Carribean stations which have been on uncoordinated frequencies

[Ai4i]

Here are the ones I remember, but I believe they are all on standard channels, have switched to FM, or no longer exist:
605 I am unsure whether Radio Moscow in Cuba was ever here, or only on 600 and 1040.
705 Cayman Brac, Cayman Islands (moved to FM)
834 Belize City, Belize (technically Central America, moved to 830, then to FM)
1035 4VEC/4VEF/4VEH, Cap-Haïtien, Haiti (moved to FM, not listed with call letters)
1555 Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands (might be on 1205)
1610 Carribean Lighthouse, Antigua (now a standard channel, but moved to 1160)

 

[davideduardo]

Here are the ones I remember, but I believe they are all on standard channels, have switched to FM, or no longer exist:

Not Caribbean but there was 1235 in Bermuda.

Then:

PJB2 Voice of Bonaire 1385 (previously Radio Hoyer 3)
PJD2 1295 St Maarten
Curacao
PJC2 865
Aruba
Kelkboom 1435
Voice of Aruba 655 and later 1325.
Radio Antillana 775


Swan Island
Radio Americas 1165

Anguilla
Radio Anguilla 1505

Monserrat
885 Radio Monserrat

St Kits
ZIZ 555

Windward Islands
St Georges 535
Castries 1565
Roseau 695
Chateauclair 1535
Kingstown 705
Carriacou 1045

Haiti
4VS 1385
4VPE 1475

 

[KeithE4]

Here are the ones I remember, but I believe they are all on standard channels, have switched to FM, or no longer exist:
605 I am unsure whether Radio Moscow in Cuba was ever here, or only on 600 and 1040.
705 Cayman Brac, Cayman Islands (moved to FM)
834 Belize City, Belize (technically Central America, moved to 830, then to FM)
1035 4VEC/4VEF/4VEH, Cap-Haïtien, Haiti (moved to FM, not listed with call letters)
1555 Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands (might be on 1205)
1610 Carribean Lighthouse, Antigua (now a standard channel, but moved to 1160)

834 in then-British Honduras was a semi-regular in Indiana in the early '70s at night, mostly in the winter. My Hammarlund HQ-145 was selective enough to separate it from WCCO 830 Minneapolis and semi-local WHAS Louisville on 840. IIRC, I picked up 4VEF from Haiti at least once in Indiana as well.

 

[gr8oldies]

I remember recieving Belize pretty often. Isn't Caribbean Beacon still there?

 

[Ai4i]

Radio Americas 1165

Isn't Caribbean Beacon still there?

I only remember the Swan being on the Lighthouse's current frequency, 1160!

 

[crainbebo]

ZIZ 555 was heard all over the East Coast before they quit.

 

[mimo]

ZIZ 555 was heard all over the East Coast before they quit.

They made it to Ottawa, Ontario every night in the winter.

 

[davideduardo]

They made it to Ottawa, Ontario every night in the winter.

I owned HCFV1 in Quito on 805 kHz and we got reports from Europe, Scandinavia, all over North America and Oceania. Power was only 1,200 watts but on that "split frequency" it got out very well.

 

[davideduardo]

834 in then-British Honduras was a semi-regular in Indiana in the early '70s at night, mostly in the winter. My Hammarlund HQ-145 was selective enough to separate it from WCCO 830 Minneapolis and semi-local WHAS Louisville on 840. IIRC, I picked up 4VEF from Haiti at least once in Indiana as well.

Central America had quite a few split channel stations. 1015 Radio Reloj in Panama was an easy one, as was Ondas del Canajagua 1045, with 645 Radio Mía being a harder catch.

Costa Rica, with allocations in the 50's and 70's every 25 kHz, had stations on 675, 625, 576, 726, 775 and on up that were easily heard even in the northern US. Faro del Caribe, 10 kw on 1075 was widely heard in the US, with Columbia on 725 second in potential.

Nicaragua had Radio Tic Tac on 555, and Radio Cosigüina 1475 in Chinandega and Radio Managua on 965 which were easy catches.

