Weak VHF Skip November 8

Freq   UTC   Tone   Traffic/Comments

33.70  2200  107.2  DTMF *2222, later 6581
33.70  2216   None  "Westmoreland" clg ???
33.78  2147   82.5  carrier only
33.82  2138  141.3  tone calls
33.86  2141   82.5  EMT call in central time zone
33.86  2149   77.0  YL, weak
33.98  2156  103.5  carrier only

All reception by editor in Southern California, using a WiNRADiO G33DDC with 45' PAR EF-SWL antenna.

Westmoreland (33.7) is Westmoreland County Emergency Management, PA.

Interesting VOA Radiogram for November 9 & 10

VOA Radiogram continues its developmental mode with the Fldigi developers.  This will include a transmission of the new Thor100 plus more comparisons between long-interleave MFSK and the short-interleave version that's standard on VOA Radiogram. This will require another update to the Fldigi software, available at w1hkj.com .

Don't forget the new local times in the US after "falling back" last Sunday.

From Kim Elliott:

Hello friends,

VOA Radiogram during the weekend on 9-10 November 2013, will be a bit different. In addition to the usual MFSK modes, we will transmit Thor100. This is at the request of one of the Fldigi developers, who needs some actual (not simulated) shortwave reception of Thor100 for his testing.

We will continue our comparisons of the new long-interleave modes MFSK64L and MFSK128L with their short counterparts.

All of the modes to be broadcast this weekend are available in the latest version of Fldigi: 3.21.77, available from w1hkj.com.

Here is the lineup of modes for VOA Radiogram, program 32, 9-10 November 2013:

2:55  MFSK16: Program preview

4:35  MFSK32: Radio France International memorial and logo

1:30  MFSK64: VOA News re SR-32 airplane

1:53  MFSK64L: Same VOA News story

3:36  MFSK32/64: Artist's conception of SR-32  

 :38  MFSK32: E-mail address

2:17  Thor100: VOA News re earth-sized planets

1:48  MFSK128: Same VOA News story

2:10  MFSK128L: Same VOA News story

1:44  MFSK32 image: Artist's conception of planet Kepler 78b

1:48  MFSK32: Closing announcements/VOA Radiogram logo (500x44)

There will also be some surprises at the end of the show.

Please send reception reports to radiogram@voanews.com. If possible,  audio samples and screenshots are also appreciated.

I will be answering your e-mails from last weekend (2-3 November) starting today.

I look forward to hearing from you this weekend.

Kim

Kim Andrew Elliott

Producer and Presenter

VOA Radiogram

voaradiogram.net

VOA Radiogram transmission schedule

(all days and times UTC)

Sat 1600-1630 17860 kHz

Sun 0230-0300 5745 kHz

Sun 1300-1330 6095 kHz

Sun 1930-2000 15670 kHz

All via the Edward R. Murrow transmitting station in North Carolina.

Log October 27, 2013

From Mario Filippi, NJ:

2749.0  Halifax Coast Guard Radio-Canadian CG  0241  USB male voice with maritime weather for Brown’s Bank, Georgia Bank, Southwest shore, etc. Switched to female voice at 0245.  10/27/13  (Mario Filippi, NJ)

6913.0  "L"-Probable Russian Military CW marker (MX)  0304  Continuous Morse ID  10/27/13  (Mario Filippi, NJ)

7646.0  DDH7-Deutscher Wetterdienst, Hamburg/Pinneberg Meteo  0310  RTTY (50/450)  WX for W. Baltic, Kattegat, Skagerak.  10/27/13  (Mario Filippi, NJ)

8495.0  "S"-Russian Navy cluster propagation beacon (MX)  0223  CW  Arkhangelsk/Severomorsk, Russia.  10/20/13  (Mario Filippi, NJ)

 ---

Logging conventions:

Freq in kHz, time in UTC

USA has official state abbreviation

Remotes are given as place of intercept

ENIGMA designators in () (see ENIGMA 2000 Control List)

Acronyms are listed at Utility World web site

Full name not necessary, but desirable unless there's a need for confidentiality

10 Meters Comes to Life

Pretty lively this morning (Pacific time).  We are definitely in solar peak conditions, though not as dramatically so as in some past cycles.

Some unid likely outband stations were speaking Spanish, way up in 10 (29446.5) where they're not usually heard.  They were in LSB, while amateur transceivers typically use USB on this band.

Also a brief voice opening to Europe.  This path is still going on a weak-signal mode called JT65, though the band appears to be doing its daily shift to South America and later most likely to the Pacific.

Here are some JT65 hits in Southern California. The columns are UTC time, sync quality, strength in dB (I forgot the zero reference), offset in start time from 00 seconds (on your local clock), offset in Hz from 28076.000 kHz, and message exchanged. The countries in () were added by myself for identification.

16:17  3 -22  0.7   608  K CQ EI5HV IO51 (Ireland)

16:21  2 -22  0.8   608  K N1QQR EI5HV -05

16:34  4 -24 -1.9  -318  K SV2DFK EA3ZD 73 (Spain)

16:38  3 -22 -0.2   657  K EI5HV 9Y4NW FK90 (Trinidad & Tobago)

16:48  3 -19 -1.1   689  B NU6O EA3ZD JN01

16:52  3 -18 -0.6   350  K PD0TVA RRR 73 (Netherlands)

17:06  8 -18 -0.1   102  B CX8AF EI9KG R-19 (Ireland)

17:08  3 -22 -1.1  -517  K N8DEA IZ5UFW JN53 (Italy)

17:13  4 -21 -0.4   657  K CQ CX1BP GF15 (Uruguay)

17:16  6 -17 -0.3  -848  B CQ CE6MBK FF30 (Chile)

17:38  3 -19 -0.3   221  K ON7BL CX1BP 73

17:44  2 -25 -0.2   969  K WA6JBZ CE6MBK 73

Lots Going On

Lots happening while I'm engaged in other stuff (Murphy, after all):

1. Solar Cycle 24 may be peaking.  The sun is very active today (25 October), and two X class flares occurred overnight (US time).  The second one caused HF in the eastern US to black out all the way to 10 meters for a brief time.

2. Ken Reitz has made the formal announcement of Monitoring Times's successor publication, an all-electronic magazine called The Spectrum Monitor.  Yes, I'll be writing for it.  My column will be called Utility Planet.  The logs will be published on this blog, however.  It's more timely, and a lot less work for me.

3. The logs will change in one other way.  I'll stop using (by written permission) the ones posted on other mailing lists.  This means that intercepts from UDXF and other mailing lists will stay on those lists, instead of being republished.  This just makes more sense with an electronic publication. Why not get them first hand, and with more discussion of what they mean than I'd ever have room to do?

