[SFDXA] Fw: First moonpass from Malawi

[Randy Shirley]

-----Original Message----- 
From: rene hasper 
Sent: Sunday, May 10, 2015 12:01 PM 
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Subject: First moonpass from Malawi 

Hello moonbouncers, we hit the moon again from the Warm Heart of Africa.

Saturday, may 9th, Atleticoteam 7Q7EME started EME on 144 MHz and 1296
MHz. We have a beautiful location on the beach of lake Malawi, not far
(300 feet) from our lodge. This means that we have our equipment in
the open air, nice but it takes every time a run when we need a tool
or a bolt that is left in our house, and this occurs much too often...
Murphy's law you know.
To operate in this way, there is only one problem: near the shore of
the big lake lake in the evening and night is not pleasant because the
mosquitos are a real plague. And we did see some strange crawling,
flying and biting creatures last night, we did not know that at night
everything on legs or with wings definitely and without any exception
do bite! Interesting to experience that we seem to be tasty and
surprisingly how they always manage to creep into our pants.
The other problem is that we have our equipment on the beach. We are
lucky to have at least six guards armed with big machetes to protect
our gear during the moments we are in the lodge having dinner etc.
Fact is that we have to awake them first when their protection is
needed. Also when we are on air they still are around though invisible
in the dark.
In the morning breakfast (fried eggs sunny side up, bacon, sausages,
toast, marmelade and honey) was brought to us by lovely Maria with a
warm and sensual smile, how nice and how welcome!

The night before:
144 MHz: We had a good night for radio. It started with VK5APN and
slowly but steady more and more stations westwards came into our log.
It resulted in 121 different inits. We completed to work all
continents within 10 hours. We have water on both directions MR and
MS, so groundgain is an extra we can offer. Amazing loud signals on
our moonset.
1296 MHz: First tests were made with the foiled dish. After two JA
stations Hermann concluded it all worked well and he went to sleep
early. After breakfast the tests went on and some QSOs succeeded until
the PA broke down. Hermann has spare transistors, so work to do!

Next operation will be Monday May 11th at 04:00 UTC on 144 MHz,
1296.100 MHz start at 05:00 utc.
7Q7EME: 144.134 MHz, always first.
QSL via PA3CEE

The log has been updated, see our website www.emelogger.com/malawi

Being in Africa is not easy. Please take in consideration that power
failures, poor internet, extreme weather conditions etc. do have a
negative impact on the performance. And being in southeast Africa
means a shorter window with the USA.

73
Eltje, Hermann and Rene