Kidia
We get the amplifier into the car
It just fits inot it!
Jonathan is buying some sodas on the way
A fallen tree blocks the road
Only the jack helps to get the car up the road!
.. and a lot of pushing
We are up !
first we need to have a break to get strength again
Jonathan fixes the pulley on the antenna mast.
We have to take out the amplifier to be repaired
Open all grills
and now we are pulling the amplifier along the timber
Before we can put it into the transmitter shelter we have to turn it round.
and now we lower it into the transmitter shelter
The bankets prevent the rain from getting into the high voltage compartment
And it arrived safely!
And now we connet it to the new stabilizer!
We had to go up to our transmitter site again. The generator did not start when we had a power break and we did not know how long the batteries could still carry the load.
Our new amplifier in Kidia showed a lot of trouble since we have got it. The Fan circuit failed again and again! Now we have got a spares kit to fit into it and we hope this will solve the problem!
Since we had to take the new amplifier out, we thought it would be a good idea to replace it with the old one we have got from Mwakasege a long time ago. I had been able to repair it and it worked again adding an additional 10 dB to the exiter transmitter as the new one. It just was so big and even worse: heavy that it needs 3 men to lift it into the car.
We also went with the new stabilizer we bought in Arusha the other week. That stabilizer allowes even lower voltages than we could work with before.
Unfortunately the weather up on the mounting had been rainy and wet. So we got quite some challenges to bring up the car to our transmitter site. First we had to remove a tree. That was still easy. But at one of the last corners the car got really stuck and was just moving backward. Luckily we have borrowed the pulley this safari. And it really helped to pull the car just a bit up until the tyres got their grip again!
Coming to the transmitter site we first had a short brake for refreshments.
We had to take the other amplifier out first and clear the way for the big one to get into the shelter.
Then Jonathan fixed the pulley on the transmitter mast. The watchman brought some round bars and we slided the amplifier on those bars slowly out of the car. We turned it aroud before lowering it into the transmitter shelter.
I really had my doubts whether we could get the 200 kg load really to its place with that wet weather. But the team performed perfectly together!
While Tember made the generator to work again, I tried to connect the new amplifier. Unfortunately we could just get 500 Watts out of it. Increasing just would cut the low voltage switch whth 130 Volts! And even leaving the amplifier on air had not been much fun for the listeners since every time the mains had a power hole the amplifier waited a minute or so to return to air. So we left it on Stand by to be switched on any time by remote control as soon as the power supply was more stable.
While we were finishing in the shelter Jonathan replaced the light bulb of the automatic flood light and the lamps of the watchmen.
Until we returned to Moshi it was night already!
Martin
The Varistors at the entrance got fried. The mains voltage had been some bit too high!