THE LUTHERAN RADIO CENTRE

 ANNOUNCEMENTS:

The solar panels compeat with the leaves of the trees to catch the necessary energy

Transmitter hut and antenna above Arusha. Radio Free Africa in background

4 stacked 3 element yagi antennas at Hagwe

Many people are helping to set up the Same   transmitter

A wonderful fiew of the Usambara mountains from the transmitter hut.

Samueli helping to build the transmitter hut in Tanga

The transmitter in Kibaya overlooking the huge land of the Maasai Steppe

Uluguru mountains and antennas on Bondwa / Morogoro

Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania

Lets have a look around the different transmitter sites!

Several Boosters have been chained to give better coverage of the North-Eastern zone of Tanzania. All Boosters are controlled and fed by the studio in Moshi.

1. Kilimanjaro Booster92.2MHz:

The Kilimanjaro Booster is located about 2500 metres above sea level on the Southern slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro. It was built in 1998/1999 with funds of the ELCT-Sikiliza FM-Project. It is solar power operated. The transmitter power (CROWN FM250) is about 20-250 Watts into 4 horizontally polarised 9 dB (dipole) group antennas, so maximum e.r.p. is about 1kW.

The main target are the Southern slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro, but it reaches nearly up to Arusha (Tengeru), Same and far into the Maassai area South of the Kilimanjaro.

Moshi Town and its surroundings have about 1 Million possible listeners.

The transmitter had been sponsored by the Sikiliza Project and Trans World Radio.

2. Arusha Booster 96.2MHz:

It first started to operate on August 1 ^st 1999 at an experimental stage in Sura (Mt.Meru) about 1500 metres above sea level.

Due to poor coverage of the Northern part of Arusha we moved the transmitter to the Kiwesi hill, just North of Arusha, which is about 2000m high.. It uses a CROWN FM 250 transmitter into a 10 dB vertically polarised antenna, about 15 metres above ground

The primary target is the town of Arusha and the West- slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro. But it can be heard often even up to Karatu and regions around Babati up to the slopes of Mt. Hanang.

Arusha town has about twohundret thousand possible listeners.

The Booster has been sponsored by the Northelbian Mission in Germany.

Because there is a shadow but so many people would like to listen to Radio Voice of the Gospel in Monduli we placed a micro booster there as well.

3. Rombo Booster96.4MHz:

The Rombo Booster is covering the East Slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro, where no other FM radio from Tanzania reaches. The most of the highly populated area are Roman Catholik Christians.

The transmitter has been sponsored by Radio Habari Maalum in Arusha. The 12dBd antennas produce about 2 kW e.r.p. and the station can be heard nearly up to terakea, and very far into Kenya.

4. Same Booster100.4MHz:

The Same Booster is located above Same on the slopes of the Shengenna massive. It uses a CROWN FM250 transmitter and a 6dB collinear vertical antenna about 12 metres above ground (1700 meters above sea level). Its primary target are the town of Same and the Pare Mountains, but it reaches far South in the Maassai area up to Orkesmet as well.

The transmitter has been financed by the Silkiliza Project, under the auspices of the Bavarian Lutheran Church in Germany.

There are about 2 Mil. possible listeners in its range.

5. Usambara Booster 102.6MHz

A strong request came from the Diocese in Lushoto in the Usambara mountains to cover the Usambara mountains. The area around Mlalo has the highest population density.

Aim of the Usambara Booster is to reach the people in the Usambara mountains as good as possible (deep valleys) and transmit the Gospel up to the coastal line, mainly Tanga. It can be heard even on the Mountains of Morogoro.

There are about 2.5Mil. people, many of them are Muslims.

The transmitter is a donation  from Trans World Radio (CROWN FM250) . The Antennas and the antenna support had been made locally in Moshi.

6. Tanga Booster 96.7 MHz:

The Tanga Booster had been opend officially January 2nd 2005 by the Bishop of the North Eastern Diocese. Its should improve reception in Tanga Town and its surrounding. Right now it is set up close to the Kisosora church, but the range is only about 40 km because of its low altitude. For better coverage of the coastal area it should be moved up to the Amani Mountains as soon as a donor is found to sponsor the electricity connection there.

The transmitter is sponsored by the Northelbian Mission, Germany.

7. Kibaya Booster 102.9MHz

There is a big Christian revival movement among the Maasai, and we got a strong request to put a booster there. In most of the areas, no other FM station can be heard, and Medium Wave is quite poor. So this booster fills a major communications gap.

Since the Kibaya Booster is located in the middle of the Maasai land it will cover nearly all the area up to Dodoma. The population is fairly scattered, but many people have their transistor radios

The Northelbian Mission in Germany sponsored  the transmitter and its Solar system. By a direct mailing campaign and the Bingo Lottery they have raised about 40 000 Euro for it!

8. Morogoro Booster 99.6MHz

Since many people wanted to listen to Voice of the Gospel even in the South, the Northelbian Mission of Germany donated a Crown FM 250 ransmitter for Morogoro Area Booster. The studio added two 12 dBd Antenna systems which brings the signal up to Bagamoyo and parts of Zansibar. The range is so huge because the mountain is so high with its 2300m.

We have rented part of an TTCL tower there

Unfortunately we can just run 100 Watts up to now, because the transformer of the power company is too small.

Which booster is on air right now?

Data of the boosters

9. Planned booster stations:

We have to move the Tanga Booster to our new transmitter site in the Amani Mountains. We are still working on the electricity supply.

We are still waiting for the "Go ahead" of our Booster on Oldeani/NgoroNgoro. Everything is waiting for it already!

We are looking for a sponsor for the electricity connection of our transmitter site on Mt. Hanang/Singida. We even have the transmitter already.

10. Satellite audio channel

We are still trying to get on a satellite for East and Central Africa. We have got the sponsorship for one year from Mission OneWorld and are working on it getting a partner for the uplink.

11. Listening through the Internet

We are glad we have enough webspace to host our internet page and others and even have our own streaming servers. This helps everyone even to listen to our program- and music archive!

Please select the LISTEN/ ARCHIVE button on the left!

To get the newest information about the booster stations read EVENTS the on the left!