The rainy season has definitely come to Guam, but we are still trying to visit the sites whenever possible.

Since this is our last weekend here, this is our last chance to visit the Village of Inarajan at the far south end of Guam.  This website gives excellent background information on the village — http://www.guampedia.com/inarajan-inalahan/

Some of our photos are lacking in clarity as a result of the very rainy weather:

Bear Rock at Agfayan Bay about 1/2 mile SW of Inarajan on route 4– the Agfayan boat ramp is in the foreground.

Salaglula Pools near Inarajan are natural pools. These are located midway between Bear Rock and the village.  Last time we drove by (also during rain) there were children diving from the high platform at the light pole.

Chamorro Cultural Village is centrally located in Inarahan. It is well worth the $10 ($6 for residents) to take the tour.

This two room house was home to a family with 16 children. The addition on the back was added later and is still occupied.

Demonstrating the making of salt from sea water.

Normally the boxes of salt would be sitting in the sun to dry, but not this day!

Making quick work of husking a coconut.

Using the same husking tool to crack the coconut open by whacking it around the sides.

Virginia drinks the coconut milk. The edges were amazingly straight considering how it was cracked open.

This tool is used to remove the ‘meat’ from the coconut.

Showing some of the products made for the coconut trees.

Removing the fiber from the bark of wild hibiscus to make rope.

Winding the strands of rope tightly together.

Striping pandanus leaves for making finer quality, and longer lasting, products.

Community oven — a baker did the baking as members of the community brought their meals to be cooked.

These Chamorro buildings are made of bamboo and banana plants.

Although rustic, we are sure these restrooms are very modern compared to the Chamorro’s original facilities!   The plants in the foreground are pandanus palm.

Adjacent to the Chamorro Cultural Village are these Baptist Church ruins, supposedly built in 1925.   Now only the front wall remains.

The most I could find about the history of this church was at this website —

http://paleric.blogspot.com/2011/03/inarajan-baptist-church.html

Adjacent to the Baptist Church ruins is this statue depicting the legend of Chief Gadao.

For a readable copy of the poem engraved on the plague —

http://ns.gov.gu/gadao.html

For a summarized version of the legend —

http://chiefgadao.tripod.com/id1.html

On the way home we stopped by Talofofo Bay, about a fourth of the way up the west side of Guam:

A few surfers were enjoying the waves at Talofofo Bay.

Looking down on Talofofo Bay and the surfers — can’t you see them?!

Looking towards the inlet to Talofofo Bay

We passed Talofofo Cave returning home, but decided it was too wet to stop.  Passing through the village of Talofofo, we joined up with the Cross Island Road (Rt 17) to complete our day’s trek.

I helped Mike with a couple of transmitter problems:

1.  TX6, one of the Thompson 250kw transmitters, had a  trip off last night due to low water flow.   The limit switch seemed to be set a little too sensitive and was readjusted.

2. TX5, the HC100 100kw transmitter, had a bad module.  The transmitter can operate normally with up to four faulty modules, but it is good to repair them when there is a break in transmissions.  The main switching IGBT (transistor) was shorted, so I replaced the IGBT and installed the module back into the HC100.

The HC100 module has been repaired and was tested on the module test set before returning it to service.

There is quite a bit of technial information on my computer that might be valuable for TWR Guam to have.  Since the time of our departure is only a few days away, I spent a few hours sorting through that information and transferring the most helpful information to TWR Guam transmitter site’s technical files.

The trucking company called to inform us that the containers would not be picked up today, because there had been too much rain.  They thought the risk of getting stuck on the dirt roads at the site.  They were basing their assessment on the rain they were seeing on the north end of Guam.  Mike informed them that there was no rain on the south end of the island.  Unfortunately, it was too late for them to change their plans for the day.  We wonder what Monday will be like after an anticipated rainy weekend?

If the trucking company waits much longer, they might not be able to find this trailer that they parked at the transmitter site.  One of the two Matson containers to be picked up is in the background.

Our morning started off with a Skype conference meeting with the Human Resources department at TWR Cary headquarters.  There were people from about 5 different locations involved in this meeting.  I continue to marvel at what can be done using today’s technology!

After the meeting, I continued to work on the adapter to connect the VIM probe to the balun.  This required some lathe work to make everything fit together.

All the parts for assembling the connector, except for one — I still had to turn a plastic spacer on the lathe to hold the parts snugly together. The lathe was also used to make the ring in this photo and to shorten the other end of the connector to make sure the probe fit to the correct depth into its ‘socket’.

