A Locally Fabricated Radio Station at MFA

Locally fabricated radio station: Ghana 101.7 FM

I’m a sucker for radios and antennas, and was just so excited to see the guys from Accra Polytechnic at Maker Faire Africa. Hayford Bempong, David Celestin and Michael Amankwanor are three members of the National Society of Black Engineers who have created a full radio with their own funds and brains.

They showed up at the event and setup the local Maker Faire Africa radio station, running at 101.7 FM. In conjunction with the speakers that they setup for the close proximity announcements, the radio was used to transmit up to a couple thousand meters away and spread the word about upcoming activities.

Basic electronics

David Celestin has been building power inverters and other electronic devices from scratch since he was a teenager. Below is one of his first power inverters, that still works, and which runs out of a little box. You can tell it is all fabricated from scraps and locally available materials.

Locally fabricated radio station: Ghana 101.7 FM

Here is their home-brew VHF SWR meter:

Locally fabricated radio station: Ghana 101.7 FM

Antennas

The team also creates their own antennas from scratch, including the “slim jim” below, “ground plane and a circular antenna.


Locally fabricated radio station: Ghana 101.7 FM

Author: Erik Hersman

Erik is the owner of White African, a blog about technology and Africa. He is the co-founder of Zangu, a new web and mobile phone application that he hopes will change communication in Africa. AfriGadget is another web project of his, not that he doesn't have enough of those already...

4 thoughts on “A Locally Fabricated Radio Station at MFA”

  1. Does the magazine MAKE know about this MakerFaire? Would be a shame if they did not attend. Perhaps they could get a good bit of content from you. Monetize a bit of your time & efforts 🙂

  2. Licence iko wapi? 🙂

    Seriously, what are the licence requirements for this home-built radio station (even if it’s just 10mW or so)?

    Else: fantastic! I love radios and antennas which makes this a hard contester for #1 AG.

    73s!

  3. It is amazing what a little belief in one’s abilities can achieve. All the best in your venture!

    Now if we can get more people to follow their dreams with a little help we can make some lasting changes!

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