Slanted images this weekend / Hello friends,

Almost all of you are sending back slanted images from VOA Radiogram 34  this weekend.
The problem is not your reception or decoding. It is obviously at the VOA end, either in the recording of the program or the playback at the transmitter site.
Merkouris Gogos in Greece sent correct images, but this is what he wrote:
"The +180 ppm sample rate correction value, which was working for months, had to be changed to -2080 ppm!"                                     Δ ppm  +180/-2080   =   -2260 ppm

I tried the same from my recording of reception via the University of Twente SDR receiver, and had to set the ppm correction to -2400 ppm.
For reception the rest of this weekend, I would recommend that you start with Merkouris's parameters.  In Fldigi: Configure > Sound Card  > Settings > under Corrections set the RX ppm to -2080. 
If you can record the broadcast, then decode from the recording, you can try various corrections to see what provides you with the straightest images.
I apologize for the inconvenience.

Kim
 

More about then slanted images this weekend on VOA Radiogram...

Mark Hirst in the UK writes:
"After several calibration checks, my setting was -2250 for RX."
So you can try Mark's -2250 ppm or Merkouris's -2080 ppm
In Fldigi: Configure > Sound Card >  Settings > Corrections -- under  Corrections set RX ppm to 2080 or 2250 or something in between. 
Record the show if you can and try various adjustments decoding from the recording.

Kim
 

Roger:

For myself, I determined a value of about -2260 ppm (previously it was zero)

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Internet:

Next on VOA Radiogram, more of our experiments with non-Latin

alphabets.

The following is an excerpt of a VOA Russian new story in the

MFSK32 mode...

Because of the additional code required for the Cyrillic script,

the Russian prints out rather slowly in MFSK32. Let's try to

speed up the printout of the Russian text using the MFSK64 mode.

VOA Radiogram now changes to MFSK64...

RSID: <<2013-11-23T16:10Z MFSK-32 @ 17860000+1500>>

НАСА хочет уменьшить зависимость от России

Русская служба «Голоса Америки»

20.11.2013

Несмотря на неопределенность с бюджетом, НАСА объявило прием

заявок на создание коммерческого космического такси для доставки

космонавтов на Международную космическую станцию.

RSID: <<2013-11-23T16:12Z MFSK-64 @ 17860000+1500>>

This is VOA Radiogram in MFSK64...

НАСА хочет уменьшить зависимость от России

Русская служба «Голоса Америки»

20.11.2013

Несмотря на неопределенность с бюджетом, НАСА объявило прием

заявок на создание коммерческого космического такси для доставки

космонавтов на Международную космическую станцию.

Благодаря этому аэрокосмическое агентство США надеется к 2017

году покончить с монополией России на доставку экипажей к МКС.

Steve Baragona
November 18,
2013

BALTIMORE - The fish don't like strangers.

Ellen Perlman pours a scoop of fish food into one of four blue plastic tanks at
Chesapeake Aquaponics, about half an hour from Baltimore. Picture a giant kiddie
pool that's deep enough to stand in up to your belly.

"You would think we have piranhas here," she said, expecting a torrent of tilapia
to froth the water's surface but it remains stubbornly smooth. She chuckled. "Maybe
not." 

She says the fish recognize her voice and her footsteps, but not a visiting reporter's.

"Fish are very sensitive animals," she added.

Environmental sweet spot

But it's an indelicate aspect of these delicate creatures that makes her garden
grow. From these tanks, water rich in what you might call "fish manure" flows through
a filter system and into the adjacent plant beds, where lettuce and other vegetable
plants float in Styrofoam rafts.

"It's a way of recycling the fish nutrients," she says.

It's called aquaponics. It combines aquaculture - or fish farming - with hydroponics
- growing plants without soil.

Aquaponics hits a sweet spot for environmentalists. It recycles fish waste into
plant food. Hydroponics typically uses less water than conventional farming. And
for those concerned about insecticides on their produce, the fact that the fish
share the water with the plants means aquaponic farmers have to be very careful
about what they spray.

"Any type of spray would harm the fish," Perlman said. Even insecticidal soaps popular
with organic growers are off limits.

Another part of aquaponics' appeal is the fact that overfishing is depleting the
world's oceans.  Fish farming accounts for at least half the world's production,
but waste from all those confined fish is polluting some areas.

"There are fewer and fewer fish in the ocean and more and more fish will be raised
on farms," said Dave Love, a microbiologist with the Johns Hopkins University Center
for a Livable Future (CLF). "The trick is, how do we do that responsibly, sustainably
and in ways that make fish farmers money?"

Small but productive

Tackling those questions is what CLF's Cylburn Aquaponics Farm aims to do.

Located next to greenhouses at Baltimore's Cylburn Arboretum, the farm has been
up and running for a little over a year.

Farm manager Laura Genello says she's delivering about 10 to 20 pounds (five to
10 kilograms) of produce per week to local farmers markets from about 300 square
feet (28 square meters) of growing space.

"Which is relatively small," she said, "but 10 pounds of greens is a fair amount
of greens."

The farm harvested its first 20 one-kilo fish earlier this fall, and they expect
to produce about 275 fish per year.

Profitable?

But whether aquaponics is profitable is an open question. Energy costs are a big
factor.

"Our tilapia like 70 degrees (21C). In the winter, it gets quite a bit cooler,"
Love said. "So, we need to heat the space."

