Our Second Road Trip (East)

Saturday 25 July 2026

Apologies in advance for this long post. I had intended to split this up into a few stages but the reality was that each day was too full to post anything. We often started at 7:30 in the morning, working into the night under flood light and not getting back to our next hotel before midnight.

This second trip we visited these FM sites: Echarati (region pop. 24,500), Anta (province pop. 64,000), Cusco (city pop. 525,000 / regional pop. 1.3 million), Urcos (pop. 12,500), Puerto Maldonado (pop. 112,300) and Sicuani (pop. 54,600).

We had intended to also visit our 12^th FM site, Puno, but in Puerto Maldonado we unexpectedly found that modem faulty and used our last working modem to replace it. At this point I decided to drop Puno from our itinerary as it did not make sense to travel an additional 11 hours (plus 4 hours loopback to Sicuani) to simply align the Puno satellite antenna. And by that time, I was confident David had proved proficient after my training to adjust the antenna feeds by himself. Plus, we were quite tired and it did not seem like efficient use of resources. 

The road to Echarati is posted with many a memorial from cars that have gone over the unbarracaded edged on the seeminly endless hairpin bends and profound drops. From this point we decend 3 km in altitude to Echararti.

We stopped at Abra Malaga café at the top of a 4,330-metre-high mountain pass and found it set up for tourists.

Mountain pass traffic was heavy at times 😊 (here was about 4,200 m above sea level)

There was seemingly no end of hairpin bends as we ascended and descended the Andes (this photo shows one and the same road).

A delay on the track up the mountain to our Echarati FM site.

Working under floodlight from our Hilux in Echarati to align the satellite antenna.

Moving on from Echarati we went to Anta which was a rough 4WD up a very steep hill and the site operates entirely on solar power. It is some 3,850 metres above sea level. We again worked into the night and got to bed around midnight after a late dinner in Cusco.

The next morning, we arrived at our Cusco FM site but we encountered a showstopper for our work due to the satellite antenna feed clashing with the building roof. This was after it was repointed to the new IS-34 satellite last November although nobody had alerted me to this issue. I was not involved in the construction planning stages so I could have allowed for multiple future satellites with the dish placement. In the coming months, Diospi will have a construction crew revisit this site to install a new satellite antenna pole to relocate each dish to an optimal position. These are deep holes to dig by hand in hard rocky ground and requires a lot of concrete along with a 150 mm diameter steel pole. Then David can return to complete the adjustments required for the telemetry system. 

I am glad we are not travelling in the wet season when the boulders all too often fall down onto the road.

Our Cusco site satellite antenna feed hits the building roof preventing commissioning with the satellite operator SES.

The view from our Cusco FM site overlooking typical houses to the west.

We encountered numerous road work delays fixing landslides and washaways from when they occurred during the rainy season (December to March). Stoppages were anything from minutes to an hour.

The Anta Plaza de Armes markets with Quechan ladies selling their produce.

Another success with all green lights on our ND Satcom modem after our satellite antenna was aligned (meaning telemetry is operational again here)

The 4,725-metre-high mountain pass on the way to Puerto Maldonado

It was an eye opener driving to Puerto Maldonado when we passed through the illegal gold mining town of Sarayacu. It is built above the waterways either side of the Panamericana Highway on wooden poles and on backfilling. They use artisanal mining techniques (a small-scale, informal extraction method relying on manual or semi-mechanized techniques). It destroys the ecology and results in elevated mercury levels. The illegal mining accounts for at least half of the economy in the region and sustains around 50,000 miners, according to a 2022 study. But the destructive activity has deforested at least 140,000 hectares of the Amazon rainforest in Madre de Dios since 1990, and it’s estimated that about 78% of adults in Puerto Maldonado have mercury levels above safe international standards, due to the poor mining practices. Lawlessness abounds as there is no police force. I am informed there are armed cartels, murders, abductions, human trafficking, drugs, prostitution etc. The pictures speak for themselves. As a result, we are told not to drive to Puerto Maldonado at night time. 

Passing through the illegal gold mining town of Sarayacu.

