It seems like each day has its own ‘surprises’ that result in new challenges.\u00a0 Today was no exception!<\/p>\n
There were two surprises right at the start.\u00a0 Although not related directly to the electrical installation, I became involved because of my involvement in keeping the overall building drawings up to date.\u00a0 Daryl was wanting to install the MAD switch (a high power switch that routes the output of either the 400,000 watt AM transmitter or a smaller 5,000 watt transmitter to either the antenna or a dummy load).\u00a0 Because it is located between two windows, it cannot be moved.\u00a0 The output to the antenna goes through the wall into the phasor room which contains all the coils, capacitors and switches to properly divide the power between the four towers.\u00a0 The phasor room has panels\u00a0 to screen the sides and panels to screen the top.\u00a0 These 4X8 foot panels consist of a screen with\u00a0frames around the edge that bolt together in a configuration precisely laid out by the manufacturer.\u00a0 It was discovered that the switch output to the phasor happens to pass through the wall exactly where two frames bolt together.\u00a0 Normally a hole would be cut just in the screen, but now two frames will need to be cut that are part of the\u00a0structure that holds up the ‘ceiling’ screen frames.\u00a0 This will necessitate an on-site modification to maintain structural strength.<\/p>\n
The second surprise came when we discovered the input from the transmitter to the MAD switch was closer to the wall than the drawings of the switch indicated.\u00a0 This resulted in this rigid line needing to pass through a steel support beam, which is not possible.\u00a0 As a result we had to shift the location of the transmitter\u00a0on the drawings, which also required rotating the big supply transformer next to the transmitter.\u00a0 I will need to do an extensive revision to the drawings.<\/p>\n
In comparison to the above, the next surprise was relatively minor.\u00a0 We began unpacking the power panels and found that\u00a0 the top of the 800 amp breaker panel box had caved in about 1″ shearing off about 6 bolts in the process.\u00a0 We think this happened before we packed it into the container in Niles, MI.\u00a0 There was no obvious damage to the cardboard box in which it was packed and there was no shifting in the container that could have caused the damage.\u00a0 We removed all the bolts holding the top and were able to use an hydraulic press to straighten the top.\u00a0 We found some bolts on site to replace the ones that had been sheared off.<\/p>\n
We went home for lunch and a short nap.\u00a0 It is easy to understand why many Latin countries have their siesta time!\u00a0 A short nap in the heat of the day revives one’s energy.<\/p>\n
After lunch, Daryl took us to the site so the ladies could have a vehicle to do some shopping in the afternoon.\u00a0 I was wondering which lady would be brave enough to drive the pickup which has a manual transmission.\u00a0 Both have driven them in the past, but not recently.\u00a0 Maryjane was the brave one.\u00a0 Virginia’s turn is next!!<\/p>\n
This afternoon, the cable for the generator was pulled through a 4″ underground pipe from the power room to the generator pad.\u00a0 The cables required to carry the 530 amps pretty well filled the pipe and required the front loader bucket of the tractor to provide the pulling power.\u00a0 Actually, there had been a ‘surprise’ on this as well.\u00a0 In our drawings we specified two 4″ pipes to pull two separate 4 conductor 350mcm cables.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the generator supplier told the construction crew that only one 4″ pipe would be needed and only one was installed without consulting us.\u00a0 It is impossible to get two 2-1\/2 inch diameter cables through one 4″ pipe!\u00a0 The solution was to strip the jacket off each 4 conductor cable to provide 8 single conductors.\u00a0 It was now possible to get them all through, but barely–with the help of lots of cable pulling lubricant!\u00a0 The current capacity will be downgraded slightly, but fortunately we had overrated the cable some to start with.<\/p>\n
Just as this cable pull was finished, a large truck arrived with the standby generator and the ATS (automatic transfer switch), which will automatically switch the power source to the generator when there is a power failure, arrived.\u00a0 The crane on the truck was not long enough to place the generator on its pad, so it was set on the ground.\u00a0 Tomorrow a larger crane is scheduled to come out with the air conditioning units to set all of them into place. \u00a0 The ATS was transferred to the TWR truck which was able to back up to the power room for easy transfer to its proper location.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, we opened the ATS and discovered another ‘surprise’.\u00a0 There were no compression lugs for attaching our 24 large power cables.\u00a0 Ralph and I began searching on the internet to find a source of suitable lugs.\u00a0 It was then that we decided that it would be good to check the generator.\u00a0 Sure enough,\u00a0another ‘surprise’, we will need 12 more lugs for there, too!<\/p>\n
Now it was 4 pm and Ralph contacted his supplier in Niles, MI via email.\u00a0 Within minutes it was verified that the supplier had them in stock, and would have them on his counter waiting for Ralph’s grandson, Brian, to pick up.\u00a0 Brian is one of the team arriving on Saturday.\u00a0 These lugs will likely be here before we are ready to use them!\u00a0 God is good!!<\/p>\n
This evening, Jim decided to swim partway home from work.\u00a0 It was just over a 1 mile swim and he anticipated arriving at Bachelor Beach at 5:30pm.\u00a0 Ralph and I decided to drive to Bachelor Beach to meet him.\u00a0 I did some ‘swimming’ to cool off while Ralph watched.\u00a0 At 5:30 there was no sign of Jim, so we decided to go home to see if he had come ashore earlier and walked home.\u00a0 Jim was not there, so I washed the salt water off and showered, then headed back to the beach with Ralph.\u00a0 Partway there we saw Jim walking home.\u00a0 He said that the swim started off fast enough but he then encountered currents that slowed him down considerably.\u00a0 He said he saw a large variety of beautiful fish and coral at close range and that it was well worth the swim.<\/p>\n
For supper we had hamburgers with all the fixin’s, mixed vegetables, oven roasted fresh cut potato ‘fries’ and apple sauce.\u00a0 The ladies are getting in practice for the six grandsons that will be arriving on Saturday and staying for two weeks.<\/p>\n
Thank you for praying!! It is obvious that God is at work in spite of the ‘surprises’.\u00a0 Keep praying!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It seems like each day has its own ‘surprises’ that result in new challenges.\u00a0 Today was no exception! There were two surprises right at the start.\u00a0 Although not related directly to the electrical installation, I became involved because of my involvement in keeping the overall building drawings up to date.\u00a0 Daryl was wanting to install […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bonaire-2017"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcguirereport.mcguireclan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcguirereport.mcguireclan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcguirereport.mcguireclan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcguirereport.mcguireclan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcguirereport.mcguireclan.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2282"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mcguirereport.mcguireclan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2338,"href":"https:\/\/mcguirereport.mcguireclan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2282\/revisions\/2338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcguirereport.mcguireclan.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcguirereport.mcguireclan.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcguirereport.mcguireclan.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}