,,,,,,

2026-01-25,18:10:00,2026-01-25,18:14:00,IK3COJ,JN65,1296.101495,Q65,-24,-19,,,,,,,

2026-01-25,18:14:00,2026-01-25,18:18:00,SM6CKU,,1296.101495,Q65,-16,-13,,,,,,,

2026-01-25,18:16:00,2026-01-25,18:20:00,SP5GDM,,1296.101495,Q65,-20,-24,,,,,,,

2026-01-25,18:18:00,2026-01-25,18:22:00,PE1L,,1296.101495,Q65,-19,-18,,,,,,,

2026-01-25,18:22:00,2026-01-25,18:26:00,DJ7FJ,JN48,1296.101495,Q65,-25,-23,,,,,,,

2026-01-25,18:32:00,2026-01-25,18:36:33,OH3LWP,KP11,1296.101495,Q65,-17,-23,,,,,,,

2026-01-25,18:36:00,2026-01-25,18:40:00,OH2DG,,1296.101495,Q65,-23,-22,,,,,,,

2026-01-25,18:45:00,2026-01-25,18:49:56,DF2VJ,JN39,1296.101495,Q65,-27,-25,,,,,,,

2026-01-25,19:02:00,2026-01-25,19:06:00,IK2CDI,,1296.101000,Q65,-20,-19,,,,,,,

2026-01-25,19:10:00,2026-01-25,19:14:00,DF3RU,JN59,1296.101000,Q65,-14,-14,,,,,,,

2026-01-25,19:25:00,2026-01-25,19:29:56,PA7JB,JO22,1296.101000,Q65,-21,-21,,,,,,,

2026-01-25,19:39:00,2026-01-25,19:43:56,SP3XBO,JO81,1296.101000,Q65,-21,-21,,,,,,,

2026-01-25,19:50:00,2026-01-25,19:54:00,IK2DDR,,1296.101000,Q65,-20,-15,,,,,,,

2026-01-25,19:55:00,2026-01-25,19:59:56,AC2AC,EL96,1296.101000,Q65,-27,-26,,,,,,,

2026-01-25,19:58:00,2026-01-25,20:02:00,KA1GT,,1296.101000,Q65,-23,-19,,,,,,,

2026-01-25,20:04:00,2026-01-25,20:08:00,PH0V,JO22,1296.101000,Q65,-22,-22,,,,,,,

2026-01-25,20:08:00,2026-01-25,20:12:00,OM4XA,,1296.101000,Q65,-26,-24,,,,,,,

2026-01-25,20:27:00,2026-01-25,20:31:56,N0CTR,EN26,1296.101000,Q65,-20,-21,,,,,,,

2026-01-25,20:33:00,2026-01-25,20:37:56,G4RGK,IO91,1296.101000,Q65,-25,-20,,,,,,,

2026-01-25,20:54:00,2026-01-25,21:02:00,GW4ZHI,,1296.101000,Q65,-24,-25,,,,,,,

2026-01-25,21:39:00,2026-01-25,21:43:56,OZ5TG,JO45,1296.101000,Q65,-29,-27,,,,,,,

2026-01-25,21:54:00,2026-01-25,21:58:00,OE9ERC,,1296.101000,Q65,-16,-07,,,,,,,

2026-01-25,22:05:00,2026-01-25,22:11:00,OE9ERC,,1296.101000,CW, 549/529,,,,,,

2026-01-26,01:46:00,2026-01-25,01:48:00,XE1XA,,1296.101000,Q65,-18,-22,,,,,,,

27 QSO + 1 QSO CW: 28 QSO (25 inits)

Total: 94 QSO (90 inits)

+++++++++++++

During my moonset, I didn’t manage to make a single QSO with JA or VK. To make matters worse, at power levels above 200W, the IC-905 RF module kept disconnecting. I put every ferrite snap-on I could find on the Ethernet cable between the controller and the RF module, but it didn’t help. I initially blamed the heavy rain, the wet forest in the antenna’s path, and the low elevation, but the truth turned out to be much more mundane. More on that later.

As usual, it rained heavily all night. In the morning, a couple of hours before my Moonrise (MR), I checked everything (or so I thought). I aimed at the sun, but the radiation pattern seemed extremely “blurry.” Moving 5-10 degrees in any direction (left/right/up/down) didn’t show much difference in signal strength. I inspected everything again — everything looked okay, so I just patched up some loose foil.

Then I figured out the power issue: I swapped the Ethernet cable, and BINGO! I’m back to 400 watts.

By noon, the weather worsened; rain started, and the wind picked up. Once the Moon reached 15° elevation, I started calling CQ, but as expected, no one heard me. Suddenly, a gust of wind spun the rotator mount, and I lost my azimuth. Since the sky was completely overcast, my only option was to re-aim using the sun, which was already in a different part of the sky. As I swung the dish toward me, something looked off — the septum feed seemed to be sitting too deep inside the dish. Even though my focal point marker (a “brilliant” piece of white electrical tape wrapped around the pipe) seemed to be in the right place.