Kids driving large loads around Sarayacu.

The environmental results of illegal / poor gold mining practices about 100 km outside of Puerto Maldonado.

Following are some photos of our Puerto Maldonado site. Being situated at the Amazon, the plants and insects take their toll on the site. We found a termite infestation in the wooden roof beams of the building which will need urgent replacement before it collapses. It will need replacing with a steel truss roof. 

David making the uplink adjustments to the Puerto Maldonado satellite antenna (the same classic photo aspect as with me 9 years earlier which became a Diospi calendar photo retaken as it seemed appropriate for my replacement).

The ceiling of our Amazon region Puerto Maldonado building is collapsing due to termites (see their dark tunnels on either side of the wall and along the top) and need urgent replacement.

We broke into a point along those termite channels and this is what’s inside them.

Solomon and me overlooking the grand Puerto Maldonado 722 metre suspension bridge.

The river Madre de Dios (Mother of God), on which Puerto Maldonado is built, flows from here to merge with the Beni River, then the Madeira River and finally the Amazon River. In all it is some 4,035 km before it reaches the ocean.

Next stop – Sicuani. Another long day / late night. We felt like giants here as the buildings were definitely constructed for smaller people than Solomon and me – see photos!

A height challenged door to our Sicuani hotel room (feeling a bit like Gandalf in Bilbo Baggins house😊).

We have had experience previously with the Peruvian electric shower head. There is 220 volts AC mains connecting essentially to a jug element directly above your head. And if you have any cuts on your head, which is likely given the low door headframes where you are often bumping your head, you will get a decent electrical belt! And if there is air in the pipes, the element blows leaving live mains current in the water (now cold), flowing right onto your head! And as there are no wiring standards in Peru, all AC wires can be red including the earth – crazy to us Australians!

But there are surprisingly few electrocution fatalities to my knowledge. This is such an opposite position to the strict electrical safety laws in Australia where every outlet must have a residual current protection device (RCD).

Common in Peru was our Sicuani hotel electric shower head. And yes, that's mains AC direct to an element immediately above your head with all red wire the earth!

Here we are repairing a satellite antenna feed window in Sicuani which had gone brittle from UV (a manufacture batch problem) and cracked allowing water to ingress.

Solomon was amazing during our trip. He had a beautiful attitude the entire time. I was not the only one who noticed as others said the same. He was a great companion for me and we enjoyed our time together. I am very proud of him. I had him help me rearrange the rack layouts to our standard and he did this proficiently toward the end. In fact, he saved me hours at each site with this task.

Solomon became very proficient at rearranging rack equipment to my specification - saving me many hours.

Similar to Cusco, we found our Sicuani FM site had a clash of the satellite antenna feed arms but this time hitting with the solar panel frame after it was repointed to the new IS-34 satellite in November. Again, I was unaware of this. Like previous, I was not involved in the planning stages before it was constructed so I could plan to prevent this. And like the Cusco situation, in the coming months, Diospi will have a construction crew revisit there to install a new satellite antenna pole at the right location so David can then commission the antenna with SES/Intelsat and make the telemetry functional. 

Sicuani satellite antenna feed arms hitting the solar panel installation (thus preventing commissioning this site with SES).

The team at our last site, Sicuani, before heading back "home" to Curahuasi. Left to right: me, David, Solomon, Doris and our driver, Vladdy.

On our return trip to Curahuasi, my Diospi Suyana workmate David Hanco, made a funny AI video from a photo I took of us all travelling in the Diospi Hilux. I love it because here I speak Spanish with confidence like I dream of doing. 

The funny AI video that David compiled.

Translation:

I said: "Let's go on a trip friends, Hahaha. Are you ready friends?

David (middle seat) said: "Of course we are!" Hahaha

Solly said: "It will be amazing!"

Vlad (driver) said: "Let's go now! Hahahaha" 

Another size challenge at a roadside service station toilet - take care getting into that loo Solomon! 😊

We arrived back in Curahuasi at 11:00 pm after I got to drive the Hilux “home” from the toll gates outside of Cusco back to Curahuasi. It was like the old days from when we lived in Curahuasi and we drove this road often.

