VoA radiogram #107

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RSID: <<2015-04-19T01:29Z MFSK-32 @ 9955000+2000>>

WRMI - Radio Miami International

We welcome your program comments, suggestions and reception
reports.

Agradecemos sus comentarios, sugerencias e informes de
recepción.

info@wrmi.net

www.wrmi.net

facebook.com/wrmiradio

RSID: <<2015-04-19T03:29Z OLIVIA 32-2000 @ 9955000-1500>> [Audio O=3, SAM-LSB]

RSID: <<2015-04-18T16:01Z MFSK-32 @ 17860000+1500>>

Welcome to program 107 of VOA Radiogram from the Voice of
America.

I'm Kim Andrew Elliott in Washington.

Here is the lineup for today's program, all in MFSK32 except
where noted.

1:23 Program preview (now)
2:29 India's net neutrality debate*
7:76 US Congressional hearing on Russian international media
22:46 MFSK64: VOA Russian story about Yuri Gagarin*
26:53 MFSK32: Closing announcements*

* with image

Please send reception reports to radiogram@voanews.com.

And visit voaradiogram.net.

Twitter: @VOARadiogram

VOA NEWS

Indians Join 'Save the Internet' Campaign

Anjana Pasricha
April 15, 2015

NEW DELHI - In India, hundreds of thousands have joined a public
campaign to ensure equal access to the Internet as an impassioned
debate engulfs the country on what is called "net neutrality."

The controversy heated up after one of the country's main telecom
providers launched a new marketing platform, Airtel Zero, where
Internet businesses could pay to have users browse their sites
for free.

This triggered a nationwide backlash from those who fear that
this could deny equal access to the Internet. They are demanding
that the Internet remain a level playing field with all data
getting equal treatment - whether it is a student's blog or an
online company with deep pockets.

Celebrities, professionals, entrepreneurs and students, are among
the tens of thousands who have signed up for an online campaign
"savetheinternet."

Petitions are being sent at a furious pace to the telecom
regulator, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), which
invited public comments last month on various proposals such as
allowing telecom companies to charge for services like Skype and
YouTube.

One of the persons behind the campaign to ensure net neutrality,
Kiran Jonnalagadda, in Bangalore, has been taken aback by the
overwhelming response.

"400,000 users have on their own copy, pasted an email from our
website and mailed it to TRAI from their own computers. It is not
an automated script. There is nothing is going on from our
servers. People are doing it by themselves on their own
computers. That is incredible. We did not think they would do
it," said Jonnalagadda.

The strident public criticism on the issue has already had an
impact. One of the country's biggest online retailers, Flipkart,
said on Tuesday that it had scrapped discussions with Airtel Zero
on giving users free access to its app.

Flipkart announced its decision after some angry supporters of
net neutrality denounced the company saying it would get an
unfair advantage over its competitors. Some users even threatened
to boycott the online retailer.

Supporters of allowing telecoms to give preferential, free access
to Internet sites say providers need the funds to expand
infrastructure and net coverage in countries like India, where
broadband access is still limited. Opponents say such practices
allow for preferential treatment for some websites over others,
creating a disadvantage for upstart websites that would inhibit
innovation.

Pranesh Prakash at the Bangalore-based Center for Internet and
Society supports net neutrality. However he said that under
certain conditions, companies could pay for customers using their
data.

"They anyway have to pay money for using data. Right now what
some companies are offering to do is not only to pay money for
their data use, but also for customers data use. That can be
anti-competitive, for instance if there is in exclusive deal, or
if the terms of the deal are not transparent. But just the fact
that a company is offering to pay for its customers data does not
by itself make it anti-competitive. For instance toll free
numbers are not considered anti-competitive by anyone," said
Prakash.

The government says it will wait for a report from a six-member
committee due in May before it takes a position on the issue. But
net users hope the government is leaning toward net neutrality.

Earlier this week, Minister for Communications and Information
Technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad, called the Internet "one of the
finest creations of the human mind."

"It is the property of the entire human race, not of any country
or of any society. Net to become truly global must have integral
link with the local and when we talk of digital inclusion, it is
equally important it must be available to those who are
underprivileged and on the margins," said Prasad.

India is one of the world's biggest Internet markets after the
United States and China with an estimated 180 million users. It
is not the only country to debate net neutrality - it has also
been a subject of intense discussion in the United States and
Europe.

http://www.voanews.com/content/indians-join-save-the-internet-campaign/2719662.html

Image: Screen capture from a savetheinternet.in video available
at the trak.in link above ...

