Key West

[ddsparxx]

Very interesting bandscan, cyberdad. It gives me an idea which Cuban (and US) I hear in VA at night. The only Cuban that I never hear in VA is the 890. I also hear a Spanish-language music station on 840 with lousy audio at in VA, but I don't know where it's coming from. I believe it's somewhere way down south.

 

[cyberdad]

840 is in the daytime mix. Fair signal throughout. Same goes for 860 and 880 (weak WFTL on 850). I forgot to mention 790 yesterday. WAXY is the most listenable signal here (surprising to me), but R. Reloj tones audible underneath! Not much luck so far with FM/SW.

BTW I did snag KVNS Thurs nite, but daytime is all Miami.

Web here is a little sporadic, so it may be a day or two before I report again.

 

[ddsparxx]

I think I need to make a correction. I did hear the Cuban 890 along with WLS last night, and the Cubans seemed stronger than usual around midnight I also heard an unknown 880 underneath WCBS. The 810 I often hear at night may be from the Bahamas, if it operates at night.

 

[cd637299]

I'm hoping that Cyberdad reports *some* FM.....yesterday my wife and I were in the Keys, and there was too much out of Cuba on FM & TV to sort out! We returned home (Broward County), and I think the wildest DX is gone now.

cd

 

[gar hi]

870: No WWL. Weak R. Reloj
890: Strong Cuba (R.Rebelde,IIRC)
970: WFLA weak

Wow. WFLA was not one of the first Tampa/St. Pete stations I'd expect to hear daytime because they are more inland.

I guess there was no WWL because of their null to the south.

Why waste the signal on open Gulf when it can be directed at the west coast of Florida and at Texas.

 

[cd637299]

WFLA was the first Tampa station I ever caught in the day from Key West, even prior to their wattage increase. I never paid any never mind to Radio Disney 1380 but it's certainly possible from there. I believe there's a 1380 in Cuba, but likely it wouldn't cause problems in K.W.

cd

 

[ddsparxx]

After doing some research, the 840 and 880 that I mentioned earlier, I believed are Cuban.

 

[davideduardo]

Why waste the signal on open Gulf when it can be directed at the west coast of Florida and at Texas.

The main reason for directionalizing WWL was to put a useful daytime signal over Baton Rouge. At the time, a 4 to 5 mV/m signal was quite adequate with the noise levels of the day, and that is exactly what they got over that city.

 

[chrish]

Boy have things changed, when I lived in Florida WIOD and WQAM were clear as a bell in Key West though WQAM got noisy when it reduced to one kilowatt at night. Not sure whats happened to WIOD but at the time WQAM's transmitter was on the SS tower behind the Miami Herald and had a great signal, you could hear them both in Jacksonville if you really tried nulling WPDQ and WAYR. I used to inductivly couple a ferrite loop to my Southern Bell home telephone line with amazing results, always brought in WDBO, WKIS and WHOO and at times WLOF from Orlando.

 

[cyberdad]

Why waste the signal on open Gulf when it can be directed at the west coast of Florida and at Texas.

The main reason for directionalizing WWL was to put a useful daytime signal over Baton Rouge. At the time, a 4 to 5 mV/m signal was quite adequate with the noise levels of the day, and that is exactly what they got over that city.

WWL was invisible day/night in the Keys. R. Reloj was weak daytime, and not all that great at night. I left the Keys today and drove to St. Pete for dinner this evening with a friend. WWL was weak but solid early this afternoon on I-75 from Naples to Sarasota. They had a rebroadcast of "Meet the Press" audio, and I listened to just about all of it with no fades or dead spots.,

The keys being roughly in the opposite direction of Baton Rouge (and thus nulled), the DA seems to be performing as intended.

