Can You Hear 1180 Radio Marti?

I've heard that everyone involved knows neither Radio or TV Marti really get heard or watched in Cuba. But the anti-Castro movement in Florida is so strong that Marti gets automatic funding from any politician who wants to be aligned with them. Wikipedia says Pres. Obama tried to cut Marti funding but Congress restored it.

And while we may be normalizing relations with Cuba, I'm sure the Castro government doesn't want Spanish language radio from Florida to be widely heard. So it's likely Cuba will continue to air its stations on 1180 and other frequencies that carry Miami Talk stations in Spanish. As David said, there are several Cuban stations on every frequency anyway, so even if jamming isn't the intention, I doubt they'll turn off those stations. Who can hear Marti, WAQI or WQBA if the Cuban AM dial is full? I'm sure if Philadelphia had stations on every frequency, no one would be able to pick up the major NYC AM stations, even at a 90 mile distance. Of course, Philly doesn't, so WFAN, WABC, WOR and others are easy to hear.

Mostly right there. TV and FM Marti's airplane-based broadcast transmissions have been axed for about 3 years, though. Everything produced for TV Marti is now online and over the Miami TV station (I should point out DirecTV has a pretty solid, if sorta illegal, following down in Cuba from what I've heard)

What I've always been curious about is how well TV and FM Marti (94.7 for a few years in the late 2000's) were received in the lower Keys. I also never could get a solid answer on whether Cuban FM's can be received down there during regular non-DX conditions and vice-versa. I know Miami FM's and Key West radio stations got some listeners in Cuba, but I'd imagine with the Miami stations it is not a consistent signal...probably picking it up off of tropo. And I doubt the short-sticked Keys signals really make it to the island on a regular basis.

Despite living in Hollywood for 3 years and visiting family in Ft Lauderdale at least twice a year throughout the 90's, I never made it down past Homestead my entire time down there!

Radio-X

I've never heard R. Marti in San Antonio. I do hear R. Rebelde regularly, or should I say "Rebeldes" since I can usually hear the echo/overlap from the multiple transmitters. Nulling Rebelde, the dominant nighttime stations here are KGOL "ESPN Deportes" in Humble, TX, and XEFR "Radio Felicidad" in Mexico City.

I was in Havana for a week in March and I wanted to answer a couple questions posted here.
1) Radio Marti was heard in Havana by nulling the closest Rebelde on 1180. 710 and 670 were not listenable, but you could tell they were there, barely.
2) One of the more popular stations there is WEOW 92.7 "WOW FM". It was being played in a couple Taxi cabs I was in, and one of the neighbors of the apartment I was staying listened as well. Most of the east and west coast florida FMs and most of the AMs make it to Havana very well. The farthest I heard was obviously via Tropo, 97.5 from Lakeland and 88.9 WQCS from Fort Pierce.
3) Chris Dunne knows more about the FMs that make it to the Keys than I do. Usually you get a Tropo enhancement to get them but I think 94.7 is a Keys regular. I have also heard 96.7 Rebelde and have heard 90.3 Progresso up here in Fort Pierce, FL.

Juan Gualda
Fort Pierce, FL

WOW, I mean WEOW is shown to have about 20dB, or 10uv/m reaching La Habana, an extremely fringe level, but contrary to the maps, it has been my personal experience from listening to portables onboard ships that FMs carry much betterly (I needed an adverb) across water than they do over land. Maybe this is because of the complete absence of material objects in the air which would have reduced their signals over land.

I know this thread is over a year old... While Radio Marti can run 100,000 watts on 1180 (the most powerful AM signal in the U.S.), they only use full power on very limited occasions.

When I was working for several weeks on a project in Key West about 25 years ago, I kept searching the FM dial for hints of Cuban FMs, and I don't think I was able to hear any. Is that generally the case? (I've always had a certain fondness for Radio Enciclopedia.)

DavidEduardo said:

That's not what I have been told. I've done evaluations of the Martí program on a number of occasions, and the impression I get is that they would love to have more power, not less.

Click to expand...

Sure I am aware of the excellent work you did for them, Paul Drew too! Since it takes the use of a combiner and an engineer to be present or at least last when I operated the Master Control Studio and AM Transmitter up until 2005 (I had nothing to do with the SW feeds), 100 KW was never used at nights (it was stuck on once) and again only used sparingly during the daytime. I ran into one of your emails from 1999 where you mention a power upgrade from 50 to 100KW? I think one of the contributors in your discussion hit it pretty much on the head...

