[Imc-africa] more questions

[andy gunn]

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



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| 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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