Radio Rebelde Heard In Wyoming

[SomeRadioGuy]

I've actually heard several Cuban AM's in Wyoming over the last few months. I've heard Enciclopedia on 530khz, Rebelde once on 530khz. I've also heard Progresso on 900khz and Rebelde on 1620khz before but with the exception of 530.. the reception was usual weak and didnt last long.

I was nicely rewarded with a new log for my log book on Saturday October 26 at 1043pm mountain time. The signal on 710khz starts out ok, but if you keep listening and fast forward to 2 minutes 45 seconds, it gets LOUD and clear.

The station playing the music is Radio Rebelde in Cuba. They have multiple transmitters on this same frequency (710khz) so no idea which one I was hearing and the synchronous transmitters are not time aligned so when you hear more then one, you get a very obvious echo. I can wager an educated guess I was hearing the 150,000 Watt La Habana transmitter

I'm in Laramie, Wyoming about 1900 miles away from Havana, Cuba

Here's the audio recording:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1F3wKHMMJZJEZIYyGm03H0WKrQw5j3PkB/view?usp=sharing

 

[cyberdad]

Nice catch! I believe crinbebo has actually heard R. Rebelde at his home QTH in Washington State.

Rebelde on 710 is tough duty here in the Chicago area. Especially with WGN on 720, but it can be done. Go west or north and it's increasingly difficult. But I've heard it in Iowa and Minnesota. OTOH, you don't have to go very far south of here to have it become very easy. At our beach location near Pensacola, it's audible under WNTM (Mobile) daytime, and then blasts in....with multiple echos...at night.

 

[gr8oldies]

David Eduardo may know for sure, but I was under the impression no Cuban was actually running 150kW any more. On 670, the Rebelde chorus (blocking Miami's Spanish Language WWFE) is audible even as close in as the Edinburgh IN SDR under or even over WSCR.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

David Eduardo may know for sure, but I was under the impression no Cuban was actually running 150kW any more. On 670, the Rebelde chorus (blocking Miami's Spanish Language WWFE) is audible even as close in as the Edinburgh IN SDR under or even over WSCR.

I had heard that before. .but id also heard they were getting new transmitters from China.

Who knows what cuba is up to or doing!

 

[radioman148]

Good catch!

 

[CADXER]

For what it's worth, data taken directly from Radio Cuba's web site (www.radiocuba.cu) in 2016 the following transmitters are used for Radio Rebelde broadcasts on 710 kHz:

710 CAMAGÜEY CAMAGÜEY-TAGARRO - RADIO REBELDE - 25 kW
710 CIEGO DE ÁVILA CHAMBAS-CENTRO 6 3 - RADIO REBELDE - 200 kW
710 HOLGUÍN CACOCÚM - RADIO REBELDE - 50 kW
710 MATANZAS MARTÍ-CENTRO 5 1 - RADIO REBELDE - 200 kW
710 MAYABEQUE LA JULIA (Batabanó) - RADIO REBELDE - 50 kW
710 SANCTI SPÍRITUS YAGUAJAY - RADIO REBELDE - 1 kW
710 VILLA CLARA SANTA CLARA - RELOJ RADIO REBELDE - 50 kW

For years Cuba was using these multiple high powered transmitters on 710 kHz to jam WAQI (Radio Mambi) from Miami, Florida.

 

[davideduardo]

David Eduardo may know for sure, but I was under the impression no Cuban was actually running 150kW any more. On 670, the Rebelde chorus (blocking Miami's Spanish Language WWFE) is audible even as close in as the Edinburgh IN SDR under or even over WSCR.

Over the last three or four years, with the aid from China including transmitters, multiplexers and technical design and training, Cuba has pretty much rebuilt the AM and FM infrastructure.

They moved to transmission "centers" with one site and one tower serving 3 or 4 AM stations in diplex operation and similar situations on FM. Regional transmitters had high power setups in big towns, and sometimes a big city might have several AM sites, each with multiple stations.

What I saw has 1 to 100 kw transmitters, but the sources all conflict.

Amusingly, WAQI in Miami, the object of all the stations on 710, has eliminated the anti-castro programming an has also reduced power towards Cuba.

 

[boombox4]

Crainbebo has logged several Rebelde outlets I think -- both from Eastern and Western Washington.

I've logged Rebelde on 1180 khz maybe 10 times or so, on various radios with and without aid of a loop, and I'm in Western Washington. It can be IDed behind KOFI (Montana) and a semilocal in Western WA (KLAY) through its music, Spanish speech, or paralleling it with 5025 khz, where it's audible even on a DX-375 off the internal loop.