4. Logs sent to the column e-mail address will be published, of course. This address is not changing.  That's too much trouble.  It remains mtutilityworld followed by a commercial at sign followed by the top level domain for Google gmail. (Spam has made one of my accounts useless, so now I don't run the actual addresses online.)

5. Late October - Early November is sometimes known as the "fall DX season."  All the solar activity should make this year's period quite interesting.  Send in your hits.

No KSM or K6KPH for Shutdown Duration

From Maritime Radio Historical Society:

No MRHS Operations Saturday 5 October
and Possibly Beyond

As you have doubtless read, the partial shut down of the US government means that all federal parks are closed.  That includes the Point Reyes National Seashore where the KSM/K6KPH transmit and receive sites are located.  So, barring some miracle, there will be no MRHS on the air operations on Saturday 5 October and in fact for the duration of the government shut down.

Aside from operations this also means that scheduled antenna repair work at the transmit station has had to be postponed.

We wish you fair winds and following seas...

VY 73,

MRHS

VOA Radiogram In Limbo During Shutdown

Kim Elliott is furloughed, and everything is in the air.  Or, to be exact, possibly not in the air.

Hello friends,

You probably have heard the news about the US government shutdown. Congress has not sent to the White House an appropriations resolution that would allow continued funding of US government operations.

While VOA will remain on the air to provide news in its 42 languages, I will be on furlough during the shutdown and may not be able to produce a new VOA Radiogram for the weekend on 6-7 October. If the shutdown continues through the weekend, the transmitters, if they are on the air during the four half-hours of VOA Radiogram, will probably broadcast last weekend's program, number 28, again.

After about 1500 UTC today, 1 October 2013, I will not be able to use this email account to send or receive emails until the shutdown ends.

My personal website, www.kimandrewelliott.com ,will continue to be updated during the shutdown, and you can correspond with me using the email address for that website: kimweb@verizon.net

The VOA Radiogram website, voaradiogram.net , will remain online during the shutdown, but I will not be able to update it after 1500 UTC today. I have already posted on that website some interesting results from the past weekend's program.

Thanks to all of you who sent reception reports for VOA Radiogram during the weekend of 28-29 September. I will respond to all of your emails but will not be able to do so until after the shutdown.

And now I begin my unscheduled vacation....

Kim

Kim Andrew Elliott
Producer and Presenter
VOA Radiogram
voaradiogram.net

Fldigi Test Confirms 3.21.76AH Works

A test was conducted here, in which a recording of last week's MFSK64 and MFSK128 images was decoded using the current release version of Fldigi (3.21.76) and the "Alpha" build used to produce VOA Radiogram.

The release version did not decode the MFSK64 and MFSK128 images correctly on this computer. They were not slanted, but the phase was off.  The Alpha version 3.21.76AH decoded them perfectly.

I could not see any deal-killing issues with the Alpha, despite Norton's dire warnings that no one had used it yet and so they couldn't pass it without at least protesting a bit.  It does not install over previous versions (Fldigi never does), and it does maintain your settings.

If you had this problem last week, the Alpha is available at the link given by Kim Elliott in the previous blog post.

Diamond Studded VOA Radiogram Sep. 28-29

Hello friends,

Thank you for your reception reports for VOA Radiogram 27, broadcast last weekend, 21-22 September. I think I have responded to everyone by now.

The broadcast included Fldigi's new capability to transmit images in MFSK64 and MFSK128, with correct colors displayed. Some results can be seen in the QSL for VOA Radiogram 27. The Duck Commander image was MFSK64, and the CNBC logo MFSK128...

voaradiogram.net/post/62327976737/the-qsl-for-voa-radiogram-27-the-weekend-of-21-22

This weekend we will transmit an image of a $60m diamond using MFSK16, 32, 64, and 128. For correct display of the MFSK64 and 128 images, please install one of the "alpha" versions of Fldigi from...

www.w1hkj.com/alpha/fldigi/v3.21/

Here is the lineup for VOA Radiogram 28 during the weekend of 28-29 September 2013 (produced using Fldigi 3.21.76AG):

3:33  MFSK16: Program preview
5:38  MFSK 16/32/64/128 images: Large diamond
3:45  MFSK32: BBC World Service archive
4:04  MFSK64: Deutsche Welle, Radio/TV Martí, with image
1:32  MFSK128: Willis Conover Facebook page, with image
 :44  MFSK32: Email address
2:02  MFSK64: ISON comet, with image
2:29  MFSK64/Flmsg: Ultra-compact galaxy
 :37  MFSK32: Closing announcements
  
Please send reception reports and, if possible, screenshots and audio samples to radiogram@voanews.com .

VOA Radiogram transmission schedule
(all days and times UTC):
Sat 1600-1630 17860 kHz
Sun 0230-0300 5745 kHz
Sun 1300-1330 6095 kHz
Sun 1930-2000 15670 kHz
All via the Edward R. Murrow transmitting station in North Carolina.

This weekend on The Mighty KBC, via Germany, I will have a minute of Olivia 64-2000 under a familiar musical tune. This will be Saturday at about 1130 UTC on 6095 kHz, and Sunday at about 0130 UTC on 7375 kHz (Saturday 9:30 pm EDT). Reports to themightykbc@gmail.com .

Thanks for tuning in and decoding. I look forward to your emails.

Kim

Kim Andrew Elliott
Producer and Presenter
VOA Radiogram
http://voaradiogram.net

Go Faster with VOARadiogram for September 21-22

From Kim Andrew Elliott:

Hello friends,

This weekend's VOA Radiogram (number 27, 21-22 September 2013) is produced using Fldigi 3.21.76AB. For best results, use this version, available from www.w1hkj.com/alpha/fldigi/v3.21/

One improvement in 3.21.76AB is that it can send images in MFSK64 and MFSK128. Previously, MFSK32 was the fastest MFSK mode for sending images without the pictures appearing skewed (off center). Images do not transmit more quickly in MFSK64 and MFSK128, but they do have higher resolution.

If your decoded MFSK64 and MFSK128 images are still slanted or skewed, calibration of the receive codec might be helpful. One such method for doing this is described here:  www.w1hkj.com/FldigiHelp-3.21/DigiWWV.html.

Our non-Latin alphabet of the week is Greek. You will need the UTF-8 character set for the Greek and for some of the punctuation in the English items. I forgot to change some of the typographic apostrophes ’ to typewriter apostrophes ' , so they will not display correctly if you do not have the UTF-8 character set. In Fldigi, that adjustment is made in Configure > Colors & Fonts.

This weekend's program includes an English VOA News item in Flmsg format. When all the text is received, the story will render, or pop up, as a new web page on your browser, suitable for saving or forwarding. To make Flmsg work with Fldigi (both can be downloaded from w1hkj.com), in Fldigi: Configure > Misc > NBEMS -- Under Reception of flmsg files, check both boxes, and under that indicate where your Flmsg.exe file is located. 

