[HCDX] HCJB Global Transmitter Installed at TWR’s Site in Swaziland

["Arnaldo" <slaen@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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replacing an outdated Continental unit and joining two other HC100s, also 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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