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[HCDX] HCJB Global Transmitter Installed at TWR’s Site in Swaziland
A new 100,000-watt shortwave transmitter built at the HCJB Global Technology
Center in Elkhart, Ind., is on the air at the Trans World Radio (TWR) site
in Swaziland, broadcasting a message of hope across Sub-Saharan Africa and
beyond. Through a cooperative effort between the two organizations, the
HC100 transmitter began broadcasting about 12 hours a day on Oct. 23,
replacing an outdated Continental unit and joining two other HC100s, also
from Elkhart.
“The results of the broadcasts from this transmitter are that people come to
Christ and they are encouraged in their faith,” said Ray Alary, TWR’s
director of operations in Africa. “For those with HIV/AIDS, we can encourage
them in what seems a hopeless situation. Through Jesus we all have hope. The
primary target areas are eastern and southern Africa, but our transmitters
in Swaziland reach locations as far away as Pakistan. We broadcast in
approximately 30 languages with our three HC100 transmitters.”
Alary added that TWR’s partnership with HCJB Global “goes back a long way
and has taken many different forms over the years . . . it is a model of a
well-functioning partnership where each party gains from our ability to work
together.”
The partnership includes having a number of TWR missionaries serving at the
Technology Center in Elkhart. Among those is veteran engineer Larry McGuire
who lived in Swaziland for 16 years before moving to Elkhart in 1990. He
helped build and install all three HC100s at the Swaziland site, spending 2½
weeks in Swaziland in October to put the new transmitter on the air.
“The new transmitter is much more efficient and has a clearer, more
understandable signal than the one it replaced,” McGuire said. “The HC100 is
also easier to maintain because it was designed by missionary engineers for
that purpose.”
Alary said that having “three identical transmitters at the same site makes
our operation in Swaziland very efficient. In addition, we have purchased
more than 20 suitcase transmitters through HCJB.”
Tom Lowell, chairman of TWR’s board of directors, said the new transmitter
has many economic advantages. “For example, parts needed to keep the old
equipment on the air were expensive. The Continental transmitter uses three
large tubes, at $13,000 each, compared to the HC100’s single tube. That’s an
immediate savings of $26,000 on parts alone! The HC100 also operates much
more efficiently, saving us $12,000 per year on our electric bill in
Swaziland.”
McGuire added that the installation of the HC100 in Swaziland culminates
years of work and planning dating back to about 2000. Construction of this
transmitter, the ninth of its type, was completed in 2005.
After TWR agreed to purchase the unit, it was modified to, and tested for,
Swaziland requirements, then packed and loaded onto a truck in Elkhart on
July 31. It then traveled across the Atlantic Ocean by ship, arriving in
Durban, South Africa, on Sept. 9.
From there it went by train to Matsapha, Swaziland, where it cleared customs
“almost immediately,” he said. Finally it went by truck to TWR’s transmitter
site on a ranch 20 miles from Manzini along the White Mbuluzi River,
arriving on Sept. 18.
“The day it arrived, there ‘happened’ to be a work crew from a church in
Elkhart that had been renovating the building,” McGuire continued. “They
were way ahead of schedule, so they helped unload the transmitter from the
container, got it in position and started putting up the heavy parts and
then built the fascia—all before I started working on the installation on
Oct. 6. I was very amazed. That’s never happened before!”
David Russell, director of the HCJB Global Technology Center, calls it a
“privilege to work closely with engineers of TWR Africa. During just the
past year we have cooperated with TWR on projects in Benin, Kenya and
Swaziland. We are presently refurbishing a used 50,000-watt AM transmitter
that will be used at TWR’s Swaziland broadcast facilities.
“It gives us a great sense of fulfillment to be able to support our fellow
kingdom workers at TWR through the provision of technical consulting,
equipment, installations and maintenance,” Russell added. “By pooling our
strengths we are able to be more effective in the Lord’s harvest fields.”(from
HCJB web page)
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