RSID: <<2025-11-07T00:31Z MFSK-32 @ 9265000+1500>>
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Welcome to program 425 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:

  1:39 MFSK32: Program preview (now)
  2:50 MFSK32: Iceland now has mosquitoes
  8:46 MFSK64: North Korea left in dark as foreign broadcasts end
13:13 MFSK64: This week's images
28:31 MFSK32: Closing announcements


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 Science News:

Mosquitoes infiltrated Iceland. Will they survive the winter?

    Iceland's harsh winters have probably kept the island
    mosquito-free

By Erin Garcia de Jesús
November 3, 2025

Iceland's first mosquitoes are poised to face a frosty test.
Winter is coming, and it's uncertain whether these newcomers
might stick around until spring.

The Nordic island, previously one of the last places on Earth
without mosquitoes, hosted at least a few Culiseta annulata
mosquitoes this year, the Natural Science Institute of Iceland
announced October 21. In mid-October, local resident Björn
Hjaltason captured two female and one male mosquito using a
ribbon soaked in red wine while on a farm north of the capital,
Reykjavík. The ribbon usually attracts moths but also lured the
mosquitoes, the first confirmed in Iceland.

Now, only Antarctica is mosquito-free. But there is a kernel of
consolation: C. annulata is more pest than peril. The mosquitoes
do not transmit human pathogens.

Neither the number of C. annulata flying around Iceland nor how
they made it to the island country are known. But human
transportation is a probable route, according to the NSII.
Airplanes have previously brought mosquitoes into the country,
though none sparked a new population. The fact that Hjaltason
found females and a male suggests the insects could reproduce.

People have been traveling to Iceland for thousands of years
without any documented reports of mosquitoes, says entomologist
Jessica Ware of the American Museum of Natural History in New
York City. The insects are nearly global, yet "the fact that they
didn't [come to Iceland before], and now they are, makes me think
it's from the climate."

Mosquito ranges have been expanding around the globe, although
the extent to which that spread is linked to climate change is
unclear. The Arctic region is warming roughly four times as fast
as the global average, and Iceland has faced record-breaking heat
this year. Whether the insect invaders will survive an Icelandic
winter is still an open question.

Iceland's winters can be harsh — though relatively mild given how
far north the island is — with temperatures hovering around
freezing and plenty of wind and snow. But C. annulata adults are
no strangers to cold and can probably survive in Icelandic
conditions, according to the NSII. These insects are widespread
across Europe, including Sweden and Finland. They wait out the
winter chill as adults, taking shelter in caves, basements or
outbuildings such as barns and sheds.

Shifts in the ranges of species can depend partly on random
chance, says Kelsey Lyberger, an ecologist at Arizona State
University in Mesa. "If it just so happens that those three
individuals don't make it, or the really small number of
individuals that have made it over there don't survive or don't
reproduce, well, there goes your population."

One possible barrier to mosquito invasions in Iceland may be that
the island freezes and thaws multiple times a year. That may
endanger adult mosquitoes emerging from their winter hideouts or
threaten other species that overwinter as eggs or larvae.

"Some species of mosquitoes are sensitive to those [temperature]
fluctuations," Lyberger says. But if they survive through winter,
and if they have a food source, the insects can persist.

It's also possible that other insects might follow. "A lot of
these insects are climate canaries," Ware says. Dragonflies, for
instance, prey on mosquitoes and can quickly change their habitat
in response to climate change. If C. annulata makes a home in
Iceland, "I wouldn't be surprised if you start seeing [the
Emperor dragonfly (Anax imperator)] and other dragonflies that
have changed their ranges dramatically in other parts of northern
Europe."

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/mosquitoes-iceland-survive-winter


Shortwave Radiogram now changes to MFSK64 ...



RSID: <<2025-11-07T00:38Z MFSK-64 @ 9265000+1500>>.
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This is Shortwave Radiogram in MFSK64

Please send your reception report to radiogram@verizon.net
 

North Koreans left in the dark as foreign broadcasts cut

Julian Ryall in Tokyo
November 3, 2025

For decades, US and South Korean broadcasts were a critical
source of information for North Koreans willing to learn about
life beyond their borders. Now, the airwaves have gone silent.

The US and South Korean governments have halted the operations of
media organizations that were broadcasting into North Korea,
leaving tens of thousands of residents of the world's most
isolated country in the dark about what is happening in the
outside world.

"This is very bad for the people of North Korea and a really
serious setback for human rights there," said Kim Eu-jin, who
fled the North with her mother and sister in the 1990s.

"The governments are denying the people of North Korea the
freedom to access information and now all they will hear is
Pyongyang's propaganda," she told DW.

Previously, North Koreans could surreptitiously tune in to Radio
Free Asia (RFA) and Voice of America (VOA) from the US, as well
as South Korea's "Voice of Freedom" broadcasts. Activists have
said the broadcasts helped North Koreans endure hardship by
allowing them to hear things the regime does not want them to
know.

Kim said she never listened to foreign radio broadcasts before
she defected because it was simply too dangerous to do so. The
regime in Pyongyang was willing to to invest a lot of time and
effort in catching and punishing people who accessed foreign
media. In some cases, those caught would be tried publicly and
sentenced to hard labor or, in some extreme cases, to death.