Much of the show this weekend is in the MFSK64 mode, which might be a bit optimistic if reception conditions are less than ideal.

Here is the lineup of modes for VOA Radiogram, 21-22 September 2013:

2:53  MFSK16: Program preview

2:40  MFSK32: Sample of Greek text

 :49  MFSK32 image: VOA Greek Service logo

3:01  MFSK32: "Need to Protect the Internet"

1:45  MFSK64: Radio Free Sarawak/Discovery Channel

2:23  MFSK64 image: "Duck Commander"

 :27  MFSK128: CNBC Saracens deal

 :48  MFSK128 image: CNBC logo

 :45  MFSK32: E-mail address

4:40  MFSK64: BBC Worldwide, Giglio TV, Voice of Greece, All India Radio

2:55  MFSK64/Flmsg: VOA News re Voyager Golden Record

2:17  MFSK32 image: Voyager Golden Record

 :33  MFSK32: Closing announcements

VOA Radiogram transmission schedule
(all days and times UTC)
Sat 1600-1630 17860 kHz
Sun 0230-0300 5745 kHz
Sun 1300-1330 6095 kHz
Sun 1930-2000 15670 kHz
All via the Edward R. Murrow transmitting station in North Carolina.

Please send reception reports to radiogram@voanews.com

Screenshots and audio samples are appreciated, especially audio of difficult reception that nevertheless results in a successful decode of the text modes.

Reception on inexpensive shortwave portable radios is helpful, but so is reception on more sophisticated communications receivers, amateur transceivers, and SDR receivers.

I am now studying your reports from the weekend of 14-15 September and will be responding in the next couple of days.

Kim

Kim Andrew Elliott

Producer and Presenter

VOA Radiogram

radiogram@voanews.com

http://voaradiogram.net

Twitter: @voaradiogram

NYC NOAA Weather Radio Remains Out of Service

KWO35, the 162.55 MHz NOAA weather transmitter for New York City has been out of service for much of the summer, and it remains that way as of September 14. The reason given is that it was causing interference to USCG VHF Channel 16, the calling/ distress/ guard channel that all vessels are supposed to monitor while at sea.

------------

000
NOUS41 KOKX 061510
PNSOKX
CTZ005>012-NJZ002-004-006-103>108-NYZ067>075-078>081-176>179-132100-

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW YORK NY
1110 AM EDT FRI SEP 06 2013

...NOAA WEATHER RADIO NEW YORK CITY REMAINS OUT OF SERVICE...
THE NOAA WEATHER RADIO TRANSMITTER THAT SERVES THE NEW YORK CITY METROPOLITAN AREA HAS BEEN CAUSING RADIO FREQUENCY INTERFERENCE ON THE U.S. COAST GUARD CHANNEL 16 TRANSMITTER FOR INTERNATIONAL DISTRESS...SAFETY AND CALLING SINCE LATE JULY.

THE NEW YORK CITY TRANSMITTER BROADCASTS ON A FREQUENCY OF 162.550 MHZ AND THE U.S.COAST GUARD TRANSMITTER BROADCASTS ON A FREQUENCY OF 156.800 MHZ. OTHER TRANSMITTERS...IN VERY CLOSE PROXIMITY TO THE NYC TRANSMITTER BROADCAST ON A FREQUENCY OF 168.3 MHZ.

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IS WORKING WITH SEVERAL U.S. GOVERNMENT AGENCIES TO ISOLATE AND RESOLVE THIS TECHNICAL PROBLEM. WE HAVE INSTALLED A FILTER ON THE NYC TRANSMITTER...WHICH REDUCED...BUT DID NOT ELIMINATE THIS PROBLEM. WE WORKED WITH ANOTHER FEDERAL AGENCY AND OVERSAW THE INSTALLATION OF ANOTHER FILTER...ON A TRANSMITTER BROADCASTING OVER 168.3 MHZ...WHICH DID NOT FURTHER REDUCE THE RADIO FREQUENCY INTERFERENCE.

WE CONTINUE TO WORK WITH THE U.S. COAST GUARD TO RESOLVE THIS PROBLEM AND APOLOGIZE FOR THE INTERRUPTION OF OUR ROUTINE WEATHER BROADCASTS.

 ...NOAA WEATHER RADIO WILL BE PLACED IN OPERATION TO BROADCAST SHORT FUSE LIFE THREATENING WEATHER WATCHES AND WARNINGS...

NOTE THAT THE NYC TRANSMITTER WILL BE PLACED IN OPERATION FOR THE ISSUANCE OF SHORT FUSE LIFE THREATENING WEATHER WATCHES AND WARNINGS...SUCH AS TORNADO...SEVERE THUNDERSTORM AND FLASH FLOOD WATCHES AND WARNINGS...TO ENSURE DISSEMINATION THROUGH THE EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM...WHICH IS CARRIED BY THE BROADCAST MEDIA.

THANKS FOR YOUR PATIENCE AND FOR LISTENING TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO.
WE WILL PERIODICALLY PROVIDE YOU WITH UPDATES ON THE STATUS OF THE NEW YORK CITY NOAA WEATHER RADIO TRANSMITTER VIA THESE PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENTS.

$$

GC

NATO Exercise Combined Endeavor 2013 is Underway

From US European Command:

September 13, 2013
By U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Kenya Shiloh

Combined Endeavor 2013 Public Affairs

U.S. ARMY GARRISON GRAFENWOEHR, Germany -- More than 2,500 communicators from 40 NATO, Partnership for Peace and coalition partner nations gathered at U.S. Army Garrison Grafenwoehr, Germany, for the opening ceremony of  Combined Endeavor 2013, Sept. 12, 2013.

"Coalition Network for Tomorrow's Fight" is this year's theme for Combined Endeavor 2013 which takes place Sept. 13-26.

Combined Endeavor, sponsored by United States European Command, is the world's largest command, control, communications and computer systems exercise designed to build and enhance communications and network interoperability between 40 nations and international organizations.