Radio Marti (1180 AM), the Miami-based, government-operated station
> beaming to Cuba, has recently been given a power boost from 50,000
> watts to 100,000. The move is designed to overcome the Cuban
> government's jamming of the station's signals.
______________________________

I just noticed in WRTH/99 that Radio Marti/1180 has always had 2 - 50
kw transmitters on site, probably one as a spare. I presume they are
just running them in parallel now to achieve the 100 kw. I wonder what
the ERP is with the antenna gain figured in?

Patrick M. Griffith (Pat)
Westminster, CO
N0NNK / WPE9HVW
"DXing since 1964"

author of AM BROADCAST STATION ANTENNA SYSTEMS - A BASIC GUIDE
http://www.angelfire.com/co/antenna

icybluelake said:

(I've always had a certain fondness for Radio Enciclopedia.)

Click to expand...

Me too!
We are both showing our age.
Their web stream often sounts terrible.

On 1180 AM, I hear Radio Rebelde jamming with WHAM and i can hear the station echo fromall of its transmitters.

brian1610AM said:

On 1180 AM, I hear Radio Rebelde jamming with WHAM and i can hear the station echo fromall of its transmitters.

Click to expand...

I used to live about 100 miles north of Radio Marti, but all I could hear was that echoing R. Rebelde. I looked at a Google Earth image of Marti's site, with the phased-array towers, right in the middle of a residential neighborhood. Marti supposedly runs 100 kW. I doubt there are any MW DXers in that development. And I doubt very many Cubans can hear it over the Rebelde transmitters. "YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK."

Why is it that you can see the shadows of the Radio Marti towers on satellite photos but not the towers? Anyone can figure out where it is, so what's the big secret?

I remember that the Cubans started Radio Free Dixie aimed at African Americans in the South at Night, as a response to Radio Marti, but John R et. al. and WLAC's far better programing made it irrelevant.

John Richbourg, WLAC Nashville. Nothing like you pictured.

hommag1.gif

Schroedingers Cat said:

Why is it that you can see the shadows of the Radio Marti towers on satellite photos but not the towers? Anyone can figure out where it is, so what's the big secret?

I remember that the Cubans started Radio Free Dixie aimed at African Americans in the South at Night, as a response to Radio Marti, but John R et. al. and WLAC's far better programing made it irrelevant.

Click to expand...

I've been through Marathon Key exactly twice. Once on the way to Key West. Once on the way back to the Florida mainland. I looked everywhere I could for those towers, but never saw them. Which surprised me, because Marathon is not exactly large place. Perhaps the towers are "hidden" so as to help to deter any attempts at sabotage.

And yeah....I'd opt for Big John R over the old Radio Free Dixie 100 times out of 100 any day. ....And I've seem that picture of John before. And was also surprised.

See PM.

Yeah, if John R came to the door at the studios of WLAC, like Wolfman Jack in American Graffiti, and denied he was John R, it would be totally believable. Many many Rock and Rollers, including Bob Seger and Mark Farner, and DJs like John Landecker, and even full time hippie John Sinclair, mentioned in biographies listening to WLAC at Night back in the day before they were well known. Farner mentioned John R by name in his biography, don't know about the others. Listened at Night when local R & B stations signed off, reduced power, changed patterns, or were buried in interference, some or all of the above.

Ai4i said:

Me too!
We are both showing our age.
Their web stream often sounts terrible.

Click to expand...

Me and a DX friend call Radio Enciclopedia "Rrrrrelllaxxxinnnnnnnnnng with Rrrrraaaulllllll" lol

Schroedingers Cat said:

Why is it that you can see the shadows of the Radio Marti towers on satellite photos but not the towers? Anyone can figure out where it is, so what's the big secret?

Click to expand...

The Radio Marti towers are visible on Google satellite photos...look carefully. The entire site is clearly marked on Google Maps. And on street view you can catch glimpses of the towers from a few angles.

Schroedingers Cat said:

I remember that the Cubans started Radio Free Dixie aimed at African Americans in the South at Night, as a response to Radio Marti

Click to expand...

Radio Free Dixie was back in the 1960s, while Radio Marti didn’t launch until the 1980s. The Voice of America Spanish language service was transmitted out of Marathon on 1180 in the decades prior to Marti hitting the air, using 50kw.

Here in Houston I only hear the Rebelde synchros on 1180 at night (I am in a null of KGOL.) However in the 1960s and 70s I did have listenable reception (in Austin) of VOA on 1180, so the current directional pattern is different from years ago.