At the same time, the governor’s office contacted the neighboring islands and requested them to check on their area reception and report back so the media division could do fine-tuning adjustments on the new AM transmitter to improve reception.
The AM station stopped broadcasting on Jan. 20, 2009 after its transmitter malfunctioned.
The Department of Youth and Civic Affairs has acquired the new XR-12 Transmitter with capacity to broadcast at 1500 watts from Nautel Inc.
Because of the distance between the Yap main islands and the neighboring islands, AM transmission is required for better reception. With AM, the neighboring islands can tune in to important government information and other broadcast matters.
Most of the neighboring islands responded back to the governor’s office within one hour from the call and reported that they had received fine reception on the radio signal in their respective areas.
But the office was still waiting for confirmation from those islands that had not been able to send in their reports via SSB Radio.
Following a thorough inspection of the new AM transmitter by the technical engineer who installed the transmitter, nothing suspicious was detected as a sign that something could be wrong. But he will continue to monitor the AM transmitter until he is sure that there will be no problem.
In the meantime, the AM radio will not be in full operation and may discontinue broadcasting from time to time until such new programs are produced and an approved schedule is in place.