Kim said that the North Korean government fears those broadcasts,
and warned that dangers for those who listen to foreign media
have become significantly more serious in recent years.

Why were the broadcasts stopped?

Voice of America has been silenced effectively since Donald Trump
returned to the White House earlier this year. The new
administration quickly fired hundreds of staff and issued an
executive order to eliminate VOA's and Radio Free Asia's parent
agency, the US Agency for Global Media.

In late August, the South Korean government announced that it was
halting broadcasts of Voice of Freedom into the North after 15
years.

Huge loudspeaker systems on the border that had blasted news and
South Korean pop music into the North have also been dismantled.

The South Korean government said it was trying to reduce tensions
with the North and expressed hope that the regime in Pyongyang
might, in turn, be willing to reopen negotiations with the South.
There have been no indications to date that the North is
contemplating resuming talks with Seoul.

Radio Free Asia goes 'dark'

On October 29, a message from Rosa Hwang, executive editor of
Radio Free Asia, stated her broadcaster was halting work due to
"uncertain funding" — for the first time in RFA's 29-year
history.

"The newsroom is dark. The microphones are off. Broadcasts have
been silenced. Publishing is paused. On social media. On our
websites."

"Without RFA Korean, 26 million North Koreans isolated by the
repressive regime's war on free speech and a free press will lack
a critical link to independent information," she said, pointing
to the broadcaster's award-winning coverage of the plight of
North Korean defectors.

In October, the 38 North website, which analyzes North Korean
affairs, held an event to explore the impact of the radio and
television beamed into the North.

It showed that anti-regime radio broadcasts are down by 85% and
television programming has disappeared entirely since the US and
South Korean governments' cuts.

And while it is difficult to determine just how many people the
broadcasts were reaching, the analysts emphasized again that the
"significant effort and resources spent by the North Korean
regime to block them provides some indication of their
penetration."

The North has become more adept at jamming broadcasts and the
coronavirus pandemic made it harder to smuggle USB sticks and
memory cards into the country.

However, enhanced legal restrictions from Pyongyang — such as the
Anti-Reactionary Thought and Culture Law, passed in 2020 — shows
how seriously Pyongyang is taking this threat to its authority,
according to the experts participating in the 38 North event.

Radio silence 'does the regime's work'

"I am sure the government in Pyongyang is very happy at this
development," said Lim Eun-jung, a professor of international
studies at Kongju National University.

"Halting these broadcasts means the people there only have North
Korean state media to listen to now and they will know less and
less about what is happening in the outside world," she told DW.

"In one sense, I can understand the South Korean government's
decision as it did not want tensions to escalate further and
hoped to open lines of communication with the North, but at the
same time this means that people living in a country that is
already essentially a prison now have even less access to
information."

North Korean defector Kim said that, while foreign broadcasts did
not play a large part in her own defection three decades ago,
they later grew to become a critical tool against the regime.

"The broadcasts taught people in North Korea what human rights
are," she said. "It told them what freedom is. For some, it made
them fight for that freedom by leaving the North. I cannot
understand why we have done the regime's work for it by ending
these broadcasts."

https://www.dw.com/en/north-koreans-left-in-the-dark-as-foreign-broadcasts-cut/a-74596803
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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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"Feather-horned beetles are quite small, but their antennae are
truly fantastic." Victoria, Australia. tinyurl.com/2akhdfhr ...

Sending Pic:203x129C;




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A building with interesting shapes in Edinburgh, Scotland.
tinyurl.com/24ur8msx ...

Sending Pic:153x171C;


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Sunset with crepuscular rays at Manassas National Battlefield
Park, Virginia, November 2. tinyurl.com/27jhwclb ...

Sending Pic:198x120C;




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A visitor at the Monarch Butterfly Grove at Lighthouse Field
State Park, Santa Cruz, California, November 4.
tinyurl.com/26wr6q4z ...

Sending Pic:146x171C;




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A juvenile Red-tailed Hawk at Amherst State Park, New York,
November 4. tinyurl.com/24w32oyl ...

Sending Pic:156x197C;


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A lone colorful tree along Lake Michigan at Saugatuck, Michigan,
November 1. tinyurl.com/28mt9clz ...

Sending Pic:202x146C;

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A autumn scene at Devil's Lake State Park, Wisconsin.
tinyurl.com/27azq4wm ...

Sending Pic:149x199C;

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The Milk House at Knox Farm State park in western New York.
tinyurl.com/29dyvyyv ...

Sending Pic:156x191C;




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Our painting of the week is "The Meeting (Revolving Doors)"
(1916) (ink on paper) by Man Ray (1890-1976).
tinyurl.com/2cwa4guf ...

Sending Pic:143x208C;




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Shortwave Radiogram returns to MFSK32 ...
 

RSID: <<2025-11-07T00:58Z MFSK-32 @ 9265000+1500>>


This is Shortwave Radiogram in MFSK32 ...


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Please send reception reports to radiogram@verizon.net

And visit http://swradiogram.net

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

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