The next couple of days were spent at Diospi Suyana in Curahuasi where I was able to make some important progress with David to measure and report on some uplink anomalies to the satellite operator, SES/Intelsat. And Doris also was keen to video me giving my testimony (in English) after hearing it when we were in Puerto Maldonado. 

Before leaving Curahuasi, Doris was keen to video my testimony (in English) in the Diospi studios.

Time ran out quickly in these last few days. Klaus kindly presented me with an English copy of his latest book “An Experiment with God”. That morning Doris kindly presented me with the Spanish version of the book. Now I have no excuses but to practice my Spanish reading and improve for the next trip 😊. A dream of mine would be for all my family to attend the Diospi Andes music festival next April 2027. But we will see as these things are in God’s hands. 

Dr Klaus' latest book given as a farewell gift to us - one in Spanish (from Doris) and one in English (from Klaus).

All the Diospi Suyana team were so incredibly thankful and honouring of our efforts. They even arranged a special lunch order of Lomo Saltado in the Diospi Suyana kitchen just for Solomon and me before we left Curahuasi. As the normal menu that day was a dish even the Peruvian’s did not get excited about.

Before we got into our taxi for Cusco (2 ½ hours’ drive) we prayed together and said our farewell.

During this visit I was surprised to hear the news that Klaus and Martina John have announced their intention to retire in September 2027. This will be a huge change for them and Diospi Suyana. The reigns will be handed over to Doctor’s Benjamin and Lena Zeier.

Thank you to all those who supported us in prayer and financially to make all this happen again. What a huge blessing this has been to get them back on their feet with a functioning telemetry system again, saving many thousands of kilometres and days of travel for the very small team who keep the Diospi Suyana radio network on the air with the best message in the world. 

Rainbow Mountain at 5,036 metres above sea level.

The next day Solomon and I took some time in Cusco to be tourists and visit Rainbow Mountain. We took a bus then a quad bike and then walked the last bit to 5,036 metres to see the incredible 5 primary coloured mountain top. We visited along with the other 3,000 visitors they get there every day (and the local llamas of course). A geological wonder which defies evolutionary theories but perfectly fits the creation explanation.

As noted earlier, our flight back to Australia was 38.5 hours including stopovers. I don’t sleep well sitting up in an airplane chair. This was made more of a challenge by the two LATAM flights before arriving in Santiago de Chile. Here we again felt like giants as the seats were squeezed much closer together than we find on Australian flights – see photo. 

Solomon demonstrating how we managed the lack of legroom for us Anglo Saxons on our LATAM airlines return flight from Lima to Santiago. And this is before they put their seat back which crushed my glasses!

We arrived home at midnight on Saturday 18 July after 38 hours of flights (including stopovers). We were quite exhausted of course but also very satisfied with what we had accomplished in our 3 ½ weeks. Now to recover (and it has taken me a week to get over my jet-lag).

Once again, thank you to all who have helped make this happen. A special thank you to Doris and Emilio who hosted Solomon and me in their house for our Curahuasi stays and to Diospi Suyana who picked up the road trip bills.

Chris & family

The First of Two Road Trips (West)

Sunday 05 July 2026

It has been over a week now but since touching down I have been flat out and this is my first moment actually sit down and post something.

Our flight over was without incident – our stopover in Sydney was used for a quick excursion to Bunnings and buy me some replacement work boots which I noticed failed just the night before. Then a white-knuckle grand prix ride in a taxi from Cusco to Curahuasi - the driver continuously overtaking in the most unsafe places e.g. leading into blind corners, with no margin for error with oncoming cars at ridiculous speeds into the night. But that is Peru.

The next day we were welcomed with open arms by Doris (Centro de Medios manager), David (broadcast technician) and the production team at the Diospi broadcast centre. David gave me a thorough overview of the transmission status showing me what equipment has and has not worked over recent time. Nothing beats actually seeing the equipment and asking questions. Despite my limited Spanish, David and I get along very well. He is very intelligent with a background in IT, curiosity and a keenness to learn. Klaus dropped in to catch up – see photo. 