10 Meters Is Back!

Despite unbelievably low solar fluxes for this point in a cycle, 10 meters is coming back right on schedule. In the past few days, these CW beacons have been logged here in Southern California:

28183.14    XE1RCS, Long dah, then "VVV XE1RCS/B EK09"  2152
28210.75    K5ARC, very droopy DE K5ARC/B EM0...  2330
28212.31    KJ4QYB,long dah, VVV DE KJ4QYB/B... EM63WW AL AL QSA?  2346
28213.99    N4PAL, VVV N4PAL N4PAL BCN QSL  2246
28222.42    N4QDK, VVV DE N4QDK/B EM98  2237
28231.92    KE4ZRT,"VVV DE KE4ZRT/B = EM81 = 25W" "DOUGLAS, GA"  2203
28237.92    KB2SEO,VVV DE KB2SEO/B EM74PT ETON, GA AR  0102
28244.98    PU2KXC/B, VVV PU2KXC/B GG76AQ (Brazil, nice sig)  2346
28253.41    W4CJB, droopy DE W4CJB/B... EM60...  2252
28254.42    K4JEE, VVV VVV DE K4JEE/B... LOUISVILLE, KY EM78  0053
28255.48    WF4HAM, VVV DE WF4HAM... BCN CEN FL... PSE QSL    2232
28273.03    Unknown, weak     2157
28275.25    Unknown, weak    2211
28277.94    KJ4VYI, DE... KJ4VYI/B EM60JL 50 W...  2220
28281.47    W4HEW?, VVV DE W... H, fading  2224
28298.00    K5TLL, K5TLL/B EM51GG  2359

Also, today:
29520.00    Unid SS/OM in FM, sounded like simplex  0010

VOA Radiogram Goes "Other Way" September 14-15

This weekend's VOA Radiogram includes text in Persian, which goes from right to left. Yes, fldigi will do this in UTF-8 mode.

From Kim Andrew Elliott:

Hello friends,

Thanks for the reception reports for VOA Radiogram 25, broadcast during the past weekend. For most listeners, the RSIDs successfully changed the modes on Fldigi, and the Spanish accents displayed correctly. MFSK128 was problematic, as expected, but some listeners were able to decode this very fast mode.

VOA Radiogram for the weekend of 14-15 September 2013 has been produced using Fldigi 3.21.75, so use that version, from w1hkj.com, for best results. Please also install Flmsg 1.1.32, if you do not already have it. We will not use Flamp this weekend.

The non-Latin alphabet of the week is Persian. Because Persian is read right to left, it will be interesting to watch it print out in the receive pane. Use the UTF-8 character set as noted below.

As for the English content, this weekend it will come from my website www.kimandrewelliott.com, which aggregates news about international broadcasting. The website has been inactive for a few months because of the time required to produce VOA Radiogram. However, because of requests that I resume kimandrewelliott.com, I will incorporate news from the website into VOA Radiogram in an attempt to keep both projects going.

Here is the lineup for VOA Radiogram, 14-15 September 2013:

2:55  MFSK16: Program preview
1:45  MFSK32: Persian text sample*
4:06  MFSK32: Jamming of Al Jazeera
4:24  MFSK32/Flmsg: New head of France 24**
1:55  MFSK64: BBC in Japan and Daventry sculpture
2:59  MFSK32 image: Rendition of Daventry sculpture
 :42  MFSK128: CNN in former Yugoslavia
 :49  MFSK32: Intro to second MFSK64 transmission
2:25  MFSK64/Flmsg: Psyop in the news**
2:35  MFSK32 image: Gaoxin-7 aircraft
1:15  MFSK16: Closing announcements
 :30  Surprise mode of the week

 * Use UTF-8 character set. In Fldigi, this adjustment is made via Configure > Colors & Fonts.

** Use Flmsg with Fldigi. To make Flmsg work with Fldigi, in Fldigi: Configure > Misc > NBEMS -- Under Reception of flmsg files, check both boxes, and under that indicate where your Flmsg.exe file is located.

As always, please send reception reports to radiogram@voanews.com . Screenshots and audio samples are helpful, especially audio of poor reception that nevertheless results in a successful decode of the digital text modes.


VOA Radiogram transmission schedule
(all days and times UTC)
Sat 1600-1630 17860 kHz
Sun 0230-0300 5745 kHz
Sun 1300-1330 6095 kHz
Sun 1930-2000 15670 kHz
All via the Edward R. Murrow transmitting station in North Carolina.

I will soon be responding to your emails.

Kim

Kim Andrew Elliott
Producer and Presenter
VOA Radiogram
voaradiogram.net

It's Been a Long Time, but We Have TEAL Hurricane Recon

000
NOUS42 KNHC 111534
REPRPD
WEATHER RECONNAISSANCE FLIGHTS
CARCAH, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER, MIAMI, FL.
1130 AM EDT WED 11 SEPTEMBER 2013
SUBJECT: TROPICAL CYCLONE PLAN OF THE DAY (TCPOD)
         VALID 12/1100Z TO 13/1100Z SEPTEMBER 2013
         TCPOD NUMBER.....13-102

I.  ATLANTIC REQUIREMENTS
    1. SUSPECT AREA (BAY OF CAMPECHE)
       FLIGHT ONE --TEAL 70--         
       A. 12/1800Z
       B. AFXXX 01FFA INVEST
       C. 12/1515Z
       D. 19.5N 93.0W
       E. 12/1745Z TO 12/2100Z
       F. SFC TO 10,000 FT

FLIGHT TWO --TEAL 71--
       A. 13/1200ZA. 13/1200Z
       B. AFXXX 0210A CYCLONE
       C. 13/0900Z
       D. 19.5N 94.0W
       E. 13/1130Z TO 13/1530
       F. SFC TO 10,000 FT


2. SUCCEEDING DAY OUTLOOK: CONTINUE 12-HRLY
   FIXES AS LONG AS SYSTEM REMAINS A THREAT.     

3. REMARKS: POSSIBLE GLOBAL HAWK MISSION FOR
   13/1100Z INTO HURRICANE HUMBERTO OR BAY
   OF CAMPECHE SYSTEM.

II. PACIFIC REQUIREMENTS
    1. NEGATIVE RECONNAISSANCE REQUIREMENTS.
    2. OUTLOOK FOR SUCCEEDING DAY.....NEGATIVE.

$$
JWP

VOA Radiogram for 7-8 September 2013

Hello friends,

On last weekend’s VOA Radiogram, the experiments with improvements in the RSID generally went well for those of you who had Fldigi 3.21.74AB or newer installed.

This weekend (program 25), we will test the RSIDs again. I have produced the program using Fldigi 3.21.75, so please use that version (or 3.21.74AE, which is the same) for best results. Download from w1hkj.com.

When you have 3.21.75 installed, go to Configure > ID > RsID, and adjust Errors to 0 (zero). This will prevent Fldigi from flipping to another mode when it thinks it hears the RSID for that mode amid the MFSK tones. For more information about this, see http://www.w1hkj.com/FldigiHelp-3.21/ConfigID.html

[This works here.  In fact the help at the link recommends a value of 0 on HF. -Hugh]

Please also download the latest versions of Flmsg [1.1.32] and Flamp (2.1.00) from w1hkj.com.

