Friday, November 11, 2016

VOA Radiogram set for weekend broadcast

Hello friends,

The most interesting phenomenon during last weekend was the almost complete failure of the Sunday 1930 UTC broadcast on 15670 kHz to reach listeners in Europe. Propagation was worthless over the north Atlantic. At the same time, that broadcast was received well in western North America. Willy in Denmark was the only European listener to decode an image on 15670 (left). Compare it to the same image, same time, same frequency, decoded by Mike in Washington state …   




During some VOA Radiogram transmissions, the transmitter hum at 360 Hz mixes with the RSID, spoofing Fldigi to set the center audio frequency around 1140 Hz instead of the correct ~1500 Hz. One way to prevent that is: Configure > IDs > ID > RsID > unselect Searches passband.  With this unselected, Fldigi will adjust itself no more than 200 Hz than the audio frequency it is set to (1500 Hz in our case).

If we have bad conditions this weekend, one of the VOA New items will be in Olivia 64-2000.   

Here is the lineup for VOA Radiogram, program 189, 12-13 November 2016, all in MFSK32 except where noted:

1:31  Program preview
 2:44  Turning human waste into oil*
7:21  Color images from electron microscopes*
12:33  Olivia 64-2000: Worry about good health
20:07  MFSK32: 2011-15 hottest period on record
22:43  "Supermoons" in November and December*
27:18  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.
 

Also, here is the latest information from Saverio at Italian Broadcasting Corporation (IBC) about their digital mode transmissions …

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
As usual our email is ibc@europe.com and site www.ibcradio.webs.com
* via WRMI, Florida

The Mighty KBC will broadcast to North America Sunday, 13 November, 0000-0200 UTC (7-9 pm EST) on 6145 kHz, via Germany. A minute of MFSK32 (repeated from the previous weekend because of the poor propagation) will be at about 0130 UTC. Reception reports to Eric: themightykbc@gmail.com .

DigiDX will transmit MFSK32 and probably other modes :
Sunday 0630-0700, 6070 kHz, via Channel 292 Germany
Sunday 2130-2200 UTC, 15770 kHz, via WRMI Florida
Sunday 2330-2400 UTC, 11580 kHz, via WRMI Florida
Schedule subject to changes: 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 and new 3975 kHz, Wednesdays, at the new time of 1800-2100 UTC.  The MFSK32 and Olivia 16-500 are still at 2030-2100 UTC. IBC has also added a medium wave transmission Saturday 2100-2130 UTC from Radio Studio X, 1584 kHz, in Terni, Italy, with MFSK32 at 2125-2030. IBC also has 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 0055-0100 UTC (Friday evening 9:55 pm EDT), on 11580 kHz, part of its 0030-0100 broadcast.  See http://ibcradio.webs.com/ for the complete schedule and contact information.

Thanks for your reception reports from last weekend. I’m still compiling a gallery of the Alderney images and hope to send them out this three-day weekend.

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

Kim Andrew Elliott
Producer and Presenter
VOA Radiogram
Twitter: @VOARadiogram (especially active during and after broadcasts)