VOA Radiogram & Notte Europea dei Ricercatori

Hello friends,

VOA Radiogram program 130 will include a special broadcast for this week's European Researchers' Night. This will be Friday, 25 September  2015, at 1830-1900 UTC, on 17880 kHz, from our usual North Carolina transmitting site. The specific target is the Notte europea dei ricercatori in Frascati, Italy, where an amateur radio exhibit organized by Bruno, IZ0DIB, will receive and decode (conditions permitting!) VOA Radiogram. Of course, we also welcome reports from anyone, anywhere else in the world.

Here is the lineup for VOA Radiogram, program 130, 25-27 September 2015, all in MFSK32 except where noted:
   

 1:32  Program preview

 2:36  Greetings to European Researchers' Night*
13:09  Humans are surrounded by bacteria*
18:32  Olivia 32-2000: USA Pavilion at Expo Milano 2015*
25:26  MFSK32: Closing announcements*

* with image

The program will include some items in Italian, so you will need the UTF-8 character set (Fldigi: Configure > Colors & Fonts) for the accented letters to display correctly. The RSID should automatically change Fldigi to Olivia 32-2000, but if it does not: Op Mode > Olivia > Custom > set Bandwidth to 2000 and Tones to 32.

VOA Radiogram transmission schedule

Correcting the transmission schedule in the previous email.  

The special broadcast is Friday at 1830-1900 UTC, not 1830-2000 UTC ...

(all days and times UTC):

Fri  1830-1900 17880 kHz (25 Sept only) 

Sat 0930-1000 5745 kHz
Sat 1600-1630 17870 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 0230 UTC (Saturday 10:30 pm EDT) on 7375 kHz, via Germany. This is part of the KBC broadcast to North America Sundays at 0000-0300 UTC. On Saturday, 26 September, 2300-2400 UTC, KBC will test a new frequency of  7385 kHz, also via Germany. Reports to Eric: themightykbc@gmail.com.

Thank for your reports to VOA Radiogram last weekend. I'll be sending out the galleries for program 123 today and tomorrow. 

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

Kim

Kim Andrew Elliott

Producer and Presenter

VOA Radiogram

voaradiogram.net 

'73 Claudio IK1XPK.

VOA RadioGram 31 January/1 February 2015 MFSK32 - CW

Hello friends,

The most interesting event from last weekend’s program was the inaudibility, in much of North America, of the Sunday 0230-0300 UTC transmission on 5745 kHz. The signal was somewhat better in Europe. I tried several remote receivers and finally found a good signal on a receiver in Venezuela.

The experiment with the thirty-second tuning signal seems to have succeeded, so we will do it again this weekend. After the voice introduction, the MFSK32 RSID will be transmitted once. If Fldigi is not tuned to an audio frequency near 1500 Hz, use the tuning signal to center the tuner to the correct frequency.

The bonus mode of the week will be CW. There is no RSID for CW, so, if you use Fldigi to help “copy” the CW, change the mode manually. It will probably also help to set the CW transmit speed to 15 WPM so that Fldigi receives at or near the 15 WPM used for the bonus CW transmission. …

Impostazione FlDigi per CW

Here is the lineup for VOA Radiogram, program 96, 31 January/1 February 2015, all in MFSK32 except for the bonus CW:

2:11  Program preview (now)

3:16  Greece reconsiders sale of port to Chinese company*

7:09  US firms concerned about Chinese cyber regulation*

13:11  Fake products on Chinese online sales sites*

19:15  Freedom in the World 2015 report*

27:04  Closing announcements

28:27  CW: Bonus mode of the week

*with image

Please send reception reports to radiogram@voanews.com.

VOA Radiogram transmission schedule

(all days and times UTC):

Sat 0930-1000 5910 kHz

Sat 1600-1630 17860 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 MFSK64 (image of a great looking radio dial in the dark) Saturday at about 1230 UTC on 6095 kHz, and Sunday at about 0130 UTC (Saturday 8:30 pm EST) on 7375 kHz. Both frequencies are via Germany. Send reports to Eric at themightykbc@gmail.com .

