Hello friends
If you were tuned in last week to the Wednesday "red eye" show at 0800 UTC, you would have noticed the signal on 5850 kHz was absent. At first I suspected the solar activity that has affected shortwave reception lately. But tuning around the 49 meter band, I heard other stations with robust signals. So it must have been a transmitter problem.
Jeff White at WRMI later informed me it was "bad hose clamps" and the system "was hemorrhaging water." We listeners sometimes forget about the plumbing aspect of shortwave transmission, necessary for cooling.
Let's hope the 5850 transmitter is high and dry this coming Wednesday. And if you can't be awake at 0800 UTC, you can leave your radio and Fldigi on all night and look at the results in the morning. I also use recording software such as Audacity, in case an RSID or image trigger is missed.
On 31 March, most clocks in Europe move forward one hour for Summer Time. There will be no changes to the Shortwave Radiogram schedule by UTC, but transmission times will move forward one hour by listeners' local time.
A video of last week's Shortwave Radiogram (program 346) is provided by Scott in Ontario (Wednesday 1330 UTC). The audio archive is maintained by Mark in the UK. An analysis is provided by Roger in Germany.
Here is the lineup for Shortwave Radiogram, program 347, 28 March-3 April 2024, in MFSK modes as noted:
1:49 MFSK32: Program preview
2:58 MFSK32: Device transmits electricity through window glass*
8:52 MFSK64: NASA rocket will study ionosphere during eclipse
13:13 MFSK64: This week's images*
28:31 MFSK32: Closing announcements
Please send reception reports to radiogram@verizon.net
And visit http://swradiogram.net
Twitter: @SWRadiogram or https://twitter.com/swradiogram
(visit during the weekend to see listeners’ results)
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Shortwave Radiogram Gateway Wiki: https://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Shortwave_Radiogram_Gateway