This weekend's VOA Radiogram will include another transmission in MFSK128. This will be done mainly to see if the RSID works. However, to improve the chances for a successful decode of the MFSK128, it will be in Flamp format. A paragraph will be divided into seven blocks of 64 characters each. And it will be transmitted three times, with the second and third passes filling in any blocks with incorrect checksums. Make sure Flamp is running before the MFSK128 transmission begins; it does not turn on automatically like Flmsg.

The foreign language for the weekend will be Spanish, with brief VOA news items in both plain text and Flmsg formatted. Please turn off and restart Fldigi before each of this weekend's VOA Radiogram broadcasts so that the accented Spanish letters display correctly. For the accented Spanish characters to display correctly, use the UTF-8 character set. The adjustment can be found via Configure > Colors & Fonts.

In the Flmsg-formatted Spanish news story, you will see several html codes such as í for the accented characters. They might look like decoding errors, but the story should look OK when the web page renders.

To make Flmsg work with Fldigi, in Fldigi: Configure > Misc > NBEMS -- Under Reception of flmsg files, check both boxes, and under that indicate where your Flmsg.exe file is located.

Here is the lineup for VOA Radiogram, 7-8 September 2013:

3:55  MFSK16: Program preview

2:09  MFSK32: VOA Spanish news re old iPhones

3:41  MFSK32/Flmsg: VOA Spanish news re new iPhone model

2:29  MFSK64: VOA News re Al Jazeera in Egypt

2:48  MFSK32: YouTube screen capture of Al Jazeera

 :50  MFSK32: Introduction to MFSK128 item

1:30  MFSK128/Flamp: Brief description of VOA

 :45  MFSK32: Introduction to MFSK64

2:55  MFSK64: VOA News re LADEE moon mission

2:56  MFSK32: Artist's rendition of LADEE spacecraft

1:11  MFSK16: Closing announcements

 :41  MFSK32: VOA Radiogram logo  

  :20  Surprise mode of the week

Please send reception reports to radiogram@voanews.com.

VOA Radiogram transmission schedule

(all days and times UTC)

Sat 1600-1630 17860 kHz

Sun 0230-0300 5745 kHz

Sun 1300-1330 6095 kHz

Sun 1930-2000 15670 kHz

All via the Edward R. Murrow transmitting station in North Carolina.

I hope you can tune in this weekend. I'm looking forward to hearing from you.

Kim

Kim Andrew Elliott

Producer and Presenter

VOA Radiogram

http://voaradiogram.net

PS: There will also be a minute of MFSK32 on The Mighty KBC, via Germany, Saturday at approximately 1130 UTC on 6095 kHz, and Sunday at approximately 0130 UTC on 7375 kHz (Saturday evening 9:30 pm EDT).  Reports to themightykbc@gmail.com .

Mighty KBC Digital Transmissions Aug. 31 - Sept.1

Also from Kim:

I will also use this opportunity to let you know that I will have a one-minute MFSK32 transmission on The Mighty KBC, based in the Netherlands but using a transmitter in Germany.

Saturday, August 31, 1130 UTC (approximately) on 6095 kHz

Sunday, September 1, 0130 UTC (approximately) on 7375 kHz (Saturday 9:30 pm EDT)

This station is often heard in the USA, if conditions permit.

 

Epic VOA Radiogram (With Dung Beetle) for Aug. 31 - Sept. 1

From Kim Elliott:

VOA Radiogram Program 24 this weekend, 31 August and 1 September 2013, will be rather complex.

Most VOA Radiogram listeners have had success using the RSID (Reed Solomon Identification) to automatically change modes. The RSID is the brief signal that occurs at the beginning of digital mode transmissions. One exception to this success is the RSID for MFSK64, which is not decoded on some listeners' software.

In an attempt to improve RSID performance, I have produced this weekend's VOA Radiogram using Fldigi 3.21.74AB. If you download, install, and use this "alpha" version of Fldigi from  http://www.w1hkj.com/alpha/fldigi/v3.21/, we may have better luck with the RSIDs.

Please keep your previous version of Fldigi, at least for now, in case 3.21.74AB does not work well on your PC.

If you can't, or prefer not to, install 3.21.74AB, I will provide time for you to switch manually to MFSK64 and MFSK128.

In addition to the RSID experiments, VOA Radiogram will also transmit sample text in Vietnamese and Russian. Vietnamese has all sorts of diacritics, and Russian uses a Cyrillic alphabet, so this will be a real workout. You will need to use the UTF-8 character set. In Fldigi, UTF-8 can be selected in a menu located somewhere in Configure > Colors & Fonts, depending on your version.

This weekend's VOA Radiogram will also contain two transmissions in Flmsg format. The first will be a VOA News story similar to those transmitted during past weekends. The second will be a Base64-encoded VOA logo transmitted in MFSK128. Because of the speed of MFSK128, I'm expecting a fairly high failure rate. Worth a try, though.

Please close and restart Fldigi between VOA Radiogram broadcasts this weekend. This is because letters with accents often do not display correctly, i.e. UTF-8 no longer works, after an Flmsg item is received. 

Here is the lineup for VOA Radiogram, 31 August/September 1 2013:

2:55  MFSK16: Program preview

3:10  MFSK32: Vietnamese and Russian text samples

2:58  MFSK32: Discussion of RSIDs

1:50  MFSK64/Flmsg: VOA News re dung beetles*

 :56  MFSK32: Image of dung beetle

3:07  MFSK128/Flmsg/Base64: VOA blue logo*

2:16  MFSK64: VOA News re China hack attack

2:38  MFSK32: VOA Khmer radio photo contest

2:31  MFSK32: Image of submitted radio photo

1:10  MFSK16: Closing announcements 

  :15  Surprise mode of the week

*To make Flmsg work with Fldigi, in Fldigi: Configure > Misc > NBEMS, under Reception of flmsg files, check both boxes, and under that indicate where your Flmsg.exe file is located. 

VOA Radiogram transmission schedule

(all days and times UTC):

Sat 1600-1630 17860 kHz

Sun 0230-0300 5745 kHz

Sun 1300-1330 6095 kHz

Sun 1930-2000 15670 kHz

All via the Edward R. Murrow transmitting station in North Carolina.

Please send reception reports to radiogram@voanews.com

Audio samples of difficult reception that nevertheless results in a successful text decode are especially helpful.

I will start today to respond to your emails from last weekend.

Kim

Kim Andrew Elliott

Producer and Presenter

V. of Russia Going Dark January 1st

 From RIA Novosti:

MOSCOW, August 21 (RIA Novosti) – The Russian government’s international radio broadcasting service Golos Rossii (Voice of Russia) will stop its shortwave broadcasts from January 1 next year, the Digit.ru online journal reported Wednesday.

The shortwave service is closing “due to funding cuts,” Voice of Russia deputy director Natalya Zhmai said in a letter dated August 15 to Andrei Romanchenko, head of the Russian Television and Radio Broadcasting Network (RTRBN), the journal said.

