I received a call this morning about 6:30 asking whether I could leave in 10 minutes to drive the mini-bus from the office to the site.  Salema, who usually drives it, had called in sick and Klaus and Graham had been called out late last night for an intermittent transmitter problem.  So this morning, I left the house without shaving or a warm shower.

I was responsible for the morning devotions.  All others present were Swazis, so was glad that Sibonginkosi was able to translate for me.

It was 48F at the transmitter site at 8am. I spent a good part of the day writing up several reports that have been requested from me.

After the morning broadcast, TX1 was opened up to try to determine what was causing problems last night.  Two slight water leaks were found.  Either one could have caused the problem, so the leaky connections were tightened.

Further work was done on TX3 trying to get it to work on 17.8 MHz.  I have noticed that the Driver Grid inductor tuning is at its limit, so decided to turn it by hand just past that limit.  This was successful, and the RF drive problem has been remedied.  It is possible to operate the transmitter on full power now.  When audio was applied, it worked fine at 75kw, but would trip off with PA Reflected Voltage too high.  The balun capacitors are at their limit, and probably not allowing tuning that could reduce the PA reflected voltage.

The transmitter was tuned to its lowest frequency to see how far it is from the lower limit.  There is enough room for adjustment to take care of the Driver Grid tuning, but not for the Balun Capacitor Tuning.  There must be some other way for taking care of the balun tuning limit.

Tonight, we have been trying to book accommodation for one night at Kruger National Park for July 6, but it looks like everything is full — school holidays?  Out of hundreds of possibilities, we only found two bungalows available, but the on-line reservations would not go through.  An on-line form has now been submitted.  Maybe that will work!

Thankfully, tonight the house seems a little warmer. The thermometer reads 67F which is a couple degrees higher than last night.  Hopefully, this is a trend, but July and August are supposed to be the coldest months