RSID: <<2025-11-217T00:31Z MFSK-32 @ 9265000+1500>>
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Welcome to program 427 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)
  2:52 MFSK32: Spain's RNE to shut down AM transmitters
  8:06 MFSK64: Student launches German startup to tackle space debris
12:52 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 Radio World:

Spain's RNE to Shut Down AM Transmitters

   It's reportedly part of the country's plan for a digital DAB+
   radio transition

By Nick Langan
November 17, 2025

After 88 years, Spain's Radio Nacional de España will stop
broadcasting its RNE and Radio 5 networks on medium-wave AM radio
as the country's public broadcaster seeks to expand its digital
radio DAB+ footprint.

RNE and Radio 5 operate on approximately 32 different AM
frequencies across Spain, according to the 2025 World Radio TV
Handbook.

The following announcement started airing on RNE on Nov. 14. The
voice of Pepa Fernández, the director of its weekend morning
program, "No es un día cualquiera," was heard on the MW RNE
network, according to a recording provided by Jorge Garzón on the
Medium Wave Info blog.

"Medium-wave technology brought us all these events, but now MW
will cease because radio progresses as we do," the announcement,
translated from Spanish to English, said. "Now you listen to us
via FM, mobile phones, smart speakers and we are developing our
own new DAB+ network."

No further timeline on when the AM transmitters will be turned
off has been established.

Gorka Zumeta, a Madrid-based radio and podcast consultant,
reported that Spain's Ministry for Digital Transformation and
Public Administration is preparing a royal decree for DAB+
implementation.

The plan establishes that RNE must guarantee DAB+ coverage for 70
percent of Spain's population in 2026 and 85 percent in 2027.

At the end of 2023, RTVE, the parent to RNE, announced plans to
begin DAB+ broadcasts.

Zumeta described the RNE news as a "bombshell." He said an
annoucement the scale of a MW transmitter shutdown requires a
communication from RTVE, which has not yet occurred. He noted
that it was unusual for an RNE on-air announcement to precede any
sort of press release from RTVE.

But listenership and energy costs, Zumeta said, likely explain
RNE's decision to go forward with an AM shutdown. In 2013, Zumeta
cited data that showed RNE's AM broadcasts had approximately
176,000 listeners. In the latest Estudio General de Medios
survey, RNE's AM broadcasts registered only 69,000 listeners:
58,000 of them on the former Radio 1 and 11,000 on Radio 5 Todo
Noticias broadcasts, according to Zumeta.

https://www.radioworld.com/global/spains-rne-to-shut-down-am-transmitters
 

Sending Pic:199x110C;

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Shortwave Radiogram now changes to MFSK64 ...

 

RSID: <<2025-11-217T00:38Z MFSK-64 @ 9265000+1500>>

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This is Shortwave Radiogram in MFSK64

Please send your reception report to radiogram@verizon.net
 

From Deutsche Welle ...

Student launches German startup to tackle space debris

Efthymis Angeloudis
November 18, 2025

A Munich student has taken on one of spaceflight's most urgent
challenges: clearing Earth's orbit of debris. With his startup he
aims to detect and remove the fragments before they threaten
satellites and astronauts.

Securing a conversation with Leonidas Askianakis requires
foresight. His schedule is carved into 30-minute slots from 5
a.m. until 11 p.m. Meetings are online only, and every one of
them revolves around space.

Despite the long hours, his calendar is booked weeks ahead. When
does he sleep?

The 22-year-old student from the Technical University of Munich
in Germany shrugs when confronted with the question during a
recent interview with DW, saying that he's "on the home stretch"
and just can't "set the project aside."

Even at night, the mission weighs on him, he said, and he often
lies awake scrolling through recent reports from a Chinese space
mission which has identified more debris and increasing risk.

In early November, a Chinese crew had to extend its stay in orbit
because their return capsule might have collided with fragments.
Space junk, Askianakis says, has become something like his
calling.

A growing hazard overhead

Thousands of tons of debris now circle Earth — retired
satellites, spent rocket stages and countless shards. The
European Space Agency (ESA) estimates more than 1.2 million
objects larger than one centimeter (0.39 inches) in orbit,
including more than 50,000 bigger than 10 centimeters.

"Between 700 and 800 kilometers [434 miles to 497 miles] in
altitude we're seeing massive debris clouds that will remain for
centuries and can multiply through collisions," Jan Siminski of
ESA's Space Debris team in Darmstadt, Germany, told DW.

A one-centimeter fragment is enough to destroy a satellite, he
added, because "a collision releases the energy of a hand
grenade."

Global monitoring systems track the largest pieces around the
clock, but most debris remains invisible.

"With our ground-based radar, we can typically detect objects
about the size of a tennis ball," Siminski said. "Anything
smaller we can't detect, which means there's always residual
risk."

