I recently returned from 16 days in the Solomon Islands.
Owen and I started our trip with a week in Munda with the aim of getting Laef FM‘s station back on air and fixing up the Solar system. We mostly had success! The station is back on air, but the Solar system needs a new Controller. We plan to send one over as soon as we can.
Munda is a beautiful part of the Solomon Islands with its clear blue waters and beautiful people. There is lots to do and explore, unfortunately we only got to see this inside of hardware stores as what we thought was 3 or 4 days work had us working long hours every day, right up to our departure.
Moving on to Gizo for one nightt and then on to Taro didn’t offer us any rest either, although we did sneak in a swim at Taro on the Sunday afternoon we arrived.
We thought the Taro station only needed a program update.
NOPE!
A new antenna, new cable, new transmitter, and a new lightning arrestor, were all needed – on top of the program update. Unfortunately Owen was stung, bitten (or something) on his knee that saw him with a hot, swollen knee that knocked him flat. But I wasn’t on my own as the local team of Michael and Alex were good, hard workers and we finished the hardware upgrade at 8:30 that night.
Here’s a quick report from our two nights in Taro.
From Taro we flew to Honiara, our last stop, where we met with the Board and were able to stay at the accommodation at our nearly completed studios. These have come a long way in the past 6 years so it was great to see the fruit of all the hard work coming together.
Again, we upgraded the programming as kept ourselves busy, even recording a “closing down” spot. But the good news was that the station here was operating as it should.
There is still lots to do, and even though we thought we’d fixed things, they often found new ways to break, sometimes after we’d left. Kinda makes you think there might be a spiritual battle going on too. 🙂
Grant Kennedy
Projects Manager
UCB Asia Pacific
