Jammer on 730?

[cd637299]

Some AM stations here that broadcast in Spanish, simply put, the brothers Castro do not want his people to hear there. WAQI 710 is very anti-Castro, and Cuba put up (what is it again, David? Four?) transmitters in 710 to block WAQI throughout the island.'

This is nothing new. Shortwave broadcasts are jammed as well.

cd

 

[schmave]

Why is Cuba Jamming certain stations on AM??

Can anyone explain it to me??

Paranoia. ;D If Castro was as great as he thinks he is, he wouldn't have to jam opposing viewpoints.

 

[LibertyNT]

Castro Probably Doesnt Like R&B or Motown from Dallas.

 

[ddsparxx]

He must have gotten paranoid again. I heard the wobbling sound on 930 last weekend but not on 730 like it did last April.

 

[davideduardo]

Some AM stations here that broadcast in Spanish, simply put, the brothers Castro do not want his people to hear there. WAQI 710 is very anti-Castro, and Cuba put up (what is it again, David? Four?) transmitters in 710 to block WAQI throughout the island.'

If you go to the Radio Rebelde website, you can see at the bottom that the only three frequencies they mention are 670, 710 and 1180. Of course, those are the three frequencies that the government least wants the local population to listen to. Rebelde is actually on about 40 transmitters, yet they only refer to the three that double as jammers/blockers of Spanish language news that may not be heard in Cuba.

 

[cd637299]

930? I didn't know sports talk in Jacksonville or WLSS were a problem!

[I made a comment about the former Radio Antilles in Montserrat, but I believe a volcano destroyed that town of Plymouth, so I retracted my sarcastic comment.]

cd

 

[cyberdad]

Update from Perdido Key (Pensacola)....

Tried 930 today during the daylight hours both on the Eton E10 and a good rental car radio. Bottom line is a very weak WLSS (Sarasota) was alone on the channel. Last night the noisemaker was strong enough to wipe out everything else on 930, but still didn't seem quite as strong as what I was hearing on 730 three months ago.

As others have pointed out, there doesn't seem to be any logic to the Cubans jamming 930 or 730. 670, 710, 1180 are easy enough to explain, but 730 and 930 make absolutely no sense. Perhaps the Castro brothers are simply testing some equipment, perhaps the noise is unintentional, perhaps they're imagining something, or perhaps its something else entirely. We don't even know for sure that the noise is coming from Cuba. Although I'd certainly view Cuba as the most likely suspect.

On a somewhat related note regarding the Cubans, for whatever reason, 530 seems to have a stronger day/night signal here than last time...while 710 and 670 appear to be weaker. 670, in fact is much weaker. Perhaps those vintage Czech-built transmitters that David told us about are starting to lose it.

Hmmm.....

 

[ALRocker]

I was hearing the jammer on 1040 last night, guess Castro doesn't like WHO! I'm in north Alabama.

 

[cyberdad]

I heard it last night on 1040 as well. Shortly after my post. I'm on the beach at the FL-AL state line. What I heard on 1040 was weaker than 930....with WHO on top more often than not.

 

[radioman148]

Cyberdad--

You hearing any of the Chicago stations down there? If so, which ones.
Besides WSCR, WGN, WBBM, & WLS, & WMVP can you hear WYLL or any others?

Thanks

 

[stormy01]

Cyberdad--

You hearing any of the Chicago stations down there? If so, which ones.
Besides WSCR, WGN, WBBM, & WLS, & WMVP can you hear WYLL or any others?

Thanks

I sometimes hear a weak "warbly" sound on 730, but usually it's either WJMT Merrill, WI or KQPN (ESPN) West Memphis, AR.

Hearing WYLL in FL at night would be incredible since much of its signal is directed northward at night. Possibly before the signal pattern changes from the daytime transmitter site to the nighttime site. Check http://www.fcc.gov/mb/audio/amq.html to find out when sunset time is (currently 7:30 p.m.) The strongest signal is on a bearing approximately 135-140° so it's southeast from Des Plaines, IL (their daytime transmitter site) I believe WYLL lost the "Limited" hours operation the Chicago 1160 allocation used to enjoy [that is when WJJD and its successors stayed on the air with 50kW until KSL's sunset - when did that get taken away? (This must have been as a condition of obtaining nighttime operation) With all the stations that are now allowed to broadcast at night on 1160 - better chance of hearing KSL than WYLL there - but with the right atmospheric conditions, anything is possible...

 

[radioman148]

Cyberdad--

You hearing any of the Chicago stations down there? If so, which ones.
Besides WSCR, WGN, WBBM, & WLS, & WMVP can you hear WYLL or any others?

Thanks

I sometimes hear a weak "warbly" sound on 730, but usually it's either WJMT Merrill, WI or KQPN (ESPN) West Memphis, AR.

Hearing WYLL in FL at night would be incredible since much of its signal is directed northward at night. Possibly before the signal pattern changes from the daytime transmitter site to the nighttime site. Check http://www.fcc.gov/mb/audio/amq.html to find out when sunset time is (currently 7:30 p.m.) The strongest signal is on a bearing approximately 135-140° so it's southeast from Des Plaines, IL (their daytime transmitter site) I believe WYLL lost the "Limited" hours operation the Chicago 1160 allocation used to enjoy [that is when WJJD and its successors stayed on the air with 50kW until KSL's sunset - when did that get taken away? (This must have been as a condition of obtaining nighttime operation) With all the stations that are now allowed to broadcast at night on 1160 - better chance of hearing KSL than WYLL there - but with the right atmospheric conditions, anything is possible...

From what I've been reading some people are still hearing WYLL on the east coast and southeast at night even with the new pattern. Running 50KW at night even directional anything is still possible apparently.

