Offshore Spanish Stations

I was down in Homestead this week visiting from Alabama and I was scanning the dial and found some AM stations that I have some questions about.

AM 530 - I've heard it all the way up here 859 miles away, and I've heard they are broadcasting from Turks and Caicos. If correct, how far is that from the Florida Mainland, and how much power are they transmitting?

AM 650 - I heard spanish at night overpowering Nashville's WSM. It was not sideband hash from WWFE. Where are they located?

AM 750 - Spanish Also. Where are they located?

AM 890 - Spanish. Heard them in Homestead, Flamingo, and Key West. I assume cuba, but what is their power because it was fairly strong during daylight hours.


AM 1180 Radio Marti -Marathon.
I've heard them here also. For some reason, although they had a strong signal everywhere, the audio sounded muffled and distorted except in Marathon? Is cuba trying to block the signal, and if so how?



Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks and have a great day.

Travis

TALLRED said:

I was down in Homestead this week visiting from Alabama and I was scanning the dial and found some AM stations that I have some questions about.

AM 530 - I've heard it all the way up here 859 miles away, and I've heard they are broadcasting from Turks and Caicos. If correct, how far is that from the Florida Mainland, and how much power are they transmitting?

AM 650 - I heard spanish at night overpowering Nashville's WSM. It was not sideband hash from WWFE. Where are they located?

AM 750 - Spanish Also. Where are they located?

AM 890 - Spanish. Heard them in Homestead, Flamingo, and Key West. I assume cuba, but what is their power because it was fairly strong during daylight hours.


AM 1180 Radio Marti -Marathon.
I've heard them here also. For some reason, although they had a strong signal everywhere, the audio sounded muffled and distorted except in Marathon? Is cuba trying to block the signal, and if so how?



Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks and have a great day.

Travis

Click to expand...

There are very powerful AMs on 650 and 750 in Venezuela & Ecquador. That may very well have been what you heard on those frequencies.
Regarding Marathon I believe they use highly directional antenna arrays aimed at Cuba. If you're north of Marathon you are in their null and possibly getting skywave groundwave cancellation. Were you listening at night? If so, that might explain it.

radioman148 said:

TALLRED said:

I was down in Homestead this week visiting from Alabama and I was scanning the dial and found some AM stations that I have some questions about.

AM 530 - I've heard it all the way up here 859 miles away, and I've heard they are broadcasting from Turks and Caicos. If correct, how far is that from the Florida Mainland, and how much power are they transmitting?

AM 650 - I heard spanish at night overpowering Nashville's WSM. It was not sideband hash from WWFE. Where are they located?

AM 750 - Spanish Also. Where are they located?

AM 890 - Spanish. Heard them in Homestead, Flamingo, and Key West. I assume cuba, but what is their power because it was fairly strong during daylight hours.


AM 1180 Radio Marti -Marathon.
I've heard them here also. For some reason, although they had a strong signal everywhere, the audio sounded muffled and distorted except in Marathon? Is cuba trying to block the signal, and if so how?



Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks and have a great day.

Travis

Click to expand...

There are very powerful AMs on 650 and 750 in Venezuela & Ecquador. That may very well have been what you heard on those frequencies.
Regarding Marathon I believe they use highly directional antenna arrays aimed at Cuba. If you're north of Marathon you are in their null and possibly getting skywave groundwave cancellation. Were you listening at night? If so, that might explain it.

Click to expand...

750 is a 100 kw Caracas station, but I am not sure who owns it after the nationalization of Radio Caracas Television, the parent. 650 in the Southeast is usually the Bogotá station in Colombia, although Radio Universal, 10 kw, from Santo Domingo is occasionally heard along the coast. There are no high power stations on 650 and 750 in Ecuador. In fact, many Ecuadorians have reduced power or have shut down or gone to FM. I asked my daughter to tune to both on her car radio in northern Quito last night, and she heard Medellin Colombia (Caracol Medellín) on 750 and on 650, in the splatter from Radio Nacional del Ecuador on 640, she got Bogotá.

530 is the Cuban, usually, although if it is religion it is RVC from the Turks & Caicos Islands. Radio Vision Cristiana is 40 to 50 kw... and only a few hundred miles from Miami.

890 is usually Cartagena, Colombia. 50 kw.

VOA / Martí Marathon is 100 kw firing a highly directional system aimed at Cuba. It hardly puts any power northward, and the effect of saltwater vs. land paths over signal velocity and phase delay may also be the reason why it sounds bad. It's designed to put zero power over the US mainland.

The Martí signal is jammed by stations in Cuba with regular programming, not jammers. Almost all AM frequencies are blocked by local usage inside Cuba.

Sorry I got confused on the Ecuador station.

Again, Vision Cristiana is NOT on the air! Antenna/power grid issues as a result of the hurricane last September.