Today many different projects were worked on by various members of our team. Steve, Brian and Jake finished installing all the sheet metal ducting for delivering cold air to the phasor and transmitter hall. Jim, who had pressure tested the north air conditioning system yesterday, now vacuum pumped the system, then filled it with refrigerant.

Jim and Philip also worked on installing all the copper tubing we had available for the south air conditioning system. There is enough 7/8” tubing to complete the hookup, but more 1-5/8” tubing is needed (none available on Bonaire).

Paul and Bruce worked on wiring the UPS (uninterrupted power supply), dehydrator system for the coax lines, control lines for the switchable antenna system, four multi-conductor cables for the antenna system control and wiring for a 5,000 watt test transmitter. [I forgot to mention yesterday that our team moved the UPS from its old location to the new transmitter hall. By using a long temporary electrical connection, the UPS was out of service for only a few minutes.]

Ralph and I went for lunch and a siesta, then to Kooymans to pick up some two hole 2” conduit straps for some of the control cables. We also picked up some CFLs for the phasor room to replace LED bulbs that were mounted horizontally in a ceiling fixture. The LED bulbs work great in a vertical position, but when installed horizontally, only half of the ceiling fixture is lit up and there is a shadow to the other side of the fixture.

After changing all nine CFLs in the ceiling lights of the phasor room, Jim told me that he was ready to test the one air conditioning system.

Since WEB will not make their connection to the power room until June, we needed to run the standby generator to provide the necessary power for the condensing units. When I checked on the generator, Benny and Lionel had purchased 300 liters of diesel fuel and were just finishing filling the tank. I manually changed the large switch in the ATS to the generator, started the generator and checked voltages to make sure that all three phases were 200vac phase-to-phase and 127vac to neutral before switching on its circuit breaker. We then switched on the 800 amp breaker in the distribution panel and the 150 amp breakers for the condensing units. We then checked the voltages to all three phase at the condensing units. Because these are fed via a step-down transformer the voltages were 190vac phase-to-phase as expected.

We made sure the blower was running for the north evaporator unit (cooling coils) then switched on the condensing unit. Since the automated control wiring is not completed, a jumper was used where a thermostat would normally be connected. After a built-in delay of about 5 minutes two compressors switched on followed by the other two within about 5 seconds. Within a couple minutes the transmitter hall and phasor room began to cool down. Everyone was excited to feel the cool air, especially Jim–after almost two full weeks of very hard work on his part of the project. Most of his work was done outside in the hot sun or inside near the ceiling, which was also hot!

We let the generator and air conditioning run for about an hour at the end of the workday. Working conditions inside was so much more pleasant during that hour!

Mid afternoon, Philip, Jake and Dan, another working visitor from Atlanta, started hanging sheet rock on the ceiling of the new lab room. By quitting time they were close to half done. The work was made easier by a special lift that TWR Bonaire has that can lift the sheets of sheet rock up to the 10 foot high ceiling joists.

Steve and Phil, working visitors from Kansas and Alabama, moved high power switches into the phasor room and connected control wires to them. They then began moving in some of the very large inductors (coils). It is good to see some visible progress after all the preparation work that has been going on in the phasor room.

After work, I drove Steven, Philip, Paul, Bruce and Jake to the salt pier for our cool-down swim. No turtles were seen today.

For supper we had a chicken/macaroni casserole, beets, salad with a large variety of topping, Hawaiian rolls, crackers with jam, and cookies.

This evening, several guys wanted to go again for a swim after sunset at Coco Beach, like they did last night. Last night they had seen lobster and after hearing that lobster season was open and no license required, they wanted to catch one or two. Caribbean lobster do not have claws, which reduces the risks from catching them by hand. They only caught one small one, but are busy cooking it as I write this.