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AM Frequency of the week: 530

Thanks for your informed insight. Wikipedia gives 1962 as the commencement of R. Enciclopedia, but doesn't say on which frequency they began. Back then, probably 1260 kHz.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Enciclopedia

A thorough history of radio broadcasting in Cuba would be a fascinating read. More than any country I know of (North Korea may be another), Cuba has had a major relationship with broadcasting, internally and from the outside, from the earliest days of the revolution.
 
KR1S said:
Thanks for your informed insight. Wikipedia gives 1962 as the commencement of R. Enciclopedia, but doesn't say on which frequency they began. Back then, probably 1260 kHz.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Enciclopedia

A thorough history of radio broadcasting in Cuba would be a fascinating read. More than any country I know of (North Korea may be another), Cuba has had a major relationship with broadcasting, internally and from the outside, from the earliest days of the revolution.
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Enciclopedia began as a La Habana only station, and later became a network.

Among Fidel Castro's earliest operations in eastern Cuba was the take-over of commercial radio stations to issue proclamations. As he gained control of whole regions, stations were seized (or "liberated" as they called it) as voices of the revolution.

This became part of the revolutionary movement all over Latin America beginning in the 60's and extending to the Sandinista movement and even Radio Venceremos in El Salvador in the 80's. In fact, my first station in Quito was briefly taken over by revolutionary guerillas in 1965 for the purpose of issuing a proclamation to "the people" of Ecuador.

There are some books about pre-Castro broadcasting in Cuba, but all are in Spanish. Cuba had very advanced radio operations, and many of the dramatic and comedy shows of the 50's used all over Latin America were produced in Cuba, particularly by Goar Mestre's CMQ. And, speaking of Mestre, he created the world's first all-news station, Radio Reloj, back in the late 40's... more than a decade before Gordon McLendon would try "X-tra News over Los Angeles".
 
From Houston, Radio Enciclopedia typically dominates the frequency. Radio Rebelde was often audible way underneath, but seems stronger recently and will sometimes be neck and neck with Enciclopedia. I've not heard the Canadian or RVC.
 
Can you hear anything from your location during the day or is this night only?

But looking at the map, I see even the southern limits of Houston is ways inland however I wonder what could be heard on Galveston Island in the daytime.
 
hawaiigar said:
Can you hear anything from your location during the day or is this night only?

But looking at the map, I see even the southern limits of Houston is ways inland however I wonder what could be heard on Galveston Island in the daytime.
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I'm on the west side of Houston and about 55 miles from the coast. During the day, I hear traces of a TIS station, but nothing else. Enciclopedia starts coming in just before my sunset. Down in Galveston with a decent radio, daytime reception is a lot better (local-strength WWL and KVNS for example), but Cuba, at 900+ miles, might be a stretch. It would be interesting to try sometime in the winter.
 
Well, being that it's a low frequency on the dial I would guess that somewhat of a signal could be heard on a good receiver.

On Honeymoon Island at the Gulf in central Florida, I was able to hear and ID KTRH at 775 miles in the daytime behind WYGM Orlando when the Mexican station on 740 was off the air and not a lot of the signal from KTRH is even directed that way.
 
hawaiigar said:
Well, being that it's a low frequency on the dial I would guess that somewhat of a signal could be heard on a good receiver.

On Honeymoon Island at the Gulf in central Florida, I was able to hear and ID KTRH at 775 miles in the daytime behind WYGM Orlando when the Mexican station on 740 was off the air and not a lot of the signal from KTRH is even directed that way.
Click to expand...

I'll definitely bring a radio along the next time I am in Galveston. If I can get 530, I should be able to catch other Cubans as well.
 
hawaiigar said:
On Honeymoon Island at the Gulf in central Florida, I was able to hear and ID KTRH at 775 miles in the daytime behind WYGM Orlando when the Mexican station on 740 was off the air and not a lot of the signal from KTRH is even directed that way.
Click to expand...

I also heard KTRH daytime (under Orlando) on the beach at Treasure Island (St. Pete Beach), which I'd guesstimate is about 20 miles south of Honeymoon Island. Perssonally, I'd be somewhat surprised if R. Enciclopedia on 530 could make a 900-mile daytime salt water path hop, but I'd love to be proven wrong.
 
Daytime in NW San Antonio is blank.

At night, R. Enciclopedia is a regular. Also, just like my fellow Texan wildthangjim, I used to hear R. Rebelde only underneath and intermittently. But now it's noticeably stronger and even competes with R. Enciclopedia at times.

I haven't heard anything else on this frequency.
 
wildthangjim said:
From Houston, Radio Enciclopedia typically dominates the frequency. Radio Rebelde was often audible way underneath, but seems stronger recently....
Click to expand...

Pretty much what I've been noticing....especially during my last couple of stays in the Pensacola area.
 
10-20KW, perhaps. But they've only been heard here in Yakima once. And on the other west coast SDRs, 530 is usually a weak Enciclopedia w/ the elevator music, rarely any sign of Rebelde. On the other hand, depending on conditions, the 710 Rebelde can be right under KIRO.
 
gr8oldies said:
That Rebelde transmitter has got to be more than 1kW
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Yeah, but it is hard to judge the real power of the Cuban stations.

The Chinese rebuild of radio in Cuba moved most AMs to common towers that served 4 to 5 AMs in the same city. Because the towers are used for broadly different frequencies, their efficiency is high at the top of the band and rather bad at the bottom. So 50 kw put into an antenna that might measure, say, 15 ohms at 530 AM is like cutting the power to less than half.
 
gr8oldies said:
Presumably, every Cuban city has at least one Rebelde, Progreso, Musical Nacional and Reloj I would imagine?
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The major cities, yes. But some of the combined transmitter sites are in smaller towns, while the big networks might serve those towns from higher power facilities in nearby bigger cities. There are local services in most areas, and those could be on smaller sites.

Cuba is about 450 miles long, so you have to figure that the "Baltimore-Washington-Wilmington-Philadelphia" situation exists. Every 35 to 40 miles there will be a transmission center of significance, with areas that are on the north coast also measured to ones on the south, meaning there would be several dozen transmission facilities, which corresponds to the known information on those transmission centers.
 
<<removing info as there was another thread opened of same title and my post directed it to this thread>>
 
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