Grant and Jenna’s crates, with their personal effects from the U.S., were delivered early this morning.  All the available mission men helped open the crates and carry boxes into their apartment.  Their children were really excited that their ‘treasures’ had finally arrived!

We decided to do some more exploring towards the south today.  Our first stop was at Fort Santo Angel.  I wanted Virginia to see what I had only briefly seen last week.  As we pulled into the parking area, I shifted the car into park.  The car began to roll, so I quickly applied the parking brake and then discovered that the gear lever had become disconnected somewhere in the console.  Well, we were already on location, so decided to explore and sort out the problem later.

As seen from Umatac’s Magellan monument, Fort Santo Angel is on top of the big rock at the entrance to Umatac Bay.

From the parking area, we made our way down to the beach.

We had to carefully work our way over about 100 yards of sharp rocks and concrete rubble to the stairs at the base of Fort Santo Angel.

Looking up on the bank above the beach, we saw that someone had set up their own private getaway. A hammock, a chair and a desk. What more do you need? Maybe a shelter from rain!

We finally arrived at the steps going up to the fort.

In some places, the steps were not so obvious!

Virginia made it to the top — her first time here. These are the remaining walls to Fort Santo Angel.

Looking from the fort across the courtyard which is surrounded by a low wall.

Another view of Fort Santo Angel — note the stairs which must have led to a higher lookout or a second floor of the fort.

There were several places around the fort that were sheer cliff edges with no safety rails — maybe this is why this site is not well marked for tourists.  It was about 80 feet to the beach below. Note the concrete block pillar laying at the bottom.

The ‘newer’ Fort Soledad as seen from Fort Santo Angel.

Looking from Fort Santo Angel toward Umatac Bay and the village of Umatac. The rocky beach that we followed to the steps can be seen here. Note the grass clearing. We decided to take an easier route back by climbing the bank to the clearing, then taking a road that exits from the left of the clearing.

We followed the road to another clearing behind two houses, then followed the tree line parallel to the beach to this dilapidated bridge to the parking area. We did try to ignore some barking dogs at the houses.

Now, back to original challenge of the broken shift linkage!  We decided to go home and see if we could somehow get it repaired.  Because another car had parked in front of ours, it was now not possible to drive out forward.  We set the parking brake extra tight and Virginia stepped on the foot brake just to be safe.  We started the car and I reached under the open hood and shifted the transmission lever into reverse.  We then released the parking brake briefly to reverse just enough to be able to drive out going forward. Using the same method as before, I shifted the transmission lever into drive, closed the hood and drove the ten miles back to the apartment.

Since Joel had repaired this problem before, I had him show me how to get the gear lever console open.  The bushing, that he had repaired last month, had completely disintegrated. A trip down the road to a Napa store confirmed our fears — this is a dealer part!  The counter person said that his Toyota failed similarly and he temporarily repaired it with a cable tie until a part could be obtained.  Back at the apartment we called the Toyota dealer who informed us that the bushing is part of the transmission cable — cost over $400.  We decided the cable tie repair would do for now.  I looked in a tool kit that the mission provided for use in the apartment.  Lo and behold, there were cable ties in it!  Joel came up with an idea to use two cable ties in such a way that they would hold the cable on the gear lever pin, yet keep the cable ties from tightening up when shifting, as would happen with one cable tie.  Next week, I hope to make a bushing for a more permanent repair for a lot less than $400!

Back on the road again, we started where broke down — Umatac.

From Umatac Beach Bay looking toward Fort Santo Angel, Umatac village and the church.

A simple, but functional, stage at Umatac Beach Park.

Many of the retaining walls in Guam are painted with murals. Umatac has one of them.

The Umatac mural continues to the left.  Note that the light pole is part of the mural!

To the left of the mural was what some might call a poem. It is supposed to be the Chamorro folktale about creation — http://www.guampedia.com/puntan-and-fuuna-gods-of-creation/

http://www.guampedia.com/puntan-and-fuuna-gods-of-creation/

From Umatac we continued on Route 4 to Merizo.  Since last week, we learned of two massacre sites, Faha and Tinta, in Merizo, which were commemorated events in the days before the 70th anniversary of Liberation Day   —   http://www.guampedia.com/war-atrocities-tinta-and-faha-cave-massacres/

The start of the trail to the Faha massacre site is located behind the Merizo cemetery. Larry goes by this cemetery everyday, but this is the first time he has noticed the Faha sign because it is parallel to the road. It might save money to have a one-sided sign like this, but it definitely is not easily seen when driving by. Larry learned the location of Faha by researching websites, then noticed the sign!

The Merizo cemetery was running out of space, so this is how it has been expanded.

This is the start of the Faha trail behind the cemetery. It had been recently maintained for the 70th anniversary of the event.

The trail continues for about 400 yards.

Faha Massacre Site where the Japanese soldiers killed 30 Chamorro men, who they feared might rebel.

This plague lists the 30 victims that were killed in this massacre — no one survived.

TWR Guam’s antennas are only about 1/2 mile from Faha. In the valley below are Priest’s Pools, where we will go next.

