TOCOBAGA DX #69 (PT. I -- RADIO) - 8 June, 2003 CLEARWATER, FLORIDA, USA E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
"Florida Low Power Radio Stations" is at: http://home.earthlink.net/~tocobagadx/flortis.html © 2003, Terry L Krueger. Retransmit or quote all or any portion only with full credit given to TOCOBAGA DX and all attributed sources. All logs by Terry L. Krueger unless otherwise stated. All times/dates are LOCAL (EASTERN DAYLIGHT) and frequencies in kiloHertz unless otherwise stated. ------------------------------------------------------------ Just back from a few days in the Florida Keys. The usual radio observations follow below, broken into two segments: "CUBA/CARIBBEAN LOGS" and "FLORIDA LOGS (PIRATES & LICENSED)" to separate categories. Overall, no significant Cuba changes noted in my admittedly very brief scans. The primary daytime Cuba bandscan was conducted at Long Key State Park this time. This site has become my overall favorite location for making a portable radio scan. I always park in the empty-to-nearly-empty Golden Orb Trail parking lot (N. 24.48.86, W. 80.49.30), near the boardwalk entrance. These logs were made from 1200-1415 EDT (1600-1815 GMT) on June 1. At Long Key, a German tourist couple saw me in the usual portable remote DX mode (loop antenna, DX-399, piles of papers on the roof of the car, Pilsner Urquell and Zephyrhills water bottles nearby). They proceeded to videocam me and the car license plate, then departed in their car. Fully expecting the worst (and certain that I was not going to be appearing on the next edition of Snoop Dog's "Girls Gone Wild"), I made sure the beer bottles (Florida State Parks violation) were disposed of and sure enough, 30-minutes later a ranger showed up to ask what I was doing. I had no trouble explaining and he left me alone after a mere three minutes. The last laugh is now on the touristas, though they will never know it. A second but very cursory scan was made from Ft. Zachary Taylor Historic State Park, at one of the picnic benches under the trees near the water (N. 24.32.79, W. 81.48.64). The park is located near the southeast end of Key West. These logs were made from 1300-1400 EDT (1700-1800 GMT) on June 2. There is probably no shortage of FM and even AM band illegals operating in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties despite the recent raids, fines and at least one jail sentence. However my monitoring was limited to passing through south Broward and Miami-Dade on the Florida [Ronald Reagan] Turnpike at 80-m.p.h. A separate, non-radio report on Keys observations will go out with this to some of you. If you do not receive it and are interested, send me an e-mail request. A RadioShack DX-399 and RadioShack 15-1853 portable loop were used for most logs, along with the car radio as backup. Finally, a few random logs from local Ft. DeSoto county beachside park made daytime June 7th are also included, using the car radio. ------------------------------------------------------------ ----------------- OTHERNESS: CUDJOE KEY AIR FORCE SITE -- Home of the two blimps used for TV Martí and radar surveillance were observed on the ground mid-afternoon Sunday, June 1st. On June 5th, around 1100 EDT, one was high in the air. I got a pretty good shot of it from Blimp Drive, and of course good shots of the one on the ground with the telephoto. The blimp that was up could be seen very well throughout Big Pine Key. SADDLEBUNCH KEYS U.S. NAVAL AIR STATION -- I was interested in seeing what kind of antenna farms were here, what with some of the giant shortwave Yagi's having been dismantled three or so years ago but well-placed sources indicating that a new monitoring site is under construction. Indeed, there appear to be more of the "telephone pole" antennas installed, and the big medium wave towers that were used for dummy load tests on 640 many years ago -- and for Radio Martí while Marathon was refurbished -- remain. The road (once labelled "Constitution Blvd." and then enterable part-way) is of course still gated and armed with remote