Tag Archives: Digital Text

VOA Radiogram this weekend, July 5/6

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VOARadioGram(Source: VOA Radiogram)

VOA Radiogram this weekend will include news about reductions to the shortwave transmissions of VOA and other stations of US international broadcasting. These cuts were effective on 30 June.

Fortunately, VOA Radiogram remains on shortwave, at least for now.

Here is the lineup for VOA Radiogram, program 66, 5-6 July 2014 (all in MFSK32 except where noted):

1:33 Program preview
2:45 Major reductions to US shortwave broadcasts, with image
8:10 Car fumes affect pollinating insects
10:10 Test of Mars landing craft a success, with image
14:23 India launches satellites at low cost, with MFSK64 image
20:32 Spanish: Triple black hole discovery, with image
25:59 Closing announcements

Please send reception reports to [email protected]

VOA Radiogram transmission schedule
(all days and times UTC):
Sat 0930-1000 5745 kHz
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.

The Mighty KBC will transmit a minute of MFSK64 Saturday at about 1130 UTC on 6095 kHz, and Sunday about 0130 UTC (Saturday 9:30 pm EDT) on 9925 kHz. Both frequencies via Germany. Reports to [email protected].

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VOA Radiogram: Battle of the 100 wpm modes, this weekend!

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VOARadioGramIf you like the VOA Radiogram, don’t miss this weekend (March 29-30)–a one year mile marker for the VOA Radiogram service on shortwave radio.

I’ve copied details of the broadcast below, but please bookmark or subscribe to the VOA Radiogram website to see the results of the 100 wpm battle and details of all future broadcasts.

(Source: VOA Radiogram)

This weekend, 29-30 March 2014, will be program 52 of VOA Radiogram. This means that VOA Radiogram has survived one year of shortwave broadcasting.

VOA Radiogram has been successful because of its audience: tuning in, decoding, experimenting, and sending in reports.

We will mark one year of VOA Radiogram with a “battle of the 100-word-per-minute modes.” The same VOA News story will be transmitted using four modes that have a speed of more-or-less 100 words per minute.

Here is the lineup for VOA Radiogram, program 52, 29-30 March 2014:

  •  1:51  MFSK32: Program preview
  •  3:28  PSKR125 (110 wpm): VOA News re Ethiopia
  •  7:42  MT63-1000L (100 wpm): Same VOA New story
  • 12:34  Thor25x4 (100 wpm): Same VOA News story
  • 17:58  MFSK32 (120 wpm): Same VOA News story, with image
  • 23:55  MFSK32: US international broadcasting FY2015 budget
  • 25:58  MFSK32: Closing announcements, with image

Each mode will be preceded by 5 seconds of silence, followed by the RSID, 5 more seconds of silence, and the RSID again.

Please send reception reports to [email protected]

VOA Radiogram transmission schedule

(all days and times UTC)

  • Sat 0930-1000 5745 kHz
  • 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.

(Many shortwave broadcast frequencies will change on 30 March with the beginning of the A14 season, but the VOA Radiogram frequencies stay the same, for the time being.)

The Mighty KBC, via Germany, will again transmit a minute of MFSK64 Saturday at about 1230 UTC on 6095 kHz and Sunday at about 0130 UTC on 7375 kHz. (KBC’s change from 7375 to 9925 planned for this weekend has been postponed until May.) STF Radio International will also have a minute of digital modes during the same hour (simultaneous MFSK32 streams at 1500 and 2100 Hz).

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VOA Radiogram, 7-8 September 2013: Fldigi, Flmsg, Flamp, RSIDs, MFSK

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VOARadioGram(Source: VOA Radiogram)

VOA Radiogram for the weekend of 7-8 September 2013 will include more experiments with RSIDs, the brief signals that automatically switch your decoding software to the correct mode.

