After all the work done on TX3 yesterday, it performed well last night.  After the broadcasts this morning, the driver tube removed yesterday was reinstalled.  It is believed that the only problem for all of the chaos yesterday was due to the bias supply wire with an intermittent connection.  A test transmission revealed no problem with the driver tube.

Graham and I set up a digital oscilloscope to capture the filament voltage of TX3 during various ‘turn on’ scenarios.  This information revealed the reason for a problem experienced when switching the filament from what the transmitter thinks is ‘quarter power’ to full power.  The computer does not ‘know’ the quarter power feature in TX3 has been disabled.  As a result, occasionally the filament circuit breaker trips and now we think we know why.

While we were doing this, Salema and Sifiso (a Swazi intern) discovered a water leak on TX1 and it appeared to be from the same place as the leak Graham and I ‘repaired’ last week.  I gave them instructions on how to remove the four back doors and top trim to get access to the area of the leak.  It was discovered that the leak was coming from the top seal of one of the radiator tubes located just above the fitting we ‘repaired’.  This time the leak was discovered immediately after shutdown and the water drops were still running down, instead of just a puddle of water being found.  Swaziland does not have the tool to remove this tube to replace the seal.  Since it is a slow leak, and not under pressure, silicon sealant was used in an attempt to stop the leak and a pan was placed under the radiator to collect any drips before they can cause damage to the electrical components below.  TX1 has been in service for 21 years.

We had the interns, Jonathan and Samuel over for supper this evening.  After supper, Klaus came by to show Samuel, a computer major, the ‘hub’ located at Singing Pines where the internet signals are received via a link from the transmitter site and distributed to the five houses via fiber optic cables.  Our phones also use this internet connection.  Fiber optics are being used because lightning has destroyed previous systems.  Lightning storms are very frequent and severe here in Swaziland and Singing Pines is on the top of a hill.