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

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

set MyFiles=*.flac *.fla *.wav *.aif *.mp4 *.mp3 *.mp2 *.aac *.ogg *.m4a
for %%a in (%MyFiles%) do ffmpeg -i "%%a" -y -lavfi showspectrumpic=s=1920x1080:color=fiery:gain=.7:fscale=lin:orientation=0:saturation=1:mode=combined:legend=enabled:start=0:stop=8000 "%%~na.jpg"

RSID: <<2025-05-22T23:31Z MFSK-32 @ 9265000+1500>>

Welcome to program 402 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:

  1:42 MFSK32: Program preview (now)
  2:56 MFSK32: EU to provide emergency funds for RFE/RL
  5:34 MFSK64: NASA saves Voyager 1 from deep space doom*
11:04 MFSK64: This week's images*
27:55 MFSK32: Closing announcements

* with image(s)

Please send reception reports to radiogram@verizon.net

And visit http://swradiogram.net

We're on Bluesky now: SWRadiogram.bsky.social

And X/Twitter: @SWRadiogram

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From TVP World (Poland):

EU to provide €5.5 mln in emergency funds for Radio Free Europe

May 20, 2025

The European Union will provide emergency funds to keep Radio
Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) operational after the Trump
administration froze funding for the global pro-democracy
broadcaster.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Tuesday [May 20] that
the bloc's foreign ministers had agreed to a €5.5 million
contract to "support the vital work of Radio Free Europe."

She described the short-term funding as a "safety net" for
independent journalism.

RFE/RL, which broadcasts in 27 languages across 23 countries in
Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East, lost a major
portion of its financing after President Donald Trump's
administration cut off funding in March, accusing the media
outlet of pushing a liberal agenda.

Last month, a U.S. federal judge ordered the administration to
restore $12 million that had been allocated to the broadcaster by
Congress.

Lawyers for RFE/RL warned it would be forced to shut down by June
without the funds.

Kallas acknowledged that the EU could not cover the broadcaster's
global shortfall but said the bloc could help it continue
operating in countries within the EU's neighborhood that need
independent news sources.

Founded during the Cold War, RFE/RL has its corporate
headquarters in Washington and journalistic headquarters in
Prague, the Czech capital.

https://tvpworld.com/86813907/eu-to-provide-55-mln-in-emergency-funds-for-radio-free-europe


Shortwave Radiogram now changes to MFSK64 ...



RSID: <<2025-05-22T23:35Z MFSK-64 @ 9265000+1500>>

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This is Shortwave Radiogram in MFSK64

Please send your reception report to radiogram@verizon.net
 

NASA beats the clock to save Voyager 1 from deep space doom

By David Szondy
May 18, 2025

It was race against time as NASA engineers recently raced to fix
a thruster problem aboard the vintage Voyager 1 deep space probe.
It's hard enough to repair a craft at the edge of the solar
system, but this time they faced a potentially deadly deadline.

Launched almost half a century ago, Voyager 1 and its sister
probe Voyager 2 have a special place in the heart of NASA, which
is determined to keep the robotic pair functioning so long as
there's a trickle of current coming from the onboard nuclear
generators. It's a bit like keeping a vintage car on the road,
except this car is 15.46 billion miles (24.87 billion km) away, a
radio message takes 23 hours and two minutes to reach it, there
are no spare parts, and no one around to even adjust a screw.

Despite this, NASA has been blessed by the Voyager spacecraft
being insanely over-engineered. The people who built and launched
it might all be dead or retired, the manuals literally turning
yellow with age, and the code that runs on its computers the
digital equivalent of Sanskrit, but both probes are still
operating, albeit at a much lower level. Over the years, the
engineers have had to contend with a radio unit switching itself
off, data feeds suddenly spouting gibberish, and continuing
thruster problems, but they still keep ticking along.

The thrusters have been a particular problem because they are
among the very few systems with moving parts left running on
Voyager 1, and something moving means something can go wrong.
Essentially, there are four thruster systems on the spacecraft.
One of these controls the attitude of the spacecraft so it points
in the right direction, the second controls its roll, and three
and four are backup systems.