Cylburn Aquaponics Farm is grant-funded, but Chesapeake Aquaponics is a commercial
venture. It has not turned a profit yet, but Perlman is optimistic that providing
high-quality fresh greens in the middle of winter will win her a niche market.

The elegance of aquaponics' symbiosis is alluring, and aquaponic businesses and
nonprofit projects are popping up around the country and around the world.

But Genello is cautious.

"I think we have to be careful about not getting ahead of ourselves with the excitement
about the system because there are a lot of things that are not quite perfect about
it," Genello said. "That's why it's really important for more people to actually
do aquaponics, so we get more people experimenting and playing around with what
works and what doesn't."

www.voanews.com/content/combined-fish-vegetable-farming-catching-on/1792728.html

RSID: <<2013-11-23T16:20Z MFSK-128 @ 17860000+1500>>

RSID: <<2013-11-23T16:21Z MFSK-128L @ 17860000+1500>>

This is VOA Radiogram in MFSK128...

Satellite Built by High School Students Set to Launch

VOA News

November 19, 2013

A satellite built by U.S. high school students is set to be

launched tonight - a first for the U.S. space agency, NASA.

The launch of the privately built Minotaur rocket will carry 29

tiny satellites, known as nanosatellites - or cubesats, into

orbit in a scheduled launch at 0030 GMT.

The Orbital Sciences Corporation rocket is launching as an Air

Force test program, carrying small satellites. One is an ordinary

smartphone NASA converted and another was built by students at

Thomas Jefferson High School in Alexandria, Virginia.

The launch marks the first time NASA will launch a cubesat

developed by students not yet in college.

"The advancements of the cubesat community are enabling an

acceleration of flight-qualified technology that will ripple

through the aerospace industry," said Jason Crusan, director of

Advanced Exploration Systems, the office that oversees the

Cubesat Launch Initiative at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

"Our future missions will be standing on the developments the

cubesat community has enabled."

According to the Thomas Jefferson High School website about the

satellite, known as TJ3Sat, the payload, will allow "students and

other amateur radio users the opportunity to send and receive

data from the satellite."

"Onboard the satellite a Text Speak module is used to convert

text messages into an analog voice signal," said the website.

"Students and other users from around the world can submit text

strings to be uploaded to the TJ3Sat website. Approved text

strings will be transmitted to the satellite and the resulting

voice interpretation will be relayed back to Earth over an

amateur radio frequency using the onboard Stensat radio."

Since 2010, the cubesat Launch Initiative has issued four

announcements of opportunity and selected more than 90 cubesats

from public and private institutions and government labs to

launch as auxiliary payloads aboard commercial rockets. The

cube-shaped satellites are approximately four inches long per

unit, have a volume of about one quart and weigh less than three

pounds. Cubesat research addresses science, exploration,

technology development, education or operations.

More than 300 students took part in this fourth installment of

NASA's cubesat Launch Initiative and it's Educational Launch of

Nanosatellite (ELaNa) Missions, which enables students, teachers

and faculty to obtain hands-on flight hardware development

experience.

http://www.voanews.com/content/satellite-built-by-high-schoolers-

set-to-launch/1793599.html

See also: http://www.tjhsst.edu/students/activities/tj3sat/

VOA Radiogram now changes to MFSK128L...

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This is VOA Radiogram in MFSK128L...

Satellite Built by High School Students Set to Launch

VOA News

November 19, 2013

A satellite built by U.S. high school students is set to be

launched tonight - a first for the U.S. space agency, NASA.

The launch of the privately built Minotaur rocket will carry 29

tiny satellites, known as nanosatellites - or cubesats, into

orbit in a scheduled launch at 0030 GMT.

The Orbital Sciences Corporation rocket is launching as an Air

Force test program, carrying small satellites. One is an ordinary

smartphone NASA converted and another was built by students at

Thomas Jefferson High School in Alexandria, Virginia.

The launch marks the first time NASA will launch a cubesat

developed by students not yet in college.

"The advancements of the cubesat community are enabling an

acceleration of flight-qualified technology that will ripple

through the aerospace industry," said Jason Crusan, director of

Advanced Exploration Systems, the office that oversees the

Cubesat Launch Initiative at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

"Our future missions will be standing on the developments the

cubesat community has enabled."

According to the Thomas Jefferson High School website about the

satellite, known as TJ3Sat, the payload, will allow "students and

other amateur radio users the opportunity to send and receive

data from the satellite."

"Onboard the satellite a Text Speak module is used to convert

text messages into an analog voice signal," said the website.

"Students and other users from around the world can submit text

strings to be uploaded to the TJ3Sat website. Approved text

strings will be transmitted to the satellite and the resulting

voice interpretation will be relayed back to Earth over an

amateur radio frequency using the onboard Stensat radio."

Since 2010, the cubesat Launch Initiative has issued four

announcements of opportunity and selected more than 90 cubesats

from public and private institutions and government labs to

launch as auxiliary payloads aboard commercial rockets. The

cube-shaped satellites are approximately four inches long per

unit, have a volume of about one quart and weigh less than three

pounds. Cubesat research addresses science, exploration,

technology development, education or operations.

More than 300 students took part in this fourth installment of

NASA's cubesat Launch Initiative and it's Educational Launch of

Nanosatellite (ELaNa) Missions, which enables students, teachers

and faculty to obtain hands-on flight hardware development

experience.

http://www.voanews.com/content/satellite-built-by-high-schoolers-

set-to-launch/1793599.html

See also: http://www.tjhsst.edu/students/activities/tj3sat/

VOA Radiogram now changes to MFSK32...

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