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What Cuban AM Stations Are Usually Heard in South Florida?

G

Gregg.

Some years ago, when I was in South Florida, there were a couple of frequencies where Cuban AM stations came in day and night. I seem to remember Radio Reloj was heard in the Fort Myers area on 790 and 950. (Even if your Spanish isn't good, you can easily identify Radio Reloj by the time clicks every second.) I'd imagine on the East Coast, you can't get 790 from Cuba because of 790 WAXY So. Miami.

And I could hear 530 Radio Encyclopedia sometimes. I was amazed that occasionally I'd hear an AM station play Madonna or Bruce Springsteen with a Spanish-speaking DJ. So I figured that must be Cuba. No U.S. based stations on the AM dial play American music with Spanish speaking announcers.

But I didn't really check for regular strong stations from Cuba where I'd have to listen for a while to determine if it's Cuba or the U.S. or maybe another country like the Dominican Republic.

Are there other regular Cuban frequencies in South Florida, in addition to 530, 790 and 950?
 
Gregg. said:
And I could hear 530 Radio Encyclopedia sometimes. I was amazed that occasionally I'd hear an AM station play Madonna or Bruce Springsteen with a Spanish-speaking DJ. So I figured that must be Cuba. No U.S. based stations on the AM dial play American music with Spanish speaking announcers.
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Sure there are. They are in Puerto Rico, USA.
Gregg. said:
But I didn't really check for regular strong stations from Cuba where I'd have to listen for a while to determine if it's Cuba or the U.S. or maybe another country like the Dominican Republic.
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There are no Dominican stations that are easily heard in Miami. The distance is great, and AM East to West propagation in the tropics is unusually bad. There are only a few Dominican stations with even 10 kw left, and none higher powered.

It's much more likely to hear Venezuela or Colombia, but there are over 200 Cuban AM stations, all recently rebuilt by China.
Gregg. said:
Are there other regular Cuban frequencies in South Florida, in addition to 530, 790 and 950?
Click to expand...
710 has 20 stations jamming WAQI with a national network. 1140 is jammed with a carrier that caused a heterodyne. 1180 jams Martí all across Cuba.
 
I've heard Radio Reloj on 570 and 950 kHz all the way here in NJ. Somewhere on the web there's a recording of Reloj coming in loud and clear at the WMCA transmitter site as soon as they shut off the transmitter for maintenance.

Also when 710 WOR was temporarily reduced to 10 kW non-directional due to tower work, I could hear a Cuban station coming in underneath them at night.
 
kevtronics said:
Also when 710 WOR was temporarily reduced to 10 kW non-directional due to tower work, I could hear a Cuban station coming in underneath them at night.
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710 is not "a Cuban station". The 2023 WRH shows over 20 transmitters, from 1 kw to 200 kw.
 
DavidEduardo said:
Sure there are. They are in Puerto Rico, USA.

There are no Dominican stations that are easily heard in Miami. The distance is great, and AM East to West propagation in the tropics is unusually bad. There are only a few Dominican stations with even 10 kw left, and none higher powered.

It's much more likely to hear Venezuela or Colombia, but there are over 200 Cuban AM stations, all recently rebuilt by China.

710 has 20 stations jamming WAQI with a national network. 1140 is jammed with a carrier that caused a heterodyne. 1180 jams Martí all across Cuba.
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Is that still the case? I thought Cuba was doing a Rebelde chorus against WQBA too?
 
DavidEduardo said:
Sure there are. They are in Puerto Rico, USA.
Click to expand...

I was in Puerto Rico for a week a few years ago. All the major Puerto Rico AM stations are spoken word. Or if they are Christian or Catholic-owned they play religious music or maybe standards. I don't think any of them would play Madonna or Bruce Springsteen. Yes, there are FM stations where they play English language pop or rock hits along with Spanish speaking DJs. The Spanish-language Top 40 stations on FM have some international English-language hits on their playlists.

But by now, just as on the mainland, I don't think AM is a place for English-language pop music in Puerto Rico.
 
I haven't been to Florida since the mid-80s but thanks to remote SDRs, I can tell you a couple of things.There at one time was an SDR on Key West that could get most of the Havana area stations, with the Reloj on 950 particularly strong. Stronger Radio Enciclopedia with weaker Reloj on 530 day and night, then Radio Musical Nacional on 590, Progreso on 640 and even some weaker stations like on 1000. As David mentioned, Renelde chorused underneath Miami Srations on 670, 710 and 1180.
 
Gregg. said:
I was in Puerto Rico for a week a few years ago. All the major Puerto Rico AM stations are spoken word. Or if they are Christian or Catholic-owned they play religious music or maybe standards. I don't think any of them would play Madonna or Bruce Springsteen. Yes, there are FM stations where they play English language pop or rock hits along with Spanish speaking DJs. The Spanish-language Top 40 stations on FM have some international English-language hits on their playlists.

But by now, just as on the mainland, I don't think AM is a place for English-language pop music in Puerto Rico.
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Enciclopedia and Progreso play some U.S. music. 640 is strongest Progreso if you don't have a local station.
 
gr8oldies said:
Is that still the case? I thought Cuba was doing a Rebelde chorus against WQBA too?
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Yes, but there has always been one off frequency in the La Habana area to further thwart reception.
 
Gregg. said:
I was in Puerto Rico for a week a few years ago. All the major Puerto Rico AM stations are spoken word.
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No, quite a few of the Island stations ("en la Isla" in PR means "outside of San Juan") play all okr some music. Not counting translators, there are around 120 stations on the Island and 71 of them are AM. Most can not be heard on "the average radio" in San Juan.

The four news/talk networks use 5 to 9 AMs plus translators to cover the whole island. For example, the NotiUno network, based at 5 kw WUNO 630 in San Juan, even needs a network station in Caguas, part of the San Juan combined metro and just south of the mountains that separate that area from the flatter San Juan metro.
Gregg. said:
Or if they are Christian or Catholic-owned they play religious music or maybe standards. I don't think any of them would play Madonna or Bruce Springsteen.
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Several play pop, and a number of the rural ones have translators so you hear very contemporary music on them.
Gregg. said:
Yes, there are FM stations where they play English language pop or rock hits along with Spanish speaking DJs. The Spanish-language Top 40 stations on FM have some international English-language hits on their playlists.
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One is nearly all English, another mostly English, and several are a blend. The significant CHRs are all networked to cover the island or most of it.
Gregg. said:
But by now, just as on the mainland, I don't think AM is a place for English-language pop music in Puerto Rico.
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Yet you hear it a lot on smaller town stations that play a blend.
 
DavidEduardo said:
Radio Habana is short-wave. It comes in all over the world when it is working right.
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working right and Radio Havana cuba arent words that go together

OMG, one week they were running amuck.

TV audio on progresso 4765 one night, then one night, tv audio on 9600, which was moved from 9700.. but mvoed back to 9700 a few days later... and permanently mvoed to 9600 a week or two later

Then one night, explicit language movie audio on 5025 rebelde and on HM01 the numbers station, a cuckoo bird cukooing over and over on a indefinite loop over the numbers lady
 
While I was going to First Phone Wonder School in Sarasota, Cuba was all over the dial day and night. In the daytime I can remember 590, 600, 640 and several others. At that time Cuba was relaying Radio Moscow on 600 after 3pm.
 
gr8oldies said:
More than likely they weren't hearing Mambi, but one or more of the Radio Rebelde chorus
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Yes, the now castrated Mambí signal has little going north. There are about 20 Cubans (not "Mark") on 710 per the 2023 WRH.
 
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