This morning, Joe and I discussed which of the various available options for the site security we wanted to implement, or revise. There are well over 100 program data fields and most of those have several options within those fields. We decided to leave most fields at their default settings but determined to change about 20 of them. One of the options is the ‘entry delay time’. Initially we were just going to use a standard delay. Then we discovered an option of waiting (0, x, y, or z) number of seconds after the alarm sounds to initiate the ‘call’ to report an intrusion. Our final decision was to allow a much shorter delay to disarm the system before the ‘siren’ sounded, then wait a few seconds before ‘calling’. This way, if for some reason the worker entering the building forgot to disarm the system, he would get a startling reminder when the ‘siren’ sounds to hurry and disarm the system before a ‘call’ is initiated.

After lunch, Virginia accompanied me to the site. I was able to successfully reprogram and test most of the changes to the security system. There is one problem which is presenting a major challenge to which I have not yet found the solution. When a code is being entered, if a wrong code is used (i.e. hitting a wrong digit, by mistake) the keypad locks out any further attempt to reenter a corrected code and the alarm will sound. The only way to get past this has been to power down the whole system. There has to be some simple corrective procedure, so that is on my list of things to research further tomorrow.

After work, we took a detour past Salt Pier to observe progress on loading of the salt ship. We got home with just enough time to go for a swim. It sure was refreshing after missing several days due to the rough waves. We felt cooler the whole evening.

After our swim, as we were walking on a sidewalk on our way home, I saw a small piece of ‘coral’ move. I thought, “That’s strange, neither of us kicked it!” Almost immediately and subconsciously from experience 40 years, I remembered it could only be one thing — a very small hermit crab. We picked it up and brought it home to release in another area with less traffic. It’s overall length was about one inch.

After supper, I added three blog entries with lots of photos for two of them. I am amazed how long it takes to add photos and keep a reasonably organized look.

Hermit crab

Today was a little different. This morning I went into the office and met with the Barker girls and we made some quilt shapes. They will put them together for a hot pad. It was fun, but I think it would have been easier and moreenjoyable to have better equipment. My scissors have gotten very dull and Rhonda’s scissors were no better. But we managed to cut the shapes and fold them around the paper octagons. Now to see how it finishes up.

On our way home we saw a bird eating its catch by the sea. We went around the block and took a picture. He was quite happy to have his picture snapped until I got out of the car to see if I could get closer.

As we drove by the fish market, we noticed that they had lots of fruit and even some plants from Venezuela. We stopped and bought bananas and papaya and took a picture of the ‘banana boat’ (as

we used to call them) at the wharf. We used to buy straight off the boat, but things have changed.

On our way to the site we saw a ship at the salt flats pier, so we drove the extra mile past the site gate to take some pictures. When we got closer, we heard a warning siren, which we learned later was because they were in the process of opening the huge covers over the rear hold in preparation for loading.

We checked again several hours later as were were heading home. We could now clearly see that the huge covers over the hold were folded back. The conveyor belt was running and salt was flowing into the ship’s hold using a funnel type arrangement. We assume this is so

the falling salt will not blow around under windy conditions. Unless there are conveyors inside the hold, they will need to move the ship to fill the front hold.

We were amazed to see that the loading onto the conveyor was being done by a couple of front end loaders. They loaded the salt into a hopper over the conveyor belt which evenly distributed salt onto the conveyor. We observed that the loaders were not able to load enough salt to prevent empty spots on the conveyor belt. It is going to be interesting to see how long it takes to fill this huge ship.

NOTE — To see a bigger (and in some cases, expanded) version of any of the images in this blog, just click on the one you want to see.

Tuesday morning, I was in the office doing more identification of old pictures and laying out a huge map to prepare it for mounting and display. It will be hung in the main entrance area to show the different locations of our partners, places that are reached by the broadcasts and other interesting information about TWR Bonaire.

I did see a cockroach at the office. It was dead, which is a good thing. I really don’t enjoy killing those huge crunchy things. Yuck!!!

I went to the transmitter site with Larry in the afternoon and later went shopping. The shelves were pretty empty. With the threat from Hurricane Tomas, no shipments were coming in. Even the fruit vendor was closed. One of the days when I was at the Warehouse Supermarket, I saw some lunch meat with a face on it. I did take a picture, but didn’t buy any! (see below)

While at the transmitter site we did see flamingos and wild donkeys, as well as the resident egret on the property. That was fun. It was as good as zebra and wildebeest at TWR Swaziland transmitting site.

Because of all the rain our backyard is now a swamp! We have gone from 12 inch grass to desert looking ground to three inches of water. By Saturday the grass should be growing well again, as it is already poking green sprouts through the water!

NOTE — To see a bigger (and in some cases, expanded) version of any of the images in this blog, just click on the one you want to see.

No problems with the transmitter overnight. Joe Barker and I discussed the switch from exciter A to exciter B at start up yesterday. We reprogrammed the Gentner controller to switch the carrier control unit on five minutes before switching the transmitter on to see if that takes care of the glitch.

