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Sterling harnessed in and hoisted high |
Wind and rust damage are regular occurrences on Guam, and
KTWR’s radio towers and antennas are not immune to the elements here. Not only
do wind and salt water damage the equipment, but radiofrequency (RF) damage—essentially
burn damage from transmitting—is also an issue. These problems make regular maintenance and
repair an absolute necessity.
Last week, Sterling and Tom arrived on Guam from Cary, North
Carolina to help with this great need. Sterling, a TWR staff member from Cary,
lived and served on Guam for ten years as an antenna rigger before moving back
to the States with his wife and daughter. Tom, a volunteer, is a trained metal worker
and is sacrificially offering his time and talents to make replacement parts for
the transmitters. While they are here, they will clean the rusted parts throughout
the antenna field, replace damaged feed lines and plates, reconnect parts of
the antenna screen, check and tighten the bolts on the antennas that are
electrical connections, and so on.
But why would we need someone from off-island to come and
accomplish these tasks? Don’t we have the staff here necessary to maintain and
repair the antennas? The short answer: No. And we need help!
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Tom in the workshop |
Jim McIntyre has served the Lord at KTWR on Guam since 1990.
Jim does a lot to help around the transmitter site, including being our main
(and only) antenna rigger. But antenna rigging and maintenance for ten towers
and six curtain array antennas takes a lot more than one man and the occasional
volunteer.
As Sterling and Tom work hard to help with this critical
need, two members of our video department from Cary have also come to Guam to
film this process. Their goal is to capture the tasks of an antenna rigger and
the importance of this position, and with this footage, they will create an
appeal for help using visual media.
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Kate and Candace with the video team filming Jim and Sterling at work |
Please pray with us as we ask the Lord to provide for this
very important need on Guam. To loosely quote Paul in regard to radio ministry,
“The preacher on the radio program cannot say to the transmitter engineer, ‘I
have no need of you,’ nor again the musician whose worship music is played on
the radio to the antenna rigger, ‘I have no need of you.’ On the contrary, the
parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable…” (1 Corinthians 12:21-22).
To read the job description for this position, click here.