 

[stormy01]

From what I've been reading some people are still hearing WYLL on the east coast and southeast at night even with the new pattern. Running 50KW at night even directional anything is still possible apparently.

The FCC pattern plot definitely appears a lot 'tighter' than the R-L map. Checking the pattern maps from the FCC http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/amq?list=0&facid=28630 and R-L http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WYLL&service=AM&status=L&hours=N reveals quite a bit of difference in the south, southeast and eastern directions from the night transmitter site. I know the discussion has been to take the R-L generated maps with a grain of salt at times.

I would tend to believe the FCC's record over the map of radio locator since that is what the Salem Engineering study came up with for the FCC to approve night operation, as a condition of protecting existing stations on 1160 - and there are quite a few of them that operate at night on 1160... WBYN and WCCS in PA, WCXI in MI, WQRT and WKCM in KY, WOBM in NJ etc. to name a few. But even 500 watts on the backside of a directional array would be enough to hit the ionosphere and bounce back to points further east, southeast and south... If the radio-locator map were true, and it may very well be true - there is quite a bit of "city grade" signal 30-40 miles east, southeast and south of the transmitter site, enough to hit the lower reaches of the ionosphere and bounce back to earth to far-flung places in the E/SE/S direction, especially since any AM frequency higher than about 1000 kHz tends to act like "shortwave" at night...

 

[radioman148]

When I was up in the Wisconsin Dells last summer WYLL was the strongest Chicago signal at night.
The pattern easily explains why. Another person told me WYLL is heard in the Washington DC area.
Not great, but it gets in. As you pointed out they seem to have some room to the SE, whereas they are tight to the west which would be expected in order to protect KSL.

 

[ddsparxx]

I do hear WYLL here in northern VA at night, though rather weakly, and WOBM 1160 in NJ has a signal that varies about the same level to a bit stronger, here at the same time.

 

[Mid West Clubber]

I was able to get all the Chicago AMs in Hillsville VA at night except for 670.

 

[radioman148]

I was able to get all the Chicago AMs in Hillsville VA at night except for 670.

I'm surprised that you couldn't hear 670. Was it interference from other stations?

 

[fybush]

The FCC pattern plot definitely appears a lot 'tighter' than the R-L map. Checking the pattern maps from the FCC http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/amq?list=0&facid=28630 and R-L http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WYLL&service=AM&status=L&hours=N reveals quite a bit of difference in the south, southeast and eastern directions from the night transmitter site. I know the discussion has been to take the R-L generated maps with a grain of salt at times.

This topic comes up quite a bit, and it merits some explanation each time:

The R-L maps and the FCC pattern maps are two separate beasts, each with its own methodology and purpose.

The FCC site (and FCCinfo.com, which I use often) shows the radiated pattern as transmitted by the antenna.

The Radio-Locator maps are coverage maps, which show (at least in theory) what happens when the pattern that's radiated by the antenna interacts with real-world factors such as ground conductivity and bodies of water. A station that transmits a nondirectional signal can still show up on Radio-Locator with much greater coverage in one direction than another, because that signal can (and does) carry better in one direction than another.

But wait - there's more! The Radio-Locator nighttime maps show only groundwave coverage. They don't make any attempt to show skywave coverage, and they don't indicate where co- or adjacent-channel interference might be coming from.

As it happens in the case of WYLL, there's very little else operating at night on 1160 in the northeast, so even that relatively small eastward lobe in the night pattern tends to be enough to send out enough skywave to be heard on what's otherwise a relatively quiet channel.

 

[cyberdad]

Cyberdad--

You hearing any of the Chicago stations down there? If so, which ones.
Besides WSCR, WGN, WBBM, & WLS, & WMVP can you hear WYLL or any others?

Thanks

As is usually the case down here in the summer, there's a lot of noise. I've only caught a couple of snatches of WGN and WBBM. In the past, I've heard all of the one's you've mentioned except WYLL. WBBM is the most reliable, but only fair at best. WGN is usually weak, but audible. WSCR and WLS get clobbered by the Cubans, but you can hear them in the background from time to time. WMVP is rare, but sometimes can be heard...usually under XEOY.

Aside from semi-local WWL, the strongest "clears" here this week have been XEG and XEEP. "Next door neighbors" on 1050 and 1060. XEQ also has a fairly good signal on 940. Strongest U.S. signals, as usual, are WSM, WSB, WHAS, WOAI, and WLAC. Haven't heard any Canadians this week....which isn't unusual for summertime.

Also notable, WIST from New Orleans seems to finally have their 10kw daytime pattern up and running. What was formerly the very good WTIX daytime signal seems to have now returned to 69O.

 

[radioman148]

Cyberdad--

You hearing any of the Chicago stations down there? If so, which ones.
Besides WSCR, WGN, WBBM, & WLS, & WMVP can you hear WYLL or any others?

Thanks

As is usually the case down here in the summer, there's a lot of noise. I've only caught a couple of snatches of WGN and WBBM. In the past, I've heard all of the one's you've mentioned except WYLL. WBBM is the most reliable, but only fair at best. WGN is usually weak, but audible. WSCR and WLS get clobbered by the Cubans, but you can hear them in the background from time to time. WMVP is rare, but sometimes can be heard...usually under XEOY.

Aside from semi-local WWL, the strongest "clears" here this week have been XEG and XEEP. "Next door neighbors" on 1050 and 1060. XEQ also has a fairly good signal on 940. Strongest U.S. signals, as usual, are WSM, WSB, WHAS, WOAI, and WLAC. Haven't heard any Canadians this week....which isn't unusual for summertime.

Also notable, WIST from New Orleans seems to finally have their 10kw daytime pattern up and running. What was formerly the very good WTIX daytime signal seems to have now returned to 69O.

Thanks for the report.