I remember hearing stories that years ago, several high-power U.S. stations were used to beam US leaning news to places like Cuba and South America, in order to foment resistance to rogue governments not friendly to the US. I couple of stations that come to mind that could still do this - due to their highly directional nighttime signals - are WROA-1390 AM in Biloxi, MS, and KAAY-1090 AM in Little Rock, AR (if they would upgrade their transmitter and ground system.) Any comments??
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AM stations used by US Govt. for propaganda purposes
- Thread starter wpiv926
- Start date
wpiv926 said:
In the 60's, several AMs were used to transmit to Cuba, including ones like WBT in Charlotte and WWL in New Orleans. Several of the Miami stations, like WGBS were alos used this way. The US government also built a 50 kw AM on Swan Island to broadcast to Cuba on 1160, and
No US AM can "beam" to South America as ever AM frequency was in use in both Colombia and Venezuela, and no US signal is strong enough to make regular landfall that far away. WROA is not powerful enough to get anywhere at night, and 1390 is used by a hundred stations or more in Latin America. KAAY is not, oddly, a good signal, as it misses Cuba by going too far to the West of Cuba, and it is way too far from South America to make landfall in Venezuela, where Radio Mil Noventa runs 100 kw in Caracas, anyway.
The best US signals in South America (based on whether I could get them on a car radio) were 710 in Miami, WWL in New Orleans, KGBT 1530 from Texas. And these were definitely DX type reception, not easy reads. Again, Colombia alone has about 400 to 500 AM stations, at least one and sometimes as many as 10 on each frequency. Same for the other nations. Hearing the US in South Amrica today is very rare.
wpiv926 said:
DXers are reporting hearing Radio Marti on 1620KHz - and when they hear it there, WDHP in the US Virgin Islands is always missing.
While this hasn't been acknowledged by either Radio Marti or WDHP, it's generally believed Marti is buying airtime from WDHP. (not all of it, at other times WDHP is being heard with their own English-language programming)
w9wi said:
MArti has used one of the flying transmitters used in war zones to try to get a signal into Cuba. It has also been reported on 530, on top of the Turks & Caicos transmitter. Moving it to 1620 would not be a surprise, as the frequency is probaby easier to broadcast form a plane. On the other hand, nothing Marti does makes any sense any more.
As to the USVI transmitter, that sounds like a lot of bunk. It is very, very rare to hear a high powered Cuban in Puerto Rico, so a low powered USVI staiton, another hundred miles East, is not going to be heard in Cuba no matter what the propagation on 1620 may be. East-West propagation in the Caribbean is known to be very difficult, even at high power.
I was just in Central America (Costa Rica) this past week and the most dependable US AM signals down there were WSB 750 Atlanta, WFLA 970 Tampa, and (amazingly) WLS 890 Chicago. None were dependable - and I was just off the beach. WSM 650 Nashville was listenable one night, but it was RCN Columbia on the same freq. on the next night.
Inland - in the Central Valley - reception of any US AM station was impossible until after midnight, thanks to all of the locals that are broadcasting until that hour. Even after 12, US signals were really hard to get.
David's comment about east-west propagation in the Carribean was right on the money. Within the past 2 months, I've been in Puerto Rico, the DR and Costa Rica (not bragging - it was mostly work) and the Cubans were only weakly receivable in all three. Radio Reloj 570 comes in as well in Philadelphia as it does in rural parts of the Dominican Republic. In CR, RR was best on 790 and very, very faint on 570.
Shooting a beam at Castro over 90 miles of salt water is a lot simpler than doing it across the Carribean to annoy Chavez. The latter is just not feasible (at least on AM) thanks to the distance involved and to all of the RF in the air from super transmitters down there. Almost all of the frequencies are full.
Inland - in the Central Valley - reception of any US AM station was impossible until after midnight, thanks to all of the locals that are broadcasting until that hour. Even after 12, US signals were really hard to get.
David's comment about east-west propagation in the Carribean was right on the money. Within the past 2 months, I've been in Puerto Rico, the DR and Costa Rica (not bragging - it was mostly work) and the Cubans were only weakly receivable in all three. Radio Reloj 570 comes in as well in Philadelphia as it does in rural parts of the Dominican Republic. In CR, RR was best on 790 and very, very faint on 570.
Shooting a beam at Castro over 90 miles of salt water is a lot simpler than doing it across the Carribean to annoy Chavez. The latter is just not feasible (at least on AM) thanks to the distance involved and to all of the RF in the air from super transmitters down there. Almost all of the frequencies are full.
fldxer said:
That is strange. 1620 does not even have a good night signal in Puerto Rico, and daytime is is non-existent.
Yes they seem to be a pretty strange organization- our tax dollars being well spent ......again. I would guess they were looking for something close, but of course didn't exactly research it too well. BTW, I haven't seen any mentions of anyone hearing them for a few weeks now, maybe they figured out that plan didn't work either. I would think they have the money to spend, so anything is worth a try ( likely scenario would be use the money or lose it!)
This is interesting reading... I had only heard of the UHF-TV from a blimp, VHF-TV the same way and the unlisted, unofficial but very present Radio Marti on 1180.
Marti on 1180 was so strong down along the beaches of Alabama at night I added it to my "Mobile/Pensacola" listings as a fringe catch. Supposedly a station in Jackson, MS has a temp permit to run FM at nights only due to the interference from this "nonexistant" station and the expected Cuban jamming.
I wonder if the government transmits anything from Gitmo? It's right there on the island.
Marti on 1180 was so strong down along the beaches of Alabama at night I added it to my "Mobile/Pensacola" listings as a fringe catch. Supposedly a station in Jackson, MS has a temp permit to run FM at nights only due to the interference from this "nonexistant" station and the expected Cuban jamming.
I wonder if the government transmits anything from Gitmo? It's right there on the island.
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