Chris, Klaus and Solomon in the Centro de Medios

Later we got into the satellite work whilst Solomon explored Curahuasi and did some studies. I found there were some things not done quite right with the main satellite antenna in the November changeover and once this was corrected, we got the telemetry system master uplink operational again – ready for the 11 remote sites. 

Adjusting the Centro de Medios main satellite antenna with Intelsat.

On the Sunday we caught up with our American missionary friends in Curahuasi and host groups from the US for 4 months of the year back to back, where they go into the Quechua villages to help in numerous capacities. We accompanied them with a group hike to the top of the Curahuasi hill – Capitan Rumi (altitude 3,000 metres). It has an amazing knife edge with a 1.6 km drop to the Apurimac River below. Rumi is said to have been a brave Inca warrior who fought against the Spanish invaders. During a fierce battle, he chose to throw himself into the canyon's abyss rather than be captured.

Solomon and me with our good friends the Heaths.

Solomon and me at the peak of Capitan Rumi.

This week Solomon attended his old school and there were a number of his Peruvian classmates who remembered him. Solomon was 8 when we left for Australia.

My first trip was to our FM sites that cover: Abancay (pop. 89,000), Andahuaylas (pop. 69,000), Chincheros/Uripa (pop. 50,000) and Ayacucho (pop. 230,000 and a regional pop. of over 670,000). The return distance by road was approximately 1,150 km taking some 30 hours with all the countless speed bumps, hairpin bends and the daily events on the Los Andes Panamericana highway. 

Typical delays encountered on the Panamericana Highway.

With an all-Peruvian team bar me, I got to dine some of the local cuisine. One lunch on the way to Andahuaylas at a small rural town (Huancarama) was chicken soup – sounded good right? Until I noticed on my spoon some ingredients whereby I lost my appetite – see photo. 

Chicken soup finding first a foot then a leg!

 The good news is that the telemetry system worked. This was despite the manufacturer believing it would not work without needing an increase to satellite resources (either would be expensive for Diospi). But I was sure from my calculations and previous experience with these that it would and this seems to be proven correct.

 

Me with a restored telemetry system in Andahuaylas.

David took along his drone to capture some great bird’s eye perspectives of each site – see video example of our Casabamba tower showing how it is prominently located on a hill overlooking the cities of Uripa and Chincheros in the valley below.

Whilst in Chincheros which is a very well-kept city in Peruvian terms, we stayed at the exceptionally nice Hotel Chaska. It is run by the Peruvian daughter of missionaries. Although a quiet sleep in was not an option for me on this occasion where the dump truck came by at 5:20 am with the Peruvian customary music blaring so people could bring out their rubbish 😊.

We were missing some parts for the Abancay site which were subsequently located back in Curahuasi but they could not get these to us in time before our return to Curahuasi. But this site is less than an hour’s drive from Curahuasi and so I hope to squeeze this one in before our return to Australia.

Finally, the 10^th Anniversary of Diospi Suyana Radio went well today. It was a perfect day in Curahuasi and was held in the back yard of the casa la hacienda which was our home here for 2 ½ years, and now the home of Doris - manager of the Media Center. It was well attended and of course, lots of photos! 😊 

The Diospi Suyana Radio 10th anniversary party on Sunday 5 July.

Tomorrow, we head off on the 2,200 km 2-week trip east to the remaining 7 FM sites. Onward we go – this time with Solomon. And I still hope to get all 12 sites operational.

Thank you for those praying for this work to go well, Chris.

Our road trip plans and 10 years to celebrate

Tuesday 02 June 2026

We are just 3 weeks out from our return visit and I wanted to give you an update on the work plan. It will be a 3,500 km road trip to visit all 12 broadcast sites in 3 weeks! In Peru this translates to 75 hours behind the wheel, given the countless hairpin bends and highway speed bumps (“rompeejes” translated: axle breakers).

The first leg (1,150 km) covers the 4 sites west of Diospi Suyana, namely: Abancay, Andahuaylas, Chincheros/Uripa, and Ayacucho then back to Curahuasi. 

