V6AF

On Thursday, March 6 Megan and I moved into a small apartment adjacent to the V6AF radio station studio. A few weeks prior the owners/operators of the radio station had to go off island for medical reasons. Originally a different couple had planned to watch the radio station the whole time the owners were gone but they also had to go off island, for business reasons. So Megan and I have become radio station operators. This mainly entails getting up early to record the daily weather forecast, managing workers, filling in shifts when the workers can't come, and picking up and dropping off workers that don't have a car. The reason we were asked is because running the radio station actually means running a computer program and while many locals are computer literate they don't have near the experience that Megan or I have. Except for the news, which is played via shortwave radio from Australia or Guam, the entire radio playlist for the station is generated by the computer. So, as long as the computer is running we are on air and so far we haven't gone off air.

Here is a picture of me in the studio...



Here is a more detailed look at the studio. In the middle is a CD player and a minidisk player that we use if we cannot get good reception for the news. On the right is a short wave radio. We don't use the reel to reel...


During our second week at the station the vet came so we were able to get a crate for Oliver. In case you didn't know we plan on bringing him back to the states with us...


There is a dog that lives at the radio station his name is Frisky. At first him and Oliver didn't get along too well but they eventually warmed up to each other...


On the radio station property there are a lot of banana trees, papaya trees, and sugar cane. They also have some pineapple growing. I'd never seen a pineapple plant before. They are really neat, the pineapple grows right in center and it looks like it's on a pedestal...


While they are gone they have let us use one of their cars. It's an older Mercedes E190. It's great to have a car, but don't let the Mercedes title fool you it is far from luxery. I don't have a picture of it but it looks like the one pictured here.