This is pretty much what December looked like, but now that we've had several sunny days I finally got to mow.

We’ve had pretty smooth sailing here lately. Maybe after those two big lightning hits last fall, anything seems like smooth sailing. As a result, we’ve been able to press on with accomplishing some of our dreams here at Radio HRGS. I even managed to mow the yard, but it wasn’t quite dry enough to get one little spot. More about that in the Audio Update at the bottom of the post. And I’ll tell you all about our new Facebook page in a little bit. First, let’s get caught up on other stuff.

The new phone system is virtually done. I still need to get a line out to the audio shop so we can talk from there. The intercom feature will really come in handy sometimes. Mildred and Peter now each have their own phones in the office right where they want them. I got that part done today. The new phones look and sound way better than the old ones.

We now have Sunrise Serenade on the AM channel again. In the “old days” we used to air exactly the same thing on AM and FM. When we made the change to having Spanish on one channel and English on the other, we effectively doubled our available hours for programs and music, but we also made it so that our AM listeners were hearing Spanish programming in the early morning when we air Sunrise Serenade. Many people said they missed it, especially the people out on the Utila Cays who depended on our morning weather forecast before heading out in their boats. This Monday we finally managed to get Sunrise Serenade onto the AM. It’s prerecorded and we have to get to the studio a little earlier to get the weather forecast recorded and put in place, but we think it’s worth it.

And then there is Facebook. Radio HRGS has finally entered the 21st century and we are on Facebook. You’ll find our English page right here. If you like Spanish better, you can see what Romel Hernandez is up to right here. If, after listening to the HRGS Update (below), you want to see those videos Peter & I were talking about, you should be able to find them on the English Facebook page. We have questions for our listeners as well as links to YouTube videos of some of our music so you can see the artists as well as hear them. It’s a work in progress and we’ll be adding things as time and the creative juices allow.

A while ago, I’d said we were working on a surprise for our listeners. We were talking about putting Sunrise Serenade onto the AM, of course. Now we are talking about another surprise that I think lots of people will like. But I can’t tell you what it is till I know if we can actually accomplish it. That’s my next project. I can’t say what it is, but it involves making some cables and setting up a computer to use them. That’s all I’ll say for now. You’re welcome to try to guess what it is for now. Anyone who gets it right gets a free trip to the beach here on Roatán. But not a free trip TO Roatán.

I don’t think I’ll write much today. It’s our anniversary. We went to Gio’s for lunch. If you’re not familiar with them (and you probably are not, since they are local), they are arguably the most high falutin’ eatery on the island. We’ve eaten a couple times at their restaurant up in French Harbor. They recently added a new location, just a mile down the road in Flowers Bay. So Mildred and I walked down there and spent a pile of money on a really special dining experience. I wish I could share the flavors. The best I can do is share some pictures. As usual, I’ve tossed in our HRGS Audio Update at the bottom of the post.

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Christmas came a little early for Peter and Sandi. They found their missing dog, Saydee. It is a bit of a long story and, if you remember, it was while looking for Saydee that the Silseths got their vehicle stuck for a week. So let’s just say it was quite a reunion. Of course, now we’re getting lots of sunshine, after Peter spent a pile of money on people and equipment to get him back up the hill. But I’m not complaining after weeks of daily and nightly rains.

The old phone system

To add blessing upon blessing, the gremlins are taking a break and we’re making some forward progress on a few things. I’m almost done installing a new-to-us phone system that we inherited from the home office in Tampa. The old one has been getting a little flaky. I know nothing about it, and can’t find any instructions, and I’m afraid they quit making spare parts for it several decades ago. I’ve run new cables to all six rooms that use phones and have the cables terminated and tested. I have one more phone to plug in and check and then I’ll be ready to start learning how to program it. At least this one has a manual — a huge manual. I think it weighs about ten pounds!

Rats nest of wires and three punch down blocks will be replaced by just one punch down block.

