Today I have been a bit lazy, trying to fight off this cold. I am feeling better, so will probably be up to the evening swim tonight. A good thing about an evening swim, is that we don’t become sunburned and it is cool and relaxing after a hot day. The water is so clear we can easily see our feet even at 5ft. and the sun down! It is beautiful.

After lunch, I took Larry to the office and then did some grocery shopping. I took some pictures inside the store for those of you who are interested. They do carry some American foods for the Americans who are not brave enough to look at the pictures and try something that they may or may not

recognize. They are also more convenient so the kitchen doesn’t heat up quite so much. So far I have not given in and paid the extra money for the convenience.

This morning we discovered that the ants had found our sugar. They were on the outside of the container after a little sugar which was

there. I changed containers and then washed down the kitchen and sprayed around the windows. Will have to be a little more careful. I am so thankful that we have not seen cockroaches. They grow pretty big here and I really do not want to find one, even if my grandsons would love to see it.

We did discover that there is a snake on Bonaire. It grows to a length of 4 inches, and is only seen at dusk when it comes out to feed. It looks like a skinny worm. I have never seen one of these. I think the cockroaches might be bigger

than the snake… well maybe not quite that long, but much wider. I’d rather see the snake!

NOTE — To see a bigger (and in some cases, expanded) version of any of the images in this blog, just click on the one you want to see.

Maybe I spoke too soon! This past overnight the transmitter had two cutbacks in power to 75kw from 100kw for relative short periods of time, plus a ‘modulator protect’ alarm. After reviewing this information (plus my observation that the transmitter appeared to be over-modulating) with Joe Barker, the audio input was reduced by 0.1db. For comparison purposes, 1.0db is a barely perceptible drop in level. I also reviewed the transmitter manuals about what causes cutbacks and then tried to find, without success, the parameters that allowed its return to full power. We knew that it did, but why, in some cases, did it recover to full power within a few seconds and in other case it took a few hour?. Since this was not in the manual. I finally ended up calling Nautel, the manufacturer, who emailed this information to us. I thought about putting the information in this blog, but there are 6 different levels of cutback and 6 different recovery times. With this new information, we can now proceed with a clearer perception of what is actually happening.

I spent the afternoon at the transmitter site continuing to troubleshoot the faulty modulation module in the PA module. The manual stated to remove resistor R4 and test six different diodes. When I did this all the diodes appeared bad, so I removed them one at a time, finding each one removed was good but the remaining ones were bad. After all were removed and tested good, it appeared the manual had a misprint and that a different resistor should have been removed to do the diode test! So now I had to reinstall all the good diodes. Next step will be to reinstall the three good power transistors and replace the one bad one.

About 4:40pm, I headed to the office to pick up Virginia at 5pm, but wanted to stop by the house to do a little ‘decorating’, since it is our anniversary. Got to the office on time, barely, but Virginia was feeling lousy with a bad cold and runny nose. She said she did not feel like our usual nightly swim and instead of going out to eat, we picked up some Chinese carry out (sweet-and-sour chicken)and are at home at our ‘decorated’ table. It was very good. We both went to sleep early.

Forty years ago this day we celebrated our first anniversary on Bonaire. What a difference! The population was about half what it is now, and there were no condos, only one hotel, and fewer houses. It also was much dryer at that time. Although Bonaire is outside the hurricane belt and only has a 2% annual risk of being seriously impacted (the last one was in 1999 and passed 150 miles to the north), recent hurricanes, although passing far to the north, have caused more rain here and less wind. Also, diving, wind surfing and sailing were not as popular then. Fishermen could still live by the sea and live from their catch of the day, by eating it or selling it. Now those fishermen can no longer afford the taxes

of a “seaside home”, poor as it was, and have had to move inland. They are nearly extinct on this island. I must say we miss the old, slower, quieter lifestyle. Yes, we can buy most things in the grocery store. There is always meat. We don’t have to wait for a boat from Venezuela for some bananas, or flank steak or wait for someone to butcher a pig or goat for fresh meat. We can even buy apples for about a dollar an apple.

Yesterday, I worked in the office and fielded a few calls and sent a few people on their way when they were looking for Dutch Radio. I also went through some old photos and tried to identify faces from the past, to label them for the archives. That is interesting and brings back lots of memories. A lot of time has passed and a lot of people have been touched by the broadcasts of TWR (Trans World Radio).

