DAY 19 / DEC 17

DAY 19 / DEC 17

 

Another long day of waiting with nothing to show for it.  We were ready for the incoming birds by 0900 and stayed ready even as lift after lift came and went, dropping only two or three people at time, and none of them ours.

            Around 1400, after waiting all day, we were informed that we wouldn't have any more flights until 2000.   We had a little meeting at 1600 to discuss what was going on, what needed to happen and all that good stuff, and then it was back to the CHUs for some more CHU maintenance and settling in.

            With all this time, I went back to my CHU and began arranging and rearranging what I had, and finally got it how I wanted it, and I still have plenty of space to move around.   Then, I went to the Haji shop to inquire about some coax cable.  Most of the Haji shops were closed today because of the big outdoor BBQ going on, but the side one, the one with the bad DVDs (bad as in "don't work" not bad as in "porn"), was open and so, I asked about coax cable.   The guy had a roll of about 100 feet and when he threw in the end connectors (because it was just bare coax, no connectors), I took it off his hands.   I had no idea how to connect the ends, but I knew that at least one of my NCOs did, so I wasn't worried. 

            With all the appropriate parts on hand, I found one of my buddies and asked how to attach the ends.   He told me how to do it, and off I went, cutting black insulation, stripping it off, folding down the metal shielding, cutting the white plastic and finally, screwing on the end.   Wow, I didn't know it was that easy.  After screwing up one end (I cut the metal shielding off with the black insulator), I caught on and didn't cut as deep the next time and they came out pretty darned good.   So, within a few minutes I had a 100' coax cable – perfect for what I needed. 

            I went to my CHU and checked the back of the TV for what kind of connector it had and felt my stomach drop when I discovered that it wasn't a coax cable "in," but a regular old, UHF antenna "in."   I was disappointed for a moment, but not discouraged.  I knew there was always an adapter for this or that.  I took the TV back to my buddy's CHU and showed him the problem and he mentioned that our other buddy had a coax connector on his TV and that he needed the RCA connectors on mine for his PS2 and so, I traded with my buddy and we both got what we wanted.   He got the RCA and I got the coax.  So, now we were set.

            We plugged the coax into the "out" on the decoder, and into the "in" on the TV and viola!   It didn't work.  After a little bit of playing around, changing the channel, smacking it a little, we discovered that the "out" on the decoder was a direct satellite signal "out" and I had to have another decoder in order to make it work.   Arg!  Another stumbling block in my quest for TV!  We then noticed that the decoder had RCA A/V "out" connectors and that all it would take was a small $3 converter (in the US) to make it work.  I went back to Haji shop and he didn't have what we were looking for.  Undaunted, I began to plan my next move.   I would check the other Haji-shops the next day for a converter and if that should fail, I would see if Haji could get one, and if THAT failed, I would be forced to order one from the States and wait for 6 weeks for it to get here.

            We happened to run into Haji on the street and asked about the converter.   He didn't think he had one, but could get one in "three days."  I think they don't have a good concept of English time, because "three days" seems to be Haji for "maybe sometime in the future, maybe."   Every time we ask for something, its always in "three days." We'll see how tomorrow goes.

            At 1900 we were told we had no flights coming in until 2100 and then only 12 people (probably not ours), but that we would have another flight at 2400 with 60 people (maybe possibly ours).

            We actually had TWO people on the 2100 flight that came in at 2130.   A platoon leader and platoon sergeant (not from the same platoon) came in.  We issued them their keys and then led them to their CHUs.  They began the moving in process, moving this and that around.  I led the LT on a tour of the FOB (at night) and he ended up stopping for a minute at the AT&T call center.