For best results, please install Fldigi 3.21.75 from w1hkj.com. When you have 3.21.75 installed, go to Configure > ID > RsID, and adjust Errors to 0 (zero). This will prevent Fldigi from flipping to another mode while decoding our MFSK transmissions. For more information about this, seewww.w1hkj.com/FldigiHelp-3.21/ConfigID.html

Please also download the latest versions of Flmsg and Flamp (2.1.00) from w1hkj.com.

This weekend’s VOA Radiogram will include another transmission in MFSK128. This will be done mainly to see if the RSID works. However, to improve the chances for a successful decode of the very fast MFSK128, it will be in Flamp format. A paragraph will be divided into seven blocks of 64 characters each. And it will be transmitted three times, with the second and third passes filling in any blocks with incorrect checksums. Make sure Flamp is running before the MFSK128 transmission begins; it does not turn on automatically like Flmsg.

The foreign language for the weekend will be Spanish, with brief VOA news items in both plain text and Flmsg formatted. Please turn off and restart Fldigi before each of this weekend’s VOA Radiogram broadcasts to ensure the accented Spanish letters display correctly. You will need the UTF-8 character set. The adjustment can be found via Configure > Colors & Fonts.

In the Flmsg-formatted Spanish news story, you will see several html codes such as í for the accented characters. They might look like decoding errors, but the story should look OK when the web page renders.

To make Flmsg work with Fldigi, in Fldigi: Configure > Misc > NBEMS — Under Reception of flmsg files, check both boxes, and under that indicate where your Flmsg.exe file is located.

Here is the lineup for VOA Radiogram, 7-8 September 2013:

3:55  MFSK16: Program preview

2:09  MFSK32: VOA Spanish news re old iPhones

3:41  MFSK32/Flmsg: VOA Spanish news re new iPhone model

2:29  MFSK64: VOA News re Al Jazeera in Egypt

2:48  MFSK32: YouTube screen capture of Al Jazeera

:50  MFSK32: Introduction to MFSK128 item

1:30  MFSK128/Flamp: Brief description of VOA

:45  MFSK32: Introduction to MFSK64

2:55  MFSK64: VOA News re LADEE moon mission

2:56  MFSK32: Artist’s rendition of LADEE spacecraft

1:11  MFSK16: Closing announcements

:41  MFSK32: VOA Radiogram logo

:20  Surprise mode of the week

Please send reception reports to [email protected].

VOA Radiogram transmission schedule

(all days and times UTC)

Sat 1600-1630 17860 kHz

Sun 0230-0300 5745 kHz

Sun 1300-1330 6095 kHz

Sun 1930-2000 15670 kHz

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

There will also be a minute of MFSK32 on The Mighty KBC, via Germany, Saturday at approximately 1130 UTC on 6095 kHz, and Sunday at approximately 0130 UTC on 7375 kHz (Saturday evening 9:30 pm EDT).

Also check out their post:  Base64 VOA logo via MFSK128: a few unexpected successes. Fascinating!

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VOA Radiogram 3-4 August includes MFSK and EasyPal

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VOARadioGram(Source: VOA Radiogram)

If you are an EasyPal fan, EasyPal returns this weekend with a striking image of the Las Vegas skyline. Don’t be too disappointed if you cannot decode the EasyPal image. A certain signal threshold is required, and the failure rate is rather high.

In recording the program for this weekend, I applied audio compression to my voice introduction and to the music at the end of the show — but not to the digital tones. Perhaps you will notice the difference.

Here is the lineup for VOA Radiogram for the weekend of 3 and 4 August 2013:

2:30 MFSK16: Program preview
:45 MFSK32: VOA logo image
5:22 MFSK32: VOA News re 3D printed heart
1:00 MFSK32: Heart image
4:15 MFSK64 in Flmsg* format: VOA News re oxygen in Mars’s past
1:15 MFSK32: Mars image
7:05 EasyPal image** (4-QAM)
1:08 MFSK16: closing announcements
1:17 MFSK32: VOA Radiogram logo image
:55 Surprise mode of the week

*To make Flmsg work with Fldigi (both can be downloaded from w1hkj.com), in Flmsg: Configure > Misc > NBEMS — Under Reception of flmsg files, check both boxes, and under that indicate where your Flmsg.exe file is located.

