26.May 2009
Temba is cutting a thick branch of the tree right on the way
The car refuses to go any further
We continue to climbe to the transmitter site
Refiuiling the DIesel tanks
Inspecting the antennas
A candybar returns the energy needet to returnto the car
We had to take
care again of the main transmitter station in Kidia on Tuesday. Since the solar panels have
been stolen we have to go up to Kidia every Month to make sure the generator does not run
out of fuel. This time we made sure Deo, the fellow technician and deacon of the studio
came with us. His knowledge should be up to date if something fails while I am on holidays
in Germany.
The driver of the
studio, Temba took me, and the deacon Deo up the mountain. On the way we filled 5 carry
cans with Diesel. The road up to Old Moshi and then through Kidia wit the old Missionary
church, takes about one hour. Then we had to stop at the gate of the Kilimanjaro National
Park to register with the Guards. From there it is still 6km to get up to nearly 2500m to
our transmitter site.
On the way we met
our watchmen coming to help us to carry the diesel. After about 4 km we could not continue
driving the car because a tree had fallen down. We had to cut it and remove it first.
Every meter you can ride in the car helps a lot, if there are 170 kg of fuel to be carried
in addition to a ladder and tools.
But not very far
above we came to a point, where pushing the car and digging the wheels did not help any
more. We had to finish the remaining 2km by foot carrying all we brought along.
I took the tools;
Deo the ladder; the two watchmen and our driver Temba each of them carried a fuel tank.
The two watchmen had arrived before me and Deo. We put the ladder on the building, opened
the safety door and the grill inside. Then we refuelled the diesel drums inside
using the diesel cans already there.
Then we serviced the
generator and the computer control with switch clock and telemety unit. Also the data of
the transmitter and the batteries are written down on a form for future reference. We went
up the antenna mast and checked the remaining solar panes, its wiring and the antennas.
We had some trouble
twice the last month, that the transmitter had a strong hum modulation. But we could not
find any fault on the antenna or the transmitter. Since we got an SWR alarm the antenna
must have increased its SWR and the regulating circuit of the transmitter was oscillating.
Meanwhile the
watchmen went down again and got the remaining carry cans and found Temba with
strong chest pain on the road. Cutting the thick tree with the panga and carrying the
heavy load had been too much! We were very much worried it could be a mild heart attack!
The watchmen helped him to carry the diesel and slowly he recovered.
The watchmen
complained about the rangers forcing them even to look after the trees. When we came to
the Rangers office of TANAPA I asked to be shown the one in charge. He told me that other
rangers came all the way from Machame, and they found a large area of knocked down
trees not far from our transmitter station. They guessd, that our watchmen were some of
those poachers stealing tropical timber in the rain forest. But the one from Kidia Ranger
station defended them. All he had asked them was to report at the gate when they were
going up or down and to report him if they heard any suspect noises, like falling trees or
the cutting of a tree. And he did not understand why they did not report it since the
place was close by, and they must have heard it! In no way did he want them to follow the
poachers, but just to report them! And that could be done easily, if they had nothing
to hide!
We came back to the
Studio around 17 hours, returned the ladder and keys and reported to the head of the
technical department what had happened.