Personal Reflections on Grove Interview

ALL views are the PERSONAL OPINION of this writer only, and DO NOT necessarily reflect any views or policies of Grove Enterprises/ Monitoring Times.

A number of points were made in this interview, by both the interviewer and the interviewee,  which raise interesting issues. They deserve some thought.  My summaries of these (in bold face) are from memory, and some are undoubtedly wrong.

Let's get this going:


HF utility radio will continue to lose listenable signals, and possibly eventually wither away completely.

Not likely.  What it will continue to lose is high powered USB voice signals, which once covered the maritime, aero, and fixed service bands. 

There is currently a lot of interest in developing high-speed data links over HF. This is something of a Holy Grail in military R&D right now. 

Research into this interesting technology continues. I have seen any number of PowerPoint presentations, documents, and such. These all say the same thing, which is that while satcom represents an advance over old style HF radio, it is not the guaranteed, always-on, global platform that it was once billed to be. If HF data rates can be increased from the current 600-1200 baud, which they probably can, it will sell a new generation of equipment.


The shortage of transmitter parts is forcing users off HF.

That's a maybe.  Right now, transmitter parts ARE short, and getting shorter, as new-old-stock inventories sell out and "parter" units are exhausted.  Indeed, this is one cause of the widely bemoaned problem that no one, at least in the USA, makes HF transmitters over 1 kW power any more.  However, if it's possible to find relatively affordable (if extremely bad) 8-10 kW amplifiers for 11 meters, which it is, then obviously someone's getting parts.

Things like this become cycles in economics.  Nobody wants it because nobody makes it, and nobody makes it because nobody wants it.

Sooner or later, someone will discover that demand still exceeds supply here, which it does, and sell an awful lot of stuff.


HF broadcasting has no commercial potential, and it will die.

HF broadcasting suffers from an identity crisis.  Its original purpose was never to sell toothpaste and sugary sodas.  They had local radio, or out-of-market AM flamethrowers, for that.  Its original purpose was for governments and religious organizations to sell themselves.

This demand declined to practically zero in many places, due to new technologies and the end of the Cold War. Suddenly, we were staring directly at the inconvenient truth that HF broadcasting has never had very much commercial potential. 

Thank goodness for that.  It's what made SWBC such fun.

SWBC is now revealed clearly as a niche product, and marketing to a niche audience has never been easy. A different model is necessary than the one used by, say, Clear Channel or Citadel.

The future of HF broadcasting, therefore, is undefined.  It's a mature technology looking for new uses.  However, until high speed Internet gets to the Third World, we will continue to see companies competing to sell wind-up and/or solar HF receivers.


The ionosphere is just too unreliable for modern communications.

Many recent advances in technology have come from the need to render the ionosphere as reliable as satcom. Both are subject to solar outages, and neither is invulnerable to the various causes of communication loss.  It appears that the modern military wants both, as do some civilian users.

It also remains a sometimes inconvenient truth that the ionosphere does not cost anything, while satellite time costs a lot.  Given that satcom is human-made, while the ionosphere just is, this will not change.

Digital communication offers ways to cope with the more common ionospheric issues, such as selective fading and changing signal levels. It's not spark gaps or people shouting into mikes any more.


Only backward countries want HF. Others want high-tech.

No, what's happened is that people always want The Latest Thing.  It's new, and sexy.  Its marketers promise everything short of making everyone's morning coffee.

It's also very, very, very expensive."Backward" countries also tend to be poor countries. This to a certain extent becomes more important than sexiness when it's time to actually spend money.

Eventually, someone listens to the engineers, and comms wind up on the frequencies and modes that do them best.  There is still an underlying need for people to communicate.

Contrast this with the so-called "First World," where the common pattern is to keep throwing money at an unsatisfactory communication system, trying to force it into working.  This is actually more common on the "scanner" frequencies (VHF/UHF). We have seen any number of American cities creating fiscal black holes as regards their emergency comm, forever adding or updating high tech gear while the problems stay the same.
 

The radio hobby's demographics are too old, and it might die along with the baby boomers.

This misconception is harder to get rid of than termites in Los Angeles.

Some activities appeal to a young demographic.  Some activities appeal to an older demographic.  This means a lot if you're selling zit cream, but it's relatively irrelevant for leisure time activities.

You never see anyone bemoaning the young demographics of, say, extreme skateboarding.  No one publishes one article after another predicting doom as soon as everyone involved hits 30.  Obviously, they don't have to, since new kids come in every day.

However, we do see everyone bemoaning the old demographics of radio, and predicting doom as soon as everyone doing it dies off.  No one ever considers that some of the people who gave up extreme skateboarding years ago might want a more peaceful pursuit. 

It is very likely that, in the computer age, radio is just an inherently older demographic. It certainly does appear that new adults come in every day. 

Stop worrying about The Kids.

VOARadiogram for August 23-24

From Kim Elliott:

Hello friends,

Many of you successfully decoded the Chinese text on VOA Radiogram last weekend (17-18 August). Some saw blocks instead of Chinese characters, but after copying those blocks to a word processor or other application, the Chinese characters appeared. Others were able to see the Chinese characters after installing the East Asian language support files for the operating system. We will try another sample of Chinese text this weekend.

The large SVG-formatted VOA logo within the Flmsg news story, developed by UK listener Mark Hirst, also worked well. It required only 15 seconds to transmit. If you have Internet Explorer and did not see the logo, try renaming the Flmsg file with an .xhtml suffix.

I am trying another method of recording the RSIDs for this weekend's program. Perhaps it will provide a solution to the problems some of you are having with RSIDs. For many of you, the RSID for last weekend's surprise mode, 4xPSKR63, was not detected.

Here is the lineup for VOA Radiogram, 23-24 August 2013:     

2:20  MFSK16: Program preview

1:46  MFSK32: Chinese text sample*

6:33  MFSK32: VOA News re robot, with image

6:39  MFSK32: VOA News re Kepler Telescope, with image

4:32  MFSK64/Flmsg: RFE/RL News re left-handers in former USSR**

1:18  MFSK32: Image accompanying left-hander story

1:11  MFSK16: Closing announcements

1:24  MFSK16: VOA Radiogram logo (500x44)

*Use the UTF-8 character set. In Fldigi: Configure > Colors & Fonts > Select Char Set. Close and restart Fldigi between VOA Radiogram broadcasts.

**To make Flmsg work with Fldigi, in Fldigi: Configure > Misc > NBEMS > Under reception of flmsg files, check both boxes, and under that indicate where your Flmsg.exe file is located.

Please send reception reports to radiogram@voanews.com

I am now responding to your emails from last weekend.

I hope you can tune in this weekend.

