Radio Havana Cuba

[SomeRadioGuy]

This is the A25 Schedule for Radio Havana Cuba. Only english, spanish and portugese remain on SW. And you'll notice, only two frequencies.. 6000 and 15230khz remain. Antenna systems and transmitters are probably beyond repair and China won't give them anymore money

Nevermind, they still sound awful. Fuzzy, distorted and incredibly under modulated.

French, arabic, esperanto and creole will be streaming only.

Honestly, if it were me, i'd reverse course a bit.. drop service to North America and focus on latin america and africa with french, spanish and portugese with English and creol being online only.

 

[CTListener]

How long has RHC been on 6000? Pretty sure it was there when I started SWLing in the mid-'60s.

 

[Mediafrog+]

On recent checks of 6000 kHz during the evening the audio is so low and distorted that I actually can’t tell what language it is…and I’m less than 1,000 miles from Havana. A check of 15230 kHz reveals the same thing.

The domestic Radio Rebelde transmitter on 5025 kHz sounded halfway decent at last check.

They really need to pull the plug on the shortwave mess. Better ways to reach an audience these days.

 

[Mediafrog+]

How long has RHC been on 6000? Pretty sure it was there when I started SWLing in the mid-'60s.

I don’t recall RHC on 6000 in the 1960s. 9525 and 11760 were used for evening English to North America, IIRC.

 

[CTListener]

I don’t recall RHC on 6000 in the 1960s. 9525 and 11760 were used for evening English to North America, IIRC.

9525 definitely rings a bell. I guess 6000 came on more recently.

 

[boiseengineer]

Are the HF Radio Marti jammers off too?
Next will be all the "jamming" transmitters on 1180 if Radio Marti goes away permanently.

 

[davideduardo]

Are the HF Radio Marti jammers off too?
Next will be all the "jamming" transmitters on 1180 if Radio Marti goes away permanently.

1180 does not have jamming transmitters. It simply has a large number of the stations for one of the Cuban national networks. While the effect is to make listening to Radio Martí impossible, those are definitely functioning stations of their national radio system. They will likely all stay in operation.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

Are the HF Radio Marti jammers off too?
Next will be all the "jamming" transmitters on 1180 if Radio Marti goes away permanently.

11935 and 11860 for the cooban jammy jam jammer musheen have been heard recently.

 

[gr8oldies]

Are the HF Radio Marti jammers off too?
Next will be all the "jamming" transmitters on 1180 if Radio Marti goes away permanently.

They carry regular programming so they likely won't go away

 

[gr8oldies]

9525 definitely rings a bell. I guess 6000 came on more recently.

I kind of seem to remember 11760 being dedicated to Spanish language programming from 6am through the evening. "Listen to Communism at work". This would have been 1973-75-ish. There was an English service to Northern Europe that hit in the Eastern U.S. afternoons. Not sure I remember the English to North America frequencies

 

[Mediafrog+]

11935 and 11860 for the cooban jammy jam jammer musheen have been heard recently.

I have not heard any residual jamming on the former Radio Marti shortwave frequencies in a couple of weeks.

 

[sasha23]

How long has RHC been on 6000? Pretty sure it was there when I started SWLing in the mid-'60s.

6000 was used in more recent years. lately they are “trying” to transmit on 6000 kHz, strong signal, very undermodulated. The CRI relay on 5990 around 0000-0100 UTC has better modulation, however, the audio distorts some.

6060 kHz was their main 49 meter band “legacy” frequency for many years as was 11760 and 15230 kHz. English used to be on 9525 kHz

I still don’t understand that their engineers or technicians don’t appear to monitor their on-air signals! If I was them, I would listen to hear how their “product” sounds on a regular radio. If they can’t increase the modulation to an intelligible level, I would shut the transmitter down! No one is going to turn the volume up all the way on their receiver and try to listen to something that one cannot understand a word they’re saying! They’re wasting their electricity hoping that it “might work”

 

[yeoldeschool]

Antenna systems and transmitters are probably beyond repair and China won't give them anymore money

Why can drug cartels, intelligence agencies, and terrorist groups smuggle weapons of mass destruction, sleeper cells, spies, and kilos of cocaine into and out of every country on earth, but Cuba's government can't even smuggle in a few boxes of vacuum tubes and PCB components out of other countries to maintain its international broadcasting service?

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

Why can drug cartels, intelligence agencies, and terrorist groups smuggle weapons of mass destruction, sleeper cells, spies, and kilos of cocaine into and out of every country on earth, but Cuba's government can't even smuggle in a few boxes of vacuum tubes and PCB components out of other countries to maintain its international broadcasting service?

its way more than that... cubas Transmitter have been in disrepair for a decade or more

 

[yeoldeschool]

Still. They could smuggle in an entire Continental transmitter by ocean cargo freight from somewhere if they wanted. If they place so much importance on telling the world their story, anyway.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

Still. They could smuggle in an entire Continental transmitter by ocean cargo freight from somewhere if they wanted. If they place so much importance on telling the world their story, anyway.

With what money?

 

[Mediafrog+]

Still. They could smuggle in an entire Continental transmitter by ocean cargo freight from somewhere if they wanted. If they place so much importance on telling the world their story, anyway.

Maybe the Cubans could get ahold of the Radio Marti transmitters at Greenville that are no longer in use.

On a more serious note, it would make no sense to replace the current decrepit RHC transmitters with different decrepit units.

I suspect the Cubans are aware that shortwave is essentially dead as an effective medium to "tell their story".

 

[yeoldeschool]

Maybe the Cubans could get ahold of the Radio Marti transmitters at Greenville that are no longer in use.

Oh, lawd, what a delicious propaganda coup that would be to all 9 of their listeners.

On a more serious note, it would make no sense to replace the current decrepit RHC transmitters with different decrepit units.

Continentals just came to mind because of their enormity. I wonder what North Korea uses? Maybe Kim can kick down one of his auxiliary units to the Cubans.

I suspect the Cubans are aware that shortwave is essentially dead as an effective medium to "tell their story".

Then why are they insisting on continuing to coast on fumes with their distorted, buzzing, 1% modulating dinosaur equipment? They're acting like their POV is so vital to the shortwave audience that it's worth broadcasting it even in a barely listenable fashion.

 

[davideduardo]

Why can drug cartels, intelligence agencies, and terrorist groups smuggle weapons of mass destruction, sleeper cells, spies, and kilos of cocaine into and out of every country on earth, but Cuba's government can't even smuggle in a few boxes of vacuum tubes and PCB components out of other countries to maintain its international broadcasting service?

All the transmitters now are Chinese, and use Chinese type components. I don't know if the higher power transmitters use tubes, but suspect that, like nearly everything built in the last 25 to 30 years they use solid state modules.

 

[davideduardo]

Continentals just came to mind because of their enormity. I wonder what North Korea uses? Maybe Kim can kick down one of his auxiliary units to the Cubans.

North Korea was reported to have installed Chinese transmitters for domestic and SW services.

Then why are they insisting on continuing to coast on fumes with their distorted, buzzing, 1% modulating dinosaur equipment? They're acting like their POV is so vital to the shortwave audience that it's worth broadcasting it even in a barely listenable fashion.

As I said before, there must be some old-timers in the government... and the original revolutionaries are now in their 80's... that think SW is of value. But the people running the facilities pay no attention to it because they know nobody listens, domestically or outside of Cuba.