Sending Pic:269x125C;

This is VOA Radiogram from the Voice of America.

Please send reception reports to radiogram@voanews.com.

US Congressional Hearing Looks at Countering Russian Propaganda

VOA News
April 15, 2015

Participants in a congressional hearing Wednesday argued that
Russia is waging sophisticated propaganda campaign that threatens
American allies and interests – and that U.S. government-funded
news media haven't adequately countered that disinformation.

"Russia's propaganda machine is in overdrive, working to subvert
democratic stability and foment violence," the chairman of the
U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Ed Royce, said in
opening the hearing.

"Russian propaganda has the potential to destabilize NATO
members, impacting our security commitments," the California
Republican added. "This Russian campaign – what one witness
describes as the 'weaponization of information' – seriously
threatens U.S. security."

The committee's ranking Democrat, Congressman Eliot L. Engel of
New York, described propaganda as "a critical element of Russia's
so-called hybrid warfare strategy – a strategy on devastating
display in occupied Crimea and war-torn eastern Ukraine.

"Coupled with cyberattacks and other covert operations, these new
capabilities and [Russian President] Vladimir Putin's
belligerence pose a direct threat to our allies and our
interests," Engel said. "These measures are well financed. These
measures are working. And these measures demand a robust response
from us."

As an antidote, Royce called for "righting [U.S.] international
broadcasting" and "clarifying" the mission of the Broadcasting
Board of Governors (BBG). The independent federal agency oversees
government-supported, civilian international media. Its networks
include Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the
Middle East Broadcasting Networks (Alhurra TV and Radio Sawa),
Radio Free Asia, and the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (Radio and
TV Marti).

Andre Mendes, BBG interim chief executive, issued a statement
after the hearing saying the BBG shares the committee's concern
about the intensification of Russian propaganda. He said the
agency "is deploying a flexible, innovative, aggressive
multimedia effort aimed at Russians and Russian-speakers in the
former Soviet Union, Europe and around the world."

In the last Congress, Royce and Engel co-sponsored a bill to
reform the BBG, a measure that passed the House on a voice vote
but was not taken up by the Senate. The two are expected to
reintroduce the legislation.

Peter Pomerantsev, a senior fellow with the Legatum Institute,
testified to the committee that Russia crafted an
"information-psychological war" almost a decade ago. He said the
Kremlin targeted Estonia in 2007, when authorities there wanted
to move a Soviet war memorial.

"Russian media went into a frenzy, accusing the Estonians of
fascism," said Pomerantsev, whose London-based think tank
promotes capitalism. He said the Kremlin also sponsored a
crippling cyberattack on Estonia's government and banks, in a
show of force designed to demonstrate that NATO was unable to
protect its member-state.

Pomerantsev said Russian state-sponsored media exert outsized
influence with domestic and international audiences.

Kremlin media reach "30 million Russians outside the country
[and] in NATO countries such as Estonia, Latvia and Ukraine,"
Pomerantsev said in prepared testimony. "The Kremlin has also
invested hundreds of millions of dollars into foreign-language
media, including the multilingual news channel RT, or Russia
Today, which reaches millions of watchers in English, Spanish,
German and Arabic, just for a start."

He said the Russian government also hires people to put out fake
news and slanted messages on social media.

Pomerantsev said Putin's administration is "bankrolling and
lending political support to both far-right and far-left parties
in Europe" as part of its destabilization effort. Information is
twisted and manipulated "to sow divisions," he said. "This is not
merely an information war but a war on information."

The committee also heard from Elizabeth Wahl, a former RT anchor.
Frustrated by the channel's coverage of Ukraine, she resigned on
air in March. She said that RT and other Kremlin-backed outlets
have added to audience confusion or mistrust by including some
legitimate coverage, as well as by adopting the look and feel of
Western news media.

"We're dealing with an organization that doesn't play by the
rules," she said.

Helle Dale, a former journalist, told the committee the U.S.
government "became complacent in the battle for hearts and minds
in Russia and its neighboring countries after the end of the Cold
War."

Now it's scrambling to catch up, said Dale, a senior fellow at
the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank.
She, too, called for reform.

In written testimony, she cited lopsided spending. The U.S.
administration's "budget request for 2016 is $751,436,000 for
U.S. International Broadcasting," she said. "Reportedly, RT has a
budget alone of $400 million for its Washington bureau."

Royce said Russia is spending an estimated $600 million a year on
its media campaigns. The BBG's most recent allocation was $742
million, including $212 million for the Voice of America.

