Decoding VOA Radiogram Program 108

This weekend’s VOA Radiogram program 108 contained five images and four news items:

All four news items were broadcast using MFSK32.

Results for 17860 kHz

Here are the images I decoded from the 1600 UTC Saturday broadcast (12:00 PM EDT Saturday) on 17860 kHz:

The signal on 17860 kHz was poor this weekend and the images suffered as a result. The interference from Radio Exterior de España on 17855 kHz was also much more of a problem this time.

Following a recommendation from Kim Andrew Elliott, I tried switching my Sangean ATS-909 to single-sideband mode and decoding the upper sideband. This did greatly reduce the interference. Unfortunately, my ATS-909 has a tendency to let the frequency drift during single-sideband reception. In this case, the frequency drifted enough halfway through the broadcast for Fldigi to stop decoding. I adjusted the tuning for the rest of the broadcast, but not before missing the third image.

Results for 17860 kHz from the Netherlands

I also attempted to decode the 17860 kHz broadcast using the WebSDR receiver at the University at Twente. Not surprisingly (given its location in Europe), interference from Radio Exterior de España was more of a problem. I decoded the upper sideband to reduce interference, but unlike the ATS-909, there was no problem with frequency drifting. Here are two of the images I decoded:

Results for 5745 kHz

I decoded these images from the 0230 UTC Sunday broadcast (10:30 PM EDT Saturday) on 5745 kHz:

The signal was strong, although there was a fair amount of atmospheric interference.

Results for 15760 kHz

I also decoded the 1930 UTC Sunday broadcast (3:30 PM EDT Sunday) on 15670 kHz. Reception was poor and weakened as the broadcast went on. There were many text decoding errors, especially near the end. Despite this, the last image (the VOA Radiogram logo) was the best decode of that image this weekend.