[HCDX]: T2U2-Radio Tuvalu is dead!

[Mauricio Molano <mmolano@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi friends,
According with a report appeared on "Radio World" (15 Oct.97, signed by Neil
Sanderson), Radio Tuvalu (T2U2 621 KHz 5Kw) is   out of the air from more than
one year now. The MW station was replaced by a newtwork of 8 FM tx feeded by
satellite. This "state-of-the-art" system is a componet of a donation by the
Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID). AusAID gave the
Tuvalu Telecom. Corp. a 7.5 meter dish satellite earth station for the main
island of Funafuti, and 4.6 meter dish for each of the eight distant atolls.
AusAID also gave Tuvalu Telecom an FM tx and associated equipmet for each
atoll. The broadcast equipment was to be used by the gov. station Radio
Tuvalu, but  the equipment would be owned and maintained by the common carrier
Telecom. Under the new arrangement, Radio Tuvalu lost control of its
long-range transmitters. But...Pusinelli Laafai (Manager of Radio Tuvalu)
speaks: "When we first switched from AM to satellite FM, everyone was very
happy with the quality. Then it all fell apart". At each tx. site, the story
is the same. A power supply module in the broadcast downlink receiver overheated in the tropical conditions. Even though the fault was identified
before the project was completed in September last year, it still has not been
fixed. The last of the distant islands lost its FM signal in February.
Funafuti residents would tune to a new 20 w. FM tx. donated by Canada but the
rest of the country has not radio at all. There are people critic to the
switch to modern FM from aged AM who also noted that fishermen at sea would no
longer hear the station, which had been an important vehicle for sending
messages from shore. After 12 months since the problem was discovered the
power modules still have not arrived and landing the components  in Tuvalu
will not be the end of the problem. None of the eight outer islands has an
airstrip. The inter-island ship that connects the country is slow and
unreliable: "It is supposed to do a trip every once every six weeks, but it
rarely makes it as often as that". "It is possible to wait up to three
months". Words of Bruce Boardman of LSE Tech., the Australian company that
installled the satellite an FM equipments. He also pointed out that a Tuvalu
Telecom technici
n may only get two hours ashore before the ship departs for the next island.
Is this another story of big-city-developded-countries minded people triying
to solve the problems of (poor!) people of undeveloped countries?


M.Molano
Salamanca/Madrid
Spain.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is a message from Mauricio Molano <mmolano@xxxxxxxxxx>
to hard-core-dx@xxxxxxxxxx list. To unsubscribe the list, send
"unsubscribe hard-core-dx" in mail body to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxx
For more information, please check http://www.iki.fi/rko/hard-core-dx/
or email Risto Kotalampi, rko@xxxxxxx
------------------------------------------------------------------------