The first trip leg west of Diospi Suyana (4 sites)

The second leg (2,300 km) covers the 7 sites east of Diospi Suyana, namely: Echarati, Anta, Cusco, Urcos, Sicuani, Puno and Puerto Maldonado then back to Curahuasi. 

The second trip leg east of Diospi Suyana (7 sites)

The sites of Puerto Maldonado and Echarati are bordering the Amazon and tropical. These need more regular site maintenance as in a month the vegetation can grow at incredible rates. Herbicides work for a while, but then natural growth takes over again as the ongoing rains quickly wash the chemicals away. Below is a photo of Echarati last week in the process of a slashing.

Echarati FM site vegetation slashing

Pretty much everything else is arranged for the trip. We have a plan for Solomon to attend the Diospi Suyana school for the first week as it is such a great opportunity for him to spend time again with the local culture including both the Peruvians and the predominantly German missionaries his age. Then accompany me for the remaining 2 weeks on our eastern leg.

I am informed some of the existing satellite modems have issues which need to be fixed. At the very least all the satellite antennas will be aligned / commissioned on IS-34 allowing the complete network to become operational when its repaired modem is fitted. I will be training the local technical staff to have the skills to do these somewhat involved adjustments themselves in the future should they need to. My objective is to pass on as much information and skills that I can to make myself redundant.

We also get to join in the 10^th anniversary celebrations of Diospi Suyana Radio (an unplanned coincidence). That’s 10 years of reaching over 2 million FM listeners 24 x 7. That’s 10 years of hope broadcast from these humble 12 FM sites, plus 1 TV site. This is through 10 years of Diospi Suyana medical programs to improve the health of the impoverished. And 10 years of the Gospel being faithfully broadcast to provide the ultimate message of life to give present and eternal hope to all humanity through Jesus Christ.

A big shout out to all those who have supported us in this good work from the beginning and those that have continued to. In particular LifeSource Church in Sydney (our original home church) whose amazing generosity allowed us to go on this mission as a family from 2016 to 2019 (see our 2016 blog posts), and who has continued this by providing assistance on this trip. And to Pioneers Australia who continue to provide encouragement, admin support and most powerfully, prayer support which opens the way for the miraculous to happen.

And thank you to my amazing supportive family who are sacrificing 3 ½ weeks of family holiday with Solomon and me to enable us to take this trip. Having all lived there, they better than most understand the need.

Thank you!!!

Chris

A Debrief on the Diospi Youth Festival 2026

Saturday 09 May 2026

With the festival over now, here are the final numbers for “Luz en los Andes” as it happened in 2026...

There were 4,515 paid registrations and 4.362 million views on social media! Added to this is the live broadcast via our 12 FM radio towers in five Peru states with a coverage of over 2 million people, 24 x 7. The festivalgoers came from every Peru state and many other countries in North America, South America and even as far as Europe.

The band "Funky" was the last to play at the 2026 festival and a highlight for many

There was Christian music and church services, workshops and devotions. In fact, “Luz en los Andes” was a real church service the whole time. Until the end of this incredible event, young people took advantage of the talks offered by pastors and countless young people entrusted their lives to God and received a free copy of the Gospel of John. And will now carry the "fire" they experienced back to their towns, villages, churches and homes.

Here is a 4-minute YouTube reel of a day in the festival (click on the image to view):

Dr Klaus spoke on night 3 delivering his powerful and now more expansive testimony of the miracle of Diospi Suyana – built on faith without ever asking for donations. Humbling for us we realised this included a segment on the Welch family being mobilised to Peru, against all odds, which was without question a miracle (as this blogsite stands to testifies in more detail). It's one our family will always be in awe of and grateful to God alongside those who helped make it happen.

Unsurprisingly, this 4^th Diospi Suyana youth festival ended with such excitement for the next one in 2027. The expectation is it will be even bigger and further reaching. Luz en los Andes – translated light in the Andes, was not just a catchphrase. Faith in Jesus Christ was heard by millions. The festival will undoubtedly go down as one of the most significant events for Peru in 2026.

