Friday, November 26, 2010

Madagascar World Voice Update

by Dick Brackett
reprinted from World Christian Broadcasting Newsletter

I guess you could say that progress can be a matter of perspective and viewpoint. To a rabbit, a 100-yard dash takes just a few seconds, whereas to a turtle it may be a day's journey. That's how we view our progress in Madagascar. We have made huge strides and accomplished much. But there is still much to do.

Several unexpected setbacks have not deterred our progress in Madagascar, just caused us to miss a few deadlines. In spite of adverse weather, governmental upheaval and slow shipping, engineer Kevin Chambers and his crew of eager Malagasy workmen have managed to complete a monumental amount of work.

Buildings have been constructed, all four towers are firmly in place, diesel-powered generators are fully functional and three array antennas have been installed. The three transmitters have been built, tested and crated and are awaiting the final shipment to Madagascar from the port in Houston, Texas.

Our engineer, Kevin Chambers, has shown great ingenuity. A complicated, yet amazing simple system of counter-weights has been installed that will help to keep the array antennas balanced as they are installed. Using a network of pulleys, wires and sandbags, the system allows the antennas to give with the winds, then return to their original position.

Upon completion of the station, several new language services will be added to the daily broadcast schedule. Many hours of new programming have already been recorded in Arabic, English for African cultures, Spanish and Portuguese. These languages will join the English, Mandarin Chinese and Russian programs already being broadcast from [NASB member station KNLS in] Anchor Point, Alaska, giving us effective coverage of the world's population.
(NASB Newsletter/Nov News-10)