**Download EasyPal software from vk4aes.com.

Please send reception reports to [email protected]

These would be especially helpful:

1) Audio samples of poor reception which nevertheless results in a successful decoding of the text modes.

2) Reception of the digital modes on less expensive portable radios, and any advice you have on how to feed audio from those radios to your PC and the decoding software.

VOA Radiogram transmission schedule
(all days and times UTC)
Sat 1600-1630 17860 kHz
Sun 0230-0300 5745 kHz
Sun 1300-1330 6095 kHz
Sun 1930-2000 15670 kHz
All via the Edward R. Murrow transmitting station in North Carolina

Thanks for listening and decoding.

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Radio Australia transmitting digital radiograms this weekend, June 8 – 9

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ABC-Radio-Australia

Most encouraging to see Radio Australia sending digital text over shortwave. Their 12:30 UTC broadcast should be easily heard in North America on 9,850 kHz:

(Source: VOA Radiograms)

Radio Australia will transmit digital text and an image during three special broadcasts the weekend of 8 and 9 June 2013.

The seven-minute broadcasts will consist of…

MFSK16 text
MFSK32 text
MFSK32 in Flmsg* format (creates Radio Australia logo in browser window)
MFSK32 image (ABC logo)

*Fldigi and Flmsg from www.w1hkj.com must be used together. In Fldigi, click Configure > Misc > NBEMS: Under Reception of flmsg files, check both boxes, and under that indicate where your Flmsg program file is located.

Transmission schedule

All dates/times are in UTC, all frequencies in kHz

Saturday/Sunday 8/9 June 2013

Nominal target areas are listed. Reception beyond these target areas is likely.

0850-0857 UTC

  •  7410 kHz (PNG & south-west Pacific)  
  • 11945 kHz (south Pacific, NZ, central America, Europe)

1230-1237 UTC

  •  6080 kHz (PNG, west Pacific, Philippines, Japan)
  •  9580 kHz (central Pacific, NAM)  
  • 12065 kHz (central Pacific, NAM)

2150-2157 UT C

  • 11695 kHz (south-east Asia, Europe) 
  • 21740 kHz (central Pacific, NAm) 

Each broadcast begins with with 40 seconds of Radio Australia interval signal (Waltzing Matilda).

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VOA Radiogram this weekend

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VOARadioGramHere are the details for the VOA Radiogram this weekend:

(Source: Kim Elliott)

VOA Radiogram on 30 and 31 March 2013 will feature the MFSK (multiple frequency shift keying) modes. This “menu” for the program shows the mode, center audio frequency, and duration of transmission in minutes:seconds…

MFSK4 1500Hz 0:40*
MFSK16 1500Hz 1:00
MFSK32 1000Hz 1:00
MFSK32 2500Hz 1:00
PSKR125 2500Hz 1:00
PSKR250 2500Hz 1:00
MFSK64 2500Hz 1:00
MFSK64 2500Hz 3:07 Flmsg format
PSKR500 2000Hz 0:58
MFSK128 2000Hz 0:57**
MFSK32 2000Hz 1:40 Image
MFSK32 1500Hz 0:58 Image

* No RSID. You must tune the audio frequency very carefully. (Don’t worry if it does not work!)

**The RSID might not work, so manually select MFSK128 (needs new version of Fldigi) and the 2000 Hz center audio frequency.

Transmission schedule:

(all days and times UTC):

  • Sat 1600-1630 17860 kHz
  • Sun 0230-0300 5745 kHz
  • Sun 1300-1330 6095 kHz
  • Sun 1930-2000 15670 kHz

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

Please send reports, audio samples, screenshots, etc to [email protected].

If you are unable to listen to the program because of Easter weekend, this MFSK show will be repeated later this year.

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