I have not responded to any of your reports from the weekend of June 29-30, because I have been busy with a big project not related to VOA Radiogram.
But I will be sending our emails probably starting today, taking advantage of the Independence Day holiday here in the USA, and thus no distraction except for occasional fireworks here in my neighborhood.
I do already know from reading your emails that EasyPal 4-QAM (requires 7:00 to transmit) provided successful decodes in several cases when 16-QAM (2:40) did not. On the other hand, many listeners failed to achieve a successful decode of EasyPal even at the 4-QAM setting.
This weekend, we will take a break from EasyPal. But don't worry EasyPal fans, EasyPal will return soon to VOA Radiogram.
This past weekend, many of you noticed distorted audio on the transmitter. I did, too. It was caused by a problem with the the audio patching system at the Edward R. Murrow transmitting station in North Carolina. The interesting thing is that even though voice and music were difficult to listen to, the MFSK text decoded well for most of us. MFSK text seems highly tolerant of distortion.
This weekend, VOA Radiogram will consist entirely of MFSK text and images. We still need more data on how MFSK text copes with co-channel noise, so if you can introduce noise at your location, at least during the MFSK16 and first MFSK32 VOA News story, that would be helpful. This could be done by turning on an appliance in your house that is notorious for generating RF noise. Or move your portable radio or antenna to a place where RF noise occurs.
Here is the lineup for VOA Radiogram, July 6 and 7, 2013:
2:26 MFSK16: Program preview
4:00 MFSK16: VOA News about solar cells
4:21 MFSK32: VOA News about fires in Indonesia
1:55 MFSK32: Accompanying photo
4:18 MFSK32: VOA News about India's Science Express train
2:35 MFSK32: Accompanying photo
2:30 MFSK64: VOA News about solar observation satellite
1:50 MFSK32: Accompanying photo
1:08 MFSK16: Closing announcements
:21 Surprise mode of the week
Please send reception reports to radiogram@voanews.com
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.
Via Kim Andrew Elliott, Producer and Presenter, VOA Radiogram, http://voaradiogram.net