 

[cyberdad]

I'm hoping that Cyberdad reports *some* FM.....yesterday my wife and I were in the Keys, and there was too much out of Cuba on FM & TV to sort out! We returned home (Broward County), and I think the wildest DX is gone now.

cd

Long story short is that I got skunked. I drove two different vehicles....my sister's husband's SUV to the KW, then a rental car today back to the Florida mainland. (He's the licensed yacht captain...I drove his car while he piloted the boat). Anyway, in both cases I kept checking the suggested frequencies for Cuba with zero success. I did hear plenty of Spanish, but none readily identifialbe as Cuba.

At KW I was at ground level/sea level with an Eaton E-10. A fairly decent radio, but as I said earlier, probably not enough for Cuba without a really sweet opening. I realize there've been some of this, but I seem to have missed out.

The fact is....and this is just me....I'm not really a dedicated FM DXer. I dabble with it, but I'm more interested in AM and to a lesser extent SW.

 

[cyberdad]

I think I need to make a correction. I did hear the Cuban 890 along with WLS last night, and the Cubans seemed stronger than usual around midnight I also heard an unknown 880 underneath WCBS. The 810 I often hear at night may be from the Bahamas, if it operates at night.

The 880 seemed almost as strong as 890 en route, but was much weaker daytime at KW. Night signal was much better. 810 (and for that matter 1540) can be a little tough to identify as Bahamian because much of the news and talk programming seems to be in American accented English.

 

[cyberdad]

Boy have things changed, when I lived in Florida WIOD and WQAM were clear as a bell in Key West though WQAM got noisy when it reduced to one kilowatt at night.

These were both pretty good all the way. The Spanish faintly underneath on 560 and 610 was easily nulled...or ignored. 940 was a little better (but not much) daytime. I did also catch the 990 out of Orlando that you mentioned.

 

[cyberdad]

A little more later...but a final note for the Chicago area guys...

670 and 890 in KW were all-Cuba, all the time. But WGN and WBBM were both quite good at night. Especially WBBM. 1000 was Spanish. I think XEOY, but I didn't hear their sounder, so I'm not sure about that one.

 

[cd637299]

I'm hoping that Cyberdad reports *some* FM.....yesterday my wife and I were in the Keys, and there was too much out of Cuba on FM & TV to sort out! We returned home (Broward County), and I think the wildest DX is gone now.

cd

Long story short is that I got skunked. I drove two different vehicles....my sister's husband's SUV to the KW, then a rental car today back to the Florida mainland. (He's the licensed yacht captain...I drove his car while he piloted the boat). Anyway, in both cases I kept checking the suggested frequencies for Cuba with zero success. I did hear plenty of Spanish, but none readily identifialbe as Cuba.

At KW I was at ground level/sea level with an Eaton E-10. A fairly decent radio, but as I said earlier, probably not enough for Cuba without a really sweet opening. I realize there've been some of this, but I seem to have missed out.

The fact is....and this is just me....I'm not really a dedicated FM DXer. I dabble with it, but I'm more interested in AM and to a lesser extent SW.

Oh well....if you heard Spanish on the frequencies I sent you, it was a good chance it was Cuba. I cannot recall if I listed for you the "parallel" AM frequencies; I think I did.

Often though, one has to wait for top-of-hour ID for any info, if nothing matches the AM. Unlike other Spanish countries, I'd say over 80% of Cuban FM stations are merely a relay of an AM station. I'd say that FM is still a luxury there.

I hope you had a nice trip.

cd

 

[radioman148]

A little more later...but a final note for the Chicago area guys...

670 and 890 in KW were all-Cuba, all the time. But WGN and WBBM were both quite good at night. Especially WBBM. 1000 was Spanish. I think XEOY, but I didn't hear their sounder, so I'm not sure about that one.

Thanks Cyberdad from a "Chicago area guy" ;D

 

[cyberdad]

I'm now back home, and I'll try to wrap up a few "loose ends"

I'll start by saying my biggest disappointment was a lack of time for nighttime DX. The truncated nature of my trip versus the way I'd expected, the fact that the superstructure of the yacht precluded any AMDX, and the social calendar with my wife, sister, and brother-in law all conspired against me.