Honduras had many that wandered about like Morazán on 775. Guagemala by early 60's only had the Escuintla station on 575. Most splits from El Salvador went away by the end of the 60's, like the big YSS on 655, and YSEB on 1175 and Radio Internacional on 1015.

 

[Ai4i]

I lived two salt water miles from "Tiger Radio", a 1KW station on 560, so ZIZ was off the table, but how powerful were they? If I could put my "Ugly American" cap on for a moment, I assume that most stations in small countries transmit into simple quarter wave verticals or less, nothing as complicated as directional arrays.

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

Back in the days of tube radios (late 60's - early 70's) , I recall hearing Radio Paradise both on 1265 and (?) 825, from St. Kitts, on radios shrouded in a southeast Queens basement. Radio Paradise was an English-speaking religious station.

Ha, lol .... the *only* split-frequency station I got while living for a spell in Massachusetts was Radio Paradise on 1265. I chuckle because right across the Connecticut River from my apartment were the two blinking, fascist towers of WSPR 1270. For some reason I'm pretty convinced that WSPR must've been off the air that night.
The Radio Paradise reception was off a console radio in the furnished apartment, the brand name of which escapes me. That station certainly got out.

@ David: ZMB-1 really threw us Kennedy Airport kids for a loop (as it were). Huh? A station in between 1230 and 1240? At first we thought the calls were 4 V N One; they did pronounce the Z as 'zed'. But Bermuda-to-JFK was pretty much water-path anyway.

 

[davideduardo]

I lived two salt water miles from "Tiger Radio", a 1KW station on 560, so ZIZ was off the table, but how powerful were they? If I could put my "Ugly American" cap on for a moment, I assume that most stations in small countries transmit into simple quarter wave verticals or less, nothing as complicated as directional arrays.

ZIZ was, for a while, 5 kw into what was less than a quarter wave aerial. In the Islands, tall towers were hurricane magnets, so we did not use them. Even in Puerto Rico, with only one or two exceptions, the minimum FCC requirement was employed.

In the period from the 50's well into the 80's it was not uncommon to find stations in the lesser developed nations of Latin America using inverted L antennas rather than towers. The support structures were often trees or big telephone poles.

When I built my first station in Quito, it was one of only 4 stations with towers; the other 38 used inverted L longwire antennas.

 

[Ke4kls]

If I recall Caribbean Christian Radio in the Turks and Caicos Islands was on 1025 kHz at one time but then changed to 1020 kHz when they were on the air in the 90's.

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

@ Ke4 : I had been chronologically fortunate enough to've moved here to NE PA while The Turks & Caicos station still was on 1025. Got a nice tape from them on June 5th 1995.
That was off a Lafayette HA-600 (imo the second-best 'bargain' communications radio made, with the earlier HA-700 being the best of the $100 bunch).

Not quite a year later, the Turks and Caicos were on 1020, ripe for another tape ID.

Helping matters greatly were
a) The Pittsburgh/Carribean locations were pretty close enough to 90° off to be a convenient null
b) KDKA's signal is, conveniently, one of the worst 50K omnis ever remaining licensed

 

[ftballfan]

@ Ke4 : I had been chronologically fortunate enough to've moved here to NE PA while The Turks & Caicos station still was on 1025. Got a nice tape from them on June 5th 1995.
That was off a Lafayette HA-600 (imo the second-best 'bargain' communications radio made, with the earlier HA-700 being the best of the $100 bunch).

Not quite a year later, the Turks and Caicos were on 1020, ripe for another tape ID.

Helping matters greatly were
a) The Pittsburgh/Carribean locations were pretty close enough to 90° off to be a convenient null
b) KDKA's signal is, conveniently, one of the worst 50K omnis ever remaining licensed

Also, NEPA is probably in the groundwave/skywave convergence zone of KDKA

 

[Ke4kls]

I was on the east coast of FL at the time CCR was on the air. Could hear it very clearly at night and during critical hours, almost like a local. Perhaps they used 1025 kHz to negate any interference to KDKA. For whatever reason they were only on the air for a short time.