Virginia and Ethelyn Schultz went with the ladies for the morning at Kanuku Rooi Lamoenchi, a historic plantation house.

I took Bob Schultz, 95 year old TWR engineer, with me to the transmitter site for the morning. After morning devotions, we had a joint meeting with Wendell from Nautel and Tom King from Kintronic to discuss the reason for occasional momentary shutbacks of the transmitter. We have come to the conclusion that most are caused by arc detectors in the antenna tuning huts, especially antennas 1 and 3.

Tom King and I watched inside these tuning huts from behind a safetly barrier while the transmitter was operating and discovered several places where there was arcing from points (that were supposedly grounded) to copper straps connected to station ground. The safety barrier, sits on on top of two of these 4″ wide copper straps, and two wider copper straps next to the wall–all going to station ground, The ends of the safety barrier are ‘grounded’ at two points on each wall. With all this grounding, there is still occasional arcing occurring between the safety barrier and one of the 4″ copper straps.

There was also arcing at the ‘grounded’ end of an 18′ long insulator to ground. We swapped this insulator out for a new one to see if the original one might have been faulty.

While Tom King and I took some measurements in the phasor, Daryl made ground straps to tie the barrier fence directly to the 4″ straps to see if this eliminates that arcing. At Tom’s suggestion Daryl and Jonas hipotted (tested using a high voltage tester) several of the capacitors. Some of these are rated at 55,000 volts. They did find one capacitor (that is supposed to be good for 35,000 volts) that would arc over at 20,000 volts. This could be a problem. The men at Tom’s company are looking into possible temporary solutions for us to make tomorrow.

Jonas using a hipot to test on of the capacitors.

TWR had a BBQ on the beach near the airport starting at 5pm. Our measurements in the phasor were not completed until about 5:15pm. We quickly checked to make sure the transmitter was ready to operate at full power on all three antenna patterns before leaving the transmitter site for the BBQ. Although we didn’t arrive at the beach until 5:30pm, the food was not being served yet.  Hamburgers and chicken kebabs were grilled.  Salads were brought by various staff, including Virginia.  Virginia also made her special baked bean recipe–must have been well liked because there were no leftovers to bring home!

TWR staff and visitors at Te Amo Beach, near the airport, for an evening BBQ.

I had a good time chatting with Joe and Jenny Emert from a Christian station near Atlanta.  Joe worked with Sam Rowley of the HCJB Engineering Center (now SonSet Solutions) to set up the FM network in Papua New Guinea.  They also know Alan and Sarah Good from SonSet Solutions.

Te Amo Beach Sunset with Tanker delivering fuel to airport in background.

There was a beautiful view of the sunset at the beach, but it gets dark quickly afterwards. By the time everything was packed up and we drove home, it was almost 8 pm.

Reception reports keep coming in from North and South America, but one report came in last night from a listener in Norway!

We picked up Ralph and Mary Jane to take them to the airport at 8:30 am.  They were scheduled to fly Insel Air to Curacao at 10:30am, but we learned that their flight only left at 2:30pm.  From Curacao, they were to fly on to Aruba.  We heard they were still waiting to leave for Aruba at 8:30 pm!  Recommendation–avoid using Insel Air to fly anywhere.  If you’re not convinced, just look at the reviews written about Insel Air.

Nautel’s transmitter engineer, Wendell, came to the dedication and led one of the Techtalk sessions.

This morning a session called Techtalk started with an 8:30am breakfast at Pure Ocean Beachside Dining Restaurant.  I joined the group later at the transmitter site where a review of the Bonaire Power Up project was given, followed by a tour of the transmitter given by Wendell, a Nautel engineer, and a tour of the antenna phasor and tuning units by Tom King.

Huge ‘mountains’ of salt at Cargill waiting to be loaded onto ships for transport around the world.

In the afternoon, we had a tour of  Cargill Salt Bonaire.  We learned that the salt harvested in Bonaire has a crystal size of about 1″ cube.  [We were given some samples] Most of the salt is used for water softeners.

TWR Bonaire transmitter site with one of Cargill’s salt pans in the foreground. These salt pans and the Caribbean Sea provide a near perfect ground for sending AM radio signals for very long distances.

Watching the live broadcast through the studio window.  Brad (at computer, then clockwise around table), Annabelle, Estaban, Jeheil, and Alberto.

At 5:30pm we watched a live broadcast, originating at the TWR studio, to Cuba and Venezuela done by Brad, Annabelle, Estaban, Jeheil, and Alberto.  Andre will be broadcasting live to Brazil at 5am, so he headed to bed early this evening.

We took Bob and Ethelyn Schultz to Hillside restaurant for supper tonight.  Reservations are not required at Hillside in contrast to most of the eating places along the beach.

The day of the dedication of the new transmitter and antenna system has arrived!

The dedication hall with 200 chairs is ready.

This morning, in addition to preparing for the dedication this afternoon, we received numerous reception reports resulting from full power–440,000 watts–tests overnight.  Using the north pattern, the signal was clearly heard in Key West and Miami.  It was also heard in New England and there was one report of it being weakly heard in Montana!  Using the south pattern, the signal was heard in Sao Paulo, Brazil and in Buenos Aires, Argentina.  All these places are well beyond the primary target areas, which will have even stronger reception.

Virginia, Sandy Alary and Joyce Walker serving snacks.

The pre-dedication activities started at 2:30pm with snacks being served, various TWR memorabilia, a virtual tour using virtual reality headsets and real tours of the facilities.