The need for a 'commercial cleanup plan'

That risk has preoccupied Askianakis since his first semester in
aerospace engineering. "How can debris stay in orbit for 200
years and no one does anything?" he wondered after a lecture.

He searched for allies on campus and at workshops, usually
without success. "In 2021, hardly anyone connected waste with
space," he recalled. It wasn't until a semester break on Crete
that the idea of removing space debris on a commercial basis
crystallized.

An encouraging conversation with Airbus officials at the IAA
mobility trade fair in Munich accelerated the decision to launch
a startup company. "They understood the problem and were glad
someone was tackling it," he said.

Soon after the Project-S startup was founded, a new EU space law
came into force, requiring satellite operators to dispose of
their debris, giving Askianakis' project a timely boost.

Project-S plans to deploy satellites equipped with
high-sensitivity radar and proprietary algorithms designed to
detect fragments between one and 10 centimeters. They would
enable continuous, comprehensive orbit surveillance for the first
time. Later, robotic cleanup probes are to remove larger pieces.

Bavaria's state-backed ambitions

Space startups, however, require far more than personal passion.
Who would invest in a debris-removal venture run by someone still
in his early twenties?

"We would," says the economics minister of the German federal
state of Bavaria, Hubert Aiwanger.

Bavaria has invested more than €245 million ($284 million) in
various space projects, including a planned lunar operations
center and several high-innovation startups.

"Companies and research institutions can pursue projects here
that might never materialize elsewhere," Aiwanger told DW, adding
that the state wants to remain the "backbone of European
spaceflight."

Receiving co-funding from the state to the tune of €1 million,
Askianakis says his Californian investors were shocked to hear
that Bavaria gave the funding without taking equity. "They asked:
'You just get funding like that?'"

Project-S is now scheduled to launch its first space mission in
2026. The state grant gives the project independence, says
Askianakis, because many US investors might require founders to
relocate. "Why would I do that when I have ideal conditions in
Bavaria?" he noted.

From punchline to space power

Bavaria's space sector is also looking to Berlin, where the
federal government has announced €35 billion in upcoming space
and defense investments.

Aiwanger calls it a good start, but not enough. The state will
continue to push forward on its own, he said, "because we
understand both the potential and the responsibility."

A few years ago, the idea of Bavaria becoming a space hub,
including the construction of satellites, training astronauts, or
even launching a lunar mission, might have drawn laughs.

But today, Bavaria's space boom is no longer science fiction but
economic strategy.

The region now accounts for more than 10,000 high-skilled jobs
and has secured €2.9 billion in ESA contracts — nearly 40% of
Germany's total ESA funding since 2015.

As Bavaria reaches for the stars, Askianakis wants to ensure the
route upward stays clear. After all, someone has to create room
when Earth's orbit gets crowded.

https://www.dw.com/en/student-launches-german-startup-to-tackle-space-debris/a-74779937

This article was originally written in German:
https://www.dw.com/de/am-himmel-wirds-eng-wohin-mit-dem-weltraum-m%C3%BCll/a-74735881

See also:
https://phys.org/news/2025-11-space-junk-home.html
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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 tea set by potter and designer Peter Saenger of Newark, Ohio.
tinyurl.com/2bffv9mg ...

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A bean goose over Japan "gives the impression of a young, hopeful
person." tinyurl.com/22upr95l ...

Sending Pic:194x141C;


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The news magazine, "See It Now," with reporter Edward R. Murrow,
debuted on CBS-TV November 18, 1951. tinyurl.com/2c974qtw

Sending Pic:301x187;




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The beach in Chiba, a suburb of Tokyo, as the sun sets over Mount
Fuji. tinyurl.com/25g6o7ja ...

Sending Pic:135x195C;


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Starlings gather in the Baker wetlands, Lawrence, Kansas.
tinyurl.com/29d8l6dh ...

Sending Pic:206x134C;


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A Greylag goose enjoying the autumn sunshine at Castle Semple
Country Park, Lochwinnoch, Scotland. tinyurl.com/262npq5w ...

Sending Pic:133x199C;


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The Scott Monument in Edinburgh was illuminated red to mark
Armistice Day, November 11. tinyurl.com/262npq5w ...

Sending Pic:140x209C;


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"Elysium Garden," by the art company Jigantics, at the Lumiere
festival, which ran from 13 to 15 November in Durham, England.
tinyurl.com/22b3dr3s ...

Sending Pic:192x129C;


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Our painting of the week is "Autumn Blase, Minnewater" by Evgeny
and Lydia Baranov. tinyurl.com/27nr8apv ...

Sending Pic:156x208C;




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Shortwave Radiogram returns to MFSK32 ...

 

RSID: <<2025-11-21T00:58Z 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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