Giant machines

The installation of a new transmitter to broadcast into northern Africa has been taking place on the farm site for several months. Although not directly part of Andy's remit, he has close connections with that project and follows the progress with interest.

This is the new transmitter - it is huge! The metal grilling is one of the many safety features being installed by John from Australia, Antonio from Chile and a team of Zambians.

John is a retired engineer, who has been a consultant with Christian Vision for a few years. He and his wife Betty came to the 2003 conference in Zambia, never dreaming that they would be back here installing this great beast. John is now into his 11th month of this project; a large chunk of that time being spent in Zambia. Betty has visited him a few times. She is a lovely lady with a big heart to allow him to be away from her and their large family for so long. Betty is prepared to help with almost anything. She was working down at the primary school last week, helping in the reception class (4/5 yrs). She has now returned to Australia.

To the left of this photo is an equally large set of metal cabinets which contain all the dials and switches for the workings of the transmitter.

This is a switching device for transferring power between the transmitters. Enormous copper pipes carry the power to the various parts.

This is a heat exchanger for cooling the transmitter. The old one is not functioning very well at present. This one is twice the size and should be able to cope with the cooling of up to three transmitters.