Going off grid in Africa.

We had A/C most of the time in the bedrooms of house where I was staying. (Kitchen & dining were not cooled.) But 90% of my work was outside, and they didn't have electricity at the radio station till we were almost ready to leave. There were two nights without electricity, but they had a portable generator to run fans. Not luxury, but bearable.

I wore long sleeves partly to protect myself from the sun, but also to cool myself. If I ran water on them, they would dry so fast in the 4% humidity and the breeze that I would get almost chilly.

 

In a manner of speaking. I'm a missionary and work in radio. Another mission organization asked us to help them put in their first ever radio station.

 

Yes, FM. Most cell phones in every 3rd world country I've visited or lived in have an FM receiver built in.

AM is alive and well in the US, IMHO, mostly because of talk radio. But FM is easier and less expensive to operate. In Honduras, we had both. The FM transmitter was more efficient, reliable, and compact (but also newer). However, the local fishermen loved the AM because they could hear it from much farther away. We aired similar content on both.

 

Our transmitters were not the same age, but the AM was somewhat less energy efficient. It took about 4kW input for a 2 kW signal. The FM only needed about 3 kW for the same output. There's also a difference in tower and antenna cost. Our AM tower/antenna needed ground radials buried in the rocky cow pasture where it was located. One wire every one degree extending out to the same distance as the tower height of 190 feet. I wasn't there for it, but the guy who put it in said it was a heckova job.

With FM, you just put the antenna or antennas on a tower, hook 'em up, and you're good to go. (An over simplification, I know, but I hope you get the idea.)

 

Here I go again!!
I'll be off the grid for 10-12 days starting tomorrow morning. I'm headed back to Togo for the grand opening of the radio station I've been helping to build. And this time my wife is coming along so I can show off for her a little. They are broadcasting now in French and two or three other languages 8-12 hours a day. We first went on the air on February 14.

 

Its heart is radio. But it's also a training center for pastors, chaplains, and other community church leaders. The studios occupy about 1/3 of the bottom floor of the studio building. The building with the big doors has a shop, an electrical generator, batteries and controls for solar power, and the transmitter room. Phase two includes a bigger facility for training that will also have dormitories.

 

Quick update. Today is the grand opening. Yesterday we had a reception for community leaders. Then a walk through for the presidents of both mission organizations involved in this.

Breakdown on the way from Lomé to Mango turned an 8-10 hour trip into a 16 hour trip.

More pictures will have to wait. Internet is pretty slow and intermittent. I get a few uploaded to Facebook now and then. That's about it. So far, I've figured out how they can use a timer to automatically start and stop the transmitter. Also fixed an unbonded neutral that was shocking people when then touched the server rack. Still puzzled over a malfunction in the broadcast automation software. Looks like it should work, but fails every time. Hmmmm... Back to the manual.

 

I haven’t seen that, but I can imagine.

They have some really smart people here. Just not real experienced on this equipment. Plus they are just finishing the construction and setup phase so they have more to do than hours in the day. I’m able to take the time to camp out on a problem till I solve it. Kuami, the studio tech is sharp as a tack and loves to learn and to figure out stuff.

Hopefully, we’ll someday turn over the station to the Togolese and they’ll be starting up new stations.

 

We're back!! The "feels like" temperature for the grand opening was about 115° F, but at least it didn't rain.

We had a great turnout. And I got to resolve some of the technical issues the staff had been struggling with, including an unbonded neutral and having to manually start and stop the transmitter at the beginning and end of the broadcast day.


There were almost that many people behind me in the shade of a tree.


First time my wife came with me. I think she was suitably impressed. They had special shirts and dresses made for everyone involved for the occasion.


Drone shot of the proceedings.