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"DigiDX is taking a few weeks off, hence the VOA Radiogram transmissions via WRMI and IBC.  See http://www.digidx.uk/ and https://www.facebook.com/digidx/..."

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                                                              http://voaradiogram.net/

RSID: <<2017-03-18T16:01Z MFSK-32 @ 17580000+1500>>

Welcome to program 207 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:

  1:46 Program preview (now)
  2:56 Fog-clearing apparatus used at Oregon airport*
  9:52 'Boaty McBoatface' submarine to embark on first mission*
16:44 MFSK16: RFE/RL photo archive from 1950s USSR
21:50 MFSK32: Images* and closing announcements

* with image(s)


Please send reception reports to radiogram@voanews.com.

And visit voaradiogram.net.

Twitter: @VOARadiogram



VOA NEWS

Unusual Fog-clearing Apparatus Keeps Airline Passengers Moving

Tom Banse
March 14, 2017

MEDFORD, OREGON — Make-believe fog is a frequent special effect
used in the theater and at rock concerts. Usually created with
dry ice, frozen carbon dioxide crystals, the smokey mist rolling
across the stage creates a sense of mystery and suspense. But
when real fog settles over an airfield, it creates delays or even
danger.

At an airport in the western state of Oregon, ground crews take
matters in their own hands when freezing fog threatens to delay
takeoffs and landings. And they use the same substance to clear
the fog that's used to create it - dry ice.

"The dry ice collects the moisture [in the air] and it falls to
the ground as basically just snow or ice," explains Howard
Volkman, the operations and maintenance supervisor at Rogue
Valley International-Medford Airport.

When Mother Nature throws travelers a curve ball and freezing fog
descends over the airport, he and his co-workers jump into
action. First, they load crushed dry ice into a hopper suspended
under a big helium balloon.

The five-and-a-half-meter-diameter balloon is tethered with a
winch cable to an airport pickup truck. The crew lets it rise to
152 meters, then, with a remote control, turns on the dry ice
spreader.

A driver and an operator make slow loops around the runway with
the balloon and its dry ice spreader in tow, scattering the
crystals into the mist.

"We're clearing a hole in the fog," Volkman says, "just for the
airplanes to be able to see the runway."

A friendly ghost

The staff nicknamed their white balloon CASPER, after the
friendly cartoon ghost. Then they came up with an acronym that
fit: Cable Attached System Providing Effective Release.
With the dry ice spreader loaded, CASPER is ready to be launched.

With the dry ice spreader loaded, CASPER is ready to be launched.

CASPER first took to the air in 2010, and has deployed 14 times
this winter.

Medford Airport Director Bern Case says it is "very effective,"
reducing flight cancellations to near zero.

"It's all about dollars. Cancellations and diversions for
airlines are very expensive, not only to the airlines, but if a
person is trying to get to Tokyo and they can't get out of here,
it can ruin an entire trip," he said.

This fog-busting method only works at temperatures of zero
Celsius and below. So it is not that useful for airports in
coastal cities where it's usually warmer when fog forms.

Case says the Medford airport provided the blueprints for the
one-of-a-kind balloon system to the airport authorities in
Spokane, Washington and Anchorage, Alaska.

International inquiries about Medford, Oregon's fog-clearing
technology have come from Russia, South Africa and Scotland.

While fog-clearing operations are still necessary for private
planes and older aircraft, recent advances in precision
navigation technology mean newer jets can take off and land with
barely any visibility.

http://www.voanews.com/a/fog-busters-airports/3765780.html


Image: The fog-busting crew at Oregon's Medford Airport gets
ready to clear the air. ...

Sending Pic:211x178C;





This is VOA Radiogram from the Voice of America.

Please send reception reports to radiogram@voanews.com.
 

'Boaty McBoatface' to Embark on First Mission

VOA News
March 13, 2017

It's not every day that an unmanned scientific submarine makes
international headlines, but this sub is named Boaty McBoatface,
and it is about to embark on its first mission.

The sub is operated by Britain's National Environmental Research
Council, which last year turned to the internet to name the
g:up's new $248 million research ship that is still under
construction.

The online naming poll went viral, but NERC opted instead to name
the ship the Royal Research Ship Sir David Attenborough, after
the famous British naturalist.

Making sure not to anger the internet, NERC opted to use Boaty
McBoatface for the drone sub.

Now, little Boaty is about to undertake its first mission,
according to a NERC statement.

"Cute though it sounds, this unmanned submarine is part of a
fleet of some pretty intrepid explorers," it said. "This month
they'll begin their first mission, traversing a deep current that
originates in Antarctica and flows through the Southern Ocean.
They'll be collecting data for the Dynamics of the Orkney Passage
Outflow (DynOPO) project as they 'fly' through submarine
waterfalls and rapids, shedding light on how global warming is
changing our oceans."

Boaty McBoatface will likely be operated from the RSS Sir David
Attenborough when it is finished being built in 2019.

"Work continues on dry land for now, but she'll be ready to
'splashdown' off the yard and into the blue early next year,
whilst works will continue inside," NERC said. "Then she'll be
taken for trials to make sure she's seaworthy and her scientific
equipment is working to perfection before she sets off for her
first mission in 2019."

http://www.voanews.com/a/mht-boaty-mcboatface-embarks-on-first-mission/3763508.html


Image: The unmanned submarine Boaty McBoatface ...

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Image: An artist's impression of the Royal Research Ship Sir
David Attenborough being built for Britain's Natural Environment
Research Council ...


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This is VOA Radiogram from the Voice of America.

Please send reception reports to radiogram@voanews.com.

VOA Radiogram now changes to MFSK16 ...


 

RSID: <<2017-03-18T16:16Z MFSK-16 @ 17580000+1500>>


This is VOA Radiogram in MFSK16


Soviet Life In The 1950s, As Never Seen Before

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty press release
March 15, 2017

WASHINGTON - RFE/RL has published never-before-seen color images
of life in the Soviet Union in the 1950s, from a trove of
original video and photographs that was recently discovered in
cardboard boxes in a former auto body shop in the Pacific
Northwest of the United States.

The archive belonged to U.S. Army Major Martin Manhoff, who spent
more than two years in the Soviet Union in the early 1950s,
serving as assistant army attaché at the U.S. embassy. From his
vantage point at the embassy, then located just off Moscow's Red
Square, he filmed what is thought to be the only independent
footage of Stalin's funeral procession, providing an unfiltered
view of the event not conveyed in official Soviet reels.

Douglas Smith, the award-winning historian and author of five
books on Russia who discovered the Manhoff Archive, has said that
the photos have "a human quality that is missing from any other
depiction" of Soviet life at the time.

This first installment of the Manhoff Archive, released by RFE/RL
in English and Russian and featuring the Stalin funeral
procession video, has been viewed more than 2 million times on
Russian-language platforms and over 250,000 times in English, and
has been shared 20,000 times on Facebook in both languages.


http://pressroom.rferl.org/a/release-manhoff-archive/28371941.html


VOA Radiogram now returns to MFSK32 ...


 

RSID: <<2017-03-18T16:21Z MFSK-32 @ 17580000+1500>>

 

This is VOA Radiogram in MFSK32.

Please send reception reports to radiogram@voanews.com.


Image: One of the photos of Moscow in the 1950s from the
archive mentioned in the RFE/RL press release ...


Sending Pic:234x132C;

Returning now to the United States, on the east coast, we have
just endured a week of cold, snow, and wind. That weather could
have a negative effect on Washington's famous cherry blossoms ...
 

Sending Pic:226x151C;

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.

 

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