[Imc-africa] more questions

[sphinx]

Hi Andy!

Quoting andy gunn <andy at prometheusradio.org>:

> 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.
>

I think we did discuss the arrival date proposal a couple of times and 
the last
time was in the IRC meeting before last.
Normally the proposal (from Fabian) was to get the Radio on the air and the
Convergence Center open a week b4 the WSF. This is the 13th. I had made
proposal that delegates fly in by the 7th hoping we’ll use that whole week
leading to the 13th to shop for the necessary pieces and get to work 
building. For now the only person that is obviously better informed on 
the date of arrival
of African delegates should be Fabian whom I think by now should be 
through with
buying their tickets.

> 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.
>

That sounds to me like the best way to go.

> 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.
>

Fabian will surely respond on the arrival dates of the African delegates.


>
>>> 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.
>
I think there was a kind of consensus that the equipment will go to Maseno for
use by independent media makers in Kusumu both from within and without the
school.
Last time there was a kind of discussion about the need to try our hand on a
second radio for Nairobi since it seems there was some kind of mobilization
picking up speed in Nairobi. But again there was consensus that that would
happen if we get enough resources for a second set of equipment that could go
to the Nairobi group.

> thanks!
> -a
>
All the Best.
Sphinx
>
> --
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> | 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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