Lore Ahnert-Böckler
Martin Ahnert

P.O.Box 777
Moshi
Tanzania

Travel Report Morogoro

18. 10. 2013

Assembling and testing of the new PoE Adapters in Moshi

Bringing the second dish to studio to test the link beween the studio and home

Arriving at the ELCT language school in Morogoro

Our Link box in the diocese

The new PoE adapter in the box

I replaced the Feedhorn/accesspoint and the cable running up to the dish

Link is working!

Early in the morning. Starting here you have to ascent Bondwa by foot!

The last 100 metres before the  TTCL mast

I replaced here the Feedhorn/accesspoint as well

and had to repair/replace the broken antennas

We fittet external resistors to replace teh internal NTC resistors for the time beeing until we get the spare ones

Taking off at the ELCT language school

We passed even Mombo until the car stopped finally where the Pare mountains started.

We tried everyting to get it working again, but it did not want to start again! So Temba had to pull us home!

Returning to Tanzania I had to configer the pair of units first. This is not too easy because each brand and model depending on the software version uses different setups. Then they may have still some bugs in the software. The units I got refused all work whenever I tried to encrypt the data which is very important for our application. An unencrypted signal invites everyone to use our internet access as well!  

We took off after the MEW meeting on October 16th from Bagamoyo in the morning. We arrived shortly before dark at the ELCT Junior Seminary where we got accomodation even though the telephone answer was that all rooms are booked out!
On Thursday morning I went to diocese. I attended the morning devotion and started with the work after talking with the general secretary. He reminded us not to forget to pay our electricity bill. Since we paid the last time we used 745 kWhs. ( Meter readings: 12.3.2012: 297kWh -  17.10.2013:1042 kWh 19 months, 2.7 unis per day! 115 Watts average )
Then I replaced the network cable between our box in the office and the dish antenna mounted on top of the new church building. Jonathan cutted the old wire because he was doubting whether it is still passing electricity and was not sure about its power over Ethernet function. I had to replace it because you can not connect network cables just as electricity cables.
I exchanged also the power over Ethernet injector and the feedhorn/accesspoint at the dish which I had prepared and tested in Moshi just to be sure.
The Internet connection with its modem and router was still working excellent! Also the power supply. Unfortunately I found the battery fuse broken, so the battery was not charged since Jonathan was there and I am not really sure whether it will come up again. After replacing the fuse by a new one I tested the WLAN connection with the second feedhorn/accesspoint I had from Moshi and everything was working fine including listening to the SYI program on the internet!
The next task was to get to the Uluguru Nationalprk Authorothy. It is located on the old road to Dar if you pass the bridge after the end of the tarmac and you follow the signposts a small dirt road to the right up the mountain. Unfortunately all officers were not in. They would return to work on Monday the secretary told me. But she promised me she will hand over the letter I gave her to her boss on Monday and they will reply it by email.
In the afternoon I had to prepare everything I needed climbing Bondwa the next morning. I left the junior Seminary around 5:30 in the morning to get to the last village up the road just after sunrise. Unfortunately the evangelist was on a safari to Mbeya. But I found someone to watch the car while I was up the mountain, and Hamsi Majaliwa (0717070857) went with me the way up and down in case there is something heavy to return to the studio. He told me his uncle (Mr. Nuwia 0754634946) is the new supervisor of the TTCL Bondwa tower. These days he is following close what ever happens up there. He has big vegetable fields up the mountain from where I got even some strawberries to take home!
We were fast and reached the TTCL tower around 9 0´clock. We checked the Luku first and added the units we came with. There were even units left and now there are 543 units available.
Then we checked why the transmitter was not on air any more. The Main switch was turned off. But why? It could have continued beeing on air just with the playlist if the link had a trouble. It had been switched off by the watchmen since the transmitter was not coming on after a power surch.
I opened the transmitter and found the NTCs and the fuses burned out. The cause are short power cuts which do not allow the NTC to cool down before the electricity returns. I increased the delay and decreased the dead time of the voltage guard. It should not happen with it and the stabilizer having additional delay to come on again!
We looked for a possibility replacing he fried NTCs. Another time I found an old Flourescent lamp coil which worked fine for low power. We really tried hard. Finally Hamsi found 4 resistors wich 10 Ohms each. Exactly the resistance the NTCs have when cold. We calculated the maximum voltage drop on them not to overload them with the transmitter. Since they are not reducing their resistance they are really getting hot! We adjusted the power of the transmitter accordingly and had to set it for 50 Watts output.
Now I could replace the feedhorn/accesspoint of the dish on top of the antenna mast. While doing so I noticed that the gamma match of the telemetry antenna was eaten again by birds. The gamma match of one of the transmitting antennas was no longer there! I replaced it by the dipole of one of the unused antennas and took the broken one down to be repaired.

Now we were on air again! The next morning we listened to our signal. On the way to Chalince it hardly faded anywhere! Then on the way up to Segera it could be heard even after the Wumi Bridge! There is a station, just 100kHz up of the frequency assigned to us, on 99.7 MHz. It is heard between Bagamoyo and Korogwe. Most of the program content is coming from China! This station interfears with our Bondwa signal if you move up North towards Segera. But I am sure we cover much more of the coastal line than Radio Upendo (from Kazarare, Dar) does presently, having a co channel station from Zanzibar!.

We refueled after Morogoro and again in Korogwe. Unfortunately our car enginge started to misfire after Mombo until it finally stopped where the Pare mountains begin. We cleaned the air filter. No effect. We tried to clean the fuel filter. It did not start again at all because you need a special tool to bleed the fuel line!

We were so glad when Temba came to pull us home to Moshi about 170 km! We arrived at 3 in the morning after passing 3 Police stops. The first in Same we had to pay a panalty for pulling a car in the night. Even the second one at Chekereni as well. The third one before Kiboriloni just let us continue. What should we have done? Leave the car in the middle of nowhere? But Temba came with a pulling pipe greatly reducing riscs of the pulling the car and we went slowly until we reached home!

Martin