AL AIRE!!!

Al aire!!! On the air again!!! After several days of battling with weather and resulting power line problems, La Voz Lenca is back on the air!!!

Time to come together, tomorrow night, Thursday, Sept. 27, at Ben's House, for an evening of pictures of the construction and music from La Voz Lenca. (See Ben's invitation a few postings back for details.)

Since I left there has been a substantial increase in the daily rain pattern. Instead of a couple hours of thunderstorms each evening, it's recently been raining from mid day on. Rain often causes electrical outages and brownouts occur when people turn on lights (during dreary weather as well as at night). As a result of all this, it's been very hard for Refugio to (1.) find a time when he can get a ride inside a vehicle [the bed of the pickup can get kind of wet in a hard rain.] (2.) find a time when that vehicle can navigate the muddy city streets and dirt country roads to Utopia. (3.) find electrical power with high enough voltage when he gets there.

It seems that a power surge may have blown out the limiting amplifier...a critical link in the audio chain between the receiver which picks up the FM station and the AM transmitters. For now, there's a temporary cludge working (bypassing that amplifier altogether), but this isn't a good solution for continued operation, so other options are being explored. It's so great to have a person like Refugio who understands electronics and also takes detailed photos, coupled with email, which can give us daily communication. Now problems can be solved from thousands of miles away in just a few days!

I look foward to seeing a lot of folks tomorrow night when we'll have pictures and sounds galore!

Peace, Bill