Shortwave Radiogram 163

I usually can only decode the Shortwave Radiogram program on Sunday evenings (local time) when conditions and frequencies line up to be perfect for the short transmission path from Florida. This morning I decided to tune in to the 15775 kHz channel, transmitted from WRMI. To my surprise there was very little fading on the signal and I was able to obtain a perfect copy (there is some noise on a couple of the images).

The last image, made of the RGB channels 0, 128, and 255, was really cool to watch (and listening to) coming across the radio. There were three distinct channels showing on the waterfall which were very distinct on MFSK64.

The program, decoded.

Welcome to program 163 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:

 1:44  MFSK32: Program preview (now)
 2:58  MFSK16: ARRL/TAPR conference call for papers
 5:40  MFSK32: Highest-altitude mammal is a mouse*
11:03  MFSK64: China's South China Sea propaganda*
17:20  This week's images*
27:40  MFSK32: Closing announcements

* with image(s)


Please send reception reports to radiogram@verizon.net

And visit http://swradiogram.net

Twitter: @SWRadiogram


Shortwave Radiogram now changes to MFSK16 ...

Before RSID: <<2020-08-01T13:33Z MFSK-32 @ 7780000+1500>>

This is Shortwave Radiogram in MFSK16 ...


From ARRL.org:

ARRL/TAPR Digital Communications Conference Seeks Papers

07/27/2020

Technical papers are being solicited for presentation at the 2020
ARRL/TAPR Digital Communications Conference (DCC), September 11 -
13. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, this year's conference will
be held online. Papers will also be published in the Conference
Proceedings. Authors do not need to participate in the conference
to have their papers included in the Proceedings. The submission
deadline is August 15, 2020. Submit papers via email to Maty
Weinberg, KB1EIB, maty@arrl.org. Papers will be published exactly
as submitted, and authors will retain all rights.

https://bit.ly/3hOsh8Z

Returning to MFSK32 ...




Before RSID: <<2020-08-01T13:35Z MFSK-16 @ 7780000+1500>>

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From Science News:


A South American mouse is the world's highest-dwelling mammal

Jack J. Lee
29 July 2020

A yellow-rumped leaf-eared mouse has shattered the world record
as the highest-dwelling mammal yet documented.

The mouse (Phyllotis xanthopygus rupestris) was found 6,739
meters, or 22,110 feet, above sea level on the summit of Volcán
Llullaillaco, a dormant volcano on the border of Chile and
Argentina. For comparison, Mount Everest is 8,848 meters high
(29,029 feet).

The record was previously held by the large-eared pika (Ochotona
macrotis), reported at an altitude of 6,130 meters during a 1921
Mount Everest expedition. Birds have been found at even higher
altitudes.

That mammals can live at these heights is astonishing,
considering there's only about 44 percent of the oxygen available
at sea level. "It's very difficult to sustain any kind of
physical activity, or mental activity for that matter," says Jay
Storz, an evolutionary biologist at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln. The temperature is also rarely above freezing
and can drop as low as -60° Celsius.

Storz and colleagues captured several yellow-rumped leaf-eared
mice, including the summit-topping one, plus mice from three
other species from a range of high altitudes, the team reports
July 16 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Next,
the team plans to look for genetic changes that might have
equipped these animals to survive at high elevations.
Surprisingly, another yellow-rumped leaf-eared mouse was found at
sea level, indicating that this species has the broadest altitude
distribution of any mammal, in addition to the altitude record.

"It's so amazing that they're up there," says Graham Scott, a
physiologist at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada who was
not involved in the study. Understanding how these and other
animals survive under low-oxygen conditions could provide insight
into how humans could overcome diseases that cause reduced oxygen
levels, he says.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/south-american-mouse-world-highest-dwelling-mammal

Sending Pic:208x147C;
South American mouse
Shortwave Radiogram changes to MFSK64 ...


Before RSID: <<2020-08-01T13:41Z MFSK-32 @ 7780000+1500>>


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From the Voice of America:

China Launches Propaganda for Recognition of Disputed Maritime
Claims

Ralph Jennings
27 July 2020

TAIPEI, TAIWAN - Chinese scholars have had scores of reports
published in internationally recognized scientific journals
containing a mention of their country's 'nine-dash line,' the
core of its claim to the hotly contested South China Sea, an
American research institution said this month.

China is using the journal pieces to promote its claimed
demarcation line, Vietnamese scholar Nguyen Thuy Anh wrote in a
July 15 article for the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative
under the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Journal articles are just China's latest effort to publicize its
nine-dash line for a wide global audience in hopes that the
constant reminders will legitimize its claim over the claims of
other countries, analysts say.

Maps, globes, postcards, T-shirts, video games and at least one
blockbuster film influenced by China refer to the line as well.
China has churned out those items for at least 10 years.

"If you do slap a nine-dash line on say DreamWorks movies that
get localized and distributed around the world, it does I think
send a subtle message that (the) default world view should be
that the nine-dash line is real and legitimate," initiative
director Gregory Poling said.

Nguyen, a research fellow at the East Sea Institute of the
Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam, found 260 articles using the
nine-dash line in 20 "prominent" scientific journals owned by
various publishers, her report says.

China vies for maritime sovereignty in the South China Sea with
Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam. At stake
is a shared 3.5 million-square-kilometer sea valued for
fisheries, energy reserves and commercial shipping lanes.

Beijing claims about 90% of the waterway and has angered weaker
neighbors over the past decade by landfilling tiny islets in the
sea for military, economic and scientific use.

China refers to the nine-dash line to back its sovereignty claim.
The line, literally composed of nine thick dashes, swings south
from the Chinese mainland, across waters east of Vietnam, near
the north coast of Borneo, and back along the Philippine island
of Palawan toward Taiwan. The thickness of lines plus the spaces
between them make China's actual claims vague, analysts have
said.

Propaganda and constant reminder

Chinese officials as well as private firms show the nine-dash
line in passports, books, online games and tourist brochures,
Nguyen said in her report.

In cinema, the most internationally memorable example was a scene
from "Abominable," an animated movie made by China-based Pearl
Studio and America's DreamWorks Animation. The film was banned in
Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam last year because of the
scene.

Vietnamese officials in 2018 denounced the arrival of 14 Chinese
tourists who flew into the Southeast Asian country wearing
T-shirts showing the disputed line. Five years earlier Philippine
booksellers quit selling made-in-China globes showing the Chinese
demarcation line.

The government in China, a major exporter of globes, last year
published a notice aimed at ensuring that any map-bearing
materials make the Chinese "position on territory clear to the
international community," state-controlled media outlet Global
Times online said.

'Target audience'

China is aiming these materials at a "target audience" of Arab,
African, and other "third countries" rather than Western
consumers, Poling said. A student doing research in Africa, he
said, would see probably the nine-dash line on a globe and not
question it.

Few world consumers know what the line means, said Jay
Batongbacal, international maritime affairs professor at
University of the Philippines.

"Most of them don't notice it, because they're not really
familiar with South China Sea issues, meaning this goes over
their heads," Batongbacal said. "That's why China is doing this.
It's like a subtle propaganda effort, which they will use later
on to say the nine-dash line is well known to everybody because
it's in all these products and articles and whatnot."

China cites historical records to support its maritime claim. In
2016 a world arbitration court ruled against the claim's legal
basis in the South China Sea. Southeast Asian countries that
assert their maritime sovereignty, sometimes sparring with
Chinese vessels in the contested sea, normally rely on
370-kilometer-wide exclusive economic zones extending from their
coasts.

People offshore and on are supposed to pay attention to the
nine-dash line merchandising, said Huang Kwei-bo, vice dean of
the international affairs college at National Chengchi University
in Taipei. The Chinese government regularly reminds citizens of
its achievements overseas to drum up support for the state and
ruling Communist Party.

"Its actions of this type actually have two points - one is to
approach the international community and promote that the PRC has
had the whole South China Sea forever, but another point of
course is for what amounts to domestic patriotic education,"
Huang said.

https://www.voanews.com/east-asia-pacific/china-launches-propaganda-recognition-disputed-maritime-claims

Image: Map of the "nine-dash line" ...

Sending Pic:182x204C;
Nine-dash line
This is Shortwave Radiogram in MFSK64

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This week's images ...

Cows graze in a pasture beneath a haze-filtered moon near Sioux
Falls, South Dakota. From https://bit.ly/3geEoMb ...

Sending Pic:205x145C;
Cows grazing in a pasture.
The Phillie Phanatic sits alone in the stands during a game
between the Miami Marlins and the Philadelphia Phillies at
Citizens Bank Park on July 25, 2020, in Philadelphia. From
https://bit.ly/3jWEw5t ...


Sending Pic:194x170C;
Phillie Phanatic sits alone in the stands during a game.
A compound in the leaves of the American beautyberry boosts an
antibiotic’s activity against antibiotic-resistant staph
bacteria, according to Emory University research. From
https://bit.ly/3k4WD9o ...


Sending Pic:204x115C;
The American beautyberry.
A fish swims in the Cineaqua Aquarium in Paris, which reopened
its doors to visitors a few weeks ago. From
https://bit.ly/3fifuKd ...


Sending Pic:199x140C;
A fish swims in the Cineaqua Aquarium.
Zinnias at Burnside Farm in Nokesville, Virginia. From
https://bit.ly/30abVSe ...


Sending Pic:198x122C;
Zinnias at Burnside Farm
Our art of the week is this design by our listener and analyst
Roger in Germany. It uses a mixture of colors in which there
are only 3 values in the RGB channels: 0, 128 and 255 ...


Sending Pic:161x161C;
pic 2020 08 01 135730z
Shortwave Radiogram returns to MFSK32 ...

Before RSID: <<2020-08-01T13:57Z MFSK-64 @ 7780000+1500>>

This is Shortwave Radiogram in MFSK32 ...


Shortwave Radiogram is transmitted by:

WRMI, Radio Miami International, wrmi.net

and

WINB Shortwave, winb.com


Please send reception reports to radiogram@verizon.net

And visit http://swradiogram.net

Twitter: @SWRadiogram or twitter.com/swradiogram

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