Virginia went with Joanna and Kathy to the South Pacific Memorial Park which is located in Yigo in northern Guam, just over a mile south of the entrance to Anderson Air Force Base on Route 1.  This is the location of the last battle for the retaking of Guam by the American forces.  This memorial has a more Japanese ‘flavor’ than the other memorials on Guam.

For a more extensive report see — http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/wapa/hrs/hrsf4.htm

Virginia took several photos of what it looks like today:

 

 

 

 

I helped Jim, Joel and Paul install two overhead lines above the antenna switches in preparation for starting some of the connections of the antennas to the switches.  This photo shows what was accomplished.

Virginia went with Joanna and Kathy to the South Pacific Memorial.  We plan to include her photos in a separate blog entry shortly.

The rain was heavy on the way to work this morning.  Shortly after arriving, I was able to get a decent photo of a rainbow that appeared in the southwest.

After settling into my work, I noticed an email from Virginia letting me know that the airlines had changed flight times for both legs of the return flights from her Alaska trip, resulting in only a 45 minute layover in Chicago in the evening.  Chicago is not a place for that short of a layover, especially in the evening, as this leaves no alternatives to depart Chicago until morning.  After assessing several other less than desirable possibilities, it was decided to leave things as they were.  Should she miss the flight into South Bend, I will plan on driving to get her.  That means getting back to Elkhart about 2:30 am.

After addressing the above issue, I began to document what settings were used to program the regulator that was installed yesterday.  This information was printed off and included with the regulator manual, in case it (or a replacement) needs reprogrammed quickly in the future.

Mike asked that Phil and I change a servo motor on TX 7 (Thompson 250kw shortwave transmitter) because it seemed to be having intermittent tuning problems.  When we tried to unplug the connector to the servo, it proved extremely difficult.  Eventually, we got it loose and discovered the plastic plug had melted due to overheating.  As a result, it became necessary to change the connector that plugs into the servo.  We also installed the new servo, since the other half of the connector on the old servo was also melted.  It was now established that the servo was not the problem — the burned connector was the problem.

After verifying that transmitter was now operating properly, I then replaced the part of the connector that was attached to the removed servo.

 

We learned that the tropical storm Neoguri that passed over the Independence Day weekend is now strengthening to super-typhoon status and heading toward Japan.  Last night, two men drowned off the pier in Merizo (less than a mile down the hill from the TWR Guam transmitters) when their boat capsized in the rough waters remaining from the storm.  One of these men was the Merizo mayor’s nephew.  Two others in the boat survived.

I worked with Mike this morning to determine the source of occasional momentary audio drop-offs on one of the transmitters last night.  Eventually a reset of the computer that controls that transmitter’s programming seemed to solve the problem.

Next, Mike wanted me to try to repair a failed power supply for the Thompson transmitters, which had been replaced with one from the stockroom.  Unfortunately, there is no schematic for it, which makes troubleshooting rather difficult.  Fortunately, there as a couple other working spares.

Before making any progress on the power supply, the delivery truck arrived with the support structure for the solar panel array.  Photos are below:

Some minor damage was noted on a couple of the longer mounting rails, so I took photos before they were unloaded. This photo shows the most serious of the damage, which can probably be easily repaired by TWR’s welder, Jim.

Shortly after unloading the solar array support structure, the post office called to say that the package with the regulator for the standby power supply had arrived.  This small Merizo post office is so good about informing the station when packages come in the TWR post box.

When the regulator arrived on site, I began studying the enclosed manual to determine how to set it up.  The old, now obsolete, regulator required little setup.  This one had all kinds of digital settings that required adjustment before putting it into operation.  While I researched the manual, Jim, Joel and Paul concentrated on enlarging the access hole and drilling new mounting holes in the alternator control box to accommodated the new regulator.

After installing, wiring and programming the regulator, the remaining wires and circuit breakers were properly connected.  The engine was again started and meters showed that it was generating the required 480 volts at 60 Hertz.  We then transferred the load of the site onto the engine for a few minutes for its final test.

We left the site this afternoon with a sigh of relief that there will be standby power available, in the event of a power line failure, and praising the Lord that there had been no major power failure during the time the standby was out of service, even during tropical storm Neoguri!!

After church, we decided to visit some points of interest toward the north of Guam, starting at the north-most point.  Here are some photos of our days adventure:

On the way north,  we drove over Mount Santa Rosa, the site of the last battle to retake Guam from the Japanese, then attempted to find the Yigo War Memorial.  It was on our map, but we could not find it. Quite often on Guam, there are no road signs leading the way to these places, which makes it hard for tourists like us.  We find it amazing that there are route numbers on the map, but no signs anywhere on many routes.

As we drove past the gate of Anderson Air Force Base on Route 1, it was beginning to rain.  We saw a visitors center and decided that might be a place to wait out the storm and get some useful information.  We walked in the door, saw several rows of chair, like is often found at the bureau of motor vehicles, and a clerk behind a desk.  We quickly determined that this was not what we thought, but was the check-in desk for visitors to the base.

We got to the gate for the nature refuge and Ritidian point only to find it closed to entering traffic.  The park closes at 4 pm and apparently the entry gate closes about 3 pm.  Guess we’ll have to return at another time.

Our next stop was Ypao (pronounced E pow) Beach on the south side of Tumon Bay.  It is just west of the tourist hotel section of Guam.

There are a lot of pavilions at Ypao and they were all busy because of the holiday weekend.