This morning before church (Saturday afternoon in the U.S.), we were able to use Skype to call directly to Larry’s mother’s phone.  Afterwards, we used used Skype to make a video connection to Allan and Joyce, and their three children who were home.  Virginia bought a computer camera before our trip to allow our grandchildren to see us this time, instead of just us seeing them.

When we arrived at Harvest Baptist Church this morning, our friend, for whom we had been looking the past two weeks, was waiting for us.  It was good to see him again after many years.  We invited him out to have lunch with us, but he had a previous commitment.

Jack and Kathy Marlowe, with whom we had chatted the previous two Sundays, invited us to their home for dinner.   Their youngest daughter Grace is still at home and attends Harvest Christian Acadamy. They showed us their small raised garden, where they are raising several vegetables.  We had fresh cucumber and tomatoes from the garden.  The key for a garden in Guam seems to be using good soil, lots of shade and plenty of water.

Jack works for Stanley Consultants, the company that is replacing some of the bridges on Guam.  Two of those bridges are on the way to the transmitting site and work on them is scheduled to start next month.  They were declared unsafe in 2005 and replacement one-lane structures were constructed which have been in use since then.

The Piqua temporary one-lane bridge that has been in use for almost ten years.

Since we were already on the north side of Guam, we decided to stop by K-mart to pick up a couple of items.  Some claim Guam’s K-mart is the world’s largest, which is technically not true, but is probably the world’s busiest!  I wonder if any other K-mart has parking on the roof like this one!  Tourists from China, Japan and other parts of Asia shop there.  There is even scheduled bus service to bring tourists from the hotels for shopping and often two or more buses are waiting near the entrance.  It is interesting to read the comments at — http://www.yelp.com/biz/kmart-store-upper-tumon  The success of Guam’s K-mart is probably due to the fact that there are no Walmarts on the island!

Guam’s K-mart — notice the railing and lights on the roof for the rooftop parking lot.

When we got home this evening, we had to make a quick trip to the Water Store.  If we were staying here longer, it would be good to get a second 5-gallon jug. [After writing this, Virginia discovered a second jug in a bottom cupboard!]

Inside the Water Store — filling our own jug.

Tonight, we managed to complete about 4 days worth of blog entries.

Although today was Saturday, it was a workday to finish packing the transmitter into the containers.  The two men from the U.S.– George and Jason — are scheduled to leave today.

The container that was offloaded into the tight spot was on uneven ground.  When the 3-ton transformer was loaded all the way in yesterday, one of the front corners lifted off the ground almost a foot.  This morning I jacked up the corner with the transformer and blocked that corner up.  This should keep the container from twisting when the transmitter is loaded into the other end.  The truck driver had warned us that, if not blocked properly to keep it from twisting, that the doors would not be able to close.

I strapped down the 3-ton high voltage transformers in this container.  A condenser and other smaller items were loaded to fill in empty space, then the top frame was loaded in followed by the transmitter itself.  We then strapped down the transmitters in both containers with wide tie-down straps.

The last things to be loaded were the two 25-foot long feedline ducts.  These were loaded beside the transmitter in the last container and strapped to the side opposite the transmitter to keep them from rubbing against the front of the transmitter cabinets..

The containers were both closed right at noon.

Jason asked that everyone get together for a prayer of dedication as these transmitters begin their journey to a new location for ministry, after serving at TWR Guam for nearly 40 years.

Virginia did some grocery shopping this morning and made some bread — good bread here costs around $6 per loaf.

I got home in time to eat my lunch with Virginia.

Allan sent me instructions via email for correcting my laptop problems.  It took me about an hour to sort through everything, but it is now working.  If there is a next time with the same problem, I think I could correct it much quicker.

Since the container was not available this morning, the packing of spare parts continued in earnest.

Virginia, George and Jason packing and listing spare parts that are going with the transmitters.

Over fifty large boxes of parts were brought down the stairs from the stockroom today.  Some of these boxes were then packed into open spaces in the transmitters.  Again, a list was made of the number of each box going into each transmitter to facilitate locating these parts when they are needed later.

Jason and Grant carefully pack each tube after it is removed from the transmitter. They are extremely fragile and cost about $20,000 each new.  The two newest transmitters (Thompson 250,000-watt shortwave) are in the background.

The first container finally arrived about 11am, but the shipping company did not follow instructions to have it on a special trailer that could lower the container onto the ground.  We do not have the equipment available to hoist 3-ton transformers and 3-ton transmitter cabinets five feet into the air safely, then push them into the container.

After a couple of hours trying to sort the problem out over the phone, the trailer with container was left and the driver was to come back with the properly equipped truck to do the job.

Since things had slowed down because of the container delay, I decided to the extra time to raise Transmitter 1 (TX1) onto blocks so that it would be all ready to go onto the ‘skates’ after the rollers were no longer needed for TX2.

The truck driver had not returned by the end of the day.  When the shipping company was called, we were informed that the driver would be on site tomorrow again at the same time as today!

[My computer was out of commission for a while, but, with our son’s help via email, it was possible to get it running again and back to doing our blog — Thanks, Allan!!]

With Transmitter 1 (TX1) all taken apart, today we began the final dismantling of TX2 by getting its top frame ready to come off.  Unfortunately, we can not take the frame off until the containers arrive because there is no more floor space left to put more large parts. We were able to find room to remove the tubes.

We raised TX1, weighing around 3 ton, about 4″ and put it on ‘skates’ [special rollers] then moved it to the center of the transmitter hall in preparation for moving it out of the building.

Now we removed the two feedline ducts that carried the signal from the transmitter to the outside wall of the building where it attached to the open wire feedline.  This proved a challenge because they are about 25 feet long and 15 feet above the floor, but we got it done!

The feedline duct that was removed is just in front of Larry, goes through one wall then to the outside wall about 12 feet beyond the first wall.  Overall length was about 25 feet.  For the other feedline duct we did not have the ‘luxury’ of working off the top of the transmitter, like this one, but had to work off of ladders to pull it through, then lower it to the floor.

George and his coworker, Jason who arrived today, began packing spare parts while Virginia made sure the outside of each box was numbered and labeled with what parts were inside.  She then made sure this information was transferred onto a summary sheet  This kept them quite busy all day.

Virginia making a list while Jason packs spares. Jason is from Colorado and when he found out we we also originally from Colorado, he asked “Do you ever get used to this humidity??!” Virginia simply replied, “No!!”

Although the first of two 40-foot containers was supposed to be delivered today, by mid-afternoon there was still no sign of it arriving.  It would be nice to have both containers at once, but there does not look like there is enough room to sit two on the ground at the same time and have both opening onto the concrete pad.  With the heavy equipment being moved into the container, there needs to be a firm surface for either rollers and/or a forklift considering the frequent showers that we are having.

Mike eventually called the shipping company and was told the container would arrive at 7:30am tomorrow.  Later they phoned back to say it would arrive no later than 10:30am tomorrow!