Fortunately, Tropical Storm Hermine did not disrupt last weekend’s broadcasts of VOA Radiogram from the Edward R. Murrow shortwave transmitting station in North Carolina. 

We did have a problem with severely slanted MFSK images. I noticed these during the Saturday 0930 UTC transmission, and reports from listeners showed a similar slant. After that broadcast, I experimented with the speed of the recording, settling on a speed reduction of -0.222% to straighten the images. That’s the same as configuring Fldigi for a -2220 ppm Rx sound card adjustment. I sent these parameters in an email to VOA Radiogram listeners, and for the rest of the weekend, I received nice, straight images attached to reception reports. This turned out to be a good real-time problem solving exercise. (This weekend, don’t forget to return Fldigi to Configure > Sound Card > Settings > RX ppm = 0 or whatever it was before last weekend.)

What caused the slant? I upload VOA Radiogram as a wav file to the transmitting station. They burn the wav file to a CD, which is played out through their patch panel. On Friday, 2 September, the audio file was burned to a CD on a Mac computer that is not usually employed for this task. There may have been a sampling rate conflict somewhere in the chain.

This weekend, let’s hope for unslanted images. The entire program will be in MFSK32. One “twist” in the show will be ASCII art at 21:14. You will need UTF-8 (Fldigi: Configure > Colors & Fonts > Rx/Tx > select UTF-8 in the Rx/Tx Character set menu.) You will also need a monospace font such as Courier (adjust that, if necessary, just under the Fldigi Rx/Tx Character set menu).

You’ve probably noticed the new VOA Radiogram waterfall ID at the beginning, and sometimes the end, of the program. That excellent ID was contributed by VOA Radiogram listener Merkouris, SV2HWM, in Greece.  

Here is the lineup for VOA Radiogram, program 180, 10-11 September 2016, all in MFSK32 centered on 1500 Hz:

 1:39  Program preview

 2:58  Europe may declare American lobsters an invasive species*

 6:20  South Korea’s Hanjin Shipping financial woes*

12:40  Russia’s Daldykan River turns red*

16:23  Turkey seizes Deutsche Welle interview video*

21:14  ASCII art**

26:21  Closing announcements*

* with image

** Use UTF-8 and monospace font, e.g. Courier

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 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 moves to a new frequency this weekend. The KBC broadcast to North America will be Sunday 0000-0200 UTC (Saturday 8-10 pm EDT) on 6145 kHz, via Germany. A minute of MFSK32 will be at about 0130 UTC. Reports for this KBC reception to Eric: themightykbc (at) gmail.com .

DigiDX will transmit MFSK32 and probably other modes:

Sunday 2130-2200 UTC, 15770 kHz, via WRMI Florida

Sunday 2330-2400 UTC, 11580 kHz, via WRMI Florida

Monday 2000-2130 UTC, 6070 kHz, via Channel 292 Germany

For schedule updates, visit DigiDX at http://www.digidx.uk/  or https://www.facebook.com/digidx/

IBC (Italian Broadcasting Corporation) has a broadcast to Europe on 6070 kHz, Wednesdays, 2000-2200 UTC, with MFSK32 and Olivia 16-500 at 2030-2100 UTC. And IBC has added MFSK32 transmissions via WRMI in Florida: Friday 0125-0200 UTC on 9955 kHz (Thursday 9:25 pm EDT), part of its 0100-0130 broadcast. And Saturday at 0155-0200 UTC (Friday evening 9:55 pm EDT), on 11580 kHz, part of its 0130-0200 broadcast.  See http://ibcradio.webs.com/ for the complete schedule and contact information

Tropical Storm Hermine is forecast to pass through the area of the Edward R. Murrow shortwave transmitting station in North Carolina on Saturday, about the time of the 0930 UTC broadcast of VOA Radiogram. We will see if that and later transmissions are affected by the storm, which will probably consist of heavy rain more than wind by the time it reaches North Carolina.

This weekend’s VOA Radiogram will be all MFSK32 centered on 1500 Hz except for an ASCII-art surprise in Olivia 64-2000 9 dB under the closing music.