We took the road up the hill to the residential area southeast of the transmitting site and took this photo that shows all the TWR towers. The most interesting part of the photo turns out to be the little ‘tent-like’ structures in this side yard. A rooster was tethered by his foot to each ‘tent’. Since chickens are usually allowed to roam all over the island, we believe these must be someone’s fighting gamecocks. Guam is mentioned as one of the countries that has facilities to watch cock fights — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cockfight

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cockfight

There are no signs indicating the location of Priest’s Pools.  We found out how to get to them by researching websites.  Turn off Route 1 in Merizo by the church and drive up the hill (towards TWR) and turn left onto the second street.  Drive to the end of the street and park.

This old street sign (Fanugmakan Pale’) is at the start of the trail to Priest’s Pools.

The trail is mostly on open grassland and is obviously well used. We met at least three 4-wheelers in the 1/4 mile walk. The pools are only 1/4 mile down the hill from the TWR towers.

There are several pools at Priest’s Pools. Can you see the small waterfall? There are several small water falls and more pools behind the photographer.

These other picturesque pools, at Priest Pools, are just downstream from those in the previous photo.

http://hubpages.com/hub/Priest-Pools-Hike-Best-Hikes-in-Guam-USA

Shortly we got to Priest’s Pools, four boys arrived and began jumping into the deepest pool.

The boys had a waterproof video camera with them and were using it a lot. Their videos might already be on youtube.com.

On the walk back to the car, we saw this flower. It is not on the chart that we have of Guam’s wildflowers.  We think it might be an introduced, invasive species called rattleweed.

Driving south in Merizo on Route 4 we noticed a hand written sign with an arrow to “Tinta”.  Thinking this might be a sign pointing to the Tinta massacre site, we turned left, just past the Shell station, onto Espinosa Ave.  About 150 yards down this road we saw a similar sign pointing to the right.  This was a driveway passing an abandoned house on the left and ending at the garage door of a newer home, that had a ‘For Sale’ sign on it.  We felt uneasy about going into someone’s driveway.  After someone at the Shell station confirmed that this was indeed the right place, we returned and parked in the front yard.  We could see a trail leading off to the left of the house and followed it.

The trail had recently been mowed for the 70 anniversary commemoration. We walked past a grazing cow tethered to a long rope, and across a small creek [“Papatguan River”] using stepping stones At one point there was a huge mud hole across the trail. Virginia was wearing sandals and had to turn go back, but I managed to get across without getting my feet wet.

After the mud hole, about 1/2 mile into the hike, the trail started up a small rise.

Just a little further up the trail, is the Tinta Massacre Site with its memorials.

This memorial lists the names of those who died and those who survived the massacre. “Buck” Cruz, the former mayor of Merizo, commissioned both these memorials and the ones at Faha. His father Ramon Cruz was one of those killed at Tinta while “Buck” was still a young boy.

On the way home, we drove past “Buck” Cruz’s home on the far south end of Merizo. Buck was the mayor of Merizo for many years between 1979 and 2000.

Interesting history – “Merizo [was] the first village on Guam to be liberated, and the only one to be liberated by the Chamorros themselves”.  http://guam.stripes.com/travel/get-know-guam-merizo

When I mentioned that the tachometer cable for the Yanmar tractor needed to be almost 1/2 inch longer, Jim decided to try his MIG welding skills, before trying to obtain and modify the crimp-on extension mentioned yesterday.  I was impressed that Jim was able to accomplish this without melting the tiny end of the cable off.

My job was to slowly and carefully grind the end back down to size making sure its cross-section was perfectly square.  The standard dimension is about 0.100″ square.  Upon getting it down to about 0.103″, it would just begin to slide into the tachometer connection.  It was decided to leave it slightly oversize.  Maybe it will not wear out as quickly.  This is what it looked like when it was ready to install:

The repaired tachometer cable is now ready for try out.

The tractor was started and the tachometer worked, and continued working!

In the process of searching for a replacement tach cable, I discovered a valuable piece of information and passed it on to Mike and Jim. The John Deere 1050 tractor is the same as the  Yanmar YM330D, except for the sheet metal (for the dash and engine cover).  John Deere actually had Yanmar, a Japanese company, make the 1050, and some other models, for them.  This might be useful to know when it comes to getting replacement parts for the Yanmar.

Yanmar YM330D tractor used for cutting the tall grass on the TWR Guam transmitter site.

Shortly after we arrived, MIke asked me to look at a PA (power amplifier) coil that had been removed from the HC100 (100,000-watt shortwave transmitter we built in Elkhart).  The spare inductor had been installed in its place, when they found some metal particles under this inductor, which indicated excessive wear somewhere.  Because the inductor was heavy and on the floor in a very confined storage area, I asked Mike to help me get it out and set it on a table for ease of inspection.This inductor makes just over 5 revolutions from its extreme high frequency end to the extreme low frequency end. No obvious excessive wear could be found on either of the two rollers, nor on the coil where contact is made.  In fact, the silver plating was still in good condition in all the contact areas.