Thanks for your reports from last weekend. The MFSK image gallery will include a dearth of pictures from the UTC Sunday 0230 transmission because of the aforementioned poor propagation. Last weekend I had problems opening images attached to everyone’s emails, so I apologize to anyone whose MFSK image decode was left out of the program 94 gallery.

Kim

Kim Andrew Elliott

Producer and Presenter

VOA Radiogram

voaradiogram.net  

VOA RADIOGRAM - FlDigi - 3-4 January 2015

Hello friends,

Because of difficult mid-winter shortwave propagation, one of this weekend's VOA News items will be in MFSK16 (55 wpm), to see if it will provide a more successful text decode than our usual MFSK32 (120 wpm).

The printout of Fldigi,  under its default settings, displays the name of the previous mode rather than the mode that has just started. If you want the name of the just-started mode in your printout and log file, make the following adjustments to Fldigi:

1) Configure > Notifications  

2) Under Event, select RSID Reception

3) Click Add

4) Click the box to the right of "Append to RX text:"

5) This should appear in the box: RSID: $RX_MARKER

6) Click Update

7) Click Close

(Fldigi 3.22.04 is now available from http://www.w1hkj.com/download.html , although this particular update is not necessary for this weekend's VOA Radiogram.)

VOA Radiogram 3-4 January 2015

Here is the lineup for VOA Radiogram, program 92, 3-4 January 2015 (in MFSK 32 except where noted):

 1:44  Program preview

 2:39  Iran expands Internet censorship*
 8:42  North Korea TV ends Russian, Chinese films*
16:40  MFSK16: Spray-on solar panels*
25:46  Closing announcements*
28:14  Bonus mode: Olivia 64-2000

*with image

Please send reception reports to radiogram@voanews.com.

VOA Radiogram transmission schedule​ ​(all days and times are UTC)
​Saturday	0930-1000 UTC	5910 kHz	Gray-line reception possible in Europe this time of year. Asia-Pacific reception also possible.
​Saturday	​1600-1630 UTC	​17860 kHz	​Usually provides the best reception in Europe this time of year.
​Sunday	​0230-0300 UTC	​5745 kHz	​Saturday night in North America. Usually audible in Europe, if you are awake.
​Sunday	​1930-2000 UTC	​15670 kHz	​Difficult into Europe this time of year, but should improve by February. Often audible in southern Asia and the Pacific.
​ All via the Edward R. Murrow transmitting station in North Carolina. ​ ​ ​

The Mighty KBC will transmit a minute of MFSK64 Saturday at about 1230 UTC on 6095 kHz and Sunday at about 0130 UTC (Saturday 8:30 pm EST) on 7375 kHz. Both frequencies are via Germany. The content will be the same as last weekend. Reports to Eric: themightykbc@gmail.com .

Thank you for your reception reports to VOA Radiogram last weekend and throughout 2014. Because of travel, I will not be able to answer reports to program 91 until next week. 

Wishing you good listening, good decoding, and all the best in 2015.

Kim

Kim Andrew Elliott

Producer and Presenter

VOA Radiogram

voaradiogram.net   

Good dx de IK1XPK, Claudio.

The Radio Free Asia - Olivia 32-2000

Hello friends,
The Radio Free Asia Cantonese Service is transmitting Olivia 32-2000, centered on 1500 Hz, according to the schedule below.

This table corrects the frequencies at 1458-1500 UTC sent in my previous email:

​UTC Dates​                 1458-1500 UTC​       2258-2300 UTC

​Tuesday, 9 Sept           13595 kHz​               15270 kHz
​Wednesday, 10 Sept    13585​                      15280
​Thursday, 11 Sept       13595​                       15290
​Friday, 12 Sept            13585​                       15300
​Saturday, 13 Sept        13635​                       15380
​Sunday, 14 Sept          13700​                       15390
​Monday, 15 Sept         13585                       ​15260

 All frequencies are via Tinian, Northern Mariana Islands. Today’s transmission at 1458 UTC on 13595 kHz was successfully decoded in Japan, the Philippines, Finland, Greece, and California – and probably other places I haven’t hear from yet.

Kim.

By IK1XPK, Claudio