Friday, November 25, 2016

Stormy VOA Radiogram for 26-27 November

The coronal holes just keep on coming.

Hope all our readers in the USA had a nice Thanksgiving.

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From Kim Andrew Elliott:

Hello friends,

Apologies to those of you who tried to listen to last weekend's Sunday 0230 UTC transmission on 5745 kHz, only to hear nothing. The transmitter normally used for VOA Radiogram was quickly needed to replace another transmitter. Regularly scheduled broadcasts from the North Carolina station have priority over VOA Radiogram, which is an experimental broadcast. 

If you are in Europe and tried to listen to the Sunday 1930 UTC broadcast on 15670 kHz, you probably also heard nothing. In this case, it was bad propagation, for the third week in a row. On the other hand, this transmission was heard in western North America and even in Australia (see the images and text decoded by Frank in Perth at the bottom of this email).

The Saturday 0930-1000 UTC broadcast on 5865 kHz is starting to be heard in Europe via the gray line. If you are not in Europe but want to see how this works, try the University of Twente receiver in the Netherlands:
http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901. Reception will, of course, vary from week to week.

Because of the challenging propagation that we encounter this time of year, one of the news items in this weekend's broadcast will again be in Olivia 64-2000. This mode may provide a 100% decode even if MFSK32 struggles. For best Olivia 64-2000 performance, turn off the Fldigi squelch (SQL, bottom right). 

Here is the lineup for VOA Radiogram, program 191, 26-27 November 2016, all in MFSk32 except where noted ...

 1:48  Program preview 
 2:59  GOES-R weather satellite launched*
 9:40  Olivia 64-2000: Chinese lunar-orbiting satellite
17:05  MFSK32: 56-year-old radio amateur joins ISS crew*
21:33  Trump promise to rename Mt. Denali Mt. McKinley*
27:14  Closing announcements

* with image

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 has an expanded schedule this weekend.  KBC's broadcast to North America will be Sunday at 0000-0200 UTC (Saturday 7-9 pm EST) on 6145 kHz, via Germany. A minute of MFSK32 will be transmitted at about 0130 UTC. KBC will also broadcast to Europe on Sunday at 1200-1300 UTC on 6095 kHz. A minute of MFSK32 will be at about 1230 UTC. This won't be audible in North America, but you can listen via the University of Twente receiver in the Netherlands: http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901. Reports to Eric: themightykbc@gmail.com . See also http://www.kbcradio.eu/ and https://www.facebook.com/TheMightyKbc/ .  
 
DigiDX has a new transmission schedule, both via WRMI Florida:
Sunday 2030-2100 UTC on  11580Khz (Targeted at Europe)
Sunday 2330-2400 UTC on 11580kHz (For North and South America)
 
Italian Broadcasting Corporation (IBC) has digital modes as follows:
EVERY WEDNESDAY ON 3975 KHZ 20.30-21.00 UTC in MFSK32 and OLIVIA 16-500
EVERY FRIDAY ON 9955 KHZ 02.25-02.30 UTC in MFSK32
EVERY SATURDAY ON 1584 KHZ 21.25-21.30 UTC in MFSK32
EVERY SUNDAY ON 7730 KHZ 00.55-01.00 UTC in MFSK32
EVERY SUNDAY ON 6070 KHZ 11.30-12.00 UTC  in MFSK32 and OLIVIA 16-500 (VIA RADIO BCLNEWS)
For the complete IBC transmission schedule, including voice broadcasts, visit  http://ibcradio.webs.com/

Thank you for your reception reports from last weekend (or reports of attempted reception).

Galleries from program 187 (29-30 October) have finally been sent out.

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

Kim

Kim Andrew Elliott, KD9XB
Producer and Presenter
VOA Radiogram
Twitter: @VOARadiogram