cameras, so getting anywhere within a mile of the antennas is impossible for the average snooping DX'er. BOCA CHICA NAVAL AIR STATION, EL CHICO SPOOK SITE -- Located at 300 Boca Chica Drive, this old VHF/UHF antenna array certainly appears to be inactive. Most of the aluminum Yagi-ish antennae atop the (mostly) wooden telephone poles are dangling and/or mangled badly, Hurricane Georges no doubt finished them off. The gate is still padlocked, but there was a white van with the painted words "Naval Morale, Welfare & Recreation" on the side next to the block building. However, no sign of human activity short of me outside the gate was detected. FBIS MONITORING FACILITIES, KEY WEST -- I just don't understand how this happened, but I accidentally tresspassed along the Ft. Zachary Taylor Historic State Park shoreline about half-way up to the Foreign Broadcast Information Service (Central Intelligence Agency) antennae farm, seemingly undetected except by two tourist guys who were pointing at the sticks on the Ft. Zach side. They started eyeing me upon seeing my emergence past the plastic yellow barrier wall (my Nikon and telephoto lens in hand). Fortunately, my accidental incursion coincidentally happened at the end of my beach stay and I departed in the car without any problem. All the VHF/UHF towers are of course pointed at Habana, and the satellite dishes remain. MAPS -- The great little store "!Cuba, Cuba!" is still open, located at 814 Duval Street in Key West. I bought a fresh Cuba map (pricey at $18.95US but well worth it) to replace my tattered old one. This edition (the usual Hungarian source, Cartographia Kft.) is copyright 2001, and printed on better paper stock that also appears to be somewhat water and puke-resistant. ------------------------------------------------------------ ----------------- LOGGINGS KEY: [FDES] = logs made at Ft. DeSoto County Park, south Pinellas County, Florida. [FZSP] = logs made at Ft. Zachary Taylor Historic State Park, Key West, Florida. [LKSP] = logs made at Long Key State Park, Layton, Florida. NNdR = "Noticiero Nacional la Radio" -- the national Cuban news feed that many stations relay, currently airing (summer) 1300-1330 Eastern Daylight Time. *** (after the frequency) = something new (for me, at least) or changes (such as not heard, etc). CUBA/CARIBBEAN LOGS 526 BAHAMAS ZLS beacon, Stella Maris, Long Island; fair. [LKSP] 530 TURKS & CAICOS ISLANDS Radio Visión Cristiana, South Caicos; strong with usual Spanish preacher. [LKSP] 550 CUBA Radio Rebelde; very good. [LKSP] 580 JAMAICA RJR, Baileys Vale/St. Mary; local Jamaican preacher describing how God will cure the Jamaican economy. Very good, and parallel weaker 700 kHz. [LKSP] 590 CUBA Radio Rebelde (the ex-R Musical Nacional transmitter); silent this day, only the Clewiston, FL Mexican "fiesta" format station alone and strong here. [LKSP] And still unheard mid-day June 7th. [FDES] And unheard 0735+ June 8th at home QTH. 620 CUBA Radio Rebelde; xlnt. [LKSP] 627.5 CUBA Radio Progreso; apparent bottom-end spur of 640 kHz from they Keys to the home QTH. See 652.5 kHz. 630 CUBA Radio Progreso; xlnt but in huge het though no other audio detected. [LKSP] 640 CUBA Radio Progreso; eastern bearing, xlnt. [LKSP] 652.5 CUBA Radio Progreso; continues to be heard from the Keys to the home QTH. Apparently a spur of 640 kHz, with 627.5 kHz also present but virtually no audio making it. 660 CUBA Radio Progreso; xlnt. [LKSP] 680 CUBA Radio Rebelde; very good but telco audio. [LKSP] 690 CUBA Radio Progreso; very good. [LKSP] 700 JAMAICA RJR, Hague/Trelawny; fair, parallel 580. [LKSP] 710 CUBA Radio Rebelde; very good, mixing with the Miami Spanish station. [LKSP] 750 CUBA Radio Progreso; xlnt. [LKSP] 810 BAHAMAS Radio Bahamas ZNS3, Freeport, Grand Bahama; gospel vocals (on a Sunday morning), Abaco Region Episcopal Church program from 1245+. Never parallel the always-gospel 1240 ZNS2, Nassau. [LKSP] 820 CUBA jammer; xlnt and alone (mission accomplished at this location). [LKSP] 840 CUBA Dobleve; very good. [LKSP] 870 CUBA Radio Reloj; very good but