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Gael warning in the Congo
- Thread starter simondippenhall
- Start date
So I met the owner of the DT175, and here he is:
Meet Davy, a Glaswegian who has spent most of his adult life in Oz. We chatted over a beer and then dinner.
I will relay a little of his history as it is both inspiring and instructive for those of us who think of ourselves as ‘adventure motorcyclists’.
Davy left the UK age 21 riding a rather scrappier, black version of this Honda CD175
He rode it across Europe and then on through Iran and Asia to Australia, surviving crashes with U turning motorists and the like.
Later in the 90s he rode his MZ250 from UK to the Middle East and Syria to Egypt where he had to abandon it due to military conflict.
He has ridden the DT 175 from Glasgow through Egypt and Eastern Africa down to here over 8 months and is headed for Capetown.
He built that DT panniers from large Diesel containers; removed the auto lube for simplicity and so he could vary the mix as a way of coping with the altitude of places like Ethiopia; and enjoys the simplicity of the kick start and magneto which removes the need for a battery to start. He cruises at 80-90 kmh as (in his words) he likes to crash slowly.
I was struck by the simplicity of his approach by contrast to the high speed convoy of S African GSAs that passed me earlier in the day.
And most impressive is that he has suffered from debilitating arthritis since his youth and so finds the 100kg weight and slender fuel tank of the DT a good way to cope with his physical limitations. Respect!
.Respect
Cheers mspenz
This chapter is drawing to a close as I have now parked near Windhoek airport next to Jim’s machine.
On the way yesterday I did some tortoise rescue
He was stuck in the middle of the blacktop. Hope I carried him to the side he wanted...he wasn’t saying much!
Safely tucked up TIL later in the year
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This chapter is drawing to a close as I have now parked near Windhoek airport next to Jim’s machine.
On the way yesterday I did some tortoise rescue
He was stuck in the middle of the blacktop. Hope I carried him to the side he wanted...he wasn’t saying much!
Safely tucked up TIL later in the year
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And the photo Johan referred to
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Looks like a mobile phone mast?
Have a good trip home
Have a good trip home
Simon, your picture of the bikes parked up has prompted me to reflect a little, if you'll permit.
Great to see the bikes together again and safely tucked away. Well done in completing the Africa, North to South trip, one of motorcycling's most challenging rides. You also highlighted it could be done in stages, allowing return to UK in between. You managed to find a number of safe storage areas throughout Africa, like this one in Windhoek. Using these storage areas makes the North to South trip more practical for people who can not find the time needed to do the trip in one go. The other advantage of this approach is it allows time to explore a particular area, like you did in the Dogan region of Mali.
Your trip piloted another approach, which is close to my heart, of sharing the trip for some of the time with another rider. I enjoyed riding down through Spain, Morocco, Western Sahara and Mauritania with you on my own bike. Then flying into Pointe Noire and buying a local bike was also a bit of a novel idea. This bike allowed us to share an interesting part of the trip, riding out of Congo and through Angola, crossing the Congo River, into Namibia and Botswana. Another plus for me is now having a bike in Namibia which I hope to use again to explore South Africa, later this year.
Kit of course also joined you a couple of times to ride pillion when you were in the Gambia/Senegal region and latterly in Namibia and Botswana. Personally it was a delight to share some time with you both and see you sharing the experience together.
I look forward to a catch up when we are both back in UK and I'd be surprised if that meeting does not include the perusal of at least one map. Safe travel back home and again, well done!
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Great to see the bikes together again and safely tucked away. Well done in completing the Africa, North to South trip, one of motorcycling's most challenging rides. You also highlighted it could be done in stages, allowing return to UK in between. You managed to find a number of safe storage areas throughout Africa, like this one in Windhoek. Using these storage areas makes the North to South trip more practical for people who can not find the time needed to do the trip in one go. The other advantage of this approach is it allows time to explore a particular area, like you did in the Dogan region of Mali.
Your trip piloted another approach, which is close to my heart, of sharing the trip for some of the time with another rider. I enjoyed riding down through Spain, Morocco, Western Sahara and Mauritania with you on my own bike. Then flying into Pointe Noire and buying a local bike was also a bit of a novel idea. This bike allowed us to share an interesting part of the trip, riding out of Congo and through Angola, crossing the Congo River, into Namibia and Botswana. Another plus for me is now having a bike in Namibia which I hope to use again to explore South Africa, later this year.
Kit of course also joined you a couple of times to ride pillion when you were in the Gambia/Senegal region and latterly in Namibia and Botswana. Personally it was a delight to share some time with you both and see you sharing the experience together.
