Monday, March 9, 2009

The First Failure

Up until Singkil we'd had a perfect track record for getting the radios working. I expected the run to continue but, alas, today it ended. After we had completed all of our other work to get the radios up to a decent operating standard - we successfully tested the VHF radio but the HF radio wouldn't cooperate.

The Codan HF radios we're using here are designed to output 150 watts of power. The one in Singkil would only push 10 watts and no more. The radio appears to be faulty so I'm bringing it back to Banda Aceh for repair.

I trust we'll get back on the good side of the ledger today as we work on the radios here in Tapaktuan at the Aceh Selatan branch.

Tapaktuan is a small town stretched along the west coast of Aceh with a hill rising up immediately to the east. I can see the waves breaking on the rocks across the street from our hotel. We got here yesterday after lunch and since Monday was an official Indonesian holiday I gave the team a well-deserved afternoon off.

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