Radio Biblica - Horeb
Bruce, his wife Jan and daughters Kara and Talitha minister to the Chimane Indians in Bolivia thru Bible based FM broadcasts in their own language.
Bruce is an old chicken farmer from Minnesota. See the link below for his story.
Though his radio ministry was proving to be effective he felt it could be better. The antennas he was using had a high vswr and the Crown 500 watt transmitter was folding back on power because of the 1.5:1 swr.
So a new set of antennas was ordered but who was going to install them?
Bruce asked John of Steppin'Out Missions if he knew anybody for the job. John had worked with me in the past at our church and knew of my interest in radio. The rest is history. So... sit back and check out a few pictures from the project.
Here I am ready to climb the 165' tower. I'm wearing a lower body harness with a 6' life rope and a work belt with a 3' strap.
As I climbed I stopped to check the guy wires. Here at 130' you get a good look at the old antennas. They were "cut" for 102 mhz so that explains the vswr.
Before the new sticks can be raised the old ones must come down.
Once all the old antennas were lowered it was to the top to change the lamp !
While changing the lamp the ground crew was preparing the new antenna for its accent to the top.
Here the new array has been hoisted in place and I'm preparing to secure it to the tower.
Once secured all that was left to do was change the LC connector to a 7/16 DIN connector and attach the 1/2" heliax to the power divider.
The finished tower! 1.04:1 VSWR !
Radio Horeb - Bolivia
Steppin' Out Missions
Page 2 - Shots from the Tower