As anyone who's ever been to Key West will attest, there's no shortage of stuff to do there! But actually, we spent a lot of time just hanging out on the aft deck talking/visiting (with a "refreshment" or two), and a fine time was had by all.

Anyway, here's a few highlights (besides Chicago) of what I did manage to turn up at night.....

540: WFLF was in the mix, but Spanish was dominating. Again, I think XEWA was dominating, but I didn't ID
630: R. Progresso. Weaker than 640, but strong enough to pull out from under the Cuba 620 splatter
650: Cuba blowing out WSM
660: A weak WFAN was the only New Yorker I heard
710: If you're nostalgic for the days of "echo chamber" radio, this is the place for you! ;D
730: All Cuba. Surprised not to hear XEX
740: I was anxious to see what would be here, but it sounded almost like a graveyard channel. Nothing I could identify. I thought I heard brief moments of music, not enough to suggest CFZM (or anything else).
750: A surprisingly weak WSB
760: WJR with a good signal
770: Fort Myers Alone
790: R. Reloj mixing it up with WAXY
800: TWR strong
810: Bahamas....better than daytime, but no great shakes
820: WBAP mixing it up with Spanish
830: Strong Spanish...presumably Cuba
870: R. Reloj on top. WWL a non-factor.
900: Spanish. If this was XEW, it was hardly an impressive signal
940: Mostly WINZ, Spanish in the background, but not sure if it was XEQ or something else.
1050: Thought XEG might be good here, but the channel was pretty much a mess
1060: All Cuba. No XEEP or New Orleans
1080: Thought maybe I could snag KRLD. Wrong! This was pretty much a mess.
1110: WBT was doing pretty well here...perhaps the best U.S. skywave
1120: A weak KMOX occasionally on top
1160: Relatively strong Spanish here...but not sure where it was from.
1180: Lots of juice here, both R. Marti and Cuba strong
1200: Spanish...no WOAI
1260: I thought I'd run into R. Enciclopedia here, but apparently this was closed when 530 came on.
1370: Thought I might find 5kw WCOA from Pensacola here, but the channel was all slop.
1530: WCKY was doing reasonably well here.
1540: Bahamas pretty much alone here.
1620: Cuba blasting...who knew they discovered the X band?....no Pensacola
1700: KVNS definitely in the mix, but Miami usually on top

Again, I apologize for not being able to do more here. I certainly appreciate all the tips, suggestions, and views of this thread.

Next road trip is spring break at Perdido Key (Pensacola) the last eight days of March. As always, I'll report anything of note from my 7th floor balcony "DX perch" (if not directly from the beach).

 

[jd]

I was intrigued by your report on WGN and WBBM. It seemed like Cuban interference had been around for a long time on 720 and 780, but lately it hasn't seemed that bad. I did some investigating and found a somewhat recent paper that [supposedly] was an official frequency plan for Cuban AM stations and it's very interesting. Note the high powered station (or stations) missing from 720, and on 780 there's nothing listed at all. Scroll down to page 5 of the PDF for stations sorted by frequency: http://usuarios.iponet.es/mmolano/CUBA-plan-ENG.pdf

1180: Lots of juice here, both R. Marti and Cuba strong

No wonder, and look at how many Radio Rebelde stations are listed on 1180!

 

[cyberdad]

Thanks for the link. Fascinating document...which explains quite a bit. As you mentioned, 1180 is an incredibly popular frequency. The Castro brothers apparently are concerned enough about R. Marti to park 36 transmitters there...including several blowtorches!

You mentioned 670, but the other Miami Spanish frequencies are quite popular with the Cubans as well...note 710, 1140, and 1550. I think this speaks volumes in and of itself.

At minimum, the document is a handy reference on what we're hearing, transmitter locations, power etc.

Thanks againl

 

[radioman148]

Cyberdad,

Thank you for your DX reports from the road. Always appreciated.