Saturday, September 9, 2006

Saturday morning the students interested in ham radio began showing up to find out about the entire goings on Andrew's foundation. Most of the day was spent putting the 4 element beam together. A retired local ham that has not been active for a number of years donated this antenna, also a 50 foot tower came with it. All the elements were disassembled and cleaned then reassemble with a ant-oxidant compound. All wires and a new choke were installed with the students doing most of the work. They are learning about soldering and installing coax connectors, all of this is a first time experience for them. The rotor was checked out and is working great. Next the antenna was raised off the ground to check it with the analyzer, all indications were normal. As soon the tower is raised on Sunday we can get the antenna up and going.
Saturday late afternoon we installed the G5RV antenna to get on the radio as soon as possible. A rope was delivered to the top of a Mango tree via a very able climber. At the other end, a tree of unknown species was used to support the antenna. The antenna was pulled tight and coax ran into the house to the ham shack room. Showing some of the students the end of the coax and what will come out of it was totally foreign and when the first signals came out and we talked to Germany, it was like wow! It was neat to hear the world from the other side of the ocean but no state side signals were heard....The students are totally into this form of communication and are spending a lot of time here at the Hope for the Blind foundation compound.

Late Saturday evening a new 40 kva generator was delivered, it is much needed as the power goes off everyday for hours at a time. So far the water has stayed on.......The gen set has a Perkins engine and a name plate stating it is a Massey Fergerson unit from the UK.
Drank some of the local water and either that or the palm oil that is used in cooking did not set well with my stomach but today (Sunday) I'm back to old self.