FWIW, I haven't definitely heard Rebelde on MW since maybe 2015-2016, when MW conditions began to slide.

 

[crainbebo]

My first Rebelde logged was 670, actually! (in 2012) Then that quickly followed by the 710 and 1180. I also have 600, 530 (u/ Enciclopedia and TIS stations one spectacular night) and 1620 in the logs, all Rebelde.
In fact I have TWELVE Cubans logged from WA state. Reloj 570/790/870/950, Enciclopedia 530 and Progreso 640/900 are the others. Reloj has not been heard in a few years, but one night I bagged the 870 and 950 in the same evening. Often the most common Cuban nowadays is Radio Progreso on 640, just null KFI! Second place is usually the 710 or 1180 Rebelde.

 

[kf4rca]

Can anybody ID the Hispanic station on 640 KHz? About a 50/50 mix with local WGST at night.

 

[ftballfan]

I don't do a lot of DXing here on AM, but I've never heard a Cuban in Michigan

 

[gr8oldies]

Most likely Radio Progreso from Cuba.

Can anybody ID the Hispanic station on 640 KHz? About a 50/50 mix with local WGST at night.

 

[CADXER]

Yes, it's probably Radio Progreso. They have been a common log on 640 here in the Chicago area ever since I started DXing the AM band way back in late 1970's. Since 2017 this has become tough due to WMFN coming on the air from Peotone, IL. They also carry Hispanic format, but Radio Progreso would is most likely what you are hearing at your location.

 

[DXingRadio]

I've heard Radio Rebelde 1180 in Marathon, FL only 2-3 miles from Radio Marti's site. It was obviously in the background, but intelligible during quiet spots.

 

[radioman148]

Yes, it's probably Radio Progreso. They have been a common log on 640 here in the Chicago area ever since I started DXing the AM band way back in late 1970's. Since 2017 this has become tough due to WMFN coming on the air from Peotone, IL. They also carry Hispanic format, but Radio Progreso would is most likely what you are hearing at your location.

In the Chicago area before WMFN came on, Radio Progreso was heard here regularly. Turn your antenna one way you hear Cuba, the other way KFI. Now that WMFN is there I can’t hear Cuba anymore on 640.

 

[Ai4i]

Cuba has not used their buzz-saw jammers for quite a few years, but they were always interesting to hear under different situations, and when I was there in the early nineteen eighties and could hear them clearly on 1140 and 1180, I found that without the stations that they were attempting to block under them, they sounded like pure sixty-hertz sign waves. If I were going to design a jamming system, I would receive the target station, distort its audio beyond recognition, and retransmit it. The Soviets used to play a man and a woman speaking in reverse so the audio characteristics would match the incoming news-readers' voices.

 

[davideduardo]

Cuba has not used their buzz-saw jammers for quite a few years, but they were always interesting to hear under different situations, and when I was there in the early nineteen eighties and could hear them clearly on 1140 and 1180, I found that without the stations that they were attempting to block under them, they sounded like pure sixty-hertz sign waves. If I were going to design a jamming system, I would receive the target station, distort its audio beyond recognition, and retransmit it. The Soviets used to play a man and a woman speaking in reverse so the audio characteristics would match the incoming news-readers' voices.

For many years, Cuba ran a transmitter just off frequency on about 1141 modulated with tone. Between the tone and the heterodyne with 1140, it pretty much blocked La Cubanisima anywhere in Cuba.

I would occasionally not the heterodyne in the nulls of WQII, San Juan, in the 70's. That meant anywhere on the northern coast of PR west of Dorado might be interfered with, as the null we had towards Richmond was the equivalent of non-directional 500 watts. But since that was outside the metro survey area, it really did not bother us, other than wounding the ego.

 

[gr8oldies]

In 1980, I could hear the het under WQBA in downtown Miami.

For many years, Cuba ran a transmitter just off frequency on about 1141 modulated with tone. Between the tone and the heterodyne with 1140, it pretty much blocked La Cubanisima anywhere in Cuba.

I would occasionally not the heterodyne in the nulls of WQII, San Juan, in the 70's. That meant anywhere on the northern coast of PR west of Dorado might be interfered with, as the null we had towards Richmond was the equivalent of non-directional 500 watts. But since that was outside the metro survey area, it really did not bother us, other than wounding the ego.

 

[davideduardo]

In 1980, I could hear the het under WQBA in downtown Miami.

WQBA has a null of sorts towards 1140 in San Juan, so from the old site around 76th and Sunset (IIRC) they had a null on parts of downtown. Once they moved to Krome and the Trail, the signal improved.