(November 12, 2010 ? by Jean Muehlfelt) Whenever many people think of the Big Bang Theory, they envision some type of exploding matter that eventually forms a universe. It ends up being called "creation." When the big bang happened recently at the HCJB Global Technology Center in Elkhart, Ind., just the opposite happened. The project to upgrade a 50,000-watt shortwave transmitter for use by partner Trans World Radio (TWR) in Swaziland came to a smoking and noisy halt within days of when the transmitter was to be shipped last spring. The setback happened during the final running and testing stage, called the "burn-in." That's when the transmitter must perform above what would be required of it on a day-to-day basis in an effort to reveal any remaining problems with the unit. Unfortunately, about 1½ hours into the final test, the transmitter shut down with a huge bang. An electrical engineer, sitting in another room about 70 feet away, was startled by the noise. "A connection on a plug had weakened over time," explained Ted Miller, another engineer assigned to the project. "It wasn't anything we had done. Rather, it could be compared to when a plug in a wall outlet begins to sag down instead of staying plugged solidly into the wall. Sparks flew inside the transmitter." The high-voltage arc in that one plug had many consequences-blown fuses, transistors that literally blew their tops off, and severe damage to the integrated circuits on a key control board. It took more than two months to assess and repair all the damage in order to get the transmitter running again. What made this particular repair process so difficult was that the digital AM transmitter was a prototype with Serial No. 1, and the original documentation from the manufacturer had been lost," said engineer Charles Jacobson. "The transmitter had had many fixes and modifications that did not match the manuals and drawings we had on file." In all, it took two years to upgrade the digital transmitter, make repairs, create new documentation and get it into a shipping container on Oct. 20, bound for Africa. It is scheduled to arrive at TWR's site before Christmas. "No one understands all the reasons God had for this long delay in the refurbishment of the Swaziland-bound transmitter," Jacobson continued. "However, the delay did help the engineers correct some problems in components that were not part of the upgrade. The changes will also improve the reliability and maintainability of the transmitter in Africa." Now that there's a big empty space where the 50,000-watt transmitter had been worked on, staff members at the Technology Center have begun moving in the rest of a 100,000-watt transmitter to be refurbished for HCJB Global-Australia's international broadcast facility in Kununurra. Upgrading that transmitter to digital will allow HCJB Global-Australia to provide a "vastly improved quality of signal to its listeners in various countries in the Asia Pacific Region," Jacobson said. Source: HCJB Global