[Imc-africa] more questions

Sun Dec 3 09:22:12 PST 2006

did any folks have responses to andy's questions below, especially about 
timing for the workshops?

On Wed, Nov 29, 2006 at 04:32:58PM -0500, andy gunn wrote:
> hi sphinx (and all!), i just wanted to check in on a few of these things below.
> 
> sphinx wrote:
> > Hi Wytze!
> > 
> >> One is: what are you going to do with the radio during WSF?
> > 
> > 1-Sharing skills of building and running a Low Powered Fm radio Station.
> > We?ll start construction of the radio on January 7, with the active
> > participation of all the delegates for the Convergence indymedia Center; and
> > the radio will be on the air on the 13th January-that is a week before the WSF
> > starts- till the end of the forum.
> 
> i was under the impression that delegates would be arriving on or around january 
> 13th for the convergence.  it would work best if as many IMC folks from around 
> africa were present for the construction of the station.  i was planning on having 
> a number of hands-on technical workshops that involved building the components 
> that go into the station (such as the transmitter, audio limiter, boxing up all of 
> these pieces with the amplifier into one unit, antenna, pole for the antenna, 
> etc).  can i get a confirmation on when folks were planning on arriving?  if this 
> has been discussed in detail before, i apologize - i don't read every email on the 
> list extensively, so i might miss things.
> 
> it will take several days to run a number of these workshops, all in all i 
> anticipate it will take the better part of a week to build a station such as this 
> from scratch.  i was planning on arriving in nairobi on or around the 7th of 
> january.  at that time, i would find the necessary components to build the 
> station, but that will take several days.  my hope was to be ready to run all of 
> the workshops and have collected everything when delegates arrive, so we can get 
> to the interesting stuff as fast as possible!  with this method a fully working 
> station will not be available as everyone arrives - it will take the participation 
> of the people in the convergence space to bring the station together.
> 
> if delegates are arriving on or around the 13th, and it is deemed essential to 
> have a station up and running immediately, we might be able to find an 
> alternative.  in the few days before the delegates arrive, if i bring pre-built 
> equipment it MIGHT be possible to have a working station set up.  it would be 
> very, very basic.  this would allow people to see a basic working set-up and get 
> on the air right away.  then, over the course of the week, those people in the 
> hands-on workshops would assemble the additional components, and upgrade the 
> station.  it would then be fully assembled by the time the world social forum starts.
> 
> please let me know if i have the arrival schedule for the delegates correct.  if 
> not, we can try and move the schedule around to make things work.  i just need to 
> know very soon (*so i can get plane tickets!*) what dates prometheus needs to 
> commit to for travel so this can be successful.
> 
> 
> >> If it is for other people, how will they know about the radio-station and
> >> the frequency?
> >>
> > IMC-Kenya folks are working on the Frequency question right now,
> > as soon as that is settled we?ll put the information in our lists, wikipages
> > and of course there will be a print version of indymedia reporting which will
> > amongst other things inform the World Social Forum audience on what frequency
> > the Independent media Convergence Center Radio will be broadcasting. Note that
> > this will be going on for three weeks. Of course we?ll be online too on
> > www.kenya.indymedia.org, www.radio.indymedia.org, www.indymedia.org and a host
> > of other online sites will be carrying our broadcasting as well as providing
> > global feedback on the events in Kenya.
> > http://wiki.radiolivre.org/Main/GLOBALRADIONODESONWSF
> 
> by frequency question, do you mean licensing?  if so, it is good news that people 
> from imc-kenya are working on licensing, as it will likely take a number of months 
> to move things through the kenya communications commission.  one thing to note: 
> this station will be very small, somewhere around 40 watts.  if enough money comes 
> through, it might be possible to get a higher powered amplifier, but equipment 
> over 150 watts gets very expensive and might not be possible to use.  the 
> broadcast range of such a station will be pretty small (5 to 10km from the 
> antenna, possibly more), so it will be important to note that this will only cover 
> a small area of nairobi.  the city is very, very large and the transmitter power 
> needed to cover the entire city very high.  it will not be possible to build such 
> a transmitter.
> 
> 
> >> Furthermore it would be helpful if you can write down what you will do
> >> with the apparature after WSF. You told me through phone but it gets
> >> stronger if I can give the group a written explanation.
> > 
> > After the WSF the equipment will be dismantled in Nairobi and rebuilt 
> > in Maseno
> > University in Kusumu. This provides a secure space for the equipment, and the
> > radio will be running from Maseno Campus. Independent media activists 
> > in Kusumu
> > as well as others involved with community projects in Kusumu both in the
> > University and out of the University will jointly run the radio, with
> > participative democracy/consensus as the bedrock of the structure of 
> > the radio.
> 
> again, i might have missed some information about this.  i was under the 
> impression that this was still being worked out.  if there has been a group 
> decision and confirmation that the equipment will go to maseno after the world 
> social forum, that is great.  i thought there was still some dispute about who 
> would be getting the equipment, since so far the only funding in the works for 
> equipment has been organized by the imc groups.  perhaps i am mistaken, i just 
> want to make sure about this.
> 
> thanks!
> -a
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> 
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> | Andy Gunn - Technical and Training Organizer - Prometheus Radio Project |
> |   SBE Certified Broadcast Radio Engineer and Networking Technologist    |
> | andy at prometheusradio.org   215-727-9620   prometheusradio.org   KB3NSE  |
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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> Imc-africa at lists.indymedia.org
> http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-africa

-- 
-----

hannah sassaman
prometheusradioproject

building radio stations = awesome
http://www.prometheusradio.org
215-727-9620