I discussed with Joe what needs to be done now that the transmitter building security system is ready to fully arm. This can not take place until all authorized persons are assigned codes and given instructions on the ‘arming’ and ‘disarming’ of the system. We also decided to use the system’s phone notification feature which allows programming of two numbers [in case the first is not available]. We also plan to connect it to the Gentner to provide alarm capability via an alternative route.

Virginia and I came home from the office for lunch — toasted cheese sandwiches. Dutch gouda cheese is fairly reasonably priced here when purchased in ‘wheels’.

Virginia accompanied me to the site, where I began to trace the specific phone line (out of many) that we wanted to use for security. I then had to identify which was the incoming termination, then which was the ‘tip’ and ‘ring’ wire of the pair. Now I was ready to connect it to the security system in such a way that it would take over the line should it be ‘in use’. I then had to program it via the keypad with two phone numbers. We decided it should call my cell phone first.

Before testing it, the ‘siren’ was disconnected. We wanted to keep our sanity and not have the electric company people from next door running to check the alarm. I then proceeded to simulate a fire alarm. The keypad beeper went off, but no call to my cell phone. The phone line was ‘tied up’ so I knew it was trying and I could hear that a voice mail box was responding. After a bit of head scratching, I determined, to my embarrassment, that one digit of the number entered for my cell phone was incorrect.

After correcting the number, it now worked, but I could not hear a message when it called. It also kept calling over and over. Finally, I found a place in the manual where it states that the primary number is tried eight times and, if it gets no response, the secondary number is tried eight times. It also appears that this system is set up to call a security monitoring service computer, not regular phones. Since I don’t speak ‘computer’, it thinks I am not responding and kept redialing me EIGHT times. I suspect the secondary cell phone was shut off. When I listened in on the system phone line, I heard the voice mail box of that cell phone answering. No wonder the phone line, used by the security system was tied up for so long. It had to go through this process a total of 16 times!

Even though the security system is set up for calling a security company computer, it is still usable. When the security system ‘calls’, we know which line it is calling from and we’ll see this on the cell phone’s display. We should change the cell phone display to read ‘Tx site or alarm’. If there is no response to our answer, we will know the security alarm has been triggered. This will be verified when it keeps calling back persistently — eight times! This can be tolerated in the, hopefully rare, event of a real alarm.

Tomorrow, I will check to see that the secondary cell phone had 8 ‘missed calls’ [how about 16!], which will verify that everything is working correctly. Then I can look at what is required to connect the security system to the Gentner. It will probably require an interface to be designed and implemented as well as programming of the Gentner to ‘tell’ it what to do when there is an alarm. It will probably call my cell phone, but on a different phone line. It can also ‘flash’ up a message on the remote transmitter monitoring/controlling computers.

Virginia went to town to do some shopping then returned to take me home. We stayed around for the transmitter to come up and noted that there was no ‘glitch’, like there had been yesterday at start up.

In the past 24 hours, we have had about 3 inches of rain. The site is mostly underwater again. The air is cooler, but more humid. It is amazing how cool 80F feels after the last three weeks!

We went for a walk along the seaside again tonight. The waves were not as high as last night, so we will probably begin swimming again tomorrow.

The transmitter ran great over the weekend with no cutbacks.

I reviewed some of the proposed projects and their priorities with Joe Barker. The number one project is still the installation of the UPS for the transmitter site and moving the temporary one there back to the studio, where it belongs. But the UPS is not expected to arrive until next week, so the security system is currently the priority.

At the site, I concentrated on the motion sensors. The ones in the office area and transmitter room seemed to be functioning properly. Another one in the old transmitter room was not sensing movement, not the one in the work area at the back. They are mounted quite high on the wall and their beams were aimed high. I opened them and aimed the beams as far as they would go downward. They now began to detect, even at the far side of the rooms, but I did notice they did not work as well when walking directly toward the detectors.

Reading up in the manual for the detectors, I found that they detect motion most effectively for movement parallel to the wall they are mounted on. This checked out to be true, so we may want to review whether there might be a better place to mount them. Of course this would involve rerouting and extending the wiring for them.

Before leaving, I was able to partially activate the security system for the first time in months, if ever. I definitely know more about the system after working with it for a couple of days.

After getting home, Virginia and I decided to walk over to see if the sea had calmed enough for a swim. It was still pretty rough, so decided to go for a walk along the seaside into town.

Just as we started, the transmitter ‘called’ my cell phone to inform us that something was amiss. We quickly went back home and verified the radio signal was OK. I fired up the computer and found that the transmitter was on Exciter B instead of A, which was an indication that something with turning ‘on’ the carrier control had caused the switch. I was able to remotely switch back to exciter B. Will do some changes tomorrow to see if something can be done to avoid this in the future.

Now that things were settled down, we returned to our walk. In several places where the sidewalk is close to the shore, the rough waves had deposited coral pieces on the walkway. Waves were still splashing occasionally onto the walkways, but the piles of coral were indication that Hurricane Tomas had some effect resulting in the waves previously being even higher.

Getting to bed quite late tonight after putting photos into two blog entries before posting them.