http://www.rhci-online.net/radiogram/radiogram.htm

  https://github.com/GyanD/codexffmpeg/releases/tag/2023-03-05-git-912ac82a3c

RSID: <<2024-05-23ST23:31Z MFSK-32 @ 9265000+1500>>
 

Welcome to program 355 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:

  1:40 MFSK32: Program preview (now)
  2:57 MFSK32: Giant planet is as puffy as cotton candy*
  6:59 MFSK64: Why the Russian army is still using Morse code
11:16 MFSK64: This week's images*
28:43 MFSK32: Closing announcements

* with image(s)


Please send reception reports to radiogram@verizon.net

And visit http://swradiogram.net

We're on X/Twitter now: @SWRadiogram




From APNews.com:

This giant gas planet is as fluffy and puffy as cotton candy

By MARCIA DUNN
May 14, 2024

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - Astronomers have identified a planet
that's bigger than Jupiter yet surprisingly as fluffy and light
as cotton candy.

The exoplanet has exceedingly low density for its size, an
international team reported Tuesday. The gas giants in our solar
system — Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune - are much denser.

"The planet is basically super fluffy" because it's made mostly
of light gases rather than solids, lead author Khalid Barkaoui of
Massachusetts Institute of Technology said in a statement

Scientists say an outlier like WASP-193b is ideal for studying
unconventional planetary formation and evolution. The planet was
confirmed last year, but it took extra time and work to determine
its consistency based on observations by ground telescopes. It's
thought to consist mostly of hydrogen and helium, according to
the study published in Nature Astronomy.

The planet is located some 1,200 light-years away. A light-year
is 5.8 trillion miles. It's the second-lightest exoplanet found
so far based on its dimensions and mass, according to the
researchers.

https://apnews.com/article/exoplanet-cotton-candy-astronomy-2044b95d10db9aa4c517fed6995db03c

 

Image: Illustration provided by NASA depicts the planet WASP
193-b ...


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Shortwave Radiogram now changes to MFSK64 ...
 

RSID: <<2024-05-23ST23:37Z MFSK-64 @ 9265000+1500>>


This is Shortwave Radiogram in MFSK64

Please send your reception report to radiogram@verizon.net
 

From The Conversation via TechXplore:

Ukraine war: Why the Russian army is still using morse code more
than a century after its invention

by Tony Ingesson
May 16, 2024

Modern warfare is awash with cutting-edge technology—from AI to
drones to hypersonic missiles—yet one technology that is more
than a century old is still proving its worth: Morse code.

The staccato streams of tones that would be instantly
recognizable to a railroad man from more than 150 years ago are
still in use by the Russian military in the Ukraine war.

Even today, many people would be able to identify the
characteristic sound of Morse code, in particular, the widely
known pattern three short, three long, three short (…– – – …),
forming the emergency signal SOS.

Today Morse code messages are being sent from Russian bombers to
their control centers, or from ships of the Baltic Fleet to their
shore-based headquarters.

The shortwave bands used by amateur radio enthusiasts are
similarly filled with the beeps known by enthusiasts as "dits"
(.) and "dahs" (-), or as dots and dashes by the wider public.
Even spies still tune in to the shortwave bands to listen to
clandestine stations broadcasting Morse code.

Invented in the 1800s

Why then, is a technology created in the first half of the 1800s
still in use today?

First, Morse code was envisioned not by an engineer or
technological wizard, but by a man who painted portraits for a
living. Samuel Morse initially designed what we today would call
a teleprinter, a device that receives and prints text on paper.

Morse enlisted the help of the more mechanically inclined Alfred
Vail, a machinist, to work out the details. It was the latter who
created the dots and dashes to represent the code, and came up
with the idea of using sound to convey information.

Initially, the sound was merely intended to be used to test a
connection. Before long, Morse and Vail realized that the concept
of printing was impractical. By adding sound, however, they had
stumbled upon a concept more brilliant and useful than they could
imagine.

The remarkable characteristic of Morse code is that in sound
form, it forms a rhythm. Thus, it shares common ground with
music. In fact, it has been noted that people with musical talent
are able to start learning morse more quickly.

