After many months of planning and waiting, we have a new antenna and transmitter for our shortwave international radio station KJES. As you may recall we use this radio station, which is located at the Lord’s Ranch, to broadcast the Word of God around the world. We have received mail from many countries over the 15 years we have been on the air including Japan, Cuba, Siberia, Canada, Haiti, China and New Zealand. But we wanted to further expand the areas where our signal is heard, and we also needed a reliable back-up transmitter when the main one breaks down.
To help us in this project, we enlisted the aid of John and Ruth Stanley, missionary engineers who travel around the world getting Christian radio stations up and running and maintained. John and Ruth have worked with us many times at KJES, and graciously agreed to help us again. Part of their task involved flying to Costa Rica where the new transmitter was being made to oversee its completion and to conduct initial tests on it. Finally it was loaded up and shipped to the United States. After the lengthy process of getting it cleared through customs, the transmitter arrived at the Lord’s Ranch in June. John and Ruth drove to the Ranch and set up shop, living and working out of our radio station building.
The Lord blessed us with some extra helpers. Dean Straw, an engineer friend of the Stanleys, drove in from California and was a huge help. Uswaldo Gallardo, a good friend of ours who works for the phone company, was able to get donations of wire and other supplies needed and he saved us a lot of time and money with his suggestions and help.
The existing antenna we use sends the shortwave signal east and west while this new one points north and south. Our goal was to be able to transmit more into Mexico and South America. Already we have heard from Brazil that we are coming in there loud and clear.
The back-up transmitter we used to use was old and unreliable and very complicated to operate. The new back-up transmitter from Costa Rica is much easier to run and also sends a stronger signal.