Last week we heard about our Cuba broadcast. The pastor who is doing the programs keeps a map on his wall and adds pins to the areas he hears from. There was one valley he had heard nothing from and was thinking that for some reason the signal did not get in there. Then one day a person from this valley showed up at his office. He was not the only one listening. There were many in that valley listening. The pastor gave the man some literature and Bibles and he went on his way. The man began writing the pastor and when someone was able to visit the valley, discovered that this man had kept all the communication with the radio pastor, filed on shelves along with other literature sent by the pastor. There were several groups of believers who used this as their library and would come to the man’s house and study the letters and any other material he had. They also listened to TWR together. Many groups of believers were formed in this valley where, at first, no one was thought to listen. Radio still goes where no man has been to spread the Gospel. PRAY for TWR as it continues to rightly divide the Word and teach those who have no other teacher and reach those who may not have other opportunities to hear.

Yesterday, after work, I was not feeling up to our usual swim as I have been fighting a nasty cold. We did go down to the ‘beach’ (no sand) and took pictures of a beautiful sunset. Then we went by a Chinese restaurant and ordered takeout. It was very good and we thoroughly enjoyed it. When we walked into the house, Larry had picked some very pretty flowers from the yard and had a beautiful bouquet setting on the table. It

was a special evening, but I was feeling so sick, I went to bed right after dinner. I didn’t wake up until around 5:30 this morning. I think I feel a little better because of the sleep.

NOTE — To see a bigger (and in some cases, expanded) version of any of the images in this blog, just double click on the one you want to see.

Happy

Anniversary!

We love you lots 🙂

Allan, Nathan, Sam, Philip, Joshua

Joyce, Beth, Angelique, Angie

Mark, David, Andrea, Audrey, Adrian, Rachel and Megan

Praise the Lord — not even one cutback in power on the transmitter last night or this morning! The water around the antennas is drying up and it appears the bugs are going away, too.

Just before 9am this morning I called (via the internet) the Technology Center in Elkhart and the men there were waiting for the truck to arrive with the container to pack the 50,000-watt AM transmitter for Swaziland. A short time later, news came that everything was now rescheduled for 9am on Wednesday.

For the rest of the morning at the office/studio, I repaired a VCR player that was giving problems, then searched for the equipment that I needed to proceed with repairs to the spare PA Module at the transmitter site. There are lots of tools and parts here, but, especially for a new person like me, it takes a while to locate what I need.

I stopped by our house* to eat dinner with Virginia. Often she will drive me to the site so she can have a car for the afternoon, but today she had a sore throat and decided she did not want to go anywhere. Pray that she will be able to fight off what ails her!

At the site, I managed to change the crowbar transistor on the filter board between the Modulator and RF Amplifiers. That board now seems to measure OK.

While I was doing this, Benny Saragoza, back for his first day from vacation, turned down the O.D. of a 5mm deep socket to 7mm. This was the tool I needed to take the transistors off the heat sink of the RF Amplifier. Actually I was amazed that a regular cutting tool could do this to a Craftsman socket. I thought the socket material would be harder than that and had been planning to use a Dremel motor with grinding wheel in place of the cutting tool on the lathe.

I then began the process of checking the transistors on the RF Amplifier. Since there are four in parallel, I took them off one at a time. Wouldn’t you know it, the first three that were removed were OK and the fourth was the bad one! Will also need to check a few more devices on the RF Amplifier board to make sure the one transistor is the only thing that is bad.

By this time, it was almost 5:30pm when the transmitter comes on, so I waited a few more minutes and completed some log readings. I then headed home for our 6pm swim, then a light supper.

Talked to Allan, Joyce and Mark on Skype this evening. Modern technology is amazing, especially when it comes to communicating.

*For reference, our house is about 1/2 mile south of the town of Kralendijk. The office/studio is about 1-1/2 mile north and the tranmitter site is about 6 miles south. Use this link:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Kralendijk,+Netherlands+Antilles&sll=41.621363,-85.915441&sspn=0.006657,0.01678&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Kralendijk,+Bonaire,+Netherlands+Antilles&z=14

Or go to ‘www.maps.google.com’ and enter ‘Kralendijk, Netherlands Antilles’

If you zoom in one click using ‘map’ view, you should see just south of the city center a label on the coast for Divi Flamingo Beach Resort. Our house is across the street and we use that beach for our evening swims.

If you follow the main coast road north of Kralendijk you will come to a circle (the only one on the Google map, but there are now two more). TWR’s office/studio is on the SE corner. If you zoom

in enough, there is a label for Trans World Radio Studios. On satellite view you can see the building even through the cloud.

The transmitter site is a little harder to find, but if you use satellite view and go south of town and the airport on the coast road, you will see the outline of salt pans. If you zoom in on north side of the north-most salt pan along the road, you will see one large building and two smaller ones. If you look closely just north and west of the main building, it is possible to see the four towers, with shadows (the photo must have been taken around 8am), and the antenna tuning huts.

NOTE — To see a bigger (and in some cases, expanded) version of any of the images in this blog, just double click on the one you want to see.