Look Out Below

You had better be aware of what is going on over your head as you walk through the transmitter room these days. The ceiling tiles are gone and the beams are soon to follow, you never know what could fall on you (spiders?).

This week, years of accumulated metal from various projects and equipment was disposed of as part of the on-going remodeling plan. It had been stored in a room overhead the transmitter room. Now that whole storage room floor is going to be ripped out, it will bring the ceiling height from 8 feet to nearly 17 feet. Guess you can't accuse us of not being up-to-date with the latest home decor . . . cathedral ceilings and wide-open spaces! And just so it looks nice, the roof and beams that are now exposed, have been painted bright, white. Bringing lighting up to the "new" ceiling was another task completed this week as the men took down the old lights and put them into their new aerial spots.

The new air-conditioners and ducts are all in and have been tested, with the transmitters now being cooled by these huge, but friendly giants.

TX 1 hasn't been feeling too well this week as its power supply is not producing enough voltage for broadcasting, so it has been off-air for three nights. Doug Gregson and Mike Sabin have been working diligently to get it back up. Pray for them to find out what the problem is, but, at least at this point they know what the problem isn't, so that's progress right?

Getting All Our Ducts in a Row

Since our last blog about the installation of the air-conditioners for the new transmitters, we've seen great progress. Now, I, CamKathy (Kathy Gregowske) have returned from Cambodia to once again add my non-techie views to this blog.

As Paul and I pulled up to the transmitter building after being away for several weeks, the first thing we noticed were the huge air-cons sitting on their platforms, but getting a quick tour showed that there was still much to be done. But these guys work quickly (weather permitting), and now most of the exterior work has been done to put the air-conditioning ducts in place including getting most of the power lines connected (see photo of Eli Sabin). The holes in the exterior wall where the ducts were put in, have been blocked up, so if you look at the wall from the inside you will see five (the sixth is out of sight) spots for the ducts. Each transmitter (the two new ones, and TX 1,2) will have both an intake and outtake duct. The intake duct will bring in the cold air from the air-conditioner while the outake duct will suck out the hot air produced by the transmitters themselves. Thus we have six ducts standing in a row!

A New Tool for the IT Room

As if we don't have enough doodads, gadgets, computers and monitors in our IT room, we have now added a DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale) Content Server. Recently received from the Elkhart Engineering site, this computer will give us the ability to add digital programming along with our analog broadcasts. This means that a listener with a digital receiver can experience an FM quality broadcast while listening to shortwave. What I found interesting is that it also allows the capability to add text to a broadcast. Imagine, being able to send a quick note about programming or a Bible verse. Economically it can also mean a 25% reduction in power needed to broadcast. Testing of the system is scheduled for this fall on Transmitter 5 (currently in use), and TX 6 (not as yet installed). I am sure that everyone here will be on a learning curve as they work with the system, so please be praying for them as they put the Content Server into action.