mixing with City of Key West (WGW861) TIS. [LKSP] 880 CUBA Radio Progreso; xlnt. [LKSP] 890 CUBA unidentified; giant open carrier, looping to western Cuba. Presume a malfing audio feed. [LKSP] 910 CUBA Radio Metropolitana; fair. [LKSP] 930 CUBA Radio Reloj; fair, telco audio and mixing with carrier (see below). [LKSP] 930 CUBA unidentified; zero-beating carrier looping to western Cuba, under Reloj. [LKSP] 940 CUBA Radio Reloj; very, very poor under Miami. [LKSP] 950 CUBA Radio Reloj; good. [LKSP] 960 CUBA Radio Enciclopedia; fair. [LKSP] 980 CUBA Periodico del Aire COCO; COCO ID, then into NNdR at 1300. Strong. [LKSP] 990 CUBA Radio Guamá (presumed); good with NNdR. [LKSP] 1000 CUBA Radio Guamá (presumed); good with NNdR. [LKSP] 1020 TURKS & CAICOS [NOT] Caribbean Christian Radio, Grand Turk; no trace of this during my sporadic day and night checks. This was briefly reactivated with soul and pops, for maintenance purposes maybe? 1030 CUBA Radio Musical Nacional; xlnt with usual classical music. This National network has got to be on last legs, with hardly any channels remaining (what with 590 being sporadic and seemingly switched to Rebelde when active now). "Radio Liberación" anyone? [LKSP] 1050 MEXICO Radio Pirata XEQQQ, Cancún, Quintana Roo; usual huge signal with Spanish pop music, frequent canned ID's, commercial spots for Señor Froggy's and other nightclubs I well recall from my visit ages ago. [LKSP] 1060/1061 CUBA unidentified; possibly up to two Cubans here (CMKS and Radio Victoria in the past). Huge het with Cuban Spanish talk, but unable to make any details or parallels out of these. Even here at home, I get these hets (especially with the St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport TIS running open carrier only as of late). The measured het offender (no audio making it) measured to exactly 1061 at the home QTH. [LKSP] 1080 CUBA Radio Cadena Habana; xlnt. [LKSP] 1090 CUBA Radio Cadena Habana; fair. [LKSP] 1090 CUBA Radio Guamá; 1159 w/ female "Esta es Radio Guamá..." Very good, with R Cadena Habana poor underneath. [FDES] 1100 CUBA Radio Cadena Habana; xlnt. [LKSP] 1110 CUBA Radio Cadena Habana; very poor. [LKSP] 1120 CUBA Radio Cadena Habana; xlnt, nice ID coming out of NNdR at 1330. [LKSP] 1180 CUBA Radio Rebelde; mixing with Radio Martí (see coments under the "FLORIDA LOGS (PIRATES & LICENSED)" section). [LKSP] 1180 CUBA Radio Reloj; barely audible under Rebelde and Martí. [LKSP] 1190 UNIDENTIFIED Spanish, possible Cuban, not parallel Rebelde. [LKSP] 1200 CUBA Radio Sancti Spíritus; overmodulated, parallel very very poor 1210. [LKSP] 1210 CUBA Radio Sancti Spíritus; very very poor. [LKSP] 1240 BAHAMAS Radio Bahamas ZNS2, Nassau, New Providence; the reason I come to Long Key -- to always hear this one! And as usual, all-Bahamian gospel programming, promo's for churches and events with the 242 area code, PO Box N-xxxx addresses, etc. Very good and as always in a tight bearing. However, this time no Radio Veinteseis present. [LKSP] 1250 CUBA Radio Caibarien (presumed); xlnt with Spanish vocals. [LKSP] 1260 CUBA Radio Enciclopedia; very good with Percy Thrillington-ish instrumentals, about equal to 1270 kHz. [LKSP] 1270 CUBA Radio Enciclopedia; very good, parallel 1260. [LKSP] 1290 CUBA Dobleve; xlnt, paralleled to 1310. No trace of Radio Taíno here or in Key West. [LKSP] At the home QTH, presume Dobleve 0725+ June 8, mixing with an English domestic. Not parallel Progreso or Encilopedia, and no other Dobleve outlet in the clear for paralleling; 840 kHz outlet apparently not making it up this far for me. 1310 CUBA Dobleve; xlnt. [LKSP] 1330 CUBA Radio Jaruco; xlnt, parallel 1390. [LKSP] 1390 CUBA Radio Jaruco; xlnt, parallel 1310. [LKSP] 1400 CUBA Radio Musical Nacional; very good, see 1030 parallel comments. [LKSP] 1450 CUBA Radio Guines; tune-in to NNdR, ID coming out of the feed at 1330, man and woman announcers, soft ballads. Very good. [FZSP] 1470 CUBA Radio Ciudad Banderas; tune-in to NNdR feed, 1140 kHz potential parallel in a huge mess of QRMing stations. However at the end of NNdR, "Radio