NB: There seems to be a problem with the slanted images is because the CD player in North Carolina that feeds VOA Radiogram to the transmitter is out of adjustment.

You can un-slant the images making this adjustment to Fldigi before receiving the show: Configure > Sound Card > Settings > Corrections > -2220 RX ppm

Or, make no adjustment to Fldigi, but play the recording back with a speed adjustment of -0.222% You can do this with Audacity: Effect > Speed Change

Here is the lineup for VOA Radiogram, program 179, 3-4 September 2016, all in MFSK32 except where noted:

1:38  Program preview (now)

3:01  Astronomers give odd radio signal another look*

8:34  Princeton University revives a large satellite receiver*

15:42  Storm Hermine might disrupt this weekend’s show*

19:22  QRP transceivers as shortwave broadcast receivers*

22:31  Photo from Juno flyby of Jupiter*

26:07  Closing announcements*

28:27  Olivia 64-2000: ASCII art under closing music

                      (use monospace font, eg Courier)

* 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 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 0130 UTC (Saturday 9:30 pm EDT) on 9925 kHz, via Germany. That is unless KBC is only transmitting at 0000-0100 rather than the usual 0000-0200 UTC this weekend, in which case the MFSK32 will be at about 0030 UTC. Reports to Eric: themightykbc (at) gmail.com . The Mighty KBC will change to 6145 kHz on  11 September, 0000-0200 UTC.

DigiDX will transmit MFSK32 and probably other modes:

Sunday 2130-2200 UTC, 15770 kHz, via WRMI Florida

Sunday 2330-2400 UTC, 11580 kHz, via WRMI Florida

Monday 2000-2130 UTC, 6070 kHz, via Channel 292 Germany

For schedule updates, visit DigiDX at http://www.digidx.uk/  or https://www.facebook.com/digidx/

IBC (Italian Broadcasting Corporation) has a broadcast to Europe on 6070 kHz, Wednesdays, 2000-2200 UTC, with MFSK32 and Olivia 16-500 at 2030-2100 UTC. And IBC has added MFSK32 transmissions via WRMI in Florida: Friday 0125-0200 UTC on 9955 kHz (Thursday 9:25 pm EDT), part of its 0100-0130 broadcast. And Saturday at 0155-0200 UTC (Friday evening 9:55 pm EDT), on 11580 kHz, part of its 0130-0200 broadcast.  See http://ibcradio.webs.com/ for the complete schedule and contact information

VOA Radiogram for the weekend of August 27-28 will again be all MFSK32 centered on 1500 Hz, so another “set and forget” decoding is possible. The show will again end with an Flmsg blank form starting the most recent VOA English radio newscast. (See this post from last week for information about how to make Flmsg work with Fldigi.)

 Here is the lineup for VOA Radiogram, program 178, 27-28 August 2016, all in MFSK32 centered on 1500 Hz:

 1:34  Program preview

 2:46  NASA finds “lost” space probe*

 6:53  Octobot, a soft cheap robot*

12:33  North Korea confiscating popular video player*

19:41  RFA anniversary*, new DRM receiver*

25:50  Closing announcements

28:52  VOA newscast via Flmsg

 * 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 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 0130 UTC (Saturday 9:30 pm EDT) on 9925 kHz, via Germany. This is part of its North America broadcast  Sunday at 0000-0200 UTC. Reports to Eric: themightykbc@gmail.com .

DigiDX will transmit MFSK32 and probably other modes:

Sunday 2130-2200 UTC, 15770 kHz, via WRMI Florida

Sunday 2330-2400 UTC, 11580 kHz, via WRMI Florida

Monday 2000-2130 UTC, 6070 kHz, via Channel 292 Germany

For schedule updates, visit DigiDX at http://www.digidx.uk/  or https://www.facebook.com/digidx/

IBC (Italian Broadcasting Corporation) has a broadcast to Europe on 6070 kHz, Wednesdays, 2000-2200 UTC, with MFSK32 and Olivia 16-500 at 2030-2100 UTC. And IBC has added MFSK32 transmissions via WRMI in Florida: Friday 0125-0200 UTC on 9955 kHz (Thursday 9:25 pm EDT), part of its 0100-0130 broadcast. And Saturday at 0155-0200 UTC (Friday evening 9:55 pm EDT), on 11580 kHz, part of its 0130-0200 broadcast.  See http://ibcradio.webs.com/ for the complete schedule and contact information

 Videos of the WRMI digital special, showcasing text and images via analog radio, are available here: http://voaradiogram.net/post/149173780217/youtube-videos-of-the-wrmi-digital-special

This weekend on VOA Radiogram, most of the show will be straightforward, all in MFSK32. There is one twist in the form of an Flmsg item at the very end of the program that should result in an audio surprise.  

