Thanks to everyone who sent reception reports to VOA Radiogram for the weekend of 22-23 June. Response was down somewhat, probably because of the many radio amateurs participating in Field Day during that weekend. I'm grateful that some of you found time to tune in to at least one VOA Radiogram at, or after, Field Day.EasyPalLast week's switch to 4-QAM EasyPal images, which require 7 minutes each to transmit, did not seem to result in many more successful decodes. For a real comparison between 4-QAM and 16-QAM (requires only 2:40), this weekend we will transmit both.The result is that about ten minutes of VOA Radiogram for the weekend of 29-30 June 2013 will be devoted to EasyPal. Apologies to those of you who do not have the EasyPal software, or cannot get it to work. After this weekend, we will reduce the EasyPal transmissions to one per broadcast, once or twice a month. Please let me know how much interest you have in EasyPal.Three listeners have devised interesting methods to help decode EasyPal images. See:MultiPSKThe new release (4.24) of MultiPSK is now available from f6cte.free.fr . The new version can decode MFSK32 and MFSK64, as well as MFSK images, and so would be of interest to VOA Radiogram listeners. An interesting feature is a slant adjust for MFSK images. You might try running Fldigi and MultiPSK simultaneously, and compare results.VOA Radiogram, 29-30 June 2013:2:31 MFSK16: Program preview4:19 MFSK32: VOA News: "super-earths"2:05 MFSK32: Accompanying image:23 MFSK32: Introduction to MFSK642:15 MFSK64: VOA News: China space mission2:53 MFSK32: Accompanying image:33 MFSK32: Introduction to EasyPal7:00 EasyPal 4-QAM: "super moon" in Greece2:40 EasyPal 16-QAM "super moon" in Singapore1:08 MFSK16: Closing announcements:24 Surprise mode of the weekWe’re still especially interested in...1) Reception on less expensive shortwave portables -- although not to the exclusion of reception on your transceivers and SDR receivers, which do generally provide more successful decodes.2) Your audio samples of difficult reception which nevertheless results in a successful decode of at least one of the MFSK text modes.Good listening and good decoding,KimKim Andrew ElliottProduce and PresenterVOA Radiogramradiogram@voanews.comTwitter: @voaradiogram
Utility Planet is the official blog for the column of the same name in The Spectrum Monitor. It replaces Utility World in the discontinued Monitoring Times magazine. Utilities are all VLF/LF/MF/HF (and sometimes low-band VHF) radio communications except broadcasting, CB, and non-emergency amateur. If you understood the last sentence, you know enough to read this blog.