Saturday, August 18, 2007

Building La Voz Lenca

Hi friends!!

Well, things are finally moving along quickly. The day after we arrived, we dug a trench from the transmitter building to the tower to bury the cable that brings the signal from the transmitter to the tower. Then we buried the cable and a flat copper strap which will help make a stronger signal, and reduce the likelihood of lightning damage. We brazed all of the 90 radial wires onto that copper strap too. This ties together most of the different sites that the wonderfiul folks of COPINH have prepared as they patiently awaited our arrival. The last shovelfulls of dirt were thrown on to bury our work just before the usual afternoon rainy-season thunderstorm hit.

Yesterday we started painting the tower sections, in preparation for erecting them on Tuesday, and we are told, electricity was turned on late last night. The workdays here end in a wild game of soccer. That soccer ball that Adrienne and Jane scrounged may be one of the most important things we brought, because it helps people relate in a different way.

This morning, we said goodby to JJ, with much thanks for his great work in capturing the soul of this project thus far. It's too bad that he couldn't have been here for the tower erection and sign-on, and that he had to experience all the intriguing intricacies of Central American buracracy instead, but, looking back, his smiling face behind the camera lens, popping up when you least expected it, was a remider that there was a bigger world out there, with a goal worth all the hassle.

We're heading off to Utopia soon, so I need to sign off for now. I'll put up some pictures soon.

Peace, Bill

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Good Luck with the MW1. I had one in service on 1340 here in Shreveport LA. Now a brand spanking new rack mount 1kw has taken its place.

May have a few spare modules. Not sure about the caps. Maybe need a shotgun on the caps.

I also had a MW50C on line at 710khz. The PDM board went nuts. The output ran away to almost 100kw. The 4cx20000's almost went up in smoke.


Needless to say Harris will not support that XTMR so I installed a 3DX50 all module transmitter.


Ran great for the first 36 hours. Tool it offline to the MW5 (Night time transmitter) to rework a remote control issues. When I hit the on button on the 3DX50 it lunched about 3 of the filter boards. (BANG!)

Opened that back door and caps fell out on the floor. NOT a Good Sign.


Harris sent a engineer down to take a look. The boards were sealed BEFORE the drying process.


Onle again. Good luck with your project down there.

Rick Shelton
Red River radio Network
Shreveport LA.
LSUS