We have a couple other things going on. One is our soon to be unveiled Facebook page.  Peter is heading that up and we’re pretty excited about the potential for more interaction with our listeners. Many of them are on Facebook and are already personal friends. That’s coming up on January second.

One of the things many people miss since we completed the dual language project last year was having Sunrise Serenade on both the AM and FM bands. The folks out on the Utila Cays say they especially miss hearing the weather forecast early in the morning because they can’t pick up Sunrise Serenade on the FM band. We figured out a way to get the program on the AM and then switch it back to Spanish until the regular switch from Spanish to English at 3:00 PM. We’ve also set that to begin on January second.

So we are pretty excited about the cool stuff going on at the station now. We’re also excited about personal stuff. I mentioned Peter and Sandi’s truck retrieval and Saydee’s return. When Peter and I recorded the HRGS Update (below), Saydee was still roaming the hill above the airport trying to survive.

The other big thing is that we are having our first ever Christmas meal at an islander friend’s home. We’ve dined in lots of island homes with various friends, but this will be our first Christmas as guests. We’re looking forward to it. Speaking of listeners, they say the sweetest things. Here’s part of a letter we got recently. I’ll share it virtually unedited.

Dear sisters and brothers at HRGS. Just these few lines to you all. Trusting by God’s help as it reaches your hands everyone will be well and in the best of good health. Every day I get a blessing from you all at the radio station. Thank God for HRGS and for you all wonderful Christian people. I want to wish you all a Merry Merry Christmas and God’s blessings always and may you live to see many more.

I’m thanking God for affirmations like that and for the supporters who make it possible for us to be here. Mostly I thank Him for the message we have because of Christmas and the cross.

The day after a good wash and wax.

You might be a real four wheeler if you have ever had 2 wheels off the ground and said “We’re in good shape.” You might be a real four wheeler if you have to get the wheel barrow to clean your driveway off after you wash your vehicle. You might be a really serious four wheeler if you have driven a vehicle for 10 hours straight …and never exceeded 3 mph.

Filling up the water filters at Mark Elwin's shop.

We’ve often done the first two on the list and we gave the third one a real go last weekend. Peter and Sandi had gone to look in the bush for their dog, Saydee, who is still missing. Now their four wheel drive Nissan Pathfinder is missing from the driveway. It’s not lost; we just can’t get it home. They went down a “road” they thought would take them to the main highway. It took them to a washout instead. If the road hadn’t washed out, it would have taken them to a dead end around the next bend anyway. Peter tried to turn around, but it’s been raining just about every day for what seems like weeks and he might as well have tried to drive up a steep, grease-covered stainless steel driveway.

Peter and I went back there Saturday morning along with an island friend named Jason. Poor Jason! He had no idea what he was in for! We only drove part way down the hill because we didn’t want to get our truck stuck, too. Peter had left their truck nearly crossways on the only spot below where I parked with any room for turning around, and it was really tight … and slick.

We decided that it was too slick and narrow to finish turning it around so, with lots of digging and rope pulling and fender pushing, we finally got it pointed downhill again. But it would not move under its own power. The mud on top of smooth rock was like grease on a sheet of glass. Since Peter was going to have to back up, up hill, over a very narrow culvert on a curve with no traction, we thought we should come back after things dry out a bit. So we hoofed it back up the hill to my truck.

There was plenty of room where I parked to turn around and then the fun began. I don’t think I got 50 yards up the hill before I got stuck. It took a few tries, but I finally got past that slippery slope. Peter and Jason followed on foot because, if I stopped, I’d never get going again. Soon I came to another steep, greasy stretch that took several tries along with some pushing and steering guidance from Peter and Jason.

Then I came to what looked like a wall of mud from where I sat. There was too little room and too little traction at the base to get enough speed to carry me up it and I lost inertia and started spinning several times. Each time I got a little farther, but I had so little control that on one trip back down for a re-launch, I was actually off in the bush, scraping paint and bending up my radio antenna. Eventually, I got about two thirds of the way up it and decided I was not going to get any farther. I set the brake and the others put rocks behind my wheels because I was sliding backwards.

