09 June 2017
It is now 84 days until the big feast! (the Diospi Suyana 10th
Anniversary).
On Thursday 01 June, Diospi Suyana took possession of a VHF FM
frequency in the district Echarati. This area is one of 14 districts in the
state of Cusco and is estimated to be home for some 65,000 people. It lies
mostly east of the Andes. A surprising number of patients in the Diospi Suyana hospital
come from Echarate. The trip by car takes 7-8 hours and takes you through the Urubamba
Valley which is rich in Inca ruins and history and is the gateway to famous Machu
Picchu.
Our site assessment team comprising Doris Manco, Udo Klemenz
and me (as Klaus is in Germany this time), took 3 days out to Echarati. We found Echarati is a neat and clean little
town (unusually so in Perú) and is only about 1,000 meters high with both sides
embedded by 2,000 meter mountains, and is in the transition zone to the Amazon
rainforest. This provides a climate which
is almost tropical and where citrus fruits, pineapple, banana, peanut bushes,
cocoa, coffee, etc. grow in abundance.
Down to business – I soon ruled out all but one hilltop range
to obtain the maximum population coverage of the Echarati district with a
single FM transmission. We explored the
options but the local guide we employed to take us up to the hilltop in his 4WD
would not agree to take us to the highest option. That was to me clearly a better coverage
point as it would service much better into the river valley to the north, reaching
a number of towns that would otherwise not be well serviced with our radio
program, if at all. The reasons given
were high foliage, fear of snakes and poor road access.
So without further options available at the time, we located
the “el presidento” of the land and returned with him to peg out a lot of land
12m x 12m for our proposed FM tower overlooking the district capital of
Echarate.
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| We visit the first Echarati site option with the land el presidento (second on right) and Udo pegs out the boundaries. |
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| One of a number of GPS readings I took from the hilltop. |
There was domestic power nearby, although this is also not
the best for reliability and also the authority Electro Sur generally insists
on the installation of a dedicated transformer for commercial installations.
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| Here is the domestic electrical termination pillar – note the precarious wiring typical with many of these! |
We return to Curahuasi, but with more work to do on the
legalities of the purchase, albeit I am not really comfortable with the
selection from an optimal coverage perspective.
Also as of this time, construction on the antenna tower in
Puerto Maldonado go ahead very quickly and in a few days the installation of
the 50 m high tower to begin. In Casabamba the top of the mountain hill was
pulled, pushed the subgrade for the antenna system and started the excavation.
In Puno, the geological survey has been prepared and is scheduled to begin on
Monday with the first works. As far as the current state of antenna systems.
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| The four tower foundations are concreted and the perimeter grows at our Puerto Maldonado site. |
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| Progress is quick with our builders in Puerto Maldonado. |
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| Where the excavator is on the top of the hill, the tower will soon rise at our Casabamba site. |
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| The Casabamba site hilltop is removed and levelled for construction. Here you see the foundation soil sample pit in the foreground. |
Regards,
Chris
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