Over the 48 years since Voyager 1 was launched, these thrusters
have begun to show their age and NASA has had to deal with
clogging fuel lines and persnickety valves by all manner of work
arounds, including switching from the primary to the back up
systems and then back again.

In the latest instance, the primary roll thrusters have built up
so much residue in their fuel lines that it's feared that the
whole system could seize up in a few months. To avoid this, the
engineers spent March of this year coaxing the secondary
thrusters back to life. These had already been declared
unserviceable in 2004, but the team found that by reactivating
some internal heaters they could get the back-up thrusters going
again, so Voyager 1 can keep its radio antenna pointed at the
Earth by locking onto a guide star.

This isn't the first time such a cosmic correction has been made,
but there was a particular sense of urgency about this one
because NASA was facing a target that, if missed, could have
meant the end of the mission.

Voyager 1 is kept in contact with Earth through NASA's Deep Space
Network (DSN), which consists of three antennas at the Goldstone
Deep Space Communications Complex near Barstow, California; the
Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex near Robledo de Chavela,
Spain; and the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex near
Canberra, Australia. Unfortunately, only Canberra can track
Voyager's part of the sky, and its main 230-ft (70-m) DSS-43
antenna was scheduled to undergo a major refit beginning in May
2025 and continuing until February 2026. During this time,
Voyager would be incommunicado with only brief contact in August
and December.

This meant that NASA had to repair Voyager 1 and ensure that it
could autonomously carry out routine attitude adjustments using a
new schedule of firing times and durations to put as little
stress as possible on the systems – not to mention turning on the
dormant back-up thrusters after 21 years without them blowing up.

According to the space agency, Voyager 1 responded to commands on
March 20. This was two days after the orders were sent, so there
was quite a bit of pencil chewing, nail biting, and coffee
swilling in the meantime. In the end, telemetry reports confirmed
that the temperature of the thruster heaters rose as predicted
and Voyager 1 can carry on with its mission of exploration as it
hurtles into interstellar space, never to return.

"It was such a glorious moment. Team morale was very high that
day," said Todd Barber, the mission's propulsion lead at JPL.
"These thrusters were considered dead. And that was a legitimate
conclusion. It's just that one of our engineers had this insight
that maybe there was this other possible cause and it was
fixable. It was yet another miracle save for Voyager."

Source: NASA

https://newatlas.com/space/nasa-beats-clock-save-voyager-1/
 

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Image: Artist's rendering of Voyager 1 in space ...

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This is Shortwave Radiogram in MFSK64

Please send your reception report to radiogram@verizon.net

 

This week's images ...

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A bamboo forest in the Arashiyama region of Kyoto, Japan.
tinyurl.com/ysp2cw3q ...

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Sunset from the coast of Pembrokeshire, Wales.
tinyurl.com/yv7lqeqj ...

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Sunset seen from Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, Wales.
tinyurl.com/yv7lqeqj ...

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Sunset over Glasgow's roofline. tinyurl.com/yu3xaglw ...

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Baltimore Oriole at Kill Kare State Park, Vermont, May 20.
tinyurl.com/ys553hmw ...

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A flower at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Hamilton, Ontario.
tinyurl.com/ytkb2o2o ...

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A frog at Aurora Community Arboretum in Aurora, Ontario, May 19.
tinyurl.com/yseuwj9c ...

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Crabapple blossoms at the George Landis Arboretum near Esperance,
New York. tinyurl.com/ypnxfhu2 ...

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Lilacs at Arnold Arboretum in Boston. tinyurl.com/yrtm5evg ...

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Our painting of the week is "Blues or L'heure bleue" (1975) by
Françoise Gilot.
 

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Shortwave Radiogram returns to MFSK32 ...


 

RSID: <<2025-05-22T23:57Z MFSK-32 @ 9265000+1500>>


This is Shortwave Radiogram in MFSK32 ...


Transmission of Shortwave Radiogram is provided by:

WRMI, Radio Miami International, http://wrmi.net

and

WINB Shortwave, http://winb.com


Please send reception reports to radiogram@verizon.net

And visit http://swradiogram.net

http://swradiogram.bsky.social

X/Twitter (for now): @SWRadiogram

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