I grabbed the tape measure, checked the focal length, and — oh, the horror! What a massive fail: instead of 30.5 inches, I had 25 inches. The dish was being illuminated halfway at best!

The 3D-printed ring, which holds the bolt that sets and maintains the focal distance, had worn out after three years of active expeditions. At high elevation, it was bearing the full 8-10 kg load of the counterweight. Naturally, the central feed support boom started “sliding in.” On the first day, it was more or less fine, but then it slipped further, and I completely lost focus.

It’s raining and thundering outside, but today is the last day, and I had to find a solution. I tried tightening it with zip ties and duct tape, but it didn’t hold — as soon as I raised the elevation, it slipped again.

Fortunately, I had a heavy-duty metal clamp on the other side of the pipe to prevent the counterweight from cracking the tubing. I quickly partially disassembled the antenna, moved that clamp to the front to lock the pipe in place. It worked! Even at 60° elevation, the feed boom doesn’t budge! The downside is that without the clamp at the back, the pipe under the counterweight cracked immediately, but there was no other choice.

The Moon finally cleared the trees. Zdenek, OK1DFC, started calling me with his massive signal. During our QSO, I quickly tweaked the azimuth by ear, and finally, things started moving!

2026-01-26,20:31:00,2026-01-26,20:35:56,OK1DFC,JN79,1296.101000,Q65,-14,-22,,,,,,,
2026-01-26,20:36:00,2026-01-26,20:40:00,EA8DBM,IL18OH,1296.101000,Q65,-20,-20,,,,,,,
2026-01-26,20:42:00,2026-01-26,20:44:01,CT1FFU,IM59,1296.101000,Q65,-22,-20,,,,,,,
2026-01-26,20:42:00,2026-01-26,20:46:00,IK7EZN,,1296.101000,Q65,-23,-21,,,,,,,
2026-01-26,20:46:00,2026-01-26,20:50:00,SP7EXY,,1296.101000,Q65,-22,-20,,,,,,,
2026-01-26,20:55:00,2026-01-26,20:57:01,YO2LAM,KN05,1296.101000,Q65,-20,-20,,,,,,,
2026-01-26,21:05:00,2026-01-26,21:09:56,PA3JRK,JO33,1296.101000,Q65,-26,-20,,,,,,,
2026-01-26,21:32:00,2026-01-26,21:40:07,UA9FA,LO87,1296.101000,Q65,-33,-26,,,,,,,
2026-01-26,21:50:00,2026-01-26,21:56:00,W3TI,FN20,1296.101000,Q65,-24,-20,,,,,,,
2026-01-26,22:02:00,2026-01-26,22:04:27,OE3JPC,JN87,1296.101000,Q65,-25,-26,,,,,,,
2026-01-26,22:18:00,2026-01-26,22:22:18,W2LPL,FN20,1296.101000,Q65,-26,-26,,,,,,,
2026-01-26,22:28:00,2026-01-26,22:30:03,LA3PNA,JO59,1296.101029,Q65,-20,-23,,,,,,,
2026-01-26,22:30:00,2026-01-26,22:34:00,KD5CHG,FN31,1296.101029,Q65,-17,-20,,,,,,,

2026-01-26,22:40:00,2026-01-26,22:43:00,G3LTF,,1296.101029,CW,539/539,,,,,,,

2026-01-26,22:45:00,2026-01-26,22:49:00,G4CCH,,1296.101029,CW,539/539,,,,,,,
2026-01-26,23:04:00,2026-01-26,23:07:56,OZ3Z,JO45,1296.101000,Q65,-24,-20,,,,,,,
2026-01-26,23:15:00,2026-01-26,23:19:56,M0FXX,IO91,1296.101000,Q65,-22,-24,,,,,,,
2026-01-26,23:24:00,2026-01-26,23:31:56,KC2HFQ,FN02,1296.101000,Q65,-23,-28,,,,,,,
2026-01-27,00:01:00,2026-01-27,00:04:00,KB2SA,DM13,1296.101000,Q65,-20,-25,,,,,,,

2026-01-27,03:38:00,2026-01-27,03:44:00,VK4CDI,QG63,1296.101000,Q65,-32,-20,,,,,,,
2026-01-27,03:48:00,2026-01-27,03:52:00,JA6AHB,PM53,1296.101000,Q65,-18,-24,,,,,,,

2026-01-27,03:54:00,2026-01-27,03:58:00,JA4LJB,,1296.101000,Q65,-15,-17,,,,,,,

24 QSO (21 inits) Total: 118 QSO (111 inits)

Thank you so much for your financial support: NC1I, W6TCP, ZS4TX, PA0DZL, DL4DTU, N4BAA, PA0BAT, G0LBK