President Obama and Radio Reloj 870

[Steve Green NEPA]

This confident and somewhat slap-in-the-face speech is being heard tonight on WCBS 880 and WWL 870 here in NE PA.

Message notwithstanding, the DX ears (back in my high-school education days caught a Radio Reloj . - . . - . ID under WWL. Any clues as to the facility?

 

[nd2023]

I have heard WCBS 880 in Miami, so it would have no problem making an extra hundred miles over water to Cuba. Would Cuba want to block reception of WCBS?

 

[gar hi]

I don't see any reason why the Cuban government would want to block out what Obama has to say. They probably love the guy because of his socialistic approach. And remember, there were even posters of Chez Guevara at some of his campaign headquarters. Obama made it clear where he stands when he said it would be better for all of us if we "spread the wealth around".

Anyway .................



Whatever the Cuban station on 880 is doing has been an ongoing thing anyway. There are some times where their signal is so strong here, WCBS is just a faint whisper in the background.

 

[BRNout]

Oh yes, I have heard Radio Reloj under WWL from time to time when I was in PA. Their transmitter at 570 seems to be the strongest (at least in the US), but they have several others including 870.

The time ticks and "RR" Morse Code beeps certainly come through well on most RR frequencies - even when their signal is quite weak and otherwise too weak to understand.

 

[gar hi]

I should have mentioned that even though WWL is very powerful here most of the time at night, that Radio Reloj or whatever it is will often over power WWL pretty good.

 

[elchupacabras]

When I lived in Tennessee, I got Radio Reloj 870 on a regular basis as a DX catch.

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

Following up a bit here ....

A Cuban AM station list I found has one Radio Reloj on 870, out of Sancti Spiritus. The city is just about in the geographic middle of Cuba, E-W/N-S, and is a little east-of-due-south from Miami.

No calls or power listed, though. The list appears to be eight years old in some places, but I doubt that the Cuban government has been keeping track of, and maintaining, their AM radio dial as closely as some DXers have been doing, and that not much has changed over the years. In fact, I suspect they *never* paid much attention to the situation (logs, IDs, etc) other than to cram and jam every available crack in the insulation.

Might anyone have calls? Like, the way CMW had calls? Even old calls?

 

[BRNout]

Last night, I was checking out the AM dial and listened in on WWL for a little while. Sure enough, I could hear the ticks and beeps of Radio Reloj in the background. And, WWL comes in quite clearly here at night with almost no fading. So, it's certainly not limited to the east and gulf coasts - I'm in Chicago. Whatever power the Cubans are running at that tx site, it's enough to bounce the signal this far north and west.

 

[trusty]

A Cuban AM station list I found has one Radio Reloj on 870, out of Sancti Spiritus.

Did you find that list online?
Was it something like this one?

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

Hya Trusty,

I'd found this one.

http://www.amfmdx.net/amdx/cubanradio.html

 

[romer979fm]

And remember, there were even posters of Chez Guevara at some of his campaign headquarters.

who is "Chez" ? gotta be careful when you cut and paste from Hannity's website.
how about the yuppie Cuban revolutionaty "Chaz" ?

 

[radioman148]

That certainly seems to list alot of frequencies to choose from.

 

[gar hi]

who is "Chez" ?

Sorry for the misspelling. Meant to say "Che". For some reason, I automatically want to ad the "z".

Anyway. :-\


[EDIT]





[EDIT-political baiting]

 

[Mid West Clubber]

Here in Indiana WWL is very clear at night, and sometimes faintly comes in during the day during Winter... I have for years often heard a faint sounding Beeping like Morse Code in the background,,, Like WWV in Colorado on Short Wave, WWL was always much stronger and would have likely covered up speech from the Cuban Beeper station.... Which is what Indiana DXers call it.... Other Cuban stations include AM 710 Smashing out WLW, and 570, also a ticking station,,,, probabably the main channel for the 870 beeper. i found out in early 2000 that the 870 beeper was cuba,,,, before that I had no clue.... But WWL is so strong hear it often bleeds into WCBS,,, but WCBS has bled into WWL as well,,,,, a good Analog AM radio from the 80s or older will pull the two apart.

 

[radioman148]

Here in Indiana WWL is very clear at night, and sometimes faintly comes in during the day during Winter... I have for years often heard a faint sounding Beeping like Morse Code in the background,,, Like WWV in Colorado on Short Wave, WWL was always much stronger and would have likely covered up speech from the Cuban Beeper station.... Which is what Indiana DXers call it.... Other Cuban stations include AM 710 Smashing out WLW, and 570, also a ticking station,,,, probabably the main channel for the 870 beeper. i found out in early 2000 that the 870 beeper was cuba,,,, before that I had no clue.... But WWL is so strong hear it often bleeds into WCBS,,, but WCBS has bled into WWL as well,,,,, a good Analog AM radio from the 80s or older will pull the two apart.

