Decoding VOA Radiogram Program 110

This weekend’s broadcast of VOA Radiogram program 110 contained three news items:

It also contained four images:

  • Kevin Stuart about to put another vinyl record on the turntable inside his Record Mad store in Johannesburg
  • A Neptune Wave Power wave energy conversion buoy
  • The Expo 2015 logo and the mascot Foody
  • A robot plays the ball during a soccer match during the RoboCup German Open 2015 in Magdeburg, Germany on 4/24/15

I thought the first item about the revival in popularity of vinyl records in South Africa was especially interesting.

Results for 17870 kHz

Here are the images I decoded from the 1600 UTC Saturday broadcast (12:00 PM EDT Saturday) on 17870 kHz:

Image 1 from VOA Radiogram on 17870 kHz
Image 2 from VOA Radiogram on 17870 kHz
Image 3 from VOA Radiogram on 17870 kHz
Image 4 from VOA Radiogram on 17870 kHz

The signal strength was fairly weak, and I couldn’t make out Kim Andrew Elliott’s voice introduction. Despite the weak signal, I had 100% success decoding the text and the decoded images were the best of the weekend. The fourth picture of the ball playing robot was especially clear.

I don’t know why the weak signal didn’t cause decoding problems the way it has during previous broadcasts. My guess is that it was because there was very little fading and no interference from other stations.

Results for 5745 kHz

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

Image 1 from VOA Radiogram on 5745 kHz
Image 2 from VOA Radiogram on 5745 kHz
Image 3 from VOA Radiogram on 5745 kHz
Image 4 from VOA Radiogram on 5745 kHz

The signal was fairly strong but there was quite a bit of fading and static. This didn’t affect the text decoding, which was 100% successful, but the image decoding was adversely affected. I am sure that static will become more of a decoding problem as the summer progresses.

Results for 15760 kHz

I decoded these images from the 1930 UTC Sunday broadcast (3:30 PM EDT Sunday) on 15670 kHz.

Image 1 from VOA Radiogram on 15670 kHz
Image 2 from VOA Radiogram on 15670 kHz
Image 3 from VOA Radiogram on 15670 kHz
Image 4 from VOA Radiogram on 15670 kHz

Although this broadcast’s signal was fairly strong, there was a lot of radio static. A band of approaching thunderstorms hit us just a few hours later and static from those storms caused horizontal glitches in the decoded images. Just like the other two broadcasts, the text decoding was 100% successful.

Results for The Mighty KBC on 9925 kHz

I decoded this MFSK64 image broadcast at 0131 UTC Sunday (9:31 EDT Saturday) during “The Giant Jukebox” program on The Mighty KBC:
Image from The Mighty KBC on 9925 kHz

The image is of a Telefunken Partner Universal 501 radio which belongs to KBC listener Matthias Richter.

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