We walked the rest of the way back up the hill and found a guy and his helpers who had a four wheel drive truck. They were happy to help — for a few bucks, of course. We had enough rope and tow strap to reach a fairly flat spot and hooked up the trucks. Nope! He and I just sat there with all eight wheels spinning. We unhooked and then he sat there on his own spinning his wheels on almost level ground. It took us a while, but we got him up to where he could get some traction. Then he took Peter to go get a big chain hoist and a come along from a friend. We hooked that up to my truck and spent the next three or four hours in the rain getting me up that last little bit of slope.

I had made the mistake of putting my bluetooth phone ear piece in my pocket when we began. It rained so hard and so long while we worked that the ear piece is totally dead now, even after several days of drying. My phone finally did start working again. But we were so wet coming home that, in spite of vacuuming, deodorizing, and running the seat covers through the washing machine, the inside of the truck reeks like … like … wet upholstery.

It’s now Thursday and it has rained every day since then. We had several hours of sunshine Tuesday and thought it might be dry enough to try again. But the sun doesn’t shine though all those trees and, once again, Peter just spun his wheels. Our friend, Mark Elwin knows someone with a back hoe, so that guy tried to help get it out this afternoon. That was my first time sliding sideways down a hill on a four wheel drive tractor with a bucket and a back hoe. Pretty thrilling to say the least. We hope to try again tomorrow, depending on the weather. So we continue to pray that things will soon dry out and that no one will damage the vehicle while it waits there in the jungle.

Stay tuned for the exciting (but not too exciting, I hope) conclusion. And take a few minutes to listen to our Audio Update which is below the photo gallery.

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We’ve been up to our necks in alligators for so long that it’s an incredible feeling to finally be draining the swamp a little bit. Last week we received the replacement LNB for our satellite dish. Not sure what that is? Watch the video and I’ll explain there. That was the last of our significant repairs from the lightning strike on October 15, the day Mildred and I went to Ohio for vacation.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Titanium padlock scorched by grinder!

Yesterday was payday, so I had to go to the transmitter site to pay our guard. I discovered that someone had popped off the plastic weather shield and tried to grind off our titanium lock on the gate. I’ll soon be beefing that up in case they try again with heavier equipment. I’m an electrician and it’s very tempting to make it so that the next person who tries again never tries again. But I also know how to weld, so I’ll make it just too hard for them to mess with and keep it safe for kids. Then they’ll go rob someone else, which doesn’t make me very happy either. It’s such a sad state of affairs when crime is allowed to run rampant like it is here.

Pro audio cards are necessary for the work these computers do.

Getting the satellite receiver working was great, but it revealed another alligator that had crept in unnoticed. We started noticing soft voices in the background coming over the air. I wondered if someone outside was playing something that we were hearing inside. But no! It was coming over the air. I soon figured out that it was cross talk from the audio satellite receiver. (We have one that feeds audio to the FM computer and one that feeds files to another computer.) We never had that before the lightning strike but, just to be sure, I separated the cable from the satellite receiver from the other audio cables. Nope, we still had it. A little more poking around showed it to be the audio card in the computer. Glad we had a spare, but now we don’t have a spare.

Antique phone system

Thankfully, we’ve fixed enough stuff that there is a little swamp draining going on now. I’m pretty sure our phone system here was tossed off the boat by Columbus in 1502 because it was obsolete. A looonnng time ago, the home office sent us a newer system that they had outgrown. At last, I think I have some time to try to figure out how to install it. So far, I haven’t made much progress, but I’m hopeful. I also got a spare router all programmed so we are ready in case of failure there. There are just tons of things I want to do to make us more productive, but like they say, it’s hard to drain the swamp when you’re up to your neck in alligators. Check out the Audio Update below for more about that’s going on here.