31.3 baud VOA Radiogram for February 6-7

Hello friends,

This weekend, the only departure from our usual MFSK32 is one news item in MFSK31.  Both MFSK31 and MFSK32 have a symbol rate of 31.3 baud, but MFSK31 is only half the speed: 55 wpm. MFSK31 also has half the bandwidth, 330 Hz. Its modulation is 8-FSK, meaning 8 tones, rather than the 16 tones of MFSK32. (This table of modes may be helpful.) We’ll see if the performance of MFSK31 is better or worse than that of MFSK32, especially if reception conditions are difficult. (MFSK31 does not do images, hence the MFSK32 image following the MFSK news story.)

During the past several weeks, you have seen VOA RADIO GRAM transmitted as “video text” in the waterfall.  To see all three lines of the video text, make this adjustment in Fldigi: Configure >  Waterfall > FFT Processing > change Waterfall height in pixels to a higher value – try 185 and adjust from there. And note that the change does not take effect until Fldigi is started again.

Here is the lineup for VOA Radiogram, program 149, 6-7 February 2016, all in MFSK32 except where noted:

 1:34  Program preview

 2:52  2018 NASA space launch will carry 13 cubesats*

 9:24  MFSK31: Russian spacewalk (MFSK32 image)*

16:16  MFSK32: Afghan IS radio station destroyed*

22:34  Coming events* and closing announcements*

* with image  

Due to last minute edits, the times listed above may vary somewhat from the actual broadcast times.

Please send reception reports to radiogram@voanews.com.

VOA Radiogram transmission schedule
(all days and times UTC):
Sat 0930-1000 5865 kHz
Sat 1600-1630 17580 kHz
Sun 0230-0300 5745 kHz
Sun 1930-2000 15670 kHz
All via the Edward R. Murrow transmitting station in North Carolina.

The Mighty KBC will transmit a minute of MFSK32 Sunday at about 0225 UTC (Saturday 9:25 pm EST) on 6040 kHz, via Germany. Please send reports for this KBC reception to Eric: themightykbc@gmail.com .

A reminder that the TIVAR app is available for decoding the modes on an Android device.

Thanks for the reception reports sent for last weekend’s VOA Radiogram. I am now answering reports to Program 145, then will start on an older program this weekend.

I hope you can tune in and write in this weekend.

Kim

Kim Andrew Elliott

Producer and Presenter

VOA Radiogram

voaradiogram.net

Twitter: @voaradiogram