The spacer made on the lathe is being held in place here by the ring. Notches were made on the inner diameter of the ring to allow it to be tightened (or removed) using circlip pliers.

After the reducing coupling for copper pipe is pressed onto the connector, the adapter is complete. The probe can now be connected to the balun without danger of damaging the fragile probe tip.

The Vector Impedance Meter and balun were now tested using the 300 ohm load. The readings were correct from 1 to 24 MHz. We can now be confident in the readings when the antenna switch matrix is finally measured to verify whether its impedance is correct.

We learned that the two containers, with the old transmitters, are supposed to be loaded onto a ship on 30 July.  This means they should be picked up soon — preferably before this weekend’s anticipated rain.

The proofread copy of our August McGuiReport was returned to us, so I took a few minutes before work to make the suggested corrections and update our travel plan information, now that our air tickets have been purchased.

My first task of the day at the transmitter site was to document what was done on the PA inductor yesterday, and outline what still needed to be done, then submit this information to Mike.  Hopefully, he can have the final improvements done to the coil, once the newer design of leaf springs arrive.

Mike wanted me to verify that TWR Guam’s vector impedance meter (VIM) was measuring correctly.  This needs to be done to insure that it is ready to use when it becomes time to verify that the antenna switch matrix impedance is acceptable before putting the matrix into service.

The probe of the meter has a very fragile tip, which is vulnerable to bending, or breaking.  These tips are obsolete and very expensive to replace, if one can even be found.  I was looking for a special connector that would protect the tip and connect directly to the N connector on the balun.  [Since the transmission lines are unbalanced and the meter has a balanced probe, it is necessary to use a balun to get accurate measurements.]  TWR Swaziland has this same model of VIM and it came with a kit of special connectors.  Unfortunately, the special connector that I was looking for could not been found and no one was aware that there had ever been one.

After a bit of searching, I managed to find some parts to make a special connector using a type N cable connector and other parts in the transmitter stockroom and in a back room with plumbing fittings.

The first part found in the plumbing stock was a 3/4 to 1/2 reducer for rigid copper pipe. I was amazed — the large end was a perfect press fit over the N connector and the smaller end was a perfect sliding fit over the outside of the probe.

This gives some idea of how the special connector will fit together.

The next challenge was to make a contact for the tip of the probe.  I remembered the connector pins that we replaced on the servo motors.  One of these mated perfectly to the probe pin.  The solder end of the center pin of the N connector, that is usually soldered to the center conductor of the coax cable, was then enlarged slightly — just enough for the connector pin (used for the servo motor) to be pressed into it. [Hope to have photos of this in our next blog entry.]

By now, it was quitting time, so we’ll plan to finish this tomorrow.

I did two projects after arriving at our apartment.  The balcony walkway on our apartment tends to flood, especially when rain comes from the west.  I managed to get two of three drains unplugged earlier, but the third one (nearest our door) seemed to be blocked with cement,  It was probably never opened after the concrete forms were removed.  I brought home a long punch this evening.  After a couple taps with the hammer, a 1″ long plug of cement popped out and the puddle of water drained quickly.  No more need to wade out of our apartment!

The second project was replacing the ceiling fan light switch in the second bedroom, where we do all our computer work.  The light switch had gone bad, so we had picked up a replacement switch while in town on Sunday.  After using a table lamp for the past week, It was nice to have plenty of light again!

Here is a photo of the beautiful rainbow we saw arching over the transmitter site when we arrived this morning:My goal for the day was to improve the performance of the PA inductor that I inspected on Friday.  One of two thin shims was removed under one of the idler roller carriers.  The idler rollers now only touched slightly in one spot and the drive shaft of the inductor turned much easier.

This is the shim that was removed resting against the carrier from under which it had been removed.

The plastic splined drive shaft is supposed to move in-and-out freely, but was too tight.  It is supposed to be just tight enough to not allow backlash when changing direction.  Absent a milling machine to slightly widen the slot in the spline, I tried a file, and sandpaper with little success.  Evently, I scraped it with the blade of my pocket knife.  It was a slow, tedious process, but it did the job!

The white plastic drive shaft, at the left bottom of the photo, pulls out about a foot further than seen here and needs to slide easily with no backlash when rotated.

This evening we took a step of faith and purchased air tickets for our month-long trip to Swaziland starting in mid- October.