Thank you for supporting us as we continue to support Diospi Suyana Media to reach those that need to hear the best message in the world.

Solomon and I fly out on 24 June which is just under 7 weeks away. We have a full work plan for our 3 weeks in Peru to attend to all 12 FM radio sites for a general transmission overhaul including reinstating the satellite telemetry system for each. This will help save on Diospi Suyana resources in the future by avoiding many unnecessary and often risky trips by the Diospi Centro de Medio staff to these remote locations, some of which are up to 12 hours’ drive from Curahuasi. As always, we will rely on God’s hand of grace and provision to give us success.

Please continue to pray for us.

Blessings, Chris

Diospi Suyana Youth Festival 2026 - Light in the Andes

Monday 13 April 2026

For the 4^th year running the Diospi Suyana Youth Festival continues to grow in popularity and for 2026 the expected turnout is 5,000! The theme this year is “Luz en los Andes” (translation: Light in the Andes) and it runs for five days from Sunday 26 to Thursday 30 April. There are 10 Christian bands arriving to play from all over the Americas including: Peru, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Columbia, USA, Argentina and Ecuador. They also include Bible teaching sessions. See Figure 1 below for the official flyer.

For interest, here is a link to the Diospi Suyana radio promo being run at the moment (in Spanish): Click here to listen

Figure 1:  The official 2026 youth festival flyer

 One artist of note, Sarai Rivera, has racked up 204 million clicks on YouTube with her song “Suelto” and she is on tour performing in 16 major cities in the USA and Mexico including: New York on 17 April, Chicago on 18 April, Houston on 25 April but then a detour to Curahuasi, Peru on 27 April! Then onto onto San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego and the list goes on.

See the Diospi Suyana post for her flyer and YouTube music video: Click link here.

The auditorium capacity is being expanded to accommodate 5,000. Some 30 construction workers have a tight deadline to complete the upgrade by midnight on 25 April. The tarpaulins on the roof trusses are yet to be laid.

Figure 2:  The Diospi Suyana auditorium expansion underway

Overnight accommodation for 4,000 young people is being created on Diospi Suyana campsites in Curahuasi. Visitors will find a further 1,000 beds in Curahuasi’s hotels and guest houses, thus contributing to the local businesses. When setting up the large tents, Diospi will draw on the experience of three festivals with a number of employees from local church congregations. Volunteers also come to support the festival from all over the Americas and beyond. 

Figure 3:  Diospi Suyana tent city for 4,000 being erected in their camping grounds

For me, it would be amazing to volunteer at this event next year! Anybody else interested in coming from Australia? (just a crazy idea at this stage 😊)

A new satellite and our 2026 return to Peru

Thursday 19 February 2026

Great news! We have booked tickets for Solomon and I to return to Peru. Not unlike our first trip to Peru back in 2016, Sandi noticed some great deals ahead of time and she jumped on those to lock in our travel for 3 ½ weeks away. We depart Perth on Wednesday 24 June and return Saturday 18 July which is during school holidays in WA.

Solomon is now 15 and has been making huge progress with his Spanish learning - it is definitely all coming back to him. I have no doubt that his language will be far superior to mine as being 15, age and a sharp mind is on his side. And he will be an invaluable help and company for me on this trip.

It is amazing having such a supportive wife in Sandi who is 100% supportive of this work.

In writing this I realise now I did not provide an update on the satellite change we did over the weekend back on 22 to 23 November. So here following is a summary. It was a 22-hour literally no-break effort by the team in Peru and me from my home office in Perth. Sandi kept me going with food and drink. It was not meant to take anything like this long – we ran into a number of issues with the commissioning, which for the first half (at least 15 hours), was caused by some inexperienced operators in the Network Operation Centre (NOC) in the US.

They also had an internal administration issue where the NOC operators thought we were a week early to move to the new satellite lease and were denying us permission to proceed. By that time, we had already repointed the main uplink antenna (losing the previous commissioning) and there was no going back! ☹ Being the weekend, it was hard to get hold of their management to sort that out. Then they had technical problems with one of their (large) monitoring antennas in the US that they were using to align our small carrier uplink from Peru on the new satellite (SES IS-34).