VOA Radiogram transmission schedule
(all days and times UTC)
Sat 1600-1630 17860 kHz
Sun 0230-0300 5745 kHz
Sun 1300-1330 6095 kHz
Sun 1930-2000 15670 kHz
All via the Edward R. Murrow transmitting station in North Carolina. 

Kim

Kim Andrew Elliott

Producer and Presenter

VOA Radiogram

radiogram@voanews.com

http://voaradiogram.net

Twitter: @voaradiogram

Bob Grove Interviewed by HamRadioNow

This YouTube video, episode 89 of HamRadioNow, is dated August 5, 2013.  It is an extended (full hour) interview with Grove Enterprises/ Monitoring Times founder Bob Grove.  He goes into detail on why he decided to discontinue MT rather than sell it.

Despite rather grungy Skype audio, the interview is quite interesting.

You will find it here.

International Lighthouse Lightship Weekend Aug.17-18

This weekend, the International Lighthouse Lightship Weekend (ILLW) will feature amateur special event stations at many of the world's lighthouses and lightships.  Many will be using distinctive call signs.  As always, it begins Saturday at 0001 UTC (Friday evening in the US), and lasts exactly 48 hours.

This has become a very popular event, attracting utility DXers along with hams seeking to work the lighthouses.  From its creation by the sponsoring Ayr Amateur Radio Group 16 years ago, ILLW has grown from a few lighthouses to this year's 450 plus.

ILLW's on-air activity coincides with International Lighthouse Weekend, organized by the Association of Lighthouse Keepers, in which many of these iconic facilities will hold open houses at some point in the weekend. The goal is to promote public awareness of the continued value of lighthouses, and their keepers, in the GPS era. As many know, both are becoming endangered species.

Full details 
KMZ file for Google Earth 
List of all participants

Interesting Multilingual VOA Radiogram for August 17-18

From Kim Andrew Elliott.

Hello friends,

VOA Radiogram for the weekend 17 and 18 should be an interesting program.

It will include our first attempt to transmit Chinese characters. (It's part of a VOA Chinese story about the future of BlackBerry.) And there will be a VOA News story in Spanish. To view the Spanish accents and the Chinese characters, your character set should be UTF-8. In Fldigi: Configure > Colors & Fonts to change the character set.

The broadcast will also include an Flmsg VOA News story including an SVG-formatted VOA logo created by Mark Hirst in the UK. If you have Internet Explorer, and cannot see the logo, try renaming the Flmsg file with an .xhtml suffix.

If you listen to more than one broadcast of VOA Radiogram this weekend, close Flidigi and restart it between broadcasts. This is because something in Flmsg turns off the UTF-8 character set, even though Fldigi is still configured for UTF-8.

Two of this weekend's VOA News stories on VOA Radiogram feature VOA journalists who are radio amateurs. VOA Asia correspondent Steven Herman, W7VOA (@W7VOA), is interviewed about his visit to North Korea, and George Putic, KI4FNF, wrote the story about the renewed search for extraterrestrial life.

And there will be a VOA News story about a way to keep older brains healthy -- other than experimenting with digital modes.   

Here is the lineup for VOA Radiogram, 17 and 18 August 2013:

3:04  MFSK16: Program preview
4:50  MFSK32: VOA Spanish logo and news re VOA app
1:46  MFSK32: VOA Chinese logo and sample text
3:26  MFSK32: VOA News re benefits of hot chocolate
1:22  MFSK32: VOA Radiogram logo and addresses
4:43  MFSK64: VOA's W7VOA visits North Korea
1:18  MFSK32: Photo of W7VOA in Pyongyang
3:28  MFSK64/Flmsg*: VOA's KI4FNF on search for extraterrestrials
1:18  MFSK32: Photo of Gemini Observatory
1:12  MFSK16: Closing announcements
0:16  Surprise mode of the week

*To make Flmsg work with Fldigi (both can be downloaded from w1hkj.com), in Fldigi: Configure > Misc > NBEMS -- Under Reception of flmsg files, check both boxes, and under that indicate where your Flmsg.exe file is located.

As always, reception reports are much appreciated and should be sent to radiogram@voanews.com.

Audio samples of difficult reception conditions which nevertheless result in a successful decode of MFSK text (it's OK if the images are fuzzy) are especially helpful.

I appreciate your use of typical shortwave portables, but reception on any type of receiver or transceiver is useful for our experiments.

Your comments, suggestions, and ideas are always welcome.

The best part of my week is when I see your emails coming in.

Thanks for listening and decoding.

Kim

Kim Andrew Elliott
Producer and Presenter
VOA Radiogram
voaradiogram.net

VOA Radiogram transmission schedule
(all days and times UTC)
Sat 1600-1630 17860 kHz
Sun 0230-0300 5745 kHz
Sun 1300-1330 6095 kHz
Sun 1930-2000 15670 kHz
All via the Edward R. Murrow transmitting station in North Carolina. 

ARINC Bought by Rockwell Collins

Bloomberg:

Rockwell Collins to Buy Carlyle’s Arinc for $1.39 Billion
By Julie Johnsson & Thomas Black - 2013-08-12T21:16:29Z

Rockwell Collins Inc. Chief Executive Officer Kelly Ortberg landed Arinc Inc., the company’s biggest acquisition, after months of talks with owner Carlyle Group LP -- and just 11 days in the new job.

The $1.39 billion transaction announced yesterday is the largest U.S. aerospace and defense deal unveiled this year and will expand Rockwell Collins’s aerospace business outside the cockpit by combining its avionics and cabin technologies with Arinc’s communications networks.

Ortberg, 53, spearheaded the acquisition effort as he prepared to take over as CEO of Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based Rockwell Collins Aug. 1, replacing Clay Jones, who retired. The purchase gives Rockwell Collins a profitable company with a global customer base and an air-to-ground communications system that should give pilots a wealth of data as air traffic control systems are modernized, he said.

Here's the List of Locations Given in RAF Volmet

The interest in the UK Royal Air Force Volmet remains high, due to the surprise appearance of a North American relay station, possibly as part of an exercise in Canada.

This station, which could be heard worldwide, came up a few days back on 11159 kHz, a NATO and US Air Force frequency in a band which is highly monitored.  This morning, local time, it is no longer being heard anywhere. It is likely that the station has left the air, as quickly as it appeared.

The computer voice "talks" fast, and not always clearly. In addition, the names of the airports are often obscure compared to the well-known international destinations mentioned in civilian volmets.

The volmet is in a program which begins every hour and half hour. The program contains 5 time slots, identified at the beginning of each one as "Military One, time slot [x], information broadcast."  The slots run 6-7 minutes.  The fast "talking" leaves a lot of time after one pass through the list, and so it is repeated from the top, as time permits.