I'll have to try to listen under WWL which as you pointed out is very strong in the midwest.
I'm sure I'll have no chance on 570 or 710 with WIND & WGN so close to me.

 

[BRNout]

I'll have to try to listen under WWL which as you pointed out is very strong in the midwest.
I'm sure I'll have no chance on 570 or 710 with WIND & WGN so close to me.

Depending on where you are in the Chicago area, you might be able to null out WIND to pick up Radio Reloj [a.k.a. "The Beeper Station" :] on 570. I've been able to do it from NW of Chicago, as WIND has a good signal, but is still only 5 kw. But you can also hear it in the background through WWL. And, looking around elsewhere on the AM dial, you could hear it pop up in strange places. They have a lot of MW transmitters for it in Cuba and I've picked it up on some other frequencies too. But the main ones that bounce out of Cuba seem to be 570, 790 and 870 - with 790 being stronger to the south of Cuba.

The station on 710 is Radio Rebelde, which always sounds like they have a big crowd cheering. Can't figure out whether its a political rally or a soccer game! It's pretty much hopeless to pick up near Chicago as 50 kw WGN is too strong, but it sure does knock WOR around as close to New York as southern New Jersey and the Philadelphia area. They have something on 770 too, which would often interfere with WABC as far north as metro Philly too.

 

[radioman148]

I'll have to try to listen under WWL which as you pointed out is very strong in the midwest.
I'm sure I'll have no chance on 570 or 710 with WIND & WGN so close to me.

Depending on where you are in the Chicago area, you might be able to null out WIND to pick up Radio Reloj [a.k.a. "The Beeper Station" :] on 570. I've been able to do it from NW of Chicago, as WIND has a good signal, but is still only 5 kw. But you can also hear it in the background through WWL. And, looking around elsewhere on the AM dial, you could hear it pop up in strange places. They have a lot of MW transmitters for it in Cuba and I've picked it up on some other frequencies too. But the main ones that bounce out of Cuba seem to be 570, 790 and 870 - with 790 being stronger to the south of Cuba.

The station on 710 is Radio Rebelde, which always sounds like they have a big crowd cheering. Can't figure out whether its a political rally or a soccer game! It's pretty much hopeless to pick up near Chicago as 50 kw WGN is too strong, but it sure does knock WOR around as close to New York as southern New Jersey and the Philadelphia area. They have something on 770 too, which would often interfere with WABC as far north as metro Philly too.

790 would be impossible here as well because of WBBM. I'll try 570, but the problem is I'm just north of Chicago and right in WIND's pattern.
Maybe I can null it out just enough.

 

[BRNout]

790 would be impossible here as well because of WBBM. I'll try 570, but the problem is I'm just north of Chicago and right in WIND's pattern.
Maybe I can null it out just enough.

You know what radioman, you are absolutely right about that - and I am embarrassed to have forgotten that. Should know better.

To get 570 from Chicagoland requires good atmospheric conditions and the ability to null out 560. It can be done, though you'll probably just hear the time ticks and top-of-the-minute morse code.

It's funny because the 570 frequency can be heard over a HUGE geographical area, yet does not seem to come in well anywhere! Even in much of Florida, Puerto Rico or the Caribbean coast of Central America, it's certainly there at night - but doesn't really seem to "boom" in or come in 'listenably' well. None of the RR frequencies do.

It was wild to hear RR on FM (in mono) from my Walkman when flying over Cuba. I know, I know, it's bad. But there was this one time when I just couldn't resist. I heard a couple of stations from the Keys, classical music, Radio Rebelde, salsa music and Radio Reloj on the FM dial from 30,000 feet above Cuba. Most of the audio quality on Cuban FM signals had much to be desired - sounded like 1960s style equipment in use.

 

[radioman148]

I'm surprised that you were allowed to fly over Cuba--or were you just flying near or around it?

 

[BRNout]

Nope, you fly right over it. Apparently, there is some sort of an agreement about air passage rights because most of American's flights between Miami and Central America (and western South America) pass directly over Cuba. Sometimes you go right over Havana and I have seen the big breakwater from the air a number of times.

About RR, I checked out 570 last night from my home NW of Chicago and could certainly hear the beeps and morse code RR. The news reader's voice was more difficult to hear. It was easier than I thought to null WIND, even though WIND and RR come from almost the same direction. With 5 kw and no IBOC crap, they come in fine on 560 but don't throw much slop on to 570 in my area.

The opposite of this is WSCR, which tosses IBLOC hash and garbage all over the place. 660 and 680 are so noisy with hash that they blow your ears out! Really, their hash completely overloads both adjacent channel - even when you're working with a good multiband radio set to narrow band. It even interferes with WSM at 650 and CINF (the French news station) from Montreal at 690.

WBBM is almost as bad, but not quite. On a good night, with a good radio, I have been able to pull WABC out of the slop - albeit weakly. Both stations' IBOC exciters are an appalling nuisance.