Hello friends,
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 you. I apologize 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 of you 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@gmail.com.
Thanks to everyone who sent receptions reports to VOA Radiogram last weekend. I'll begin work on the QSL and respond by the end of this weekend.
I hope you can tune in and write in.
Kim
Kim Andrew Elliott
Producer and Presenter
VOA Radiogram
voaradiogram.net