Ciudad Banderas, desde Matanzas, Cuba" by reverbed female. Very strong. [FZSP] 1490 CUBA Radio Camoa (presumed); slow Cuban ballads, fair. [FZSP] 1530 CUBA unidentified; man and woman mentioning various Cuban provinces. Radio Morón? Fair. [LKSP] 1540 BAHAMAS Radio Bahamas ZNS1, Nassau, New Providence; Bahamian-accented gospel programming (Sunday), into "Turning Point Ministries" canned program with 242 area code and PO Box from 1405 EDT. [LKSP] 1540 CUBA Radio Sagua; very good when Radio Bahamas ZNS1 nulled. [LKSP] Xlnt with all-Mexican oldies tunes program, then female "Exactamente 2 de la tarde... CMES, Radio Sagua, desde Sagua la Grande...". Later, mention of "AM y FM" but no specific channels given (106.6 MHz was last reported mentiond on-air for FM). [FZSP] 1560 CUBA Radio Enciclopedia; fair, parallel 1260, 1270, 1570. [LKSP] 1570 CUBA Radio Enciclopedia; very very poor. [LKSP] 96.1 MHz BAHAMAS Cool 96, Freeport, Grand Bahama; noted at 9:15+ EDT June 1 on US-1, north Key Largo, but gone by mile marker 102. Badly-cued Bahamian hip-hop, dead air, potting the wrong audio, etc. Finally a station promo and into soul, reggae and gospel reggae on a Sunday morning. Never heard this one so far south. No trace of ZNS-FM 104.5, previously heard in this vicinity. 96.7 MHz CUBA Radio Rebelde; on the way down, unheard until Key West during the Ft. Taylor monitoring sweep. But upon my return home, audible up to around Islamorada. Signal (power?) doesn't seem as good as in past years, though maybe a propagation factor too. FLORIDA LOGS (PIRATES & LICENSED) 530 (TIS) KNNI706 Southwest Florida International Airport, Ft Myers, FL; fair in the Ft. Myers vicinity on I-75, usual male parking info. 530*** (TIS) Tropical Everglades Visitors Center WPAC338, Florida City, FL; not active. 870 (TIS) City of Key West WGW861, FL; huge signal with usual male looped parking, etc. info. Signal noted in mid-Key Largo, mixing with Radio Reloj. This one has to eventually end up being logged by someone in central Florida or points beyond. 1180 Radio Martí, Marathon, FL; surprised how wel this gets through since my last Keys visit, when it was barely audible daytime past Marathon due to Radio Rebelde's huge signal block. This time, audible considerably over Rebelde even in Key Largo. And in Key West, still dominating with Rebelde only fair underneath. So, this must be making it at copiable level on a portable in the Habana area these days. Cudos to the engineers and brute 100 kW, I guess. Back at home, it's virtually untraced; but then home isn't Habana. 1320 WLQY "Haiti Antenne Plus", Hollywood, FL; presumed the one at good level with semi-proper French chatter. [LKSP] 1500*** WKIZ, Key West, FL; dropped in on the old studios that (were) shared with the Spanish LPTV equipment at 527 Southard. After knocking on the glass door for awhile, an older and very tentative Cuban gent claimed that the previous owner of WKIZ is no longer affiliated with the LPTV and thus no longer located in this building. After prodding, he said their studios are now on Stock Island. He pointed to the corner where the old CD changer, small board and big painted Cuba wall map (latter still there) was, and simply said, "see?" before shutting the door on me. Didn't have the energy to further pursue or try to track down anyone such as Jacques Combeau, my contact when visiting in 2000. Format remains mostly canned Cuban oldies vocals. 1510 (TIS) WPUR527 Peace River Bridge (near) Port Charlotte/Punta Gorda, FL; on I-75. Still active. This is the northbound version of 1640 kHz operation. Still active with mutliple (four and seemingly more for each direction) transmitters, collectively a good signal for bridge reconstruction updates. Construction appears to be at least 50% complete. 