Unfortunately, two days before my business trip to Italy, last night happened what no one would ever want to happen: the elevation part of the rotor has failed !!!
After numerous tests and talking by telephone with Franco I2FAK we both came to the conclusion that …
… a mechanical failure blocked the elevation when the array was at 20 degrees of elevation, the USB controller attempted to correct the position following the declination tracking of the moon by leaving the controller “down” for a long time.
Unfortunately I was distracted by other things and I only noticed it when the moon was at 12 degrees and the antennas blocked at 20 degrees.
This prolonged power supply to the motor blocked and the internal motor overheated, surely shorting the winding turns.
This morning, with the help of my wife at the station and I climbed up the tower, we brought the antennas back to almost horizontal position but unfortunately I will need to lower all the array, remove the elevation motor from the horizontal boom and repair it.
This inconvenience will keep me away from the EME business for a while as I need help to bring the array “to the ground” via pulleys and ropes, work commitments after the summer start to be pressing and my free time at home is not enough … I also have to understand if Yaesu UK, to whom I wrote an email today, will be able to provide me with a spare motor in a short time (as long as I can fix the mechanical block without replacing parts) or if I will have to buy a new G- 5500 to shorten the time.
This unexpected bad thing really demoralized me, just now that I had already ordered new cables for an implementation and improvement of the reception part !
I will keep you in touch !