Tag Archives: Kim Elliott

The view from the Voice of America

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VOA-Roof - DC

Click to enlarge

Today, I visited the Voice of America in Washington, DC and had lunch with my good friend and fellow shortwave radio enthusiast, Dr. Kim Andrew Elliott, creator of the VOA Radiogram. Besides giving me an update on the success of the VOA Radiogram broadcasts, Kim took me to the roof of the VOA building on Independence Avenue, so that I could check out the antenna farm of the VOA Ham Radio Club (K3VOA). I took several photos on my DSLR camera and will post them here upon my return.

While up there, I couldn’t help but note this incredible view of the Capitol Building; I snapped this quick shot–which can’t do it justice–with my iPhone.

Trilingual VOA Radiogram this weekend

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VOARadiogram

(Source: VOA Radiogram)

VOA Radiogram on 17 and 18 August will include our first attempt to transmit Chinese characters. (It’s part of a VOA Chinese story about the future of BlackBerry.) And there will be a VOA News story in Spanish. To view the Spanish accents and the Chinese characters, your character set should be UTF-8. In Fldigi: Configure > Colors & Fonts to change the character set.

The broadcast will also include an Flmsg VOA News story including an SVG-formatted VOA logo created by Mark Hirst in the UK. If you have Internet Explorer, and cannot see the logo, try renaming the Flmsg file with an .xhtml suffix.

If you listen to more than one broadcast of VOA Radiogram this weekend, close Flidigi and restart it between broadcasts. This is because something in Flmsg turns off the UTF-8 character set, even though Fldigi is still configured for UTF-8.

Two of this weekend’s VOA News stories on VOA Radiogram feature VOA journalists who are radio amateurs. VOA Asia correspondent Steven Herman, W7VOA (@W7VOA), is interviewed about his visit to North Korea, and George Putic, KI4FNF, wrote the story about the renewed search for extraterrestrial life.

And there will be a VOA News story about a way to keep older brains healthy — other than experimenting with digital modes.

Here is the lineup for VOA Radiogram, 17 and 18 August 2013:

3:04  MFSK16: Program preview
4:50  MFSK32: VOA Spanish logo and news re VOA app
1:46  MFSK32: VOA Chinese logo and sample text
3:26  MFSK32: VOA News re benefits of hot chocolate
1:22  MFSK32: VOA Radiogram logo and addresses
4:43  MFSK64: VOA’s W7VOA visits North Korea
1:18  MFSK32: Photo of W7VOA in Pyongyang
3:28  MFSK64/Flmsg*: VOA’s KI4FNF on search for extraterrestrials
1:18  MFSK32: Photo of Gemini Observatory
1:12  MFSK16: Closing announcements
0:16  Surprise mode of the week

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

As always, reception reports are much appreciated and should be sent 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.

 

VOA Radiogram, 10-11 August 2013, includes MFSK 16, 22, 32

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VOARadioGram(Source: VOA Radiogram)

In this weekend’s VOA Radiogram, one VOA News item will be in the MFSK22 mode (80 words per minute), a mode we have generally not used for complete VOA News stories.

Another “feature” in this weekend’s program will be five seconds of silence whenever modes are changed. This might improve the performance of the RSID.

The Flmsg-formatted VOA News story in this weekend’s program is 9 minutes, 6 seconds long. That might seem unusually long, but it includes 4 minutes, 20 seconds for a VOA logo in SVG format as part of the html. This was created for us by Mark Hirst in the UK.

Here is the lineup for VOA Radiogram, 10-11 August 2013:

2:30  MFSK16: Program preview

3:26  MFSK22: VOA News re import of Apple products

3:12  MFSK32: Greetings to l’Associazione Italiana Radioascolto

2:10  MFSK32 image: AIR logo

9:06  MFSK32/Flmsg*: VOA News re one year of Curiosity on Mars

2:26  MFSK32 image: Curiosity tire tracks

1:10  MFSK16: Closing announcements

2:20  Surprise image, text, image 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.
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.

Please send your reception reports, audio samples, screenshots, comments, ideas, suggestions to[email protected] .

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.

VOA Radiogram includes EasyPal comparison this weekend

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VOARadioGram(Source: VOA Radiogram)

During the weekend of 29-30 June 2013, VOA Radiogram will continue experiments with the EasyPal digital image software. EasyPal will be transmitted in both its 4-QAM and 16-QAM settings to see if the former can be decoded in conditions where the latter cannot. Download EasyPal from  vk4aes.com.

VOA Radiogram for 29-30 June 2013:

2:31  MFSK16: Program preview

4:19  MFSK32: VOA News: “super-earths”

2:05  MFSK32: Accompanying image

:23  MFSK32: Introduction to MFSK64

2:15  MFSK64: VOA News: China space mission

2:53  MFSK32: Accompanying image

:33  MFSK32: Introduction to EasyPal

7:00  EasyPal 4-QAM: “super moon” in Greece

2:40  EasyPal 16-QAM “super moon” in Singapore

1:08  MFSK16: Closing announcements

:24  Surprise mode of the week

 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

VOA Radiogram for April 27/28 includes Thor50x2, PSK63F, and Flamp

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VOARadiogram(Source: VOA Radiogram)

Apologies for not updating this website since the April 20/21 VOA Radiogram. I have been diverted by deadlines connected to my other full-time job, audience research analyst for the International Broadcasting Bureau.

Thanks to all who sent reception reports, screenshots, audio samples, and other materials from the past weekend’s program. MFSK held off a challenge from the Thor modes and remains the most successful of the modes we have tested.

However, because your producer omitted the Thor 50×2 mode — a mode that might prove to be robust — from that program, VOA Radiogram on April 27/28 will include a “make good” transmission of Thor 50×2. And a transmission of Thor 50×1 for comparison.

There will also be a transmission of the PSK63F mode. This rather slow mode performed well during VOA Radiogram 1, but we only gave it a minute. There will be a longer transmission of PSK63F this weekend to allow a better evaluation.

The last text transmission this weekend will be in the Flamp format. If you don’t already have it, please download Flamp from www.w1hkj.com. Flamp divides a text file into several blocks, each with a specific number of characters. If any block is received without the correct number of characters, that block is rejected. The missing block can be picked up during the repeat transmission. Flamp might be useful for those text transmissions that are received at about 90% copy, when occasional deep fades prevent 100% copy. In Flamp, under Configure, check both of the Auto sync boxes.

Here is the lineup for the April 27/28 VOA Radiogram:

MFSK16 (58 wpm) program preview
PSK63F (55 wpm), 2:50
MFSK32 text (120 wpm) and image, 4:28
Thor50x1 (180wpm), 1:48
Thor50x2 (180wpm), 1:46
MFSK64 (240 wpm), 2:16
MFSK128* in Flamp X2 format, 3:46
MFSK32 image

*Probably a good idea to set the MFSK128 mode manually rather than depend on the RSID

All modes will be centered on 1500 Hz.

Each mode will be introduced by a brief MFSK16 transmission, same as last weekend.

Please send reception reports to [email protected]

Twitter: @VOARadiogram

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.

Kim