Here, again, is the information about Flmsg: Download it from https://sourceforge.net/projects/fldigi/files/flmsg/ .

To make Flmsg work with Fldigi, in Fldigi: Configure > Misc > NBEMS > under Reception of flmsg files, select Open with flmsg and Open in browser, and below that indicate where your Flmsg.exe file is located – probably somewhere in Program Files(x86). (Mac users, this page might help: http://kf3g25cw.altervista.org/Links/Fldigi_Flmsg/Fldigi_Flmsg.MainPage.html )

Here is the lineup for VOA Radiogram, program 177, 20-21 August 2016, all in MFSK32 centered on 1500 Hz:

1:31  Program preview (now)

2:42  China launches hack-proof satellite*

8:32  Twitter closes terror-linked accounts*

13:59  Why is Washington’s subway system falling apart?*

26:40  Closing announcements

29:09  Flmsg surprise (with audio)

* 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 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 0130 UTC (Saturday 9:30 pm EDT) on 9925 kHz, via Germany. This is part of KBC’s North America broadcast Sunday at 0000-0200 UTC. Reports to Eric: themightykbc@gmail.com .

DigiDX has a scheduled extra broadcast this weekend via WINB:

Saturday: 0230-0300 UTC, 9265 kHz, via WINB Pennsylvania (Friday 10:30 pm EDT)

Sunday 2130-2200 UTC, 15770 kHz, via WRMI Florida

Sunday 2330-2400 UTC, 11580 kHz, via WRMI Florida

Monday 2000-2130 UTC, 6070 kHz, via Channel 292 Germany Visit DigiDX at

http://www.digidx.uk/  or https://www.facebook.com/digidx/

IBC (Italian Broadcasting Corporation) has a broadcast to Europe on 6070 kHz, Wednesdays, 2000-2200 UTC, with MFSK32 and Olivia 16-500 at 2030-2100 UTC. And IBC has added MFSK32 transmissions via WRMI in Florida: Friday 0125-0200 UTC on 9955 kHz (Thursday 9:25 pm EDT), part of its 0100-0130 broadcast. And Saturday at 0155-0200 UTC (Friday evening 9:55 pm EDT), on 11580 kHz, part of its 0130-0200 broadcast.  See http://ibcradio.webs.com/ for the complete schedule and contact information.

We now have some YouTube videos of Fldigi decoding the WRMI digital mode special, broadcast several times between 13 and 16 August.

The purpose of the broadcasts was to showcase the capabilities of digital text and images via analog shortwave transmitters.

Will, 2E0WHN, in the UK, produced this video from audio provided by Mark, 2E0ECN, also in the UK. It’s from 14 August at 2130-2200 UTC, on 15770 kHz, from WRMI’s shortwave transmitter in Okeechobee, Florida. Reception conditions are “typical” …

https://youtu.be/0M8DjVTjO-0

Tom, K0RUS, enjoyed better, in fact excellent, conditions two days later, 16 August, 2130-2200 UTC, 15770 kHz, using the University of Twente receiver in the Netherlands. Note Tim’s commentary in the transmit pane.

https://youtu.be/ZDQCvXLZNL0

Search K0RUSham on YouTube for many videos of VOA Radiogram decoding.

