The VOA Radiogram transmission Sunday at 1930-2000 UTC on 15670 kHz will become more difficult to receive in Europe as we approach winter, but at the same time might become more audible in parts of the Asia-Pacific region.

Meanwhile, the transmission Saturday at 0930-1000 UTC on 5910 kHz was heard in the U.K. during the past weekend (15-16 November 2014), and it will become audible in more parts of Europe as winter approaches.

Here is the lineup for VOA Radiogram, program 86, 22-23 November 2014 – all in MFSK32 except where indicated:

  1:37  Program preview

  2:42  Crowdfunding UK lunar mission*

  7:24  China hosts World Internet Conference*

14:32  Congestion at US port complex*

22:02  New audience numbers for US International Media*

25:54  Closing announcements with MFSK64 logo

28:39  Surprise 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 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. Reports to Eric at themightykbc@gmail.com.

During VOA Radiogram the weekend of 15-16 November 2014, I mistakenly included MFSK32 images of both the black-and-white and color versions of a solar eclipse. I had planned to use one or the other, depending on how much time I had left. But, actually, it turned out to be an interesting comparison of gray-scale versus color MFSK images.

Here are both images as received by Chris in New Zealand – all the way from the North Carolina transmitter – Sunday during the 1930 UTC transmission on 15670 kHz:

Oscar in Milano, Italy, tuned in VOA Radiogram, program 83, on 1 November 2014, 1600-1630 UTC, 17860 kHz, using a Soviet-era military receiver. Oscar writes: 

Today I have decoded the program … with my latest purchase: a Soviet receiver build in the 1960s called ARZ (Aleksandrov Radio Zavod) R-326, using the Wellbrook ALA 1530LF active loop beamed NW-SE. SINPO: 45555

It’s microvalves based, with very stable tuning and precise frequency readout. It has no volume control but an RF control that has the same effect, passband filter can be tuned continuously from wide (I believe 5kHz) down to narrow (0.6 khz), AM reception and CW reception. A kind of wide BFO give possibility to tune also voice transmissions in LSB and USB but from the CW mode. Frequency range is between 1 and 20 MHz in 6 bands with a mechanical band switch, a 3-position AGC and an internal oscillator for frequency calibration. The frequency reading (built into the tuning capacitors) is projected with 2 lamps onto an opaque glass where i can read the fine tuning frequency meter. Two big knobs allow coarse tuning and fine tuning. According to the serial number this device was probably built in 1965.“

The audio output is high impedance (600 ohms) so before connecting the audio output to the computer I had to build an impedance adapter using a transformer. The speaker on top is already a high impedance speaker.

It can be operated with 2.4 heavy duty batteries stored inside the receiver, or with an external power supply (this the way I do it, with its original East German-built DC power supply).

Oscar provides this video of his reception and decoding using the R-326:

http://youtu.be/LE256_7-N1c

…as well as these photos: 

Klaus in Germany used this basic Philips D2615 radio, new in 1985, with its built-in whip antenna, to receive VOA Radiogram, program 84, 8 November 2014, 1600-1630 UTC, on 17860 kHz via North Carolina. This receiver provides analog tuning on FM, longwave, mediumwave, as well as two bands of shortwave from 2.3 to 7.3 and 9.5 to 26.1 MHz.

Using the audio from this radio, Klaus was able to decode good quality MFSK32 images:

And he had 100% decode of the MFSK32 text (excerpt shown):

Last weekend’s 8PSK: As expected, the 640-word-per-minute 8PSK-250 in last weekend’s program usually resulted in more errors than the 320-wpm 8PSK-125. There were a few instances of 95-100% decode of the 8PSK-250, including the 360 km from the North Carolina transmitter to my house in northern Virginia, Saturday 0230 UTC on 5745 kHz. It seems that the 8PSK-250 would be most useful in short-hop shortwave propagation, beyond the range of VHF.

This weekend we return to our workhorse MFSK32 mode for the entire program, except for an MFSK64 image and the surprise mode at the end of the show.

