Teabreak at hedaru
Lunchbreak in Korogwe
Lore is cleaning the transmitter hut. A rat has build its nest into it and made everything dirty
Taking old antennas apart
Lowering the top pipe with a winch
Sanding the mast
Lunch break in the shadow
Supper in the swimminc club
Antennas newly painted and elements replaced by aluminium tubes
The primer has to dry first before we can overcoat the mast
Amadeus starting the overcoat
... and nearly finishing it
Amadeus, our paint
specialist, Lore Prisca and Martin travelled to Tanga on April 5th.
The aim was to repair
the Tanga booster station antennas and to repaint the antenna mast, since the corrosive
weather destroyed lot of it.
We started on Monday
morning to take down the old antennas. First the telemety antenna. Its feed match had been
destroyed by picking birds. Then the receiving antenna which elements had been eaten badly
by rust, since at that time no aluminium pipes were available.
Then we took down the
transmitting antenna on the top by lowering the pipe on the top with a pulley. We were
very glad we could open almost any screw in spite of the aggressive weather.
We replaced the
transmitting antenna immediately. But the other antennas had to be taken apart first,
sanded, painted by primer, then overcoat, and then the new prepared elements fitted on
them before we could return them up the antenna mast.
In the mean time Amadeus
sanded the hole antenna mast, and painted it with primer. After it had dried we could
return the antennas and Amadeus could paint the over coat. The Over coat is drying very
slowly, and we wanted to make sure everything is working before we could apply it, that
nobody had to go up again the mast.
We got many phone calls
by listeners asking us how long it would take until we could finish. Unfortunately we
could not get any signal from the feeding station in Mlalo. Several phone calls revealed,
that the electricity bill was not paid and it was cut.
One listener on the
phone at least could ask a friend in Mlalo to return electricity by a short time, and
everybody in Tanga was glad about it. Unfortunately heavy rains started in Mlalo and the
electricity was cut again...
We found the battery of
the telemetry unit dead, and it also destroyed its charger, because the electricity was
turned off for a too long time while struggling to pay the electricity bill. But finally
paying a new battery and charger now is more expensive than the electricity saved...
On Thursday we passed by
the Electricity companies office to apply for a separate electricity meter. This will help
to know exactly how much electricity is used on which end. After signing the forms at the
studio the pastor will follow up its installation.
We brought Amadeus to the bus stand, since he wanted stay Easter with his family. We stayed at the beach for the Easter holidays and Lore’s Birthday on Tuesday, and returned on Wednesday to Mosh.
Martin Ahnert.