Jonas, Lionel and I were the only ones at the site for devotions. Benny is off for two weeks vacation, so attendance is down a lot from last week!
This morning I spent most of my time in the air conditioned 100kw transmitter hall. I emailed Jim to have him verify what he needs to complete the rest of the air conditioner installation for the 400kw transmitter hall and phasor room.
The list of things to order, for the shipment from Niles, MI, was revised based on stock-on-hand and additional items that seem to be added each day.
Research was then done for sources, and prices, of the relays and contactors that Jonas specified for the tower lighting and antenna tuning unit cooling fans. We plan to order these items tomorrow once the financial arrangements are in order.
I drove back to the duplex for lunch and a short 15 minute nap with my feet raised. This, and spending more time in air conditioned rooms, seems to be helping the swelling in my feet and ankles.
Virginia informed me that the internet was not working. When I checked, there were no lights on the router. If fact, there was no electricity at all in the other half of our duplex where the router is located. The main breaker had tripped. Just a few minutes after resetting this breaker, it tripped again. Virginia had been cleaning windows and washing their screens back of the duplex. There is an outlet near the outside faucet and some water spray had apparently gotten into the outlet’s box, as it is not weatherproof. The main breaker, which is also an earth leakage (ground fault) device to protect the whole house, was sensing the electrical ‘leakage’ in that outside box. After the second reset of the breaker, it remained ‘on’. Apparently, the outlet had dried out, but there was still no internet connection.
On the way back to the site, I noticed that the ship that was at the salt pier this morning was now being loaded. The ‘harvesting’ of salt that was being done yesterday was halted to do the loading.
Upon driving into the site, I noticed a 40 foot container on a trailer was parked next to the building. This container contains the 600kw dummy load for the new transmitter. Another truck followed me into the site. It is specially equipped to load, or unload, containers. After telling the driver where the container needed to be placed, so that the dummy load could be easily lifted by a large crane into its final position, he transferred the container onto his truck, then moved the container to where it needed to be set onto the ground. This was all done within a period of less than 30 minutes. The container is still sealed, as it has not cleared customs yet. Hopefully, customs officials will come before the upcoming four-day Easter weekend!
After lunch an email came from Jim, so there are now more updates for the list of items to order.
This morning, I noticed that one of about 10 conduits going into the 200 amp distribution panel in the new transmitter hall was missing its lock nut. So this afternoon, I disconnected the wires going through that conduit from its 3 phase breaker, neutral and ground, then threaded the lock nut over the wires and screwed it onto the threaded connector. It sounds relatively easy, but these wires were routed behind many other wires and also tie-wrapped to some other wires. In addition, the panel was ‘live’, which required careful maneuvering!
Heading for home, I noticed a large machine on the top of the salt ‘mountains’. I drove to get a closer look and saw a large bulldozer working up there. The front-end loaders were loading salt onto the conveyor belts from the bottom of the mounds of salt, but the salt pile ‘solidifies’ enough that the salt does not slide down. This results in a high wall of salt which could collapse onto the loader, if it continues to ‘undercut’ the wall. The bulldozer works to eliminate this danger. At times, I could see the dozer sliding sideways. I wonder if the dozer operator gets hazardous-duty pay? When it was time for the bulldozer to come down, it came straight down the side of the ‘mountain’ pushing a little salt as it descended.
When I got back to the duplex, the internet was still not working, although the power was still on. I ‘recycled’ the power switch to see whether that would ‘fix’ it.
Virginia wanted to do some shopping so I drove her to Bonaire Warehouse Supermarket. We also checked out the recycle next next door to the supermarket. It was closed, since it was almost 6pm. We need to recycle a stack of cardboard boxes that were used to ship food for our team. This food had been shipped in the container of electrical equipment from Niles.
While Virginia shopped, I went to nearby China Nobo to order carry-out ‘chicken lo mein’ for two. The owner attends International Bible Church. For $9.75 we got enough food for two meals for both of us. A pretty good deal on Bonaire! At the Bonaire Warehouse Virginia found a good sized water melon for $2.49. It must be locally grown to be that low in price! My guess is that it will have seeds — we’ll soon find out. She want to make a fruit salad with it.
When we got back to the duplex, the internet was now working!