December 21, 200421 yr By Charles Elmore Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Tuesday, December 21, 2004 You're in your car, heading out for a Monday night Dolphins game. You dial up a pre-game radio show. Reception is awful. What gives? Cuba is jamming the broadcast. It's not necessarily a government plot, but it is an irritant to international relations as far as many sports fans are concerned. The source of the trouble is a Cuban station over which American regulators have no control, and it's stepping on WQAM-560AM in Miami. Fans in Palm Beach and Broward counties suffer most. "There is a station at the same frequency as WQAM, and their power has increased," said George Corso, chief engineer at WQAM. "They're annoying the daylights out of us." WQAM has received dozens of calls and e-mails, mostly from Palm Beach and northern Broward counties, he said. WQAM's signal is weaker there, and more vulnerable to interference, particularly at night. The signal of the Cuban station on the same 560AM frequency has been measurably stronger since October, Corso said. The interference was noticeable at the beginning of the 2003 World Series, and then seemed to subside until it came back with a vengeance recently. WQAM has measured the problem and reported it to the Federal Communications Commission, but the agency has no jurisdiction over a station in Cuba. "We're telling people to write their congresssman," Corso said. A call to the Cuban Interest Section in Washington, the equivalent of a Cuban embassy, was not returned Monday. http://www.palmbeachpost.com/dolphins/cont...olumn_1221.html WQAM is being interfered heavily, so is WAXY...Castro is up to blocking the Marlins from coming to Cuba. It has been a plot since 1993, came online in 1997 for that World Series, and was recently relaunched in 2003. DAMN CASTRO! I can't listen to WQAM at all right now at night...not even a poor signal! All I hear is one of his big radio chains blowing watts into the air!
December 21, 200421 yr Author WQAM needs to get a power raise from the FCC like 620 WDAE out of St. Pete did.....it lets them go up in power. WIOD and WAXY have it, WQAM needs it badly.
December 21, 200421 yr I think I might have been having a similar interference problem today when I was driving in my car and listening to ZETA, which has its offices in Palm Beach.
December 21, 200421 yr Author FM shouldn't suffer from Cuban interference. Zeta is not in Palm Beach, the license is to Miami Beach, the staiton is near the Dade-Broward County line in the WIOD building and the tower is also nearby. Their office is just up the road from Pro Player Stadium. Zeta doesn't officially cover the Palm Beach County market, but you can get it there...albeit with some static.
December 21, 200421 yr WQAM is being interfered heavily, so is WAXY...Castro is up to blocking the Marlins from coming to Cuba. It has been a plot since 1993, came online in 1997 for that World Series, and was recently relaunched in 2003. DAMN CASTRO! I can't listen to WQAM at all right now at night...not even a poor signal! All I hear is one of his big radio chains blowing watts into the air! 639644[/snapback] Yeah, Castro is blocking the signal because he's afraid of the Marlins toppling his regime! It wouldn't matter if 560 was an all sports station or all news, the station in Cuba is going to block it. I'm in Palm Beach and I can't hear, not only 560 on my drive home from the office at 6:30, but also 940 and 1290 is getting interference as well. Trust me, it has nothing to do with the fact that the Marlins are on the air.
December 21, 200421 yr I've heard it everytime I turn into QAM at night. Its annoying as **** :plain I wonder if they can increase their power and interfere with that Cuban radio station and their annoying banter.
December 21, 200421 yr Author WQAM is being interfered heavily, so is WAXY...Castro is up to blocking the Marlins from coming to Cuba. It has been a plot since 1993, came online in 1997 for that World Series, and was recently relaunched in 2003. DAMN CASTRO! I can't listen to WQAM at all right now at night...not even a poor signal! All I hear is one of his big radio chains blowing watts into the air! 639644[/snapback] Yeah, Castro is blocking the signal because he's afraid of the Marlins toppling his regime! It wouldn't matter if 560 was an all sports station or all news, the station in Cuba is going to block it. I'm in Palm Beach and I can't hear, not only 560 on my drive home from the office at 6:30, but also 940 and 1290 is getting interference as well. Trust me, it has nothing to do with the fact that the Marlins are on the air. 639699[/snapback] Read the article. Castro does believe that MLB aka the Marlins could topple his regime and puts more juice on 560 and 970 (former home of the Devil Rays) to make sure they don't get into Cuba. He interferes with every station in the state, but at night he takes WQAM out.
December 21, 200421 yr WQAM is being interfered heavily, so is WAXY...Castro is up to blocking the Marlins from coming to Cuba. It has been a plot since 1993, came online in 1997 for that World Series, and was recently relaunched in 2003. DAMN CASTRO! I can't listen to WQAM at all right now at night...not even a poor signal! All I hear is one of his big radio chains blowing watts into the air! 639644[/snapback] Yeah, Castro is blocking the signal because he's afraid of the Marlins toppling his regime! It wouldn't matter if 560 was an all sports station or all news, the station in Cuba is going to block it. I'm in Palm Beach and I can't hear, not only 560 on my drive home from the office at 6:30, but also 940 and 1290 is getting interference as well. Trust me, it has nothing to do with the fact that the Marlins are on the air. 639699[/snapback] Read the article. Castro does believe that MLB aka the Marlins could topple his regime and puts more juice on 560 and 970 (former home of the Devil Rays) to make sure they don't get into Cuba. He interferes with every station in the state, but at night he takes WQAM out. 639793[/snapback] OMG, OMG, OMG! We should invade Cuba even though Castro has nothing to with this. OMG, OMG, OMG! :plain :thumbdown
December 21, 200421 yr Author Castro has everything to do with this. WTH are you guys talking about? Nobody is saying anything about invading Cuba. Wish you guys could read.
December 21, 200421 yr i remember when i was driving up to orlando during the 2003 nlcs and couldn't get the station because of the interference. but i got a game of my beloved industriales instead so i wasn't so mad.
December 21, 200421 yr Read the article. Castro does believe that MLB aka the Marlins could topple his regime and puts more juice on 560 and 970 (former home of the Devil Rays) to make sure they don't get into Cuba. He interferes with every station in the state, but at night he takes WQAM out. 639793[/snapback] