Before the preview of this weekend’s show, some news about the future of VOA Radiogram. I will retire from the Voice of America on June 23, after 32 years as audience research analyst and broadcaster.
I was hoping to continue to produce VOA Radiogram as a contractor. I approached 1) BBG’s Technology, Services and Innovation (engineering), 2) BBG’s new Office of Internet Freedom, and 3) VOA English Programs. They all declined.
And, therefore, the last VOA Radiogram will be the weekend on June 17-18
Money is not the issue. I am willing to work cheap. My main interest is to be authorized to continue the show and maintain a VOA email address, so that I can keep in contact with the audience.
The irony is that, after retirement, I will finally have time to answer your emails – but I will no longer have access to the VOA email system to do that.
But, the show must go on. In addition to the four weekly transmissions via the BBG North Carolina transmitting site, VOA Radiogram is also broadcast on WRMI in Florida twice on Sundays. I can hardly allow those half-hour slots to be filled by light recorded music. So, beginning the weekend of June 24-25, a program similar to VOA Radiogram, but with a new name and email address, will be broadcast by WRMI.
In future crises and worse, the Internet to the affected countries will be cut off. In such times, when international broadcasting will be most needed, only those media organizations that have some shortwave capability will play a role.
More about the demise of VOA Radiogram, and the emergence of its replacement, in the weeks to come.
VOA Radiogram this weekend includes some text in Russian. You will need to use the UTF-8 character set. IF you use Fldigi, it probably is already set for UTF-8, but you might want to check under the Colors & Fonts menu. All of the show is in MFSK32 except for one item in MFSK16, in case reception is challenging.
Here is the lineup for VOA Radiogram, program 216, May 20-21, 2017, all in MFSK32 except where noted:
1:46 Program preview
3:00 Distance supernova can doom earth has doubled*
10:16 Plan to clean plastic patch in the Pacific*
15:55 Plastic-eating moths (Russian) * **
22:01 MFSK16: Ukraine blocks Russian websites
26:10 MFSK32: Closing announcements*
* with image
** Mostly Cyrillic text: use UTF-8 character set
Please send reception reports to radiogram@voanews.com
VOA Radiogram Transmission Schedule
UTC Day
UTC Time
kHz
Transmitter
Target
Also try in …
Saturday
0930-1000
5745
North Carolina
Americas
Asia-Pacific, Europe
Saturday
1600-1630
17580
North Carolina
Europe
Americas, Asia-Pacific
Sunday
0230-0300
5745
North Carolina
Americas
Europe
Sunday
1930-2000
15670
North Carolina
Europe
Americas, Asia-Pacific
Sunday
2030-2100
11580
WRMI Florida
Europe
Americas, Asia-Pacific
Sunday
2330-2400
11580
WRMI Florida
Americas
Europe, Asia-Pacific
The Mighty KBC transmits to Europe Saturdays at 1500-1530 UTC on 9400 kHz (via Bulgaria), with a minute of MFSK32 at about 1530 UTC. And to North America Sundays at 0000-0200 UTC (Saturday 8-10 pm EDT) on 9925 kHz, via Germany. A minute of MFSK32 is at about 0130 UTC. Reports to Eric: themightykbc@gmail.com . See also http://www.kbcradio.eu/ and https://www.facebook.com/TheMightyKbc/.
DigiDX has not resumed, hence the VOA Radiogram transmissions via WRMI. See http://www.digidx.uk/ and https://www.facebook.com/digidx/
Italian Broadcasting Corporation (IBC) For the complete IBC transmission schedule visit http://ibcradio.webs.com/ Five minutes of MFSK32 is at the end of the 30-minute English-language “Shortwave Panorama,” per the schedule below:
WEDNESDAY 18.55 UTC 6070 KHZ TO EUROPE
19.55 UTC 1584 KHZ TO EUROPE
THURSDAY 02.55 UTC 1584 KHZ TO EUROPE
FRIDAY 01.25 UTC 9955 KHZ TO CENTRAL/SOUTH AMERICA
SATURDAY 01.55 UTC 11580 KHZ TO NORTH AMERICA
20.25 UTC 1584 KHZ TO SOUTH EUROPE
SUNDAY 00.55 UTC 7730 KHZ TO NORTH AMERICA
10.55 UTC 6070 KHZ TO EUROPE
Thank you for your reception reports from last weekend!
I hope you can tune in and write in this weekend.
Kim
Kim Andrew Elliott, KD9XB
Producer and Presenter
VOA Radiogram voaradiogram.net
Twitter: @VOARadiogram (especially active just before, during, and after broadcasts)