![\"A](\"https:\/\/mcguirereport.mcguireclan.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/picnic-chickenrun.jpg\")
<\/a>A chicken run on the farm<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Picnic at the farmhouse — even though it is almost winter, everyone wants to sit in the shade<\/p><\/div>\n
Sunday, May 19, we again attended the Evangelical Bible Church.\u00a0 Pastor Dion Philips’ message this morning was on the white, red and black horsemen of Revelation 6.\u00a0 There was a church picnic held ‘immediately’ after the morning service, which ended at<\/p>\n
<\/a>Ruth and her brother, Dick.\u00a0 Note the airco and water heater hanging on the wall– electricity became available in the area only two years.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Reese and Dick — charter church members<\/p><\/div>\n
11am.\u00a0 It was held at a farm way out of town in the bush about a mile north of Croydon, which is a tiny village about 30 miles northeast of Manzini.\u00a0 We got directions from Reese, whose younger brother lives at the farm, and his phone number in case we got lost.\u00a0 We then<\/p>\n
<\/a>Some of the delicious food — not your normal picnic!<\/p><\/div>\n
went home, changed clothes and drove slowly there hoping that some of the church members could catch up and we could follow them on the back roads<\/p>\n
<\/a>Etheny and Chester — charter church members<\/p><\/div>\n
to the farm.\u00a0 Fortunately, the directions received were good and we drove to the farm and arrived about 30 minutes before any of the church<\/p>\n
<\/a>Pastor Dion and his wife<\/p><\/div>\n
members.\u00a0 By the time most everyone had arrived and the picnic (more like potluck) table was prepared, we began eating after 2pm.\u00a0 Just like last week at the<\/p>\n
<\/a>Herlene, ???, and Thelma<\/p><\/div>\n
Youngs, there was curry, just not as much variety, and,<\/p>\n
<\/a>Reese’s brother Emmanuel, facing camera, with fresh meat in background — not the dog!<\/p><\/div>\n
as always, all the food was delicious!\u00a0 They had organized a lot of games, but the only one played was volleyball.\u00a0 Most of us had a great time just sitting around and visiting.\u00a0 Late in the afternoon, they had a version of a hay ride, without the hay.\u00a0 A<\/p>\n
<\/a>Volleyball game — even saw some head volleys by some of the soccer players!<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Boerewors (spicy sausage) on the grill<\/p><\/div>\n
tractor with trailer was loaded up and driven down to the Mbuluzi River, which was about a mile away.\u00a0 Virginia and I decided to leave about 4:30pm so we would not have to drive home in the dark.<\/p>\n
In the evening, I again reviewed the control system section of the HC100 manual for teaching it on Monday morning.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Let’s not forget the cleanup crew!<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Ride to the Black Mbuluzi River in a trailer behind the tractor — Swaziland’s version of a hay ride<\/p><\/div>\n
On Monday, we spent almost all morning until 1pm, which is lunchtime in Swaziland, covering\u00a0 only part of the section of the manual on the control system.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That evening we were invited to dinner at the Stavropoulos’ house.\u00a0 We walk through a gate at the back of our yard, through the back part of the guest house yard, through another gate, then across the Stav’s yard.\u00a0 It takes only a minute or two to get there.\u00a0 The acting station director, Sharon, was also there from the Africa Regional Office (ARO).\u00a0 She had a packet of Virginia’s anti-rejection medicine for her transplanted cornea, which we had ordered a week before.\u00a0 It had arrived in Cary, NC, only three days before and we were expecting it to come to ARO with Gottfried with a second packet of medicine in a week or so.\u00a0 Apparently, someone else was headed to ARO, who happened to be leaving on Saturday.\u00a0 What a pleasant surprise!<\/p>\n
We visited for a long time with Sharon and the Stavs finally leaving for home about 10pm, which is not early when the alarm clock is set for 5:30am.\u00a0 Of course the outside motion sensors of the houses, which are automatically turned on shortly after sundown, announced our progress across the yards as we walked home with their short intermittent ‘squawks’.\u00a0 We managed to get into our house without setting off the alarm.<\/p>\n
Tuesday morning there was no internet.\u00a0 Steve was in town for morning meetings, so we did not continue the training.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Found this praying mantis in the driveway. Note the camouflage on its wings<\/p><\/div>\n