Tours and a lot of visiting and renewing friendships took place before the dedication.

TWR president Lauren Libby met the Governor of Bonaire before the dedication. Lauren received a Bonaire coat-of-arms pin from the Governor during the dedication. After the service, when the governor learned about 95 year old TWR engineer, Bob Schultz, being present, he presented a Bonaire coat-of-arms pin to Bob also.

The dedication service began about 4pm with speeches given by the Governor of Bonaire, Edison Rijna, (we learned that his father worked for TWR in the early days climbing and painting towers), TWR President Lauren Libby and TWR Cuba Director Alberto Gonzales.  The dedication culminated with the governor and Alberto cutting the ribbon and  Lauren switching on the transmitter to officially begin broadcasting.

TWR Director of Cuba, Alberto Gonzales, spoke at the dedication.

You can see the video of the dedication at Facebook–TWR-Bonaire:

There was lots of music lead by this group from the International Bible Church. Most are members of the Francees family.

After the dedication, everyone went to Foodies Restaurant on Lac Bay for a buffet dinner starting at 6 pm.  We had a great time of fellowship with Ralph and Mary Jane, Amado and Sue Felix and the delegate from TWR Netherlands.  We arrived home around 10:30 pm.

I has been a great day celebrating what God has done!!

It rained heavily about the time we woke up this morning leaving puddles everywhere.  Virginia was in charge of breakfast and prepared pancakes and eggs for everyone from both sides of the duplex.

Virginia and I drove to the office for morning devotions and looked for Ralph and Mary Jane walking, so we could pick them up.  We didn’t see them, nor were they at the office, so I drove back to Eden Beach Resort and found them just starting to walk down the main road.  They were glad to avoid the mud and splashing water from passing cars.

There were around 50 at office devotions.  After devotions, there was a bus, provided by Achie Tours, to take a tour of the island.  Ralph and Mary Jane took that tour.  I drove to the transmitter site after adding air to two low tires on the car we are driving.  I also had the transformers and breaker with me that Ralph had brought.

Virginia rode to the transmitter site with Vera and helped clean the transmitter hall in preparation for the dedication tomorrow.

I assisted with some of the cleanup then installed and tested one of the 24vac transformers that Ralph brought.  The other transformer is a spare.

There was a lot of activity today with many final details of the dedication being worked out.  I was recruited as a backup tour guide in the event that four tour guides are not enough.

Marco brought me back to the duplex this evening about 4:30, but Virginia was not home yet from showing Ralph and Mary Jane around town.  I laid down and napped until they arrived about 5:30.

We then went out to eat with them at Hillside Restaurant.  Virginia ordered Kip Hawaii (Hawaiian chicken with fries) off the kinder (children’s) menu and Mary Jane ordered pasta and meat sauce also off the kinder menu.  Ralph and I ordered Kip Hawaii off the main menu.  When the plates arrived, we noted that there was almost no difference (except the price and maybe slightly fewer fries) between the kinder and adult menus.  Mary Jane could not finish here kinder size pasta.  If there is a next time, we will be ordering from the kinder menu which was very good!

There were about 10 TWR people from Latin America and the Caribbean in the other side of the duplex when we got home.  They were having pizza for their supper.  It is almost 10:20 and they are still there.  We are heading to bed ourselves.  Tomorrow is the big day–the dedication!

The International Bible Church was packed for the morning service due to all the people coming for the transmitter dedication on Tuesday.  Pastor Doug’s sermon was titled “On a Mission” with the text from Acts 1:1-11 and Matthew 28:18-20.  The command is to ‘make disciples’.  Our witness (testimony) is “not a burden to convince, but an opportunity to share”.  At the conclusion of the sermon, the mockingbird of about three weeks ago was back and chirping loudly.  Pastor just looked up at the bird in the high window and said it was saying ‘amen’, ‘amen, and ‘amen’ and everyone chuckled.

We visited for a long time after church and then made our way across the main road to Buddy Dive and their restaurant called Blennies.  There must have been about 60 TWR people and guests there for the buffet lunch.  The buffet included Barracuda fish and kebabs of chicken and pork with rice, corn and other side dishes (our table was the last to go through the line, so there was not much selection left), plus dessert of cheesecake.

After lunch, we had just enough time to go to the duplex to change into more comfortable clothes then head to the airport to pick up Ralph and Mary Jane VanderWerf.  We took them to Eden Beach Resort where they had reservations only to find their room would not be available until 5pm.  Since they had not eaten since leaving South Bend at 6am, we looked for a place for them to eat.  First we stopped by Captain Don’s to be told that only pizza was available before 6pm.  Since they’d had pizza last night, we ended back at Blennies where they were able to get some sandwiches.

By the time the sandwiches were eaten and we had finished visiting, their room was now available.  We dropped them off for the evening with the understanding that they would walk the short distance to the TWR office for devotions in the morning.  That’s where we would meet them tomorrow.

We made the 15 minute drive back to the duplex for the evening.  I used Virginia’s Kindle Fire to make our weekly Sunday evening call to my mother in Colorado.

About 9:30pm the young men (who all arrived on flights this afternoon) staying in the bunk bed room of our duplex arrived back from their evening meal with Steve Shantz (TWR VP of Latin America and the Caribbean).  Andre is from Brazil and Jehiel is from the Dominican Republic.  Esaban, from Uruguay is staying in the other duplex with Steve and Jason.

We headed to bed just after 10pm this evening.