Dear UCB friends,
Last Sunday afternoon we traveled to Baucau, and then to Viqueque, both Districts in the East side of Timor island, in order to install the new radio upgrade to the 100W Transmitter.
In Baucau, the weather was really bad, but the Lord helped us and we managed to put the antennas in place, with a height of 14 meters from the ground to the center of both antennas. The SWR came with 4W, just under the acceptable limit. As we traveled throughout the town, we noticed that the entire town is being reached, good and clear sound.
In Viqueque the work moved quickly as we are already more experienced. And also we were very careful to not commit the same mistakes as before. All cables and connections were well assembled. 13 meters from ground to the center of antennas. But unfortunately the SWR came very high at 25W. So we decided not to turn on the radio there.
We will prepare a testing site on the top of the Radio Voz studio in Dili, to have all equipment’s tested before we travel to the districts to install the antennas.
In Oecusse, (installed the previous month) the SWR was good at 1W only. So we have to find out what makes the SWR be so different in other places.
In the travel back Rio and Jaquiel had problems with the car. It seems that they were not experienced in bad and wet mud slippery roads going up (rained a lot during our travel back). So they waited for rescue on the road at about 50 km from Dili, until 11pm (Wednesday). So unfortunately we will have to spend $300 to $400 USD to have the car repaired.
Thank you for your prayers and Support
Elienae