Good progress was made today.  The transmitter assembly was completed as Dave, Marco and I made all the interconnections between the four cabinets.  This included the two large diameter copper tubes that extend the full 12 foot length of the transmitter.  These copper tubes combine the power from all the solid state modules to produce the 400,000 watts of AM power to the antenna.

Jonas and Frank connected the output of the disconnect switch to the input of the transmitter transformer.  Once the twelve 500 amp cables are run from this transformer to the four cabinets and the coax line is connected to the antenna switch, the transmitter should be ready to be switched on.

Frank and I began attaching support rods to the ceiling of the transmitter hall to serve as the cable tray for the 500 amp cables.  There will be a lot of weight suspended from the ceiling! mentioned above.

The actual switch-on will have to wait for the power company to turn on the 380 volt power to the new transmitter.  We received encouraging news today that the inspection of the 380 volt wiring for the transmitter will be done on Thursday, and not next Tuesday as had been scheduled.  After passing inspection the power company can switch on this power.

After a quick supper this evening Virginia and I walked to the beach to watch the sunset.  We then headed home right away as it gets dark quickly after sunset.

Marco and Vera invited us to coffee and tea this evening, so we had a good time visiting with them for a couple of hours.

This morning we met in the TWR Studios at 8am for staff devotions.  I am guessing there were around 30 in attendance when there are normally about 10.  One lady was there with her daughter to visit the grave of Virgil Stanley, a TWR missionary that died in a diving accident in the mid 1960s. She is Virgil’s sister and today was the first time a member of the family had been on Bonaire since then.

After devotions we went to the transmitter site.  Other teams installed the 1600 amp disconnect switch box, continued transmitter assembly and began sprucing up the old transmitter hall for the dedication ceremony scheduled for January 30.  I finished leveling the remaining transmitter cabinets and bolted them together.

Now the heavy work began–wiring the incoming cables to the 1600 amp disconnect switch, which took the remainder of the day with occasional interruptions to give advice to the team doing transmitter assembly.

We did discover that the transmitter manufacturer did not include the cable terminals to attach the cables to the transformer from the output of the disconnect switch.  There were extra connectors on the disconnect switch so these were removed to put on the transformer to terminate the cables.  Daryl and Jonas had to make some modifications to bolt these extra connectors to the copper bus bars on the input side of the transformer.

Good progress was made today, but it did seem a little warmer.  We’ll still see if we can make do without the air conditioner to sleep tonight.

 

Today we attended morning services starting 9am at International Bible Church of Bonaire.  We got there early and sat on the windward side of the church to enjoy the breeze blowing through the building.  The place was full with the regular attendees, then when a group of about 15 (that flew in yesterday for a week of helping TWR) arrived at the service the church was packed!  The pastor’s sermon seemed to us to actually be two sermons.  He started with his comments on Epiphany Day (a January 6 holiday also known as Theophany, Little Christmas, or Three Kings’ Day) which included mentioning appearances of Christ in the Old Testament.  The real sermon was titled, “This Year: Pray”.

There were a couple of rather humorous distractions during the sermon.  A tropical mocking bird landed on the sill of a high open window at the back of the church and started chirping loudly.  It was so loud that it overpower the pastor, even though he was using a PA.  At one point, he mentioned the “competition.”  Shortly after that, a donkey walked by the open windows and doors on the windward side of the building.

After the sermon, the Lord’s Supper was served.  We then stayed for adult Sunday School and viewed a video study from a series on the Holy Land produced by Focus on the Family.

We invited Marco and Vera out to dinner tonight at Captain Don’s on the waterfront, so we ate a light lunch, then spent the afternoon relaxing and working on our blog.

Just before sunset we rode with Reinstras to Captain Don’s and ate a delicious dinner while watching the sunset and enjoying the cool breeze.  Had a wonderful time of getting to know Marco and Vera better.

 

After dinner, I tried to call my mother in Colorado using my computer, only to find out something had changed and Skype would no longer work with my Firefox browser, even after updates.  Skype didn’t work on Internet Explorer either!  After an hour or so of fussing around, Virginia downloaded the Skype app onto her Kindle.  This proved successful!  Later I learned that Skype now only works on Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome browsers.  Just what I need–another browser on my old laptop with its limited disk capacity!

The cool wind made it nice for sleeping this evening, but we still kept the ceiling fan on ‘high’ for the times that there were lulls in the breeze.  Every once in a while, I could feel the curtains brush across me.

This morning I attended the monthly men’s breakfast at the international Bible Church with Marco Rienstra.  We had scrambled eggs with peppers, etc, potato patties, bacon and pancakes that were prepared by David Peterson.  The breakfast was followed by a thought provoking Bible study on Sola Scriptura contrasting general revelation of God (Psalm 19 and Romans 1:19-20) with the special revelation of God in His Word.

Virginia went out to breakfast at Illys with Vera Reinstra and had cappuccino and a bagel.  The cappuccino also comes with a tiny ice cream cone attached (and dripping in the heat!).

I took a two hour nap around midday, while Virginia did some reading.

 

 

 

We then shopped in the afternoon for food at Bonaire Warehouse Supermarket.  They have quite a large selection of food from the U.S. and Holland.  The Holland brands are typically cheaper (only about 50 to 100% higher than in Indiana).  This is OK as long as you can read Dutch or the pictures on the packages are recognizable!  If instructions are needed to prepare the food, that becomes another factor in what to buy.

Just before sunset, we took a long walk along the road going north.  There was an old road that continued along the shore line, but in recent years a detour was made to make room of a new upper class housing development.  We walked along the ‘closed’ old road, which is now becoming overgrown with thorn bushes.  In places we could only walk single file.

 

 

 

 

There was also a rugged path down to the beach, where we could observe the sun setting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After dark, one of the neighbors set off some fireworks for our listening pleasure!  High today was in the mid 80sF so we were again able to sleep comfortably with the ceiling fan on high speed.

This morning I drove to the transmitter site alone as Marco takes Fridays off. He is a retiree from Holland and volunteers to work at TWR. I arrived at the gate a few minutes early and had to wait for someone to open it. While waiting I noticed a small yellow bird that kept momentarily landing on the passenger side rear view mirror. Every time it saw me it took off, but it kept coming back. So I grabbed the camera and waited. The photo is not the best, because it was into the sun.      [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOlfg-657Q4]

After devotions at 8am, we began to move the four transmitter cabinets for the 400,000-watt AM transmitter into position. The plywood covers had already been removed, but each cabinet had been wrapped in heavy plastic sheeting, then 1″ sytrofoam sheeting and then wrapped in plastic film, which all had to be removed. By noon, all the units weighing about 800 pounds each were moved into place onto their concrete pad.

Since all the other missionaries went home for lunch, Dave Pederson took me to his home. He lives next door to the TWR duplex. We had quesadillas for lunch. This was even better than the PBJ sandwich I had taken for my lunch. (When the large team is here next week there will be plenty of people staying for lunch at the site)

After lunch we continued to follow the Nautel installation instructions and install items including an antenna ground switch and stiffeners on the tops of the cabinets.

 

 

 

At the end of the day, we began to start leveling the cabinets on their not perfectly level pad and managed to get two of the four cabinets bolted together. We will not be working at the site tomorrow (Saturday).

During the day, Virginia helped Vera clean the duplex and did some shopping.

For supper, we had rice with meat and peanut sauce left over from the meal that Reinstra’s prepared for us last night.

Tonight, the breeze was not as strong as last night so we set the ceiling fan to high speed and still did not need to use the air conditioner.