I look forward to a catch up when we are both back in UK and I'd be surprised if that meeting does not include the perusal of at least one map. Safe travel back home and again, well done!
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Cheers Jim and thanks again for your company and support at stages along the way
And thanks to the GSer community for the support and banter along the way!
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And thanks to the GSer community for the support and banter along the way!
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It looks like there are several Mobile phone anntenna at the top of the mast.
The 5 small dishes on the top half of the mast are probably the short range microwave communication dishes that distribute the mobile network to other masts.
There are several UHF and VHF dipoles on the top half of the mast, these are probably for government (and maybe some private) services such as Police, Medical, etc., they could also be carrying simple telemetry signals.
The three large dishes on the Concrete/brick section of the mast are long range microwave dishes. These could be carrying the main trunk route for the mobile telephone services but, depending on the technology being used, the data bandwidth on these routes could be quite large so it is very likely they are also carrying other services such as the trunk route for landline telephone service, telemetry for control systems (for just about any industry, e.g mining, oil, steel works, etc.), video, and even TV channels, etc.
Not knowing the terrain of the area it's hard to say why there are two antenna on one side, but only one on the other, it could be that there are two independent radio links in that direction. However, if the microwave signals are passing over water, especially tidal water, this can have serious attenuation affects on the radio signal as the water level rises and falls, so to get round this they use space diversity techniques. This is simply sending the same signal to two antennas, a short distance vertically apart, on the same route (sometimes there are two antenna at both ends of the link, sometimes only two at one end of the link), the signal is then monitored for fading on both antenna and the one with the stronger signal is selected as the 'online' antenna. Because there is a small distance separating the two antenna there are effectively two paths for the signal, if they've done their calculations right only one path will suffer from excessive fading at any one time, so there'll always be at least one good path.
I believe a similar fading effect can be caused when the signal passes over desert (due to heat haze changes), so if there is no open water nearby this may explain why there are two antenna facing the same direction. It may also explain why there is only one antenna on the RHS of the mast, space diversity may be achieved on this link by using two antenna at the far end.
Now I've bored you all with my over-simplistic explanation I'll clear off
The 5 small dishes on the top half of the mast are probably the short range microwave communication dishes that distribute the mobile network to other masts.
There are several UHF and VHF dipoles on the top half of the mast, these are probably for government (and maybe some private) services such as Police, Medical, etc., they could also be carrying simple telemetry signals.
The three large dishes on the Concrete/brick section of the mast are long range microwave dishes. These could be carrying the main trunk route for the mobile telephone services but, depending on the technology being used, the data bandwidth on these routes could be quite large so it is very likely they are also carrying other services such as the trunk route for landline telephone service, telemetry for control systems (for just about any industry, e.g mining, oil, steel works, etc.), video, and even TV channels, etc.
Not knowing the terrain of the area it's hard to say why there are two antenna on one side, but only one on the other, it could be that there are two independent radio links in that direction. However, if the microwave signals are passing over water, especially tidal water, this can have serious attenuation affects on the radio signal as the water level rises and falls, so to get round this they use space diversity techniques. This is simply sending the same signal to two antennas, a short distance vertically apart, on the same route (sometimes there are two antenna at both ends of the link, sometimes only two at one end of the link), the signal is then monitored for fading on both antenna and the one with the stronger signal is selected as the 'online' antenna. Because there is a small distance separating the two antenna there are effectively two paths for the signal, if they've done their calculations right only one path will suffer from excessive fading at any one time, so there'll always be at least one good path.
I believe a similar fading effect can be caused when the signal passes over desert (due to heat haze changes), so if there is no open water nearby this may explain why there are two antenna facing the same direction. It may also explain why there is only one antenna on the RHS of the mast, space diversity may be achieved on this link by using two antenna at the far end.
Now I've bored you all with my over-simplistic explanation I'll clear off
It looks like there are several Mobile phone anntenna at the top of the mast.
The 5 small dishes on the top half of the mast are probably the short range microwave communication dishes that distribute the mobile network to other masts.
There are several UHF and VHF dipoles on the top half of the mast, these are probably for government (and maybe some private) services such as Police, Medical, etc., they could also be carrying simple telemetry signals.
The three large dishes on the Concrete/brick section of the mast are long range microwave dishes. These could be carrying the main trunk route for the mobile telephone services but, depending on the technology being used, the data bandwidth on these routes could be quite large so it is very likely they are also carrying other services such as the trunk route for landline telephone service, telemetry for control systems (for just about any industry, e.g mining, oil, steel works, etc.), video, and even TV channels, etc.