It was found that it did take extra torque to turn the coil in a couple of places.  Also noted that the contact rollers were not riding parallel to the coils of tubing in places.  I decided to document the relative information in steps of 1/4 turn to see if there is any pattern to the anomalies.

This is the worst case of the roller not running parallel to the coil.

Near the end of the work day, it was determined that the problem of extra torque was caused when the idler rollers, that keep the contact rollers centered in the coil, contacted and began to push out on the inside diameter of the coil windings.

The idler rollers are the smaller white rollers seen here.

To have something on record, I wrote up a report to attach to the dual 15 volt regulator that was worked on yesterday.  This way if someone else decides to attempt a repair, they will know what has already been done.

The tractor, a Yanmar YM330D, used for mowing the grass would not start.  After charging the battery, it was started and we found that the alternator was not working.  Mike and I wondered where the regulator for it was located and Jim told us it was inside the dashboard.  Upon opening it, a rat’s nest was found and three wires to the regulator had be chewed apart, with some of the wire missing.  After reconnecting the wires, the alternator began working again.

The wiring to the tractor’s regulator, after the repair.

The remains of a fuse holder that had been shorting to ground — I put heat shrink tubing on some bare wires to prevent further shorting. After purchasing a new fuse block, it should be easy to get all the lights working again.

Thinking that it was an electrical problem, Mike mentioned that it would be nice to have the tachometer and hour meter working again,.  After checking, it was discovered that the tach/hour meter is all mechanical, except for a light for night use.  Disconnecting the tach cable, the square end that fits into the tach was found to be rounded.  Jim repaired the tip with silver solder.  When the tractor was started, the tach worked — for a couple of seconds!  The square tip on the cable appears to need lengthening.

When something like this happens, I am one to look for solutions and found that Dorman makes a square end that can be crimped onto a cable to ‘renew’ the end.  It would take some modification to make it work, but might be worth consideration.  Dorman HELP products are available at auto parts stores and the Napa stores on Guam are on Dorman’s list of distributors.

Jim and Joel completed the first connection from an antenna switch to the overhead lines, which will eventually be connected to an antenna.

First connection from an antenna switch to an overhead line.

I thought there was a better photo with Jim and Joel, but found that the photos were foggy!  I then realized that the lens had fogged over, due to having just brought the camera out of the air conditioned building into the high temperature, high humidity environment.

Interesting effect of a fogged camera lens.

Late this evening, we learned that our trip to Swaziland for the 40th anniversary celebrations has been officially approved.  There are still a couple of details to be worked out before purchasing the tickets, which needs to be done while the prices are still reasonable.

Sorry — no photos in this blog entry!

I drove our Highlander to work today and took Joel.  Virginia, Joanna and Kathy went to town in Joel and Joanna’s car to do some shopping.

Someone said there was a problem with the solar array layout from yesterday, so we verified that the layout was OK.

Mike, Jim and Joel drove to the north end of Guam to purchase materials for continuing the antenna switch matrix connections. Providentially, they were in town at the same time and location as the ladies, because their car refused to start.  After a couple of attempts, Joel got it started.  It probably had intermittent contacts in the starter solenoid, as it has worked fine since.

I had been invited to got to town with the other men, but decided to stay in case the contractor came to dig the holes.  He had laid out an extra row of holes to allow some adjustment in the location of the array.   Someone needed to stay to let him know TWR’s preferred final location of the array.

All the IT (Information Technology) men were in training today for a new play-out system to be used for sending programs to the transmitters.  These meetings are supposed to last for the rest of the week.

I continued working on the dual 15 volt power supply.  Found an anomaly between the bad and a good supply that indicates the problem is on an auxiliary board.  This auxiliary board has about a hundred tiny surface-mounted components, which makes it economically unfeasible to repair.

Since the above power supply is obsolete, I located some used ones on Ebay for $200.  I then began to look up parts for making a new substitute supply.  For less than $100, a new supply can be made to replace the obsolete one!  I compiled a list of suppliers of the parts for Mike to have on hand, if it is decided to use this option.

The contractor that is supposed to install the solar array came by today and marked the location of all forty holes required for installing the support poles.

The yellow dots on the dead grass indicate the location of each hole for the support poles for the solar array.  Unfortunately, they do not show up so well in the photo.  Isn’t it amazing how much better our eyes are at seeing things than a camera?!

As a carry over from yesterday, I continued to repair the second servo amplifier, which now had two bad boards.  I found a bad semiconductor device and replaced it — that board now worked.

After not finding anything obviously wrong on the second board using a meter, we decided to apply power to see if that might lead to a clue.  When placed in the transmitter, the amplifer worked fine.  What was wrong with it before?  Maybe, we’ll never know!

After this repair, I went back to trying to troubleshoot the dual 15 volt switching power supply from last week.  Found a bad power transistor, but replacing it did not fix the problem!

Refreshing Coconut Milk Drink

Virginia and Joanna went to the farmer’s market, which is held in Agat every Tuesday.  They each got a coconut for less than half the normal price.  The farmer opened it for them and even gave them a straw.  Virginia shared some with me when I got home from work.