Countless adjustments were made, each measured, then adjusted again and the cycle repeated over and over - sometimes with as little as half a degree at a time whilst communicating all this in Spanish to the team on the ground in Peru. We persevered without ceasing as all the time the radio in Peru was off the air and we could not simply come back later. Eventually we were passed over to some very experienced NOC operators and significant progress was made where we were able to successfully pass the commissioning.

There were more details to this ordeal, but I think you get the picture. It did add an amount of fatigue to our small team who after a night’s sleep spent the remainder of the week travelling 1000s of kilometres repointing all 11 of our other remote satellite antennas to SES IS-34. It is a good thing we will not need to do this again for another 8 years when the SES IS-34 satellite we are on now reaches its end of life.

Back in Perth Sandi said it was like watching a scene from one of our family favourite movies “The Dish” with NASA “talking technical” with American accents whilst I relayed the adjustments in Spanish to the team in Peru. 

"The Dish" scene at my home office in Perth 😊

This work got the radio signal working again over the satellite to all our FM transmission sites which reaches over 2 million in Peru 24 x 7. And potentially to 636,000,000 Spanish speaking in all of the Americas and Europe direct from satellite to home - see previous blog post.

So why our return to Peru mid-2026? This is to complete the job by getting the telemetry uplink working on all the Diospi Suyana satellite antennas. What does that do you might ask? This sends data back from the remote sites (some over 12 hours by road away from the Diospi Suyana studio) to report back to the studio on the equipment at the sites so problems can be identified quickly and the right action taken to sort them out. In some cases, avoiding many days of travel on the treacherous, unpoliced Peruvian highways.

The airfares are mostly covered by our previous mission funds, but then we still need to cover the remainder such as renewal of passports, travel interconnects, food and accommodation etc.

There you have it. We are counting down the days trying to cram Spanish refreshers. Thank you for your prayers and support of this good work. As the Diospi Suyana Centro de Medios team motto goes, “it’s the best message in the world” as it contains the Gospel message of Jesus Christ who is the one and only hope for all.

Chris 

Web browser link to this post: https://welchesinperu.blogspot.com/2026/02/a-new-satellite-and-our-2026-return-to.html

A change of satellite for Diospi Suyana and plans to return to Peru

Saturday 15 November 2025

It’s been nearly 3 years since my last post in February 2023. Quite a bit has happened and there has been a recent significant development for Diospi Suyana radio with a forced satellite change. So I believe this is a long overdue update.

As a family we have been going well in Perth (can’t believe we have been here for going on 4 years now in fact). Everyone is involved in life, meaning either study, work, church and sport. Sometimes we even get a break to rest and play! 😊

On political front in Peru, the unrest has continued in waves since we were last there. In recent time the first female president of Peru, Dina Boluarte, became one of the worlds least popular leaders and on 10 October was impeached after some 3 years in office. Her tenure was marked by scandals, protests, and a rise in crime, leading to a unanimous impeachment vote in Congress based on "permanent moral incapacity". There have now been 7 presidents in Peru in as many years, all removed for similar reasons as the latest impeachment. Since then, a state of emergency has been declared in Lima due to increased crime. Tragically, the downward spiral of corruption in Peru’s politics seems to be without resolve any time soon.

To Diospi Suyana now (refreshing by comparison to Peru’s political stage), things have continued to prosper on all fronts. The Christian music festival that Diospi Suyana holds at the end of April every year in the hospital auditorium since our last visit in 2023, with a host of bands and predominantly young music goers has now grown to some 5,000. They pilgrimage from all over North and South Americas for the 3-day concert. Here is a Facebook link to the event: https://www.facebook.com/festivaldiospisuyana/

Regarding the Centro de Medios (the broadcast centre), there have been 3 new FM sites added which brings the total number of Diospi Suyana radios sites to 12. As a recap, here is a list of all the broadcast sites now:

 Original rollout (2016 to 2019):

1. Abancay
2. Andahuaylas
3. Casabamba
4. Curahuasi (FM & TV)
5. Echarati
6. Puerto Maldonado
7.  Puno

Our last visit (2023):

1. Cusco
2. Urcos

Subsequent sites (up to current):

1. Anta
2. Ayachucho
3. Sicuani

The 12 FM sites now reach over 2 million people 24 x 7 with our message of hope for a people that is suffering in so many ways. Not to mention the government is failing them also, as eluded to in the opening part of this blog. As the Diospi Suyana Centro de Medios team motto goes, "it’s the best message in the world" as it contains the Gospel message of Jesus Christ who is the one and only hope for mankind.

At the end of October, our satellite contract with Intelsat (now SES) ran out and they advised me our incumbent IS-14 satellite is not being replaced. We use the satellite to get our radio signal to the remote FM sites and have been on IS-14 since our first remote radio commencement, Puerto Maldonado FM, in mid-2017. Other forms of signal distribution are unreliable in Peru, and satellite remains the only dependable solution.

Alternative satellites were considered and after considering the technicalities and commercial aspects, we settled on the newer IS-34 which is 10.5° away from IS-14. Meaning repointing all 12 satellite antennas would not be a dramatic change and avoid look angle obstructions at our sites.

IS-34 also will extend coverage to not only Latin America, but also all of North America and Europe! This is a Spanish speaking population of [1] 636,000,000! See Figure 1:  SES IS-34 downlink coverage map.

Figure 1:  SES IS-34 downlink coverage map

However, to change satellite is still no walk in the park for Diospi Suyana as we need to have technicians travel to all 12 sites and repoint the antennas plus change the frequency of all the satellite receivers. This is after we adjust the main site at the Centro de Medios at the Diospi Suyana hospital in Curahuasi. There are a number of critical adjustments to make to the main uplink, and for this I will be helping Diospi Suyana remotely from Perth as I can log into the critical equipment whilst in discussion with the SES Network Operation Centre (NOC) in Miami, USA. Critical adjustments to frequency, level and antenna position (including polarisation) are needed before we achieve permission to transmit on IS-34. And time is of the essence as Diospi will be off the air at the remote sites until the changeover is complete.

Diospi Suyana are so very grateful for my help with this, as they say they would be quite stuck otherwise. The expertise to do this is beyond their team at this point, although they are learning much, and quickly. And exposure to significant changes like this is a great learning opportunity for the team.

The date the changeover has been set to commence on Saturday 22 November (next weekend) Peru time. I have allowed a night to work with the head technician, David, on the ground at the Diospi Suyana Centro de Medios hub.

After success at the hub, they will set out for the week to visit all 11 remote sites to complete the satellite changeover. This will take them multiple 1,000s of kms by road. Please pray for their safety as driving in Peru is a precarious undertaking in itself due to crazy drivers who speed and cut corners combined with dangerous roads. There also no policing on their highways which exacerbates these problems.

This will hopefully get all of the Diospi Suyana radio sites up and going again well before the end of November. But the satellite telemetry is excluded from this. The telemetry is a system that reports the status and alarms back to the Centro de Medios studios so action can be taken to address problems quickly and efficiently.

The satellite telemetry is more involved to adjust and requires a higher skill level to commission on the satellite with the SES NOC. As a consequence of this need, I have decided to return to Peru in mid-2026 to revisit all the sites myself and get this system operational again. This will take about 3 weeks to do, and for this extended trip away I have decided to take my youngest son, Solomon. He will be 15 by this time and already stands taller than me! He is a very intelligent young man (a budding chess master) and his Spanish will be infinitely better than mine. He will be an invaluable help and company for me on this trip.

For this we have some leftover funds in our Pioneers Australia mission account. Although not all is covered and we will need to supplement this for our 2026 budget to return.

I appreciate this blog may be a bit technical for some readers, sorry. But hopefully it makes enough sense to bring you all up to speed with what has been happening in Peru and our plans ahead.

Chris

Web browser link to this post:
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[1] Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_language (2025)