Not knowing the terrain of the area it's hard to say why there are two antenna on one side, but only one on the other, it could be that there are two independent radio links in that direction. However, if the microwave signals are passing over water, especially tidal water, this can have serious attenuation affects on the radio signal as the water level rises and falls, so to get round this they use space diversity techniques. This is simply sending the same signal to two antennas, a short distance vertically apart, on the same route (sometimes there are two antenna at both ends of the link, sometimes only two at one end of the link), the signal is then monitored for fading on both antenna and the one with the stronger signal is selected as the 'online' antenna. Because there is a small distance separating the two antenna there are effectively two paths for the signal, if they've done their calculations right only one path will suffer from excessive fading at any one time, so there'll always be at least one good path.
I believe a similar fading effect can be caused when the signal passes over desert (due to heat haze changes), so if there is no open water nearby this may explain why there are two antenna facing the same direction. It may also explain why there is only one antenna on the RHS of the mast, space diversity may be achieved on this link by using two antenna at the far end.
Now I've bored you all with my over-simplistic explanation I'll clear off
Nice description- this is also how we got internet in Aberystwyth when I was at university there. Was great except when the wind blew strong enough it shifted a dish and we dropped to a copper line backup and basically where cut off. Of course that was rare as it’s never windy in west Wales
The compendious knowledge of the Tossariat continues to amaze...but perhaps a separate thread?
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The compendious knowledge of the Tossariat continues to amaze...but perhaps a separate thread?
simondippenhall said:
Well, you did ask in this thread
I know, I know
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Great read, thank you for taking the time and effort to write it up
Mark
Mark
Simon and Jim
Very many thanks for putting so much effort into keeping us up to date with your latest adventure. Yet again it has been fascinating reading your descriptive and colourful reports of places and people most of us can only dream of visiting and meeting. All backed up by some great photographs which worked so well with your writing. Particular praise goes to your problem solving en route, be it mechanical issues, buying a bike in country or the inevitable issues with paperwork and bureaucracy.
I can guarantee it has inspired a number of us to go a bit further than Tescos and stop thinking of reasons why we shouldn't.
Thanks again
PS Looking forward to reading your next ride report
Very many thanks for putting so much effort into keeping us up to date with your latest adventure. Yet again it has been fascinating reading your descriptive and colourful reports of places and people most of us can only dream of visiting and meeting. All backed up by some great photographs which worked so well with your writing. Particular praise goes to your problem solving en route, be it mechanical issues, buying a bike in country or the inevitable issues with paperwork and bureaucracy.
I can guarantee it has inspired a number of us to go a bit further than Tescos and stop thinking of reasons why we shouldn't.
Thanks again
PS Looking forward to reading your next ride report
Baggers
Thanks on behalf of both of us for your feedback. It has been good for us too to record events as they happened, since then the memories are most vivid. (So vivid, in the case of the Angoka flywheel teeth shredding, that I could not record the events and had to ask Jim to do so).
Without tempting fate, there is a chance our African journey (s) will resume in the (European) autumn, albeit in different directions. I think Jim us attracted to S Africa and I am going to head East and Norrh in the general direction of Europe.
But who knows?����
Thanks on behalf of both of us for your feedback. It has been good for us too to record events as they happened, since then the memories are most vivid. (So vivid, in the case of the Angoka flywheel teeth shredding, that I could not record the events and had to ask Jim to do so).
Without tempting fate, there is a chance our African journey (s) will resume in the (European) autumn, albeit in different directions. I think Jim us attracted to S Africa and I am going to head East and Norrh in the general direction of Europe.
But who knows?����
Johan
Registered user
The large dishes and concrete tower date from the seventies. Because of the long distances involved, mictowave dishes were used instead of copper telephone lines between Namibia and South Africa. The steel structure on top would have been added much later after the invention of mobile phones.I know, I know
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B Murr
Registered user
Great ride report. Really enjoyed the Namibia section which brought back memories of my parents travels out there in early 1990's when UN had a bunch of Irish Police (gardai) out there in all areas including remote bushland to facilitate the transition to democracy.
Thanks B Murr: that made me laugh, I had an image of these huge gardai siochana swearing in their Serge uniforms under the Namibian sun��
B Murr
Registered user
Thanks B Murr: that made me laugh, I had an image of these huge gardai siochana swearing in their Serge uniforms under the Namibian sun��
Unifrorms were lightweight, I dont think they ever wear shorts in Ireland. A lot of scenes like these from around 1990, many of the Gardai were based in towns and cities, my father couldn't wait to get out into the bush and be with the locals and was based somewhere in bushland towards Angolan border. In these pics he is probably trying to explain to the locals how the election process would work, he had some sort of community liaison role. Guy in white shirt probably an interpreter. Sorry for temporary thread hijack.
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