After four years on the air, the last VOA Radiogram will be
next weekend, June 17-18.

See the schedule at http://voaradiogram.net

Sending Pic:410x37C;

██╗   ██╗ ██████╗  █████╗     ██████╗  █████╗ ██████╗ ██╗ ██████╗  ██████╗ ██████╗  █████╗ ███╗   ███╗
██║   ██║██╔═══██╗██╔══██╗    ██╔══██╗██╔══██╗██╔══██╗██║██╔═══██╗██╔════╝ ██╔══██╗██╔══██╗████╗ ████║
██║   ██║██║   ██║███████║    ██████╔╝███████║██║  ██║██║██║   ██║██║  ███╗██████╔╝███████║██╔████╔██║
╚██╗ ██╔╝██║   ██║██╔══██║    ██╔══██╗██╔══██║██║  ██║██║██║   ██║██║   ██║██╔══██╗██╔══██║██║╚██╔╝██║
 ╚████╔╝ ╚██████╔╝██║  ██║    ██║  ██║██║  ██║██████╔╝██║╚██████╔╝╚██████╔╝██║  ██║██║  ██║██║ ╚═╝ ██║
  ╚═══╝   ╚═════╝ ╚═╝  ╚═╝    ╚═╝  ╚═╝╚═╝  ╚═╝╚═════╝ ╚═╝ ╚═════╝  ╚═════╝ ╚═╝  ╚═╝╚═╝  ╚═╝╚═╝     ╚═╝
                                                              http://voaradiogram.net/

RSID: <<2017-06-10T16:01Z MFSK-32 @ 17580000+1500>>

Welcome to program 219 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:

  1:47 Program preview (now)
  2:53 Bus-train hybrid drives on painted tracks*
  6:27 India launches heavy satellite*
12:57 Arabic text from Alhurra * **
16:33 Three photos
24:49 Closing announcements*

* with image

** Use UTF-8 character set


Please send reception reports to radiogram@voanews.com.

And visit voaradiogram.net.

Twitter: @VOARadiogram


 

Driverless Bus-train Hybrid Runs on Virtual Painted Tracks

VOA News
June 6, 2017

A Chinese company has unveiled a driverless bus-train hybrid that
uses white lines painted on the road to navigate.

The company, CRRC, called the electric vehicle a “smart bus.”

The Autonomous Rail Rapid Transit is made up of three cars, is 30
meters long and is capable of carrying about 500 passengers. It
can reportedly reach speeds up to 70 kilometers per hour and can
travel 25 kilometers on one 10-minute charge.

It uses sensors to stay on the white line.

The smart bus is much cheaper than building a rail track. This
makes it ideal for cities that have growing demand for public
transit, but not enough money to build subways.

According to state media, Xinhua, it costs $102 million to build
a kilometer of subway and only $2 million for the ART.

The first line will be a 6.5 kilometer route expected to start
running in 2018 in Zhuzhou.

https://www.voanews.com/a/mht-driverless-bus-train-hybrid-runs-on-virtual-painted-tracks/3889310.html


Sending Pic:221x153C;








This is VOA Radiogram from the Voice of America.

Please send reception reports to radiogram@voanews.com.


VOA NEWS

India Launches Heavy Lift Rocket

Anjana Pasricha
June 5, 2017

NEW DELHI - India's heaviest, newly-developed rocket hurtled into space
Monday evening carrying a communication satellite of more than
three tons from Sriharikota in eastern India. It marks another
milestone in the country's ambitious space program and brings
India a step closer to sending astronauts into space.

"Today is a historic day. ... we have been able to successfully put
the satellite into the orbit," a smiling A.S. Kiran Kumar,
chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization said after the
launch.

Space scientists count many benefits of the 640 ton
Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) Mk III rocket
which can carry a four ton payload into higher orbit. It will
reduce India's dependency on foreign space agencies to put its
heavier satellites in space leading to huge savings, it can over
time make it possible to send manned missions and enhance deep
space exploration capabilities.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted that the "mission takes
India closer to the next generation launch vehicle and satellite
capability. The nation is proud!"

Although India has been dreaming big in space – mulling a manned
mission to space and interplanetary missions to Venus and
Jupiter, its lack of heavy lift technology remained a hurdle in
giving concrete shape to those plans.

"To be very honest there was a major limitation of thinking
slightly big in space," says Ajay Lele at the Institute of
Defense Studies and Analyses in New Delhi. "Without a heavy
launcher you cannot have ambitious programs. Even though India
had gone to Moon and Mars, India had carried a very small amount
of a payload. Now future missions to all those planets can help
India to do major scientific research."

The technology has not come easy -- India's space agency has
spent about 15 years to develop the heavy lift rocket.

The new rocket will also help the country enhance the commercial
potential of its space program – putting satellites into space is
a lucrative $300 billion business that India has begun
exploiting. It was limited to putting smaller satellites in space
so far, but can now consider heavier launches.

In the last three years India's space program has come into
international limelight with a series of landmark programs: In
2014, it sent the world's cheapest mission to Mars, which Prime
Minister Narendra Modi points out cost less than the Hollywood
movie "Gravity". Earlier this year it achieved a record by
putting 104 small satellites in a single launch simultaneously
into space.

https://www.voanews.com/a/india-launches-heavy-lift-rocket/3887307.html



Sending Pic:198x209C;







This is VOA Radiogram from the Voice of America.

Please send reception reports to radiogram@voanews.com.


On VOA Radiogram, we have transmitted text in various non-Latin
alphabets.

Today we will try an excerpt in Arabic from Alhurra TV ...


From Alhurra.com
7 June 2017
 

Full text (in Arabic):
https://www.alhurra.com/a/china-moon-lunar-mission-/369255.html



Sending Pic:223x70C;









This is VOA Radiogram from the Voice of America.

Please send reception reports to radiogram@voanews.com.


Much of the success of VOA Radiogram can be attributed to the
magnificent Edward R. Murrow shortwave transmitting station in
North Carolina. It went into operation for the Voice of America
in 1963.

Here is an image of the control room at the Murrow station ...



Sending Pic:213x228C;







And the console at the Murrow station, with meters for each of
the eight transmitters ...


Sending Pic:289x104C;









Back in Washington, the Voice of America studios are located near
the United States Capitol. Those of us who arrive early in the
morning can often see sunrise over the Capitol. This photo was
taken May 4 by Steven Springer, @StevenASpringer, VOA's editor
for news standards and best practices ...


Sending Pic:271x179C;

More of Steve's photos are at https://www.instagram.com/dbronx/





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.




Next weekend, the 220th and final program of VOA Radiogram.

Then I retire from the Voice of America after 32 years.

Where has the time gone? ...



Sending Pic:410x37C;
 

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