With the 380 volt service now switched on for the new transmitter, the first priority today was to activate the emergency stop buttons that I wired a few days ago.  This involved installing a step-down transformer  next to the 1,200-amp breaker to provide the 110 volts required for the shunt trip coil to allow remote emergency tripping of this breaker.  The normally open contacts (rated at 600 volts) of the emergency switches are connected in parallel so that either one can apply 220 volts from one phase of the breaker to one side of 220 volt primary of this transformer.  The other side of the primary is connected to neutral.  The shunt trip coil is wired to the 110 volt output winding.  Using this method, the transformer is only energized when needed.

The step-down transformer has been installed on the right side of the 1.200-amp breaker.

The next priority, before 380 volts could be applied to the transmitter, was to install the surge suppressor on the side of the disconnect switch cabinet.  I used the lathe to make special grommets for feeding the wires through the back of the suppressor and through the side of the disconnect switch cabinet.

The surge suppressor is connected to each phase on the output side of the disconnect switch located next to the transmitter. The ground i’s connected directly to station ground via a 4″ wide copper strip (right side of photo).

The closed surge suppressor attached to the side of the disconnect switch cabinet

I did not quite complete the surge suppressor installation this afternoon as Virginia and I were invited to the Bistro at the Marina to have dinner with Donna, TWR Bonaire’s bookkeeper, and her older friend from church, Lois.  Virginia let me know via email that the reservation was moved earlier to 5:45 pm instead of 6 pm, so she drove to the transmitter site to pick me up early.

On Wednesdays, all Bistro’s hamburgers are on sale for ‘only’ $8.  We ordered their Burgundy hamburgers that normally cost $14.  The hamburgers were covered with some kind of gravy with mushrooms, plus tomatoes, onions and lettuce.  It also came with fried potato wedges.  We ate at an outside table with a pleasant ‘cool’ [for here] breeze.  Afterwards, Donna convinced us to get ice cream for dessert at a place called Shanthy.  We were the only customers during the 30 minutes, or so, that we were there.

After we got home, I discovered that the proofreadings of our McGuiReport, submitted earlier this week, were done.  All the suggested ‘corrections’ were made and I began ‘tidying up’ the ‘white’ spaces in the text wrapped around the photos to make it look better.   This process took much longer than anticipated.  By the time I created the PDF files and submitted them for TWR Cary to print, it was around midnight and I was very ‘bleary-eyed’ from all the detailed editing on my laptop.

The electrical inspectors arrived this morning to inspect the 380-volt 1200-amp 3-phase service for the new transmitter.  We are grateful that this final, high-power part of the electrical system, passed inspection with no problem.

After the arcing connector problem last night, I helped Tom and Joshua inspect and tighten all connections in all four antenna huts.  I tightened hundreds of socket head screws today!

About 4 pm a crew from WEB, the power company, arrived to switch on the new 380 volt service. Initially the voltage was about 397 volts, but after WEB changed taps on their transmitter, our service voltage was very close at 382 volts.  After this done, it was past time to head home for the evening.

We invited Tom and Joshua King to come to our side of the duplex for supper.  Virginia made braised beef tips and rice for the main dish.  We had a great time of fellowship with them this evening.

For those of you who might not know, Tom King is a renowned broadcast engineer specializing in the design and manufacture of equipment for high-power AM antenna systems not only in the U.S., but also worldwide.  He has his own company, Kintronic Labs.   More importantly, he is a humble brother in Christ, whom I have known and highly respected for well over 20 years.  This is the first time that Virginia has met him.  Joshua, his son, has recently started to work with his father at Kintronic Labs.  It has been a treat to watch them work together on the intricate techniques of fine tuning the TWR Bonaire 400,000-watt four-tower AM antenna system that Tom designed, that is also switchable to three different directions.  I am not aware of any other antenna system like this anywhere!

Even the TWR Bonaire office staff meet at the transmitter site this morning for devotions.  Everyone was encouraged to see  the progress that has been made on the 400,000-watt AM transmitter installation.

About 9 am, WEB, the power company arrived to shut off the 220 transformer at the old power building, so we could begin the process of transferring the 220-volt 3-phase 200-amp cable connection to the new power room.

150 feet of cable was removed from this trench after disconnecting it from the transformer in the small white building

With about eight men assisting, the cable was fed along the elevated outside cable tray with an immediate right into the inside cable tray, then about 50 feet to the inside circuit breaker box.

