We had staff meeting at the TWR Manzini office this morning.  Steve Stavropoulos shared about his August trip to the U.S.  I shared about my involvement at the technology center and progress on the HC100-9 installation.

After staff meeting, Virginia and I were given a tour of the Voice of the Church (VOC) facilities on the ground floor of the TWR building.  It was amazing to watch the ‘DJ’ doing a professional job of live programing.  At the same time we saw the FM200T (one of the first from HCJB in Elkhart) with lights flashing and sitting on a prominent location behind the receptionist.  We wondered at the fact that this transmitter is the first relay in a long string of transmitters relaying programs in Siswati and English throughout Swaziland.

As a result of the various thing happening this morning, we only arrived at the transmitting site after noon.

One of the log periodic antennas with a frequency range extending down to the 90 meterband was now available to continue testing of HC100-9 down to 3200 kHz.  We started at the lowest frequency that we tested on yesterday and continued right down the bands to 3200 kHz.  In every case the transmitter came right up to full power without any adjustments required. Some adjustments, major or minor, have alwasy been required on the three previous HC100s that I have installed.  While testing at 3200 kHz (the very lowest frequency), the highest frequency channel was selected and the tune button pressed.  The transmitter came right up to power. All this has been amazing to me and especially to the TWR Swaziland staff, who have operated the other two HC100s at this location.

We hope to put the transmitter into the broadcast schedule tomorrow, as soon as the audio and remote control lines are installed from the control room.

We have experienced answers to the prayers of many, and are rejoicing in the Lord!

After correcting a couple of water leaks and several wiring errors from the transmitter reassembly, the transmitter was first switched on at about 12:15 (6:15am EDT) today.  It came right up on 9600, 9800 kHz, and the two 11 MHz frequencies and operated at 100KW.  It was at this point we realized the driver plate was not autotuning and that the driver plate current metering circuit was not functioning.  Currently we are trying to sort out these problems and suspect some more wiring errors.

ABOUT 3 HOURS LATER

We found the wiring error for the driver plate current metering.  One of the wires was not labeled correctly and when we connected it according to the schematic the driver plate current gave correct readings.  In addition the driver plate autotuning started working and we were able to autotune on all the frequencies from 9600 kHz through 17 MHz.  The presets done in Elkhart were ‘spot on’ and immediately tuned up.  The staff here were quite impressed, especially to see it tune the 17 MHz frequency without incident, even at 100kw.

We were not been able to tune frequencies below 9 MHz due to not being able to access antennas for frequencies as low as 3200 kHz.  Hopefully that can be done tomorrow.  We still need an audio line to test with audio, but everything looks promising.

There is still one more metering problem to sort out.  The driver screen current metering does not seem to be working properly.

Sunday, Oct. 12, we were able to go to the Evangelical Bible Church we attended while we lived in Swaziland.  It was such a blessing to be able to worship with our local friends.  It was wonderful to hear their singing and listen to their testimonies.  Since the pastor was sick, they had a pastor from the Congo speak.  He gave a very good sermon, but I was surprised at how hard I had to work to understand him.  We had attended Sunday School at a different church that morning and the teacher was also from the Congo.  I had to work to understand her as well.  I was afraid that I had lost my ear for hearing foreign English accents, but was glad to discover I was not the only one who had to concentrate to hear.

We were very happy to see some friends from long ago, Bruce and Carol Britton, and hear of their work in Swaziland.  They are now teaching an extensoin Bible School for the Zionist group.  The Zionists here are divided into several groups. There are the White Gown Zionests, who wear whitegowns. They do not participate in witchcraft.  There are the Red gown Zionists who practice witchcraft along with a little Bible.  In between are the blue and green gowned Zionists.  Bruce and Carol Britton hold classes on Saturday afternoon to teach the leaders of these people the Bible. They meet for 4 hours. They have 119 Zionists who attend these classes. Three of these people are the Red Gown Zionists, who are hearing the Truth and learning how to teach the Truth to their people.  In Swaziland the Red Gowns are increasing in popularity.  These are the ones who practice witchcraft.  Pray for Bruce and Carol as they minister to these people. Also pray for them as they are far away from their family. Their daughter is struggling with cancer and the prognosis not good.

We has a wonderful time worshiping with our dear friends at church.They had a nice tea after church and time to catch up on the families we had not seen for so long.

I had been having some trouble with my back since arriving in Swaziland.  I think it was mainly from the long trip in a cramped airplane seat, but I just couldn’t get rid of the pain.  I finally decided to stop by the Chemist and see if they would give me a muscle relaxant.  We stopped after church and they did have some relaxants. I took them for several days and my back is feeling much better.  I went back and got some more for my trip home.

I hope to write more and get caught up on our busy week later.

Miss you all!

Sign on the Highway

Ostrich

Saturday morning we headed  to Hlane Game Reserve.  On the way there we stopped at a little factory where they make soaps, oils and lotions from some locally grown nuts.  With one type of nut, they make lotions and oils and soap for any type of skin. The other type makes soap for oily skin.  I tried the lotion and it is very nice.  They also use the skins of the fruit around the nut to make a kind of candy which is more like dried fruit. We know from living here previously, that the Swazi’s use this fruit to make beer, but this factory  did not produce that by-product. They export their products, especially ther oil to France.  They also export to other countries.  It didn’t sound like they were making big profits yet, but had sponsers to get the business started and keep it going. 

When we got to Hlane, we spent some time driving around.  We saw some impala and an ostrich. We were a little disappointed, but went back to the camp which is near a watering hole for lunch.

Potatoes and Boerewors on the Grill

The ranger built us a fire and we were watching rhino sun themselves in the wonderfully hot sun. Stever asked the ranger where we might see elephant and the ranger said,”They are at the watering hole right now.” We turned around and there they were.  We watched them drink and bathe in the water and dirt.  We watched a baby trying to do the same thing as the grownups, but not being so coorinated. They were there for about five minutes and then left.  As we were walking through camp, Steve noticed some rustling in the bush beside us.  Steve and Larry looked and there was a Black Mamba! It is a very poisoneous snake and if one bites a person, they will die without immediate treatment and then they still may not live. It was a

Can you find the Mamba?

small Momba only 3-4 feet long, but just as deadly.

After a lunch of boerewors and potatoes cooked over an open fire, we sat in the comfy overstuffed chairs under the thatched roof building (no walls) and took a nap.

When we finally roused ourselves, we took another drive through the park. We saw more impala, a warthog, a nyala, a vervet monkey and lots of birds.

We went back to the camp watering hole. The rhinos were up and moving around, the elephants graced us with their presence again and treated us to a replay of drinking and bathing.  We also saw the backs of hippos that were submerged in the pool.  Hippos are nocturnal, so it is unlikely to see them in the day time.  The weather has been dry and most of the watering holes had no or very little water in them.  As a result we were able to easly see these animals.

Larry after naptime in the Lapha

After a wonderful day of enjoying God’s creation, We came home ate supper and went to bed.  Another day in this beautiful country.

Rhinos and Elephants at the Waterhole

Rhino and her

Larry with Kudu Horns -- What a Rack!

Virginia with Rhino Skull

Can you find five impala in this photo?

Today we had planned to go the the site to help Chuck Saunders finish the air ducting for the transmitter.  When Steve called this morning he found out the Mark Blosser was planning to help instead.  This gave us a good excuse to take the day off and we went to Hlane Game Reserve and relaxed.  We relaxed so much that each of us ended up taking short naps sitting in the soft chairs under the thatched roof overlooking the water hole.  While we were awake, we saw lots of rhinos and elephants.  Since Virginia was along and she will be writing so, I will let her tell you about it.