Sharon had brought a new control computer for the site, which controls about a dozen computers that are at the site to provide internet access and programming for all the transmitters, plus backup.\u00a0 We took this computer to the site and Klaus installed it, but major setup challenges were encountered.\u00a0 Klaus and Graham worked on making all the necessary adjustments with assistance via Skype from Waldo at ARO.\u00a0 When Waldo left at 4:30pm, Klaus continued assistance came from another ARO person, Gottfried, who happened to be in Cary, NC, for a couple of weeks.\u00a0 Klaus left the site at 5:30pm and turned control of the computers over to the people in Cary, who worked on it for the rest of our night — 6am here and midnight in Cary.\u00a0 This capability totally amazes me!\u00a0 Fortunately, the backups on the playout computers kept the transmitter programs flowing smoothly to the transmitters.\u00a0 Oh — the internet was working again, but not much, if any, faster than it did previously.<\/p>\n
While the ‘experts’ were working on the computers, I decided to take a walk around the antenna field and check out what changes had been made over the years.\u00a0 Before doing so, for some reason, I felt it necessary to spray my shoes, socks and pant legs with tick repellant!\u00a0 My little walk was over 3 miles and lasted almost an hour and a half.\u00a0 The antenna field is huge and I did not walk to the its extremes.\u00a0 Tick Bite Update — no more Benadryl for itching.\u00a0 Klaus was right that it would take three weeks for the itching to go away, but, four weeks out, there is occasional mild itching of my ankles.<\/p>\n
<\/a>The auto gate in front of our house<\/p><\/div>\n
This evening, we had Bob and Barb, a couple on loan from the Far<\/p>\n
<\/a>Yes, our house is behind the gate!<\/p><\/div>\n
Eastern Broadcast Company (FEBC) to TWR ARO, over for dinner.\u00a0 They are here with Sharon to visit the TWR Swaziland staff.\u00a0 Steve was here, too, as his wife was elsewhere for the evening.\u00a0 We had a good visit with Bob and Barb learning about their 20+ years with FEBC in the Philipines and East Africa.<\/p>\n
<\/a>The gate ‘retracts’ on a rail into a channel<\/p><\/div>\n
When Sharon came by to pick them up about 9:45, I pressed the remote to open the auto gate by the road to let the car in.\u00a0 Shortly after they drove off, I noticed<\/p>\n
<\/a>The gate control motor engages a gear on the bottom of the gate<\/p><\/div>\n
the gate had not closed automatically, so I pressed the remote again.\u00a0 The light bulbs on the gate posts, which stays on while the gate opens or closes, flashed only momentarily.\u00a0 Now I had to figure out how to repair the gate motor or get it closed for the night.\u00a0 Meanwhile our outside motion sensors announced my progress across the yard.\u00a0 I went back to the house to find the keys to open the gate control box.\u00a0 Meanwhile the alarm on the house had automatically activated at 10pm, like it always does.\u00a0 Unaware of this, I opened the front door and the alarm went off.\u00a0 I managed to quickly shut it off, but then had to let all the TWR staff here at Singing Pines know that it was a false alarm, then call the alarm company to report the false alarm.\u00a0 Now Klaus, informed of what was happening, came to our rescue.\u00a0 By the time he got her, I had the gate’s control box open, but had<\/p>\n
<\/a>When we found this extremely bloated battery the problem was found. Fortunately, it did not cause any other damage.<\/p><\/div>\n
no idea what to look at first.\u00a0 Klaus, having worked on these many times before, quickly suspected a problem with the 12volt battery.\u00a0 When we pulled it out, the plastic shell of the battery was very bloated.\u00a0 Klaus took off somewhere on the TWR property and came back with a spare battery, which was quickly installed.\u00a0 The gate then went through a calibration process, where it went back and forth in ever increasing cycles to locate the end of travel and reset its limit switches.\u00a0 It was quite fascinating to watch, but I was glad that Klaus had come to help, as I would have had no idea how to do this without a manual.<\/p>\n
By this time it was 11pm and the alarm clock goes still goes off at 5:30!<\/p>\n
Wednesday morning is staff meeting, as usual.\u00a0 Bob is quite a musician and for about 30 minutes led the staff in a wonderful time of worship with his signing and guitar.\u00a0 Sharon gave staff an update of events in Africa and encouraging news of the possibility of increasing the outreach to Africa.<\/p>\n
Graham, Salema and I went to the site after staff meeting.\u00a0 Steve and Klaus were involved in meetings in town for the remainder of the day.\u00a0 The computers at the site did not have internet access.\u00a0 Graham discovered that only one of the wireless systems at the site was working and that the site computers were connected to the same network as the non-functioning\u00a0 wireless system.\u00a0 Since Graham and I are both new here, we did a lot of searching before finally finding out that the site computers just needed to be rebooted and they worked again.\u00a0\u00a0 Also that the non-working wireless has not been functioning for some time!<\/p>\n