Jonas guides the end of the cable through the wall into the room with the circuit breaker. Larry is on the other side of the wall feeding it through.

Benny and Dave guide the cable down to its breaker panel, which has been opened.

Larry, Marco and Daryl deciding on the best way to feed the other end of the cable into the new power room.

Larry guides the end of the cable through the hole into the new power room.

Dave, Jonas, and Larry guide the end of the cable into the 800-amp distribution panel, its new source of power. Notice the appropriate message on the back of Jonas’ red shirt–also the sweat!

Jonas and Daryl make the last connection into the breaker box. In less than four hours power was restored. This feed provides 110/127/220 volt power and air conditioning to all of the building with the exception of the new transmitter hall.

We were so relieved to see the completion of this long anticipated cable move.  It required a lot of physical labor in rather hot conditions.  There was only one minor mishap when Benny cut two fingers (no stitches required) when his hand rubbed against a sharp edge of an air conditioner when feeding the cable around a tight corner.

In the afternoon, I assisted Tom and Josh King with tidying up the four antenna tuning huts.

Tom and Joshua inspecting one of the tuning huts.

Got home late this evening due to a last-minute arcing problem in one of the antenna tuning huts.  The problem was a connector that attached the final matching network to the copper pipe attached to the tower.  Unfortunately, there was no spare of this connector, so it took extensive cleanup time to restore this connector to service.  Glad this was found before the power is increased by four times!!

Since we slept too warm on Saturday night at 27C (80F) and too cool at 26C (78F) on Sunday, I figured out how to change the options on the air conditioner to degrees Fahrenheit and set it between at 79F!

We attended services at International Bible Church again this morning.  No animal-caused distractions this week!  This morning’s message was titled “This Year: Serve”.  You can visit the church website at http://bonaireibc.org/  or listen to the sermons at https://ibcbonaire.podbean.com/

On the way home from church, we decided to stop at Exito, a small cafe in downtown Kralendijk.  During the week they have quite a variety of hot foods, but on Sunday we learned they only sell sandwiches, which are more like subs.  I got a chicken salad sandwich and Virginia got curry chicken salad for $8.25 total.  We shared and decided the curry chicken was more flavorful, definitely not too spicy and worth the extra $0.25.  We also felt that one sandwich/sub would probably be enough for the both of us.

After lunch, I spent the rest of the day working on our February McGuiReport, knowing that there would not be much time to do so tomorrow (Monday) with its full day of work.

This evening, I called my mother in Colorado using the Skype app that was installed last week on Virginia’s Kindle Fire.  Actually, it is more convenient because it has a built in microphone and camera. These accessories have to be added to make calls using my old Windows Vista laptop.

We slept a little warm last night so this evening we lowered the air conditioner to 26C (78F).

After breakfast, we began packing for the move to the north side of the duplex.  Everything was packed into the little car we are driving, except for the things in the fridge.

With this done, I began working on our McGuiReport for February 2018 which is due on Tuesday.

About 2 pm, we headed to the duplex to help Vera clean, since the Wayneburg team was now at the airport to catch their flight back to school.   Vera and Virginia started the several hour clean up of both sides of the duplex.

About 3 pm, Tom King and his son, Joshua, unexpected drove in.  We thought they were to arrive tomorrow!  They are supposed to stay in the south end of the duplex.

While the ladies continued their cleaning, I helped by washing the bed linens, towels, etc and hung them on the clothes lines.  I then washed our own clothes.  I lost count at around seven loads total.  The clotheslines on both sides of the duplex were all full and all the clothespins were used up yet there were still clothes to hang out.

On Bonaire, if you don’t at least double the number of clothespins used, the laundry will likely be blown off the line into the sticker burs that are on the ground.  It takes a long time to take all those burs out! Don’t ask how we know!! [We learned this last time we were here]

The wind also dries the clothes quite quickly–as long as the sun is shining.  Some of the lighter sheets and shirts were dry, when it became time to hang out the last load of clothes, but, by then, it was beginning to get dark outside.

We finally unpacked the car, then went back across town to pick up our items out of the refrigerator.  When we got back, the last of the clothes was not completely dry, so we fired up the gas (propane) dryer to finish getting them dry.

Our bedroom in the duplex does not get as much breeze as at Rienstra,s, nor does it have a ceiling fan.  It looks like we will be using the air conditioner at night for the rest of our stay.  Whoever used it last set it to 27C (80F) so that is where we left it for this evening.