in Kidia
We luickily arrived at the transmitter site!
Ups- the line voltage must have been more than 300 Volts instead of 230Volts. All Varistors busted!
Temba is starting to fill the diesel tanks from outside.
He had to continuie to fill the rest from inside...
... using a hosepipe
The dieselpump got loose of the generator and all engine oil came out!
Temba tries to repair its gasked with gasked maker.
We have to go back to town to get the spare
Coming up we passed the transformewr. All oil was gone and the high tension Fuses removed.
We try to get back to the transmitter site to fit the spare that the generator can continue to charge the batteries.
Shortly before dark we finish and close the door.
Today we went up to our Kidia transmitter site to se physically what is going on. The transmitter site is about 20 km away from the studio on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro about 2500 metres high to give a good reception radius.
The public power failed last Sunday evening. The old generator started as it was supposed and worked up to Thursday evening. Then it stopped to work even though the electricity did not return yet.
We were glad Temba, our driver, could bring us up to the transmitter site with our Pajero. The road is muddy on the way and in the rain forrest it is wet nearly all the time and you newer know whether the road is blocked somewhere by a fallen tree or the road is washed away by the rain!
The watchmen told us they heared the loud bang last Sunday when the varistors bursted we fitted right where the earthcable enters the transmitter shelter. They protect the cable and our equipment from too high voltage, usually from voltage peaks from thunder storms. But this week we had no thunder storm. The line voltage of the electricity company must have been way too high up for a longer time! We had the same problem 4 Weeks ago already.
Even the people in the small village before you enter the rain forrest, where our earth cable starts, reported us they heard a loud bang coming from the transformer about 2 km away! At the transformer they reported us the rubber stopper of the transfomer came out because the high pressure inside spilling all the oil to the bottom! They tried to catch as much in a bowl to bew returned into the transformer. Unfortunately the last time this happened the electricity company did not return another transformer for several months to panalize the people for steeling the transformer oil!
Beeing at the transmitter side we first filled the three big 200 litre tanks of the generator. We thought may be the generator stopped because the diesel tank was empty. Luckely we just added a bit more than 300 litres. We were glad we had still so much in carry cans inside the shelter. But to bring up another 300 litres for the next week will be a big challenge with the bad road going up there! Thhose 300 litres are required every week the generator has to run 24 hours, if no public supply is on! Then the generator is old already and you newer know what breaks next. That is why we asked already to get a new generator we want to place in the small village where our ground cable starts bringing electricity up. Not only bringing the diesel up is a problem, but also to get the money to buy it is a heavy load for the studio not to talk about spares needed for the generator!
After filling the diesel tanks we wondered why the generator has used so much engine oil. We refiled it and started the generator. It was running fine, but we had to notice that it is spilling enginge oil again somewhere.