This is my first video of digital mode decoding, using the same broadcast received at the University of Twente, 16 August, 2130-2200 UTC, 15770 kHz (borrowing Tim’s YouTube channel) …

https://youtu.be/flEoi-WxN2Q       

But the preceding broadcast was too easy, because of the excellent reception. I made another video, showing decode under more challenging shortwave conditions, 13 August 2016, 0030-0100 UTC, 7730 kHz, received via University of Twente in the Netherlands …

https://youtu.be/4WoWFuJ2oIA

For details, see ….

http://voaradiogram.net/post/148784430842/wrmi-will-showcase-digital-modes-via-analog-radio

http://voaradiogram.net/post/148839425652/voa-radiogram-13-14-august-2016-radio-that

Based on your reports, last weekend’s Thor25x4 performed well, but not as well as our standard MFSK32, which is faster.

This weekend, VOA Radiogram will be all MFSK32. A VOA News video will be presented, via the Internet with the help of Flmsg. Instructions on how to use Flmsg are included in the post about the WRMI special broadcasts mentioned below.

Here is the lineup for VOA Radiogram, program 176, 13-14 August 2016, all in MFSK32 centered in 1500 Hz:

  1:34  Program preview

  2:54  Pinatubo eruption hid rate of sea level rise*

  8:58  Do black holes have black door?*

12:49  No new stars at Milky Way’s center*

16:31  Method to convert CO2 to fuel

18:19  Flmsg: Hubble Telescope gets extension (video)

19:56  FCC action on amateur radio digital modes*

23:58  Special WRMI broadcasts showcase digital modes*

25:30  Closing announcements*

* 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 17580 kHz

Sun 0230-0300 5745 kHz

Sun 1930-2000 15670 kHz

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

WRMI, Radio Miami International, will broadcast a special program showcasing digital text and images via analog shortwave radio. This will be transmitted nine times from Saturday through Tuesday. Details and schedule: http://voaradiogram.net/post/148784430842/wrmi-will-showcase-digital-modes-via-analog-radio.  

The Mighty KBC will transmit a minute of MFSK32 at about 0030 UTC on 9925 kHz, via Germany. This will be in the Flmsg format, with a surprise at the end. The KBC broadcast to North America this weekend is 0000-0100 UTC. Reception reports to Eric: themightykbc (at) gmail.com .

DigiDX has provided its usual broadcast times to the WRMI digital mode special, this Sunday and Monday: Sunday 2130-2200 UTC, 15770 kHz, via WRMI Florida

Sunday 2330-2400 UTC, 11580 kHz, via WRMI Florida

Monday 2000-2130 UTC, 6070 kHz, via Channel 292 Germany Visit DigiDX at

http://www.digidx.uk/ or https://www.facebook.com/digidx/

IBC (Italian Broadcasting Corporation) has a broadcast to Europe on 6070 kHz, Wednesdays, 2000-2200 UTC, with MFSK32 and Olivia 16-500 at 2030-2100 UTC. And IBC has added MFSK32 transmissions via WRMI in Florida: Friday 0125-0200 UTC on 9955 kHz (Thursday 9:25 pm EDT), part of its 0100-0130 broadcast. And Saturday at 0155-0200 UTC (Friday evening 9:55 pm EDT), on 11580 kHz, part of its 0130-0200 broadcast.  See http://ibcradio.webs.com/ for the complete schedule and contact information.

This YouTube video by Tim, K0RUS, in Colorado, 6 August 2016, 1600-1630 UTC, 17580 kHz, is a good way to see how VOA Radiogram works, using Fldigi to decode ….

WRMI, Radio Miami International, will showcase digital text and images via analog radio in a half-hour special broadcast to be transmitted nine times (at least), beginning Saturday, 13 August.

The broadcast will mostly be in MFSK32 centered on 1500 Hz. There will also be segments in MFSK64, MFSK32 centered on 2200 Hz, and Olivia 64-2000. The program will include MFSK images, examples of non-Latin alphabets, and an Flmsg transmission. You will also hear “co-channel” music.

To decode the modes on the WRMI broadcast, Fldigi software is recommended. Download it from https://sourceforge.net/projects/fldigi/files/fldigi/ . The main Fldigi website is http://www.w1hkj.com.

And you will use the companion program Flmsg. Download it from https://sourceforge.net/projects/fldigi/files/flmsg/ .

To make Flmsg work with Fldigi, in Fldigi: Configure > Misc > NBEMS > under Reception of flmsg files, select Open with flmsg and Open in browser, and below that indicate where your Flmsg.exe file is located – probably somewhere in Program Files(x86).

