Goossenews

Thank you so much for your prayers for the migration process, from AM 780 to FM 102.7! We had two big goals to complete before this year’s rainy season: get the tower up and the shipping container/transmitter room in place at the top of the hill.

The road work from last year was basically still intact, thanks to a very weak rainy season. A few repairs, and a by-pass around the steepest spot was the only additional work we did before attempting the tower project.

So the next thing was to get going on the foundation for the tower. Since it’s a free-standing tower, with no guide-wires, the foundation is particularly important. We hired a tractor to dig the hole – 6 meters by 6 meters by 2 1/2 meters deep. He hit some rocks, so we ended up hiring some workers to take a pick-ax to the rocks at the bottom.

Next came a wire mesh on the bottom with re-bar anchors for the columns for the 4 feet of the tower.  Then came another particularly challenging part of the project:  how do you get 18 tons of gravel, 38 of sand, and 6 1/2 tons of Portland cement up the steep road?  Most deliveries were successful, shuttling partial loads up, but the water truck just couldn’t make it!  We ended up locating a pump that we could use to get water out of a little pond nearby and take up to the top with our tractor.

We were ready for a work day!  We had 25 volunteers from local churches who worked 8 hours to pour the base of the foundation – about 20 cubic meters of concrete.

The next thing was to pour the columns full of concrete and then fill the hole with dirt.  Then the tower could begin to be erected.

Our contract with the tower company was that we were responsible for the foundation (made to their specs), but they put it up.  Whew!  Those aren’t any of my guys up there!  🙂

Isn’t that one of the more beautiful sites!?!

Please continue to pray for the migration project, specifically the government license to broadcast, the electrical installation (they’ve promised to start by the end of February), and the importation of the transmitter from Canada.