VOA's outgoing director, David Ensor, recently noted that VOA's
international radio, television and online audience has increased
to 172 million people a week, an increase of 49 million over four
years.

In his statement, Mendes said the panelists had failed to mention
"noteworthy successes of U.S. international media such as
doubling our audience in Ukraine and launching 25 new programs to
Russia and neighboring countries since the start of the Maidan
protests" in November 2013.

He said: "BBG has also increased its audiences by 2 million in
China through innovative satellite TV delivery and usage of
online tools to circumvent Internet censorship. In addition, we
welcome the results of a recent private survey showing 20 percent
of those surveyed in Cuba tune into the Martís.

"We can all agree that in our current world environment, BBG's
mission to inform, engage and connect people around the world in
support of freedom and democracy is more important than ever."

The BBG says its programing has a measured audience of 215
million in more than 100 countries and in 61 languages.

http://www.voanews.com/content/us-congressional-hearing-focuses-on-countering-russian-propaganda/2720178.html

This is VOA Radiogram from the Voice of America.

Please send reception reports to radiogram@voanews.com.

The Fldigi software allows us to transmit and decode text in
non-Latin alphabets, including Russian.

However, the additional coding necessary for the Cyrillic
characters means that the speed of the text transmission is
slower than with Latin alphabets.

By my calculations, Russian in MFSK32 transmits at a
frustratingly slow 33 words per minute, compared to 100 wpm in
English.

We can speed up the Russian text transmission to about 70 wpm by
using MFSK64. MFSK64, however, is not as robust as MFSK32 in
typical shortwave reception conditions.

Let's see how well you are able to decode Russian text in MFSK64.
This will be a VOA Russian news story about the 54th anniversary
of Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin's orbital flight in 1961.

VOA Radiogram now changes to MFSK64 ...

RSID: <<2015-04-18T16:22Z MFSK-64 @ 17860000+1500>>

This is VOA Radiogram in MFSK64.

From the VOA Russian Service www.golos-ameriki.ru:

54 года назад Юрий Гагарин открыл новую эру в истории
человечества

Служба новостей «Голоса Америки»
12.04.2015

12 апреля 1961 года Юрий Гагарин, 27-летний советский космоннавт
стал первым в мире человеком, полетевшим в космос. С тех пор этот
день отмечается как Международный День космонавтики.

Исторический полет Гагарина по орбите Земли на борту комсического
корабля «Восток-1» со скоростью 27,4000 километров в час
продолжался всего 108 минут, однако открыл новую главу в истории
человечества – эру космических путешествий.

До полета Гагарина космические путешествия были темой авторов
научно-фантастических книг.

Гагарин не мог контролировать свой космический корабль, пока
находился на орбите. Он управлялся компьютерной программой,
посылавшей радио-команды на «Восток». Однако на корабле был
размещен ключ на случай, если Гагарину пришлось брать управление
на себя.

Никита Хрущев назвал Юрия Гагарина Героем Советского Союза, и
Гагарин, ставший международным героем, был назван «Колумбом
космоса».

http://www.golos-ameriki.ru/content/international-space-day-gagarin/2716187.html

RSID: <<2015-04-18T16:26Z MFSK-32 @ 17860000+1500>>

This is VOA Radiogram in MFSK32.

Please send reception reports to radiogram@voanews.com.

And visit voaradiogram.net.

Twitter: @VOARadiogram

Thanks to colleagues at the Edward R. Murrow shortwave
transmitting station in North Carolina.

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

This is VOA, the Voice of America.

Sending Pic:209x19C;

DRM-images - received via EASYPAL/DSSTV on 14233kHz/USB (FRG-100 / Dipol for ~12 MHz)

Here are some pics of F8BMI [Andre Petton, 3 Impasse Coz Castel, Le Conquet 29217, France] received in the last time.

QTH:	D-06193 Petersberg (Germany/Germania)
Ant.:	Dipol for 40m-Band & Boomerang Antenna 11m-Band
RX for RF:	FRG-100B + IF-mixer & ICOM IC-R75 + IF-mixer
Software IF:	con STUDIO1 - Software italiano per SDR [S-AM-USB/LSB]
Software AF:	Fldigi-3.22.07 + flmsg-2.0.8
OS:	German XP-SP3 with support for asian languages	German W7 32bit + 64bit
PC:	MEDION Titanium 8008 (since 2003) [ P4 - 2,6 GHz]	MSI-CR70-2MP345W7 (since2014) [i5 -P3560 ( 2 x 2,6GHz) ]