The really tricky one is slot 5, which apparently pertains to operations in the Middle East.  It seems a little strange.  Another strangeness is the re-appearance of Brize Norton , slot 1 number 1, in slot 3 number 9.  This has been confirmed.  It's either the same Brize Norton RAF base in England, or some place with the same name in North Africa which has managed to consistently have the exact same weather at the same time.

After considerable research, and listening to the recorded contributions of listeners such as Token who have lower noise, I've pretty well nailed it.  Confidence is high in this one.  Here we go:

Slot 1:

Brize Norton
Waddington
Birmingham
East Midlands
Manchester
Cardiff
Prestwick
Marham
Lossiemouth
Leeming
Conningsby
Benson
Odiham


Slot 2:

Northolt
Belfast Aldergrove
Culdrose
Hannover
Geilenkirchen
Adana Incirlik
Budapest
Bucharest
Bardufoss
Trondheim
Keflavik
Bodø


Slot 3:

Gibraltar
Porto
Tenerif South
Dakar
Ascension Island
Recife
Mombasa
Nairobi
Brize Norton
Bamako
Algiers
Abidjan


Slot 4:

Bari Palese
Catania Sigonella
Chania
Akrotiri
Larnaca International
Cairo International
Istres
Evreux
Nice Cote d'Azur
Lajes
Faro
Bahrain International


Slot 5:

Muscat International
Kandahar
Bastion
Dubai Minhad
Baghdad International
Kabul
Trabzon
Asghabat
Tibilisi
Al-Udeid
Thumrait
Salaha
Al-Maktoum
Fujairah International Airport

RAF VOLMET on 11159 kHz

For the last day or so, the UK Royal Air Force VOLMET (aviation weather broadcast) has been loud and clear in the U.S. on 11159 kHz USB. This is not a frequency change, as the European signal is still on its normal frequency of 11253 kHz USB.

The 11159 signal duplicates the 11253, but is slightly out of sync with it.  (Thanks, Token!)

All reception reports suggest that this signal's point of origin is in the continental U.S., and likely the West.

At 2318 UTC on 10 Aug, it's S9+ here in CA.

?????????????????????

VOA Radiogram for August 10-11: some interesting experiments

From Kim Andrew Elliott:

Hello friends,

I am in the process of answering your reception reports from the past weekend's VOA Radiogram.

Some of you are doing some interesting experiments with the digital modes on VOA Radiogram. And some of you are letting us know about some useful techniques to improve both the production and the reception of the program.

Mark, WA4KFZ, notes that the SSTV Denoiser software, part of the SSTV Tools suite from dxatlas.com/SstvTools/, can be effective with some of the "noisy" MFSK images you receive on VOA Radiogram.

In this weekend's VOA Radiogram, one VOA News item will be in the MFSK22 mode (80 words per minute). Unlike the MFSK 16, 32, and 64 modes, which have a sample rate of 8000 Hz, MFSK22 has a sample rate of 11025 Hz. For this weekend's program, I recorded to one track at 48000 Hz for the voice introduction and closing music, one track at 8000 Hz for MFSK 16 and 32, and one track at 11025 Hz for the MFSK22 item. Then all three were mixed to one .wav file with a sample rate of 48000 Hz.

Another "feature" in this weekend's program will be five seconds of silence whenever modes are changed. This might improve the performance of the RSID.

The Flmsg-formatted VOA News story in this weekend's program is 9 minutes, 6 seconds long. That might seem unusually long, but it includes 4 minutes, 20 seconds for a VOA logo in SVG format as part of the html. This was created for us by Mark Hirst in the UK.

Here is the lineup for VOA Radiogram, 10-11 August 2013:

2:30  MFSK16: Program preview

3:26  MFSK22: VOA News re import of Apple products

3:12  MFSK32: Greetings to l'Associazione Italiana Radioascolto

2:10  MFSK32 image: AIR logo

9:06  MFSK32/Flmsg*: VOA News re one year of Curiosity on Mars

2:26  MFSK32 image: Curiosity tire tracks

1:10  MFSK16: Closing announcements

2:20  Surprise image, text, image of the week

*To make Flmsg work with Fldigi (both can be downloaded from w1hkj.com), in Flmsg: Configure > Misc > NBEMS -- Under Reception of flmsg files, check both boxes, and under that indicate where your Flmsg.exe file is located.

Please send your reception reports, audio samples, screenshots, comments, ideas, suggestions to radiogram@voanews.com .

Thanks for listening and decoding.

Kim

Kim Andrew Elliott

Producer and Presenter

VOA Radiogram

radiogram@voanews.com

http://voaradiogram.net

Twitter: @voaradiogram

Some magnetic storming is predicted for this weekend, so keep your fingers crossed and make an offering to the Propagation Gods.

VOA Radiogram for August 3-4

From Kim Andrew Elliott:

If you are an EasyPal fan, EasyPal returns this weekend with a striking image of the Las Vegas skyline. Don't be too disappointed if you cannot decode the EasyPal image. A certain signal threshold is required, and the failure rate is rather high.

In recording the program for this weekend, I applied audio compression to my voice introduction and to the music at the end of the show -- but not to the digital tones. Perhaps you will notice the difference. 

Here is the lineup for VOA Radiogram for the weekend of 3 and 4 August 2013:

2:30  MFSK16: Program preview
  :45  MFSK32: VOA logo image
5:22  MFSK32: VOA News re 3D printed heart
1:00  MFSK32: Heart image    
4:15  MFSK64 in Flmsg* format: VOA News re oxygen in Mars's past
1:15  MFSK32: Mars image
7:05  EasyPal image** (4-QAM)
1:08  MFSK16: closing announcements
1:17  MFSK32: VOA Radiogram logo image
 :55  Surprise mode of the week

*To make Flmsg work with Fldigi (both can be downloaded from w1hkj.com), in Flmsg: Configure > Misc > NBEMS -- Under Reception of flmsg files, check both boxes, and under that indicate where your Flmsg.exe file is located.

**Download EasyPal software from vk4aes.com.

Please send reception reports to radiogram@voanews.com

These would be especially helpful:

1) Audio samples of poor reception which nevertheless results in a successful decoding of the text modes.

2) Reception of the digital modes on less expensive portable radios, and any advice you have on how to feed audio from those radios to your PC and the decoding software.

VOA Radiogram transmission schedule
(all days and times UTC)
Sat 1600-1630 17860 kHz
Sun 0230-0300 5745 kHz
Sun 1300-1330 6095 kHz
Sun 1930-2000 15670 kHz
All via the Edward R. Murrow transmitting station in North Carolina

Thanks for listening and decoding, and I look forward to your emails.

Kim

Kim Andrew Elliott
Producer and Presenter
VOA Radiogram
http://voaradiogram.net