Fully packed car
Lore, Amadeus, Prisca and driver Martin
Stop after Korogwe
Digging Cable ditch
Electric Fundi mounting main switch
Amadeus cleaning antenna mast
Lunch
Bice rde to Kibaya
Cleaning Solar panels
New Telemetry antenna
Modifying installation for Electricity use
New electric meter in its box
Conneting to transformer
Amadeus finishing painting antenna mast
Cleaning and Painting Container
Now container looks pretty again
Tea in the bush
Recording Sunday Service in Kibaya Church
We chose the Route using the tarmac road up to Korogwe and then the dusty road to Kibaya, because we were not sure about the connection through Handeni. It took about 5 hours to Korogwe, refuelling and lunch about one hour, and another 5 hours on the dusty road to Kibaya. We arrived around 8 o`clock at night in Kibaya and got a room to sleep in the pastors house.
The next day we passed at Tanesco and they adviced us to see an electric contractor doing the installation. We took the contractor and his helping person right with us up on the "Telephone" Mountain, where the Booster station of SYI is located. They immediately started with the work digging the trench to the meter box and installing the main switch inside the container.
While Amadeus started to clean the antenna mast, Lore and Prisca made the car a place to live. Amadeus got a room in the watchmen´s house to sleep.
The next day I had to follow the electricity company again. I took the bicycle to get to Kibaya. It is about 13 km and 500m difference in height. In Kibaya the contractor already had filled and stamped all the documents needed for the Tanesco, and I could pay him and the service line. On the way back I passed by the pastor. He invited us to record the first service on Sunday at 8 o´clock. So we had to be ready up on the mountain then!
We were very surprised when the technicians of the electricity company appeared up the mountain the next day! At lunch time the cabel up to the transformer was under the soil, the meter was connected and we had electricity in the container!! I had just to modify the installation, that whenever electricity is available the transmitter runs on high power. When the electricity fails it will be on low power connectred to the solar system.
Also the solar panels had to be cleaned and a new telemetry antenna installed, which gave us trouble for some time.
The next day Amadeus finiched to paint the antenna mast, while Lore cleaned and repainted the doors. She also helped me cleaning the roof. One of the watchmen helped to paint the roof and side walls. while we painted the bottom of the container. On Saturday evening the container looked again as new and we could take the bad road down to the pastors house in Kibaya again.
On Sunday Morning we recorded the Suanday service and headed to Engathmet after lunch.
In Engathmet we got accommodation in the church`s guest house and finished the safari through Hedaru. Since the transmitter was still not on air in Same, we passed by the Tanesco office there to ask to speed up the process of reconnecting the transmitter to electricity. We arrived in Moshi around 5 o`clock in the evening to unload the car.
Conclusion:
It is hard and far to reach the transmitter in Kibaya.
The container needs to be made watertight again where the rust has made holes in the roof!
The container needs a security light on both ends
We hope with the high power we can be heard much better in Morogoro.
Since the solar system is just on stand by, we hope it will last still some bit longer than the planned 10 years of service in 3 years to come.
Martin
