Lore Ahnert-Böckler
Martin Ahnert

P.O.Box 777
Moshi
Tanzania

Sunday November 9th

Transmitter hut at the church of Kisosora

The antenna pipes are rather rusty.

The salty air even eats the antenna mast

and it got holes already at the mast base

Two of the 5 steel ropes broke already because of the rust, and we had to connect them for safety!

Inside the transmitter hut

We were allowed to sleep in the General secretarys home at Mbuyukenda

After arriving at Kisosora we greeted the wife of the pastor. He himself was not in. She told us, that the trouble started recently.

We did the normal service work (cleaning all fan air inlets, the whole transmitter house, adjusting the battery water level and comparing the actual meter reading with the previous ones. Then we noticed, that the reception signal level had dropped considerably. Closer examination of the antenna mast and antennas revealed the following deffects:

- Transmitter antenna bent (distorting transmitter pattern, but still radiating well)

- Receiving antenna rusted and falling in to pices. (this results in a increasing weak reception)

- Guy wires corroded, 2 had already been broken and we had to connect them again. (This endangers the entire antenna mast structure. It can be very dangerous if the antenna structure is falling down on people or property on this public place!)

- Antenna mast also corroded (and may become unstable if not treated by paint)

To overcome the receiving problem, we lowered the cut of level of the receiver muting. This means, as the receiving antenna gets worse, the hiss increases in the received signal. We could not hear any yet.

We checked all guy wires for strength and repaired the two broken ones. The antenna base we painted with oil which stopped the rust for some time.

But within 1 month we should:

- replace the guy wires

- paint the antenna mast

- replace the receiving antenna

- replace the transmitting antenna