[A-DX] Zambia 5915 kHz

[Wolfgang Bueschel]

Zambia wieder auf 5915 kHz:

wenn ich recht sehe, war ZNBC Lusaka Zambia seit März 2017 nicht mehr
regelmäßig auf Sendung.

Ray Robinson berichtete aus 1. Hand über die Main Power Probleme im Land.
Er ist von KVOH USA, und betreut auch die VoH Sender in Zambia,
36 km westlich von Lusaka, von der Makeni Ranch transmitter site:
G.C. 15 32 17.43 S  28 00 04.87 E.


re ZNBC Lusaka Transmitter Zustand:
Da fehlt es an Stromlieferungen,
da fehlt es an destillierten Wasser,
da fehlt es an Budget Geld für Reparaturen, Diesel-Lieferung
da scheint jetzt nach 10 Monaten wieder Geld aufgetrieben worden sein.

73 wb


re Zambian load shedding - electricity utility outages:

I received the following personal message from Ray Robinson:

"I have seen a few messages lately, regarding the non-appearance of ZNBC-1
on 5915 kHz in their early mornings. You may be aware of the rolling power
outages called 'load shedding' the electricity utility in Zambia, ZESCO,
continues to impose daily throughout the country. The outages are at
different times in different areas, but at the Voice of Hope transmitter
site, the outages have been effect from 6-10 am local (0400-0800 UT) since
September {2016}.

"The ZNBC shortwave site is only a few miles from ours, and it would be
logical they are on the same outage schedule. I know from when our staff
visited their site a few months ago to buy some distilled water for our
transmitter cooling systems before our own still was up and running, that
ZNBC's genset is not currently operational, and I don't believe they have
the budget either to repair it, or to buy diesel for it, if it was
repaired and functional.

"My guess is they have decided it is not really worth the effort to
broadcast for the hour or so from 0245 UTC until whenever the power goes
out. (This is just my speculation.) They do use 5915 kHz later in the day
after the much cheaper hydro power returns, but of course by then, the
propagation conditions do not favor inter-continental reception.

"As for Voice of Hope - Africa, we had expected the load shedding to end
by December {2016}(two months into the Zambian rainy season), but alas the
outages are continuing, with no sign of any change soon. Our own weekday
morning broadcasts on 9680 and 11680 kHz have been entirely powered from
our genset since September{2016}. This is expensive, and unsustainable.

"We have therefore decided to make a schedule change from next Monday.
Instead of broadcasting weekday mornings from 0500 to 0800 UT, we will
switch to weekday evenings from 1700 to 2200 UT, extending the duration of
the broadcast from three hours to five. The last two hours will be 'Night
Light' presented by Stephen Mdoma, reprising a program he used to present
late nights years ago when the station was known as Christian Voice.

"We will be using the frequencies 4965 kHz (omni) and 6065 kHz (to West
Africa), which may also afford better opportunities for reception in ECNA
after local dusk. The program schedule on our website will be updated this
weekend. We plan to re-launch the morning broadcasts once the load
shedding ends. I thought you might like to know.

{...}

"Ray Robinson, Vice President, Global Operations,
Strategic Communications Group - Voice of Hope, Los Angeles and Lusaka"
(Ray Robinson, Christian Voice/Vision, dxld Jan 25, 2017)

ZAMBIA   Last time I was in Lusaka, I got chatting over breakfast to a
contractor who was staying at my hotel. He was an American who worked for
a power utility in the U.S., and had been seconded to ZESCO under some
sort of international agreement. He said the lack of maintenance
throughout the ZESCO network was criminal, not just at the Kariba dam. At
our transmission site, we have a three phase supply which is constantly
out of balance. Our voltage regulator works overtime! The contractor said
ZESCO should have their own voltage regulators every few miles throughout
their network, so they can guarantee the voltage delivered to each
customer. Otherwise, the voltages on the power lines get less and less
with distance and after each customer connection.

The reality - there isn't a single voltage regulator anywhere in the
country, in the public power grid. And the general mentality is, let's
wait until something fails completely, then we'll fix it (maybe).

The turbines at Kariba have been poorly maintained since independence
in 1964, {!!!}
and several of the concrete spillways are badly cracked and in danger
 of breaking apart. And, the rates charged for the electricity
are incredibly low (about 1/10th of what we pay in California),
so the utility can never really build up any capital to able to address
the problems, even if it had a mind to do so. It's a sad situation,
and even though the rains have been much better this year, I don't
see anything changing with regard to the load shedding anytime soon.
(Ray Robinson, Christian Voice/Vision, dxld Jan 25, 2017)