Here is the lineup for VOA Radiogram, program 85, 15-16 November 2014 (all MFSK32 except where indicated):

 1:45  Program preview

 2:52  Solar eclipse and European power grids*

 7:53  Human settlements and animal extinction*

11:45  Interfacing human brains via Internet*

16:05  Sesame Street TV show marks 45 years*

19:45  Russian media news*

26:37  Closing announcements with MFSK64 logo

28:05  Surprise 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 (new frequency as of 1 November)
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 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. Reports for the KBC transmissions to themightykbc@gmail.com .

New frequency for the Saturday 0930-1000 UTC broadcast

Last weekend, the frequency of the Saturday 0930-1000 UTC broadcast of VOA Radiogram was changed to 5910 kHz. I never received a memo about this frequency change, so I was not able to inform the VOA Radiogram audience. Apologies for the inconvenience, especially to North American listeners who were awake very early in the morning, only to hear no signal on the advertised 5745 kHz frequency.

Here is the revised and up-to-date VOA Radiogram transmission schedule (all days and times UTC):

Sat 0930-1000 5910 kHz (new frequency)
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.  

With the time change in North America, the 0930 UTC broadcast is now at 4:30 am Eastern Standard Time, and even earlier in the more westerly time zones. If you prefer not to be awake at such an hour, the Audacity timer record feature (in the Transport menu) is handy.

8PSK tests

Most listeners reported some errors from last weekend’s test of the 8PSK-125 mode (about 315 words per minute). There were, however, several 100% decodes of the 8PSK-125 mode in Europe and North America. (Here’s a recording from Greece of one such 100% decode. Try decoding it yourself.) According to VOA Radiogram listeners, it helps to have the Fldigi squelch off or at a low level for this mode, so that characters are decoded even during fades. A low audio level into Fldigi is also useful.  

With realistic expectations about the chances for successful decodes, we will experiment with 8PSK modes again this weekend. Towards the end of the show, a VOA news items will be transmitted in 8PSK-125, then the same story will be transmitted again in the even faster 8PSK-250 mode (640 words per minute). You will need Fldigi 3.22.01 to decode these modes.

VOA Radiogram, program 84, 8-9 November 2014

Here is the lineup (all MFSK32 except where indicated):

  1:40  Program preview
  2:51  Agriculture with salty water*
  8:36  New street lighting lower carbon emissions*
14:43  Glowing orbs mark former Berlin Wall*
21:19  Experiments with 8PSK-125 and 8PSK-250
26:29  Closing announcements
27:07  MFSK64 image: Veterans Day in the USA
28:46  Surprise mode of the week.

* with image.

Please send reception reports to radiogram@voanews.com

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. Please send reception reports to Eric at themightykbc (at) gmail.com.

Last week’s surprise mode was 8PSK-125. The 8PSK modes were added to Fldigi as of version 3.22.00.

Most of you were unable to decode the 8PSK-125 transmission. I think this is because I used Fldigi 3.22.00 to produce the 8PSK-125 segment, and most of you installed Fldigi 3.22.01. There was a change to the 8PSK encoding scheme with version 3.22.01.

This weekend, I will try another transmission in 8PSK-125, this time produced using Fldigi 3.22.01. If you do not already have Fldigi 3.22.01 installed, please download it from http://www.w1hkj.com/download.html.

You will notice that 8PSK-125 is fast: 316 words per minute, versus 120 wpm for our usual MFSK32 mode. Despite its speed, it does have some  forward error correction (FEC), so it might be able to withstand some of the degradations of shortwave propagation.

Here is the lineup for VOA Radiogram, program 83, 1-2 November 2014:

  1:47  Program preview (now)
  2:57  Introduction to 8PSK-125 test
  3:54  8PSK-125: Radio/TV Martí PSAs
  4:40  Failure of Antares rocket launch*
11:41  Solar power from Tunisia will supply Europe*
17:56  Recycling e-waste in Ghana without burning*
25:04  Closing announcements with MFSK64 logo
28:25  Surprise 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 5745 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.  

*North American listeners: With the time change, note that the Sunday 1930 UTC transmission is now one hour earlier for most of you, e.g. 2:30 pm Eastern *Standard* Time.

The Mighty KBC will transmit a minute of MFSK64 Saturday at about 1230 UTC on 6095 kHz, and Sunday at about 0130 UTC (Saturday 9:30 pm EDT) on 7375 kHz. Both frequencies are via Germany. Reports to themightykbc@gmail.com .