For correct decoding of the languages with diacritics, or using non-Latin alphabets, in Fldigi: Configure > Colors & Fonts > RxTx > in the Rx/Tx Character set menu, select UTF-8.

For Fldigi to automatically select the mode and the center audio frequency of the mode, select RxID (upper right of the interface) by left clicking. In newer versions of Fldigi, also right click on RxID and select Passband.

You can decode this WRMI special broadcast as it is broadcast, or from your recording.

TRANSMISSION SCHEDULE

Via WRMI’s transmitters at Okeechobee, Florida, except where noted:

Saturday 13 August 0030-0100 UTC on 7730 kHz (285 degrees azimuth)
Saturday 13 August 0730-0800 UTC on 5850 kHz (315 degrees)        
Saturday 13 August 1330-1400 UTC on 11580 kHz (44 degrees)        
Saturday 13 August 2200-2230 UTC on 5950 kHz (181 degrees)        
Sunday 14 August 0230-0300 UTC on 11580 kHz (44 degrees)          
Sunday 14 August 2130-2200 UTC on 15770 kHz (44 degrees)*
Sunday 14 August 2330-2330 UTC on 11580 kHz (44 degrees)*
Monday 15 August 2000-2030 UTC on 6070 kHz* **
Tuesday 16 August 2130-2200 UTC on 15770 kHz (44 degrees)

* Preempts DigiDX, usually heard at this time

** Via Channel 292, Germany

Many of these broadcasts will be heard outside their nominal target areas.

Reception reports to Jeff: info (at) wrmi.net

Last week’s html transmission using Flwrap, or cut/paste as a Plan B, was successful among listeners in many parts of the world. One example was from New Zealand: https://twitter.com/VOARadiogram/status/761559631135141889 .  If you’re interesting in more html pages via shortwave, please let me know.

This weekend’s broadcast will not include an html segment. It will, however, include a VOA News story in Thor25x4. This mode is interesting because of its 2-second interleave. Thor25x4 might be able to resist fading, if it occurs this weekend. (We tried Thor25x4 in program 52, 29-30 March 2014, with good results.)

Here is the lineup for VOA Radiogram, program 175, 6-7 August 2016, all in MFSK32 except where noted:

1:32  Program preview

2:52  Life in the deep Pacific*

12:49  Private US company plans moon shot*

17:18  Thor25x4: Io atmosphere collapses in Jupiter’s shadow**

22:17  MFSK32: Io image

24:34  Special broadcasts by Club Diexistas de la Amistad

26:10  Closing announcements

* with image

** RSID will be followed by 10-second tone in case manual mode change is required

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 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 0130 UTC (Saturday 9:30 pm EDT) on 9925 kHz, via Germany. This is part of its broadcast to North America, this UTC Sunday from 0000 to 0200 UTC. Reports for KBC reception to Eric: themightykbc (at) gmail.com .

DigiDX will provide DX and media news in MFSK32 and possibly other modes. Sunday 2130-2200 UTC, 15770 kHz, via WRMI Florida

Sunday 2330-2400 UTC, 11580 kHz, via WRMI Florida

Monday 2000-2130 UTC, 6070 kHz, via Channel 292 Germany Daily 1830-1900 and 0530-0600 UTC, 6070 kHz, via Channel 292 Germany Look for any additions or changes to the DigiDX schedule at http://www.digidx.uk/ or https://www.facebook.com/digidx/

IBC (Italian Broadcasting Corporation) has a broadcast to Europe on 6070 kHz, Wednesdays, 2000-2200 UTC, with MFSK32 and Olivia 16-500 at 2030-2100 UTC. And IBC has added MFSK32 transmissions via WRMI in Florida: Friday 0125-0200 UTC on 9955 kHz (Thursday 9:25 pm EDT), part of its 0100-0130 broadcast. And Saturday at 0155-0200 UTC (Friday evening 9:55 pm EDT), on 11580 kHz, part of its 0130-0200 broadcast.  See http://ibcradio.webs.com/ for the complete schedule and contact information.