By stimulating the innate human sense of rhythm, Morse code also
activates our sense of pattern recognition. This is a skill
deeply embedded in our brains, and one that has great potential
to decipher messages even if they are incomplete.

An experienced Morse code operator can fill in the blanks caused
by interference, poor reception, noise or equipment malfunction.
In a neurological sense, morse inhabits a very peculiar niche,
likened to "reading with the ears" but where transmitting and
receiving it resembles the act of speaking more than writing.

The other remarkable aspect of Morse code is its technological
simplicity. Anyone with basic technological skills can build
their own transmitter using standard components.

The signal generated by a morse transmitter is similarly
minimalistic, using an extremely narrow bandwidth of only 100–150
hertz (standard voice communications use 2,500–3,000 hertz). This
also means that receivers can use very narrow filters and thus
remove much of the surrounding noise generated by various forms
of interference.

Since it is so effective, morse only needs a minimum of power to
travel significant distances. Amateur radio enthusiasts
demonstrated in 1956 that as little as 78 milliwatts can be
enough power to transmit from Massachusetts to Denmark. This is
less than a tenth of what a single LED lightbulb uses. A standard
coffee maker preparing most people's favorite morning brew uses
more than a thousand times more power.

This combination of technological simplicity and efficiency came
in handy during the second world war, when resistance members and
Allied commandos used their portable Morse transceivers to
maintain contact with London from deep inside German-occupied
territory.

This was a very risky enterprise, since the Germans were
constantly listening in on the airwaves. Morse code, while being
unintelligible to the untrained ear, offers no security in and of
itself.

Today, even those without training can use software to decipher
the contents of a message sent using Morse code. However, any
message can be made secure by encrypting it before sending it, as
proposed by Vail in 1845.

In fact, one of the most secure forms of encryption, the one-time
pad, requires nothing more than pen and paper. In essence, a
one-time pad is a random string of characters, at least as long
as the message that is going to be encrypted.

The sender uses his or her pad to encrypt, while the recipient
uses a copy of the same pad to decode the message (there should
be only two copies, and each should be destroyed immediately
after use). As long as a pad is never reused, it remains
theoretically unbreakable even with the most modern technology
(although, truly random sequences of characters are difficult to
produce).

While there are more efficient digital modes of communication
today, nothing can rival the unsurpassed combination of
simplicity and efficiency that has allowed Morse code to survive
for more than 150 years.

https://techxplore.com/news/2024-05-ukraine-war-russian-army-morse.html
 

This is Shortwave Radiogram in MFSK64

Please send your reception report to radiogram@verizon.net
 

This week's images ...


This three-dimensional neon Jeep was created by Bent Custom Neon
in Toledo, Ohio. https://tinyurl.com/2y6lkfvq ...

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Lapporten, a U-shaped valley in Lapland, Finland.
https://tinyurl.com/2yjlzhwc ...

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Bluebells in a woodland near Cardross Golf Club in the West of
Scotland. https://tinyurl.com/27ah3op2 ...

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May 22 was the 64th anniversary of the NBC Peacock, which alerted
viewers that the following program was in "living color."
https://tinyurl.com/24c49un6 ...

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Canoeing in the Caddo Lake State Park in Karnack, Texas.
https://tinyurl.com/2y76jkgj ...

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A spring flower at the Washington Park Arboretum in Seattle.
https://tinyurl.com/29wp3prv ...

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A trail for sure-footed hikers and confident bikers is Mount
Tamalpais State Park, California. https://tinyurl.com/24jyk99q
...

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Stairs up the Lake Erie lighthouse at Marblehead Lighthouse State
Park, Ohio. https://tinyurl.com/2a3tpddr ...

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Wildflowers alongside a peeling wooden bench at Harrington Beach
State Park, Belgium, Wisconsin. https://tinyurl.com/26tlqfrs ...

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Our painting of the week is "Nesting" (glass bowls) by Barbara
Mason (American, b.1963). https://tinyurl.com/29uqy7d2 ...

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Shortwave Radiogram returns to MFSK32 ...


 

RSID: <<2024-05-23T23:58Z 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.