TRAVEL REPORT

TCRA DAR ES SALAAM

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I left Moshi by Dar Express at 7:15

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Highway Restaurant after Korogwe

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Narrow Bridge

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Hotel

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Restaurant

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"Chipsi Mayai"

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A good fiew from the balkony

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The big Bus stand is close!

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Even close to the Communication Towers!

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Communiocation Towers from the front

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TCRA main office

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Meeting room with Cheef Engineer Gunze

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Homework

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Busstand in the dark

                                                     25. 8. 2014

After getting the notice from Flora that the meeting in Dar Es Salaam at TCRA about Broadcast Frequency Reframing Consultation has been changed date to Friday this week, I had to get a bus ticked right on Wednesday afternoon to travel early next day!

The very same afternoon we looked for a place to stay overnight. I am so lucky my director gave me a hint about a hotel just close to the bus stand.

I tried to find out where everything is located by Google Earth since I did not know this area of Dar Es Salaam yet. Unfortunately I did not find the location of the hotel my director told me, just about bad practice using the camera supervision system even in the bedrooms.

The next morning I left Moshi with the Dar Express at 7:15. We had to go slow due the ongoing road construction and wait even quite some time where only one track is open before Korogwe.  We made a stop at the Highway Inn for everyone to rest some bit. Due to heavy traffic getting into Dar we arrived around 16:00 at Ubungu Bus station.

Immedeately I tried to get a return ticked for Saturday. The booking offices were moved to another place because of construction of the new railway terminal at the bus station. At the new office they told me that all Da Express Seats for Saturday are booked out because many students are returning. So I booked a seat in another bus to Moshi to be sure.

Then I wanted to know where to stay at night and took a motorcycle taxi to show me the supposed hotel. It is just around the fence of the bus stand. The first room they showed me had a camera just above the bed, but the guests using it just covered it, and since it was in use I got another one at the bottom of the building without camera. Since it was noisy the first night I got another room at the sith floor the next night which was much quieter!

Just on the ground floor there is a restaurant for Breakfast and even other meals whenever you order them not very expensive. That is very helpful as well as the friendly staff of the hotel.

Since I had  doubts about the meeting time of 11:30 given on the invitation letter I was early in the Communication Towers I reached within half an hour by walking.

I was welcomed at the TCRA office after searching my bag and body for weapons. I was asked to wait in the main office. After a while I was asked to go down into the cafeteria together with other radio representatives already waiting. When we signed in to the meeting we were told: "This is the producers meeting, not the Frequency consultation!" And we had to move up to the top to the Chef engineers Room. And it was more than one hour earlier than it had been stated on the invitation letter!

After a little while we were greeted by him, Dr. Gunze.   Unfortunately he had to appear at the court with Clouds FM. So he appointed another co worker for our meeting. He read us the new frequencies for our transmitter in Morogoro and Tanga.

In Tanga we should use 96.5 MHz instead of 96.7MHz. In Morogoro we should use 99.9 instead 99.6 MHz. A quick look on my frequency scan sheets did not show any bad interference if we move. "You have more than a month now to announce your new frequency, and everyone has to adjust the frequency on October 1st! Any more questions?"

I asked him for a copy of the list which station is using which frequency, because I would find it much helpful for our work following interference reports. But he referred me to the local TCRA offices. They would help us in case of interference.

On the way home to the hotel I checked to get a bus still to Moshi. But the last one for the day had left already.

So I had enough time the afternoon to scan the frequencies again to see which one is occupied in Dar by a radio station as I did the night before. Now from my new room in the sixth floor, and there were some changes. But what troubled me most is that our Roman Catholic Fellow Station, "Radio Tumaini"( http://www.tumainimedia.com/index.php/radio ) is on exactly the same frequency as we have got now in Tanga. We do not interfere now as long as we are in Tanga Kisosora, but after moving up to Amani we will interfere each other. I know the Regulatory office does not like us to have such a big target, but is so sad if two Christian stations are knocking down each other! My frequency scan shows I have listened to Radio Tumaini from our new Transmitter site in Tanga already.

On Saturday morning When I wanted to find my bus around 7:30, the 6 o'clock Dar Express Bus was just heading to take off. They told me there is still a lot of space left and I decided to go with them again to get home earlier.

Even though the bus driver was really fast we arrived in Moshi around 16:00 because we had to wait for a long time where the roar is getting built.

 

 

 

 

 

Ps.: A short video taken from the hotel window is on:

http://sautiyainjili.de/ DarTCRA.mp4