1600 WKWF, Key West, FL; 1055+ good with usual satellite-fed sports talk, splatter from the local 1590 being the only problem. Funny to hear something from where I just departed from. [FDES] 1610*** (PIRATE) "La Unica 16-10/Radio R-C-H", Homestead, FL; at least two of the ID's anyway. Huge, massively overmodulated signal noted late afternoon May 31 at Florida City with Kreyol vocals. Recheck a short while later, in Spanish with tejano and modern Mexican vocals, male DJ. Bearing on the portable was due east/west this at about one mile north of the Card Sound Road exit on US-1. Despite the huge signal (obviously very close), the signal vanished only a couple of miles south of the Card Sound exit. During the Spanish programming, a sole but clear "La Unica 16-10" ID was noted. By 2030 EDT on May 31, they reverted back to Kreyol programming. The next morning, June 1 at 0730 EDT, Kreyol church services were in progress. And at 0830 EDT, English black church revivals and English preacher were in progress. Then upon my return home early afternoon June 5, this was noted with Spanish again, and several clear "Radio R-C-H" slogans. The signal dropped out on the Turnpike before SW 112th Avenue. So, this one is running Kreyol, Spanish and English blocks for the migrant workers in the vicinity, possibly even 24/7. Though the signal range is fairly small, I wonder if this accounts for some of the non-New England unidentified Kreyol logs in the past. 1610*** (TIS) Florida Bay Research Radio WQO743, US-1 Mile Marker 111, on the mainland (north of Key Largo), FL; not active. 1620*** (TIS) north Key Largo (?), FL; sporadically reported but never IDed. Noted this on June 5 early afternoon, only audible on US-1 right around the Lake Surprise and CR-905 Card Sound Road/US-1 junction with male loop. Impossible to make anything out with horrid powerline noise. 1620*** (TALKING HOUSE) Key Largo, FL; noted in the Winn Dixie shopping center, north Key Largo on US-1. Didn't catch the exact address in the line noise, but obviously nearby based on references with looped Realtor man "...[uncopiable URL with Realtor's name incorporated within]... or you can call me direct at 305-852-8585. Do it now... We're only a hop-skip-and-a-jump from Blackwater Sound..." 1640 (TIS) WPUR527 Peace River Bridge (near) Port Charlotte/Punta Gorda, FL; southbound I-75 version of 1510 kHz operation. 87.75 MHz WTVJ Channel 6 TV, Miami, FL; amused to note frequent promos while watching cable in Key West, where they state, "NBC 6, now on channel 58 and 88.7 FM" (all while showing a digital stereo receiver tuned to 88.7). Of course, this is merely the audio channel location for channel 6, which happens to just make the bottom of US-manufactured radios. Good use of what's already there from a marketing angle. 87.9*** MHz (PIRATE) unidentified, Tampa, FL; noted this one for the first time June 7th 1500 local, with Kreyol kompas. Made a quick drive of the signal across the Howard Frankland Bridge to the Courtney Campbell Causeway to confirm it is in Hillsborough County. Indeed, peaked around Rocky Point, so presume it's located in the west Tampa/stadium area. Nonstop music while listening, so no slogan ID heard. Either new or morphed one of the several inactive Haitian pirates. "Radio Sonique" on 99.1 MHz was active at the same time, so at least that one can be ruled out. [FDES] 93.5 MHz*** (PIRATE) unidentifed, Homestead area, FL; huge signal on the Turnpike around SW 112th Avenue, with emotional Spanish preacher. Signal lost on the Turnpike by SW 40th Steet sign northbound, and shortly thereafter, the English Caribe "Action Radio" appeared (see below). 93.5 MHz*** (PIRATE) "Action Radio", north Miami-Dade or south Broward; about the time the crying Spanish preacher faded (see entry) this one appeared while heading north on the Turnpike. Huge signal covering a good portion of Miami-Dade and Seemingly all of Broward, lost finally a few miles past the US-27 exchange on I-75 westbound. All Caribe hip-hop, reggae and soca with live Caribe English DJ, frequent "Action Radio" ID's, station number (uncopied, but believe it was a Broward exchange), several Caribe store ads and events promos. Same as the old 90.9 MHz "Action Radio" of past? 101.1*** MHz (PIRATE), Miami-Dade, FL fair with Caribe hip-hop and soca with Caribe-accented English male DJ late afternoon May 31, mixing with "WAVE 101" (WAVV, Marco Island/Naples) in the parking lot of Miami MetroZoo (SW 152nd St.). Lost the signal southbound on the Turnpike rather quickly. Presumed something unlicensed. 102.3*** MHz WAEM, Miami, FL; the once-experimental county/state FM TIS of sorts is definitely inactive (as previousy observed by others). Not located on a quick Db search. Formerly with multi-language looped tourist info, focusing on how not to be carjacked. Didn't see any of the blue/white signs along the Interstate and Turnpike that once existed for this either. 102.5*** MHz (PIRATE) unidentified, Miami-Dade, FL; Spanish vocals noted very poorly in splatter from 102.7 MHz. Seemed domestic and guess pirate, as no E-skip was noted at the time. Heard briefly on Card Sound Road and in Homestead, poor. 104.5*** MHz (PIRATE) unidentified, Miami-Dade, FL; Spanish vocals, announcer noted poorly, mixing with "WORC" (see entry) while on Card Sound Road. No E-skip conditions were detected, so guessing this was a pirate somewhere in south Miami-Dade. Signal lost around Homestead. 104.5 MHz (PIRATE) "WORC Ocean Reef Club Radio", north Key Largo, FL; still active and still in mono mode. Really big signal now. Audible on CR-905 south of the Card Sound Road intersection, and along Card Sound Road all the way to the last gasp of audio at the US-1 junction! Format remains mostly lounge lizard (Lou Rawls, Sinatra, 60's/70's soft pop and one unidentified group with "Celebrate Jesus" -- apparently to ensure the Club remains Hebrew-free). One canned "WORC, Ocean Reef Club" ID drop heard. 106.7*** MHz WGGP-LP "106.7 Grace FM", Big Pine Key, FL; believed to be the first Florida LPFM'er (100 watts) to activate a few months ago, quickly located this one on Key Deer Blvd. a mile or so off of US-1. Their antenna (as previously e-mailed to me with photo attachments by L. Vencl in November, 2002) is behind the Baptist church property. Signal was first beginning to break in over the the Miami Spanish station (WRMA) northbound US-1 around Shark Key, and nearly gone by Bahía Honda Key, lost completely on Seven Mile Bridge. Live programming of modern (Petra, etc.) and soft traditional Christian vocals along with some canned sermon programming. Note the slogan heard used frequently. Live ID's on the hour, at least. Also noted a battered old white van with the station calls painted on the side parked behind the church. 106.9*** MHz (PIRATE) unidentifed, Miami-Dade; yet another very poor level Spanish with mostly traditional-ish Cuban vocals in splatter from the licensed 106.7 Spanish station. Heard briefly on the Turnpike in Homestead/south Miami. 107.1 MHz WIIS "The New Rock Alternative - Island 107.1", Key West, FL; dropped in on this very low powered FM'er again (2.5 kW, but I was told they are much lower than that most of the time), studios at 1025 Duval. Still with the great alternative/Active Rock mix and no more than three spots per hour ever heard. Sadly, Rachel the babe DJ in the 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. slot is long gone ("I think she's working somewhere down here for a promotions company" I was told). "Alison" (who is not too shabby looking either) is now in her time slot. The station is still owned by the now reportedly retired plastic surgeon who runs this as a hobby, it appears. Their URL is defunct. The slogan is slightly different now ("The New Rock Alternative" portion). ### ---[Start Commercial]--------------------- World Radio TV Handbook 2003 is out! Order it now! http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0823059677/hardcoredxcom ---[End Commercial]----------------------- ________________________________________ Hard-Core-DX mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www2.hard-core-dx.com/mailman/listinfo/hard-core-dx http://www.hard-core-dx.com/ _______________________________________________ THE INFORMATION IN THIS ARTICLE IS FREE. It may be copied, distributed and/or modified under the conditions set down in the Design Science License published by Michael Stutz at http://dsl.org/copyleft/dsl.txt
