Today, I rode to and from work with Joel, while Virginia used ‘our car’ to take Joanna to the Payless Supermarket —http://www.paylessmarkets.com/ — for grocery shopping.  Here is a weekly sales ad to compare with prices on the mainland — http://www.paylessmarkets.com/weekly-ads/june-06-2014-ad  The closest Payless store is just over a mile northeast of our apartment on Rt 5 just off of Rt 2A.huge

The two old Harris SW100s (100,000- watt shortwave transmitters) that were installed in the late 1970s are now being used as standby transmitters and are only used if one of the three more efficient, newer transmitters has a major failure. They have not been utilized for some time, and the water needed to be changed in preparation for some test transmissions coming up next week. With Mike’s help, that was our first task of the day.

While testing the circuit boards yesterday, the power switch on the lab DC power supply failed in the ‘on’ position.  My second task of the day was to replace that switch.

Charlie sent me some information from Elkhart that will be helpful in investigating some discrepancies in the THF filter of the HC100 here.  I was able to successfully download this information for future reference.

In the afternoon, I helped with getting the second sliding door onto its new track and rollers, then assisted with alignment of both doors.  It is no longer a battle to open and close these huge doors!

Larry carries the 5 gallon jug that he filled with reverse osmosis water disinfected with ultra-violet light. The cost is $1.50 per jug, which is a lot cheaper than bottled water.

After work this evening, we made our first trip to the Water Store.  Most homes have a 5 gallon jug of purified water for drinking.  It sits upside down in a crock pot with a dispenser spout on the side.  It is not chilled, or heated, like a lot of office dispensers are that use the same 5 gallon jug.  It looks like 5 gallons of water will last us four or five days.

I rode to work with Joel and Joanna Harp who live in the middle apartment below us.  They are also short-term with TWR Guam and have been married for only 6 months.

This morning, I did additional troubleshooting of circuit board from yesterday and narrowed the problem down to a tiny tantalum capacitor which was slightly discolored.  Replacing it corrected the problem.

Larry removes ICs from the circuit board trying to isolate its fault.

I then began troubleshooting of another faulty board (the same kind) but could not isolate the problem, which is not a capacitor.  An obsolete integrated circuit has been ordered from a surplus electronics dealer in China.  After it arrives, further progress can be made.

In the afternoon, I helped Jim, Joel and Paul with installing new rollers and rail for the huge sliding doors on the shop end of the transmitter building.  These doors are about 16 feet tall by 14 feet wide. Only one of two sliding doors was completed today.

Since it was necessary to get the door done before leaving (to lock up the building) we left about 30 minutes later than normal.  Joanna had taken their car home earlier, so I caught a ride with Paul.

Virginia and I were supposed to meet for dinner at 6 pm with Daryl and Gaynelle at Ruby Tuesday at the north end of the island.  Since we left the site about 5pm, I was afraid that we would be late.  I quickly changed at home and we rode with Joel and Joanna, since they were also invited and have the more fuel efficient vehicle — a Toyota Echo like the one we have in Elkhart. We made it to dinner 5 minutes before 6:00!  Phil and April also met us there.  We had a great time of talking with Daryl and Gaynelle on a more personal level.

I think this will be our last fancy dinner out for a while.  Dining out typically costs 50 to 100% more for the same menu items than in Elkhart.  We did find out that a MacDonalds near us has about three items on their $1 menu.  Hope to say more about this in a future post, as this MacDonalds is quite unique.

After the wiring changes yesterday, I was able to complete the move of a power supply for a LED strobe light that is turned on outside the building anytime a transmitter is on the air.  This is used as a warning any time high voltages are present on the feedlines and antennas.

Red arrow points to black power supply. It is mounted with the power indicator facing down so that it can be seen from below.

At noon the staff, including wives and children, was invited by Daryl and Gaynelle Renshaw to lunch at the Jamaican Grill — http://www.jamaicangrill.com — at the north end of Guam where the major stores are located.  Daryl and Gaynelle are home-based in Singapore where Daryl serves as the Asia Regional Support Services Leader and Gaynelle serves as the Member Care Coordinator for TWR’s missionaries in Asia.  They are visiting with the TWR Guam staff for a few days.  It took about 30 minutes to get from the transmitting site to our apartment, where I freshened up and picked up Virginia, then another 30 minutes to get to the Jamaican Grill.  There we had a great time of fellowship with the Renshaws and all the staff.

After lunch, we returned to the site and I attempted to repair one of the spare analog-to-digital metering boards for the Thompson 250,000-watt shortwave transmitters.  I was told that the 5v to +/-15 v converter was bad, so I installed a substitute converter, since the part originally used is obsolete.  Unfortunately, it did not correct the problem and because the day shift was ending, this became a project to tackle tomorrow.

Today, Virginia moved our things into ‘our apartment’ which is located in Agat, Guam on Route 2 about 200 feet south of its intersection with Route 12.  We are across the road from the ocean, but because our apartment is on the second floor, we have a good view of the ocean.  The sunsets should be amazing! If this link — http://goo.gl/maps/LRofz — works right, our white roofed apartment will be under the point of the green arrow.

Virginia is standing by our apartment on the far right of the top level. The other two apartments are vacant at the moment. The typhoon shutters are closed on our bedroom in an attempt to keep it cooler. The Toyota Highlander that we are using is the vehicle on the far right.

For reference, TWR’s transmitting site is at — http://goo.gl/maps/4vSra

At 7am I left for the transmitting site with Paul and started work at 7:30am.  Devotions are at 8:00am and usually last 15 to 30 minutes, but today the Director of Asia Region for TWR was here and spent a couple hours talking about new developments within TWR.

After the meeting, I helped Mike Sabin, the chief engineer, tune up the HC100 on an out-of-band frequency that he had been unsuccessful in tuning.  This frequency will be tested later this week for use in broadcasting in cases of emergencies, such as major typhoons, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, etc.  This is being done in cooperation with a large network of stations in many countries.

This afternoon, Mike gave me an inside tour of the Thomson 250,000-watt shortwave transmitters.

Later, I began to do some rewiring to facilitate a major move of the old Harris transmitters that should be taking place next week.

Larry making wiring changes about 20 feet above the floor.

It was nice to come home to our own place this evening, and supper prepared by Virginia!

We attended Harvest Baptist Church — www.hbcguam.net — this morning, which is about a 30 minute drive from where we are staying in Santa Rita.  It is to the north and located on the south side of the airport.  We did not find the former supporter today.  One of the members stated that he has been experiencing “health issues,” but that he is usually there.  Maybe we will try again next Sunday, but doubt that we will drive that far every Sunday as there are so many other good churches much closer.

First time visitors at the church are given welcome bags.  Each of us, got a nice insulated drinking cup with lid and straw.  There was also a Hershey bar in each bag, but with the heat they were in a liquid state.  A few minutes in the freezer when we got home restored them to being edible, versus drinkable!

On the way home, we stopped by a couple of the many war memorial parks that are on Guam.  Our last stop was at the T. Snell Newman Visitor Center — http://www.nps.gov/wapa/t-stell-newman-visitor-center.htm —  just outside the navy base, which gives a great timeline of the history of Guam and especially the events from 8 December 1941 (when Guam was invaded by the Japanese only a few hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor) to 21 July 1944 (Liberation Day in Guam when American forces began to retake Guam) to 10 August 1944 when Japanese resistance ended.

We only saw a few of the displays before closing time, so will go back later to see more.  This really shed some light on the significance of the various other war memorials we have already seen and many others we hope to visit while here,