Arrival of the Dummy Load

Today, the long-awaited dummy load arrived at the transmitter site in two installments!  We will use the new dummy load to test our transmitters without broadcasting radio waves over the air.  Through the process of sending many kilowatts of RF energy into the dummy load, a lot of heat is created.  Therefore, the dummy load comes with an enormous chiller and a big pump to move refrigerated water to cool off the dummy load.  This particular dummy load has a 300kW capacity, which is plenty for our purposes here at the site.

First, the chiller for the dummy load was loaded on to a flatbed truck and sent down to the site.  We fired up our trusty forklift, and Phil gracefully lifted the awkwardly long chiller off of the bed of the truck.  The driver then pulled the truck forward and out of the way so that Phil could guide the chiller and set it down in its resting place on the covered concrete pad at the back of our building.

After lunch, the moving truck showed up again with the actual dummy load.  Although it is smaller in size, the dummy load proved more difficult to move than the chiller.  We needed to rotate the dummy load on the flatbed before we could pick it up with the forklift.  Once we did that, we set it down inside the shop at the back end of the building.

The next step will be to build a structure for the dummy load to reside in where it will be protected from the elements, and to move the chiller to its resting place on three concrete footers that we poured next to the retaining wall for the antenna switch matrix.

The chiller arriving on a flatbed truck.

Our photogenic intern, Sol, with the chiller in the background.  Also, it's a beautiful day on Guam! 

Phil picking the chiller up off of the flatbed with the forklift.

Phil setting the chiller down in its resting place on the back porch.

George striking a pose with the dummy load upon its arrival.

Phil carefully rotating the dummy load on the flatbed.

And we're up!

Phil setting the dummy load down in the shop.

Unwrapping our present!

The team checking out the new toy.

The concrete footers where the chiller will rest.