RSID: <<2022-11-25T00:31Z MFSK-32 @ 9265000+1500>>

Welcome to program 280 of Shortwave Radiogram.

I'm Kim Andrew Elliott in Arlington, Virginia USA.

Here is the lineup for today's program, in MFSK modes as noted:

  1:35 MFSK32: Program preview (now)
  2:42 MFSK32: LightSail 2 spacecraft completes its mission*
  8:28 MFSK64: Global timekeepers vote to scrap leap second
11:35 MFSK64: This week's images*
27:26 MFSK32: Closing announcements

* with image(s)

 

Please send reception reports to radiogram@verizon.net

And visit http://swradiogram.net

We're on Twitter now: @SWRadiogram

From New Atlas:

LightSail 2 mission reaches fiery end after 3-year solar sailing
demo

By Michael Irving
November 17, 2022

After more than three years circling the Earth, the Planetary
Society's LightSail 2 mission has come to an end following a
fiery reentry. The satellite was an important tech demo for the
idea of solar sailing, which could eventually propel spacecraft
to other stars.

LightSail 2 was launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket in
June 2019, settling into an initial orbit at an altitude of
around 720 km (450 miles). At that height, the Earth's atmosphere
is still thick enough to create drag, which would threaten to
eventually pull the spacecraft down.

But that's where the plucky little satellite's special ability
came in. Although it's only the size of a shoebox, LightSail 2
unfurled a big reflective sheet, called a solar sail, about the
size of a boxing ring. The idea is that photons from sunlight
strike this sail and generate tiny amounts of thrust, allowing
the craft to change its orbit.

And LightSail 2 demonstrated this concept beautifully. In three
and a half years, the spacecraft completed around 18,000 orbits
and traveled 8 million km (5 million miles), adjusting its orbit
continuously to keep itself aloft. But all good things must come
to an end, and sometime on November 17, drag finally won the
tug-of-war and pulled the spacecraft back to Earth.

"During its extended mission LightSail 2 continued to teach us
more about solar sailing and achieved its most effective solar
sailing, but that was followed by an increase in atmospheric drag
in part from increasing solar activity," said Bruce Betts,
LightSail program manager. "The spacecraft is gone, but data
analyses and sharing of results will continue."

The data from LightSail 2 will inform future solar sailing
missions, including the Near Earth Asteroid (NEA) Scout, which
coincidentally launched on LightSail 2's last day in operation.
Shot into space aboard NASA's Artemis I mission to the Moon on
November 16, NEA Scout will rendezvous with asteroid 2020 GE and
snap close-up images of it. It'll get there using a solar sail
measuring 86 sq m (926 sq ft), more than 2.5 times larger than
that of LightSail 2.

Longer term, it's thought that light sails coupled with powerful
lasers could help us reach other star systems in as little as 20
years.

https://newatlas.com/space/lightsail-2-mission-end-solar-sailing/

See also: https://bit.ly/3GzUVKI
 

The final image returned from LightSail 2 before atmospheric
reentry, October 24 ...

Sending Pic:194x142C;








Shortwave Radiogram now changes to MFSK64 ...


 

RSID: <<2022-11-25T00:38Z MFSK-64 @ 9265000+1500>>


This is Shortwave Radiogram in MFSK64

Please send your reception report to radiogram@verizon.net
 

From AFP via Phys.org:

Global timekeepers vote to scrap leap second by 2035

by Daniel Lawler
November 18, 2022

Scientists and government representatives meeting at a conference
in France voted on Friday to scrap leap seconds by 2035, the
organization responsible for global timekeeping said.

Similar to leap years, leap seconds have been periodically added
to clocks over the last half century to make up for the
difference between exact atomic time and the Earth's slower
rotation.

While leap seconds pass by unnoticed for most people, they can
cause problems for a range of systems that require an exact,
uninterrupted flow of time, such as satellite navigation,
software, telecommunication, trade and even space travel.

It has caused a headache for the International Bureau of Weights
and Measures (BIPM), which is responsible for Coordinated
Universal Time (UTC) - the internationally agreed standard by which
the world sets its clocks.

A resolution to stop adding leap seconds by 2035 was passed by
the BIPM's 59 member states and other parties at the General
Conference on Weights and Measures, which is held roughly every
four years at the Versailles Palace west of Paris.

The head of BIPM's time department, Patrizia Tavella, told AFP
that the "historic decision" would allow "a continuous flow of
seconds without the discontinuities currently caused by irregular
leap seconds".

"The change will be effective by or before 2035," she said via
email.

She said that Russia voted against the resolution, "not on
principle", but because Moscow wanted to push the date it comes
into force until 2040.

Other countries had called for a quicker timeframe such as 2025
or 2030, so the "best compromise" was 2035, she said.

The United States and France were among the countries leading the
way for the change.

Tavella emphasized that "the connection between UTC and the
rotation of the Earth is not lost".

"Nothing will change" for the public, she added.

A leap minute?

Seconds were long measured by astronomers analyzing the Earth's
rotation, however the advent of atomic clocks - which use the
frequency of atoms as their tick-tock mechanism - ushered in a far
more precise era of timekeeping.

But Earth's slightly slower rotation means the two times are out
of sync.

To bridge the gap, leap seconds were introduced in 1972, and 27
have been added at irregular intervals since - the last in 2016.

Under the proposal, leap seconds will continue to be added as
normal for the time being.

But by 2035, the difference between atomic and astronomical time
will be allowed to grow to a value larger than one second, Judah
Levine, a physicist at the US National Institute of Standards and
Technology, told AFP.

"The larger value is yet to be determined," said Levine, who
spent years helping draft the resolution alongside Tavella.

Negotiations will be held to find a proposal by 2035 to determine
that value and how it will be handled, according to the
resolution.

Levine said it was important to protect UTC time because it is
run by "a worldwide community effort" in the BIPM.

GPS time, a potential UTC rival governed by atomic clocks, is run
by the US military "without worldwide oversight", Levine said.

A possible solution to the problem could be letting the
discrepancy between the Earth's rotation and atomic time build up
to a minute.

It is difficult to say exactly how long that might take, but
Levine estimated anywhere between 50 to 100 years.

Instead of then adding on a leap minute to clocks, Levine
proposed a "kind of smear", in which the last minute of the day
takes two minutes.

"The advance of a clock slows, but never stops," he said.

https://phys.org/news/2022-11-global-timekeepers-vote-scrap.html

 

This is Shortwave Radiogram in MFSK64

Please send your reception report to radiogram@verizon.net
 

This week's images ...


Our propagation indicator is these merging circles ...


Sending Pic:205x107C;






This scene of the Carpathian Mountains is a winner of the Natural
Landscape Photography Award. https://cnn.it/3i67x27 ...

Sending Pic:214x120C;






Battle Abbey in Sussex, England, illiminated to offer visitors
the opportunity to experience the site after dark, with tableaux
featuring light, sound and performers. https://bit.ly/3XszOQs ...

Sending Pic:179x197C;

A photo submitted to the BBC on the theme "autumn walks."
https://bbc.in/3tTdq5b ...

Sending Pic:173x200C;



 

Late autumn leaves in the Cairngorms National Park, Scotland.
https://bbc.in/3gw2ibt ...

Sending Pic:210x117C;

A downtown scene in Buffalo, New York during the recent lake
effect snow. https://bit.ly/3i8a2Rh ...

Sending Pic:200x145C;

A cardinal on the cold morning of November 19 in Vienna,
Virginia. https://wapo.st/3B0DmA7 ...

Sending Pic:201x173C;







An Amtrak train at Wiggins, Colorado. https://bit.ly/3V1t8XQ ...

Sending Pic:204x145C;









Our painting of the week is "Cornucopia" by John Nolan.
https://bit.ly/3Or93YJ ...

Sending Pic:210x139C;









Shortwave Radiogram returns to MFSK32 ...

 

RSID: <<2022-11-25T00:57Z MFSK-32 @ 9265000+1500>>

This is Shortwave Radiogram in MFSK32 ...

 

Shortwave Radiogram is transmitted by:

WRMI, Radio Miami International, wrmi.net

and

WINB Shortwave, winb.com


Please send reception reports to radiogram@verizon.net

And visit http://swradiogram.net

Twitter: @SWRadiogram or twitter.com/swradiogram

I'm Kim Elliott. Please join us for the next Shortwave
Radiogram.

RSID: <<2022-11-25T00:58Z OL 32-2K @ 9265000+1500>>

Thank you for decoding the modes on Shortwave Radiogram.



 

Percy Sledge was born Percy Tyrone Sledge, November 25, 1940.

He died in 2015.

Sending Pic:223x210;

bit.ly/3TU1n2f

Please report your decode to themightykbc@gmail.com
 

RSID: <<2022-11-27T01:49Z THOR 22 @ 5960000+1500>>

According to Amateur Radio Newline of November 18th:

Shortwave fans worldwide were disappointed to hear the November 9th broadcast announcement of WTWW radio that it was signing off the air for the last time, with plans to continue to provide programming
instead over the internet. The station's operator Ted Randall, WB8PUM, cited difficulties in meeting the station's ongoing expenses. Based in Lebanon, Tennessee, WTWW provided a wide range of programming at
5.83 MHz along with music and amateur-radio content at 5.085 MHz. The station was among many to broadcast programming directed toward Ukraine following the invasion by Russia earlier this year.

The station will continue broadcasting on it's internet stream at http://wtww.us/pages/listen-live.php

The station went on the air in 2010 as the 100-kilowatt operation WBWW, and could be heard first on what were testing frequencies of 5.755 MHz and 9.48 MHz at different times. Over the years, WTWW gained an
especially strong following among amateur radio operators for carrying ham-related content. The station also featured program hosts such as Art Bell, W6OBB, who presented a popular shhbqaiF ';t uquRcmai