MOROGORO Bondwa

transmitter gets a new Link!

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Preparing the telemetry antenna

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The STL had arrived from DAR

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preparing the cables

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setting up the devices

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testing the device between studio and home

 

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mounting the antenna at the diocese

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actually it should be up there!

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Bringing transmitter rack up the mountain

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The clouds are following us!

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Our antennas are on top on the left side!

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Our transmitter on the carton box

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reparing transmitter

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Sun again after the rain

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Transmitter in the new rack

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decending in the night

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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. 

 

 

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