Preparing the telemetry antenna
The STL had arrived from DAR
preparing the cables
setting up the devices
testing the device between studio and home
mounting the antenna at the diocese
actually it should be up there!
Bringing transmitter rack up the mountain
The clouds are following us!
Our antennas are on top on the left side!
Our transmitter on the carton box
reparing transmitter
Sun again after the rain
Transmitter in the new rack
decending in the night
Barbara handing over things of Hans Martin Geißner
Travel Report
Morogoro Bondwa
Originally we
received the program for our transmitter in Morogoro from Kibaya, and this came through
Same from the Kidia Transmitter. But since Radio Maria opened their transmitter right in
the way towards Kibaya we had no reception any more. We had to place a big filter in front
of our receiver to gain reception again.
But after adding
more stations on the same TTCL antenna mast reception became again impossible from Kibaya.
This time we placed a very low powered transmitter at the dioceses office right down in
the town being connected right to Moshi through the internet. This worked until additional
strong stations got added on the same antenna tower early this year.
Now we had to think
for a different solution: We pull the internet right up to the mountain by a WLAN and a
"Exstreamer" gives us the audio for the transmitter.
It took quite a
while until we found the right equipment and how to get them here to Moshi.
We had to set it up
and test it under bad time pressure because Radio Furaha had been waiting for us a
long time already.
It had been hard to
find a solution for the required network cables because the quality of cable available in
Moshi is very bad and not shilded. We had even to parallel two cables to reduce the
voltage drop!
Coming back from
Radio Furaha in Iringa we started at the diocese in Morogoro. As soon as pastor Paulo came
we talked with him to get permission to mount the small dish up on the new church
structure to get a good line of sight connection up Bondwa mountain.
Unfortunately he
could not decide this by himself. He called for a meeting on Wednesday, but the chairman
of the church elders had a car problem.
In the mean time I
cleaned the battery of our micro station at the diocese. The acid spilled over and made
the surrounding dirty. Then I connected the power supply correctly, that the battery is
charging well again.
Then I had to redo
the internet connection. Since we are using a Router I had to deactivate the router
function of the TTCL modem and set the username and password correctly. After Martha
returned the streaming server in Moshi to the internet the connection was excellent and we
could listen to the LRC programmes in Morogoro again.
Now I fitted the
exstreamer prepared for our transmitter in Tanga instead of the one there since I wanted
to bring it up the mountain. When everything was working again, I started to mount the new
STL dish on the ficha board of the diocese temporally until we could get the permission to
mount it on the new church building.
Since the planned
meeting of the church elders took not place on Wednesday we planned to bring
the STL and the new transmitter rack up the Bondwa mountain.
We left the Junior
Seminary when it was still dark outside and came to the last village reachable by car at
sunrise.
I was so thankful I
met the evangelist of this village the day before at the diocese. He already had arranged
porters who helped to carry up our transmitter rack.
I had been fearing
to get into the rain during the 4 hour ascent. But the clouds just followed us.
When arriving I
started to repair the telemetry antenna and to mount the STL dish, since the weather was
still dry, and working on the antenna mast during rain is almost impossible. All the iron
bars are very slippery and the cold heavy winds make grasping things extremely difficult.
One of the watchmen
helped me to pull the cable down right to the transmitter.
Finishing all that I
continued working inside the shelter. Fortunately the rain started now not before! I had
to prepare the new rack, that the antenna filter, the transmitter, the telemetry unit, the
battery with charger and the new STL equipment fits into it.
Then I made the
modifications necessary on the transmitter. I fitted the modulator boards instead of the
ball receiver.
After replacing the
fuse the transmitter powered up. Unfortunately it had not been working and the light bars
on the front just show extreme maximum. I could not trace the mistake and we had to take
the transmitter with us to Moshi.
After the rain and
thunderstorm had stopped the vision towards the town increased and I could clime up the
antenna tower again to adjust the STL dish. It is great to have the adjusting LED bar on
the unit! Seeing where to direct it to and adjusting it for maximum is easy! Unfortunately
the signal was not strong enough to give uninterrupted connection. It played for some time
and stopped again when the buffer was empty. So definitely we have to move the STL dish at
the diocese to a higher place, whether it is the church or an own antenna mast!
We descended when it
became dark and arrived at the car about at 10 o’clock at the car. We had to pay the
porters and arrived at the ELCT Junior Seminary before 11.
We were sad that
Bondwa was not on air yet, but glad about everything already accomplished!
We left Morogoro the
next morning after Barbara had handed us over equipment to show the Jesus Film in the
villages from Hans Martin Geißner.