We also spent some time getting familiar with the audio system to isolate the low level noise on the Optimod for transmitter 3.\u00a0 We learned enough to find out that the noise is not from the Optimod, but from the computer that sends the audio to the Optimod.\u00a0 At least we are making progress, although the problem has not been solved yet.<\/p>\n
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<\/a>Katja, Salema, Bob and Larry help grill the meat.<\/p><\/div>\n
This evening a braai (BBQ) was held for the whole staff.\u00a0 As is typical<\/p>\n
<\/a>We are able to gather in an open (on two sides) pavilion located on the TWR Singing Pines property<\/p><\/div>\n
with Swazi braais, there was lots of meat.\u00a0 Some of the Swazi staff brought a big pot of mealie pap (white corn meal) a Swazi staple food.\u00a0 Virginia and the TWR ladies spent most of the day preparing for it.\u00a0 The meat included chicken, steak and boerewors (spicy sausage).\u00a0 When someone said that each person was allowed only one piece of meat, Virginia served<\/p>\n
<\/a>Lorraine, Phumzile, Barb, Precious?, and Sharon<\/p><\/div>\n
each person one piece.\u00a0 She was quickly informed that the limit was one piece of each kind of meat.\u00a0 I took a piece of sausage and the smallest (still good sized), thinnest steak and Virginia took a similar<\/p>\n
<\/a>Bob led in singing some choruses and hymns.<\/p><\/div>\n
steak.\u00a0 We had more meat in one meal than we usually have in a week!\u00a0 Everything was good.\u00a0 Bob led us in a few favorite songs accompanying with his guitar.\u00a0 The Swazis were beginning to really become actively involved with the music, but around 8pm, at the end of one of the more lively music pieces they kind of ‘danced’ right to the vehicles to take them home.\u00a0 It was getting too late for them!\u00a0 Even with cleaning up, we got home earlier than the previous nights.<\/p>\n
Thursday morning Steve and Klaus had Field Council meetings, so Salem, Graham and I went to the site.\u00a0 I noticed that one of the transmitters was not running as efficiently as it should.\u00a0 Upon investigation, it was noticed that this was only on one of its many frequencies and antennas.\u00a0 I tried to do some retuning, but was not able to increase the efficiency appreciably.\u00a0 I did notice that the VSWR is about 1.6 which is higher than the other antennas.\u00a0 This needs further investigation to determine whether the antenna mismatch might be causing something unusual.<\/p>\n
Graham had expressed some interest in the extents of TWR’s transmitter site property, so I found some maps and reviewed them with him.\u00a0 We got into quite an extensive conversation about the history of the site, the bush clearing and road-making that was required.\u00a0 Using a map from Google, I also showed him the various routes that we had to use to get to the site when it was being developed, depending on where fording the river was possible.\u00a0 It is amazing how many of those routes have been completely taken over by the bush and are now impassable.\u00a0 Some of the land which is currently being used for the main entry road is being sold and it looks like a new route will have to be cleared along the north boundary of the Dindeor Ranch.\u00a0 We looked at that route and noted that a lot of culverts and filling of gulleys will be required, unlike the current route along a ridge with no culverts.<\/p>\n
I tried to do some more preparatory review of the control system for training, but my eyelids kept getting heavy.\u00a0 Went for a 35 minute walk from the building to the cattle grid and back.\u00a0 This made a big difference.\u00a0 Klaus and Steve arrived at the site after 2pm, so late that we decided to wait until Friday for the training session.<\/p>\n
Thursday we had our first evening at home this week.\u00a0 I spent much of the evening finishing and posting the review for last week on our blog and then getting this week’s review up-to-date.\u00a0 Hopefully it will get posted in a more timely fashion.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Larry picking just a hand of bananas, instead of the whole stalk. Our grandchildren wanted a picture of a monkey in a tree — well here it is!<\/p><\/div>\n
Friday morning, all the engineers and technician were at the transmitter site, so I<\/p>\n
<\/a>Virginia picking mandarins from the ground<\/p><\/div>\n
was able to complete the HC100 control system training.\u00a0 In the afternoon, I finished a revision of our McGuiReport on my laptop at work, but spent over an hour unsuccessfully trying to email it to TWR Cary, using the site wireless connection.\u00a0 I then found out that the site computer was working better because it is wired directly to the network.\u00a0 By downloading the needed files to a flash drive and plugging them into<\/p>\n
the site computer, the job was done in a few minutes!\u00a0 Guess I will won’t be taking<\/p>\n