Full Power and Friends

The WGIL transmitter is up for transmitting at full power! I'd been trying to get either one of the the transmitters to tune up to full power, without great success. I wrote to Gray Haertig in Portland to see if he had any insights, and he put my query up on a couple listserves. Thank you Gray, and to a bunch of other engineers who responded for a cachimbasa (Lenca word for "whole hunch") of new approaches. Through a combination of those, a new discovery, and a new approach to tuning, the thing is puttin' out. I'm so relieved...actually thinking about going home soon, but first I have to tune the feedline to the antenna, put together a studio-transmitter link, check out our homemade tower light choke, and some other small stuff.

Last weekend we had a huge number of visitors at Utopia -- some good friends and lots of young folks attending a jornada -- a regional 2 day meeting -- just what the place was designed for! Yesterday, by contrast, the watchman Rolando, Timo's dog Chikin and I were the only ones there, since everyone else had left for the movilizacion in Siguatepeque. Today was much the same, except that everyone was demonstrating in La Esperanza. The main focus of this is a proposed law allowing water resources to be privetized. This is a huge deal in developing countries because people don't have the money to pay for water. Either they need to divert resources from other needs, or they must do without -- both unacceptable alternatives. People here are under no delusions about the source of these threats to their lives.

Tonight we said good-by to Nancy Vasquez who's been working here in cooperation with COMPPA. She's leaving on an early bus to go back home to Guatemala City. She has been a great facilitator, with our customs both entering Guatemala and with our complex negotiations getting into Honduras. She did a lot of documentation, made sure workers had food, covered local events for indy media, and generally tying everything together. She's a great worker and fun to be with. Thanks so much for making this project go smoother!

Peace, Bill