[Spooks] Situation Normal in “The Free Territory of the Americas”

[shawn fahrer]

That is, if you consider transmitting the English program for Radio Havana Cuba from 05  - 06 UT on the same frequency as a certain Spanish language Numbers Station as being “normal”…. Frankly, this situation seems to fit the last three letters of “snafu” more than the first two.

Yep—Pedro, etc. has done it again… Proven beyond a somewhat reasonable doubt that HM01 DOES emanate from Cuba, and apparently uses a transmitter that is coming off of transmitting a program from 02 – 05 UT (which also explains why the 05 UT frequency – today at 5855 kHz – is always a few minutes late: they have to switch the transmitter to the new frequency after sign off).

According to the listings I have, RHC has 11 transmitters in use for their own transmissions from 02 – 05 UT (that doesn’t count the one being used by a China Radio International relay to NA from 03 -04 UT!), but only 8 in use from 05 – 06 UT. Therefore, there are three transmitters that could be used for the 05 -06 UT transmission of HM01. 

Frequency (kHz)	02 – 05 UT	05 -06 UT	Availability?
5040 QVC	                   YES	YES	            NO
6000 HAB	                   YES	YES	            NO
6060 HAB	                   YES	YES	            NO
6070 HAB	                   YES @ 6100 HAB	    NO
6165 HAB	                   YES	YES	            NO
9810 HAB	                   YES	YES	            NO
11670 HAB	           YES	 NO	          YES
11760 HAB	           YES	 NO	          YES
11840 HAB	           YES	YES	            NO
13740 HAB	           YES	 NO	          YES
15230 HAB	           YES	YES	            NO
 
Thus these transmitters would be the ones available to convert to HM01 use at 05 UT:

11670 HAB 100 KW/ non-dir to CeAm, Spanish, ex- 11680
11760 HAB 250 KW/ 160 deg to So Am, Spanish
13740 HAB 100 KW, 130 deg to So Am, Spanish

If I had to guess, I’d assume that the transmitter used for the 11670 kHz transmission of RHC in Spanish was the one that would be the one they’d use (since it’s already set up for non-directional propagation). However, Pedro, etc. may decide to fire up the 250 KW transmitter for those “important” broadcasts of HM01 where coverage is paramount.

Since I don’t normally look for RHC in Spanish, I don’t know if people in the US and/or Canada can pick up the 11760 kHz broadcast off of the back of the antenna (i.e., at 20 degrees from Havana if my geometry is correct) – this sounds like a good question for Glenn Hauser from World of Radio. If so, this may explain why some of the transmissions are stronger than others in my part of the world (and other parts as well) – they may be using a stronger transmitter on those nights….

Back to the actual story:

I tuned in to 5855 to try to find HM01 but instead found RHC, a bit below 5855 (on some nights, the splatter from WTWW @ 5830 completely envelops anything within 30 kHz of itself, but fortunately, except for about a minute or so, WTWW was conveniently absent from the airwaves at this hour), running the same English program it was on 6000, 6060, etc. featuring a female announcer and a program on “The Cuban Five” in the first half hour, and in the second half hour, Arnie Coro’s DXers’ Unlimited (how deliciously ironic is this: I could just imagine RHC sending me a QSL verifying a RHC transmission @ 5855 kHz, with the number of the QSL being one of the five number groups from the most recent HM01 transmission and Arnie announcing it on the air– NOT!) The term ROTFL LMAO describes my reactions to the latest from the world of “The Cuban Lady”….

Note that when WTWW did come on, I retuned my radio to find a better response for HM01 (that’s how I noticed that the part from RHC was better heard more towards 5840 kHz on my wacky radio, especially when WTWW’s signal once again went away). I assume that it is possible for one transmitter to broadcast two different programs at the same time on the same frequency—if it’s impossible, then we have a different problem on our hands…. 

In any case, the numbers have not changed (through a more “conventional” transmission on 11435 @ 06 UT and 9330 @ 07 UT, with no sign of RHC underneath or over the signal of HM01), and still are:

61051 // 16207 // 14658 // 50532 // 73475 // 13126

Until I can recover from this interesting experience, I remain

Shawn From Flushing NY
Who now realizes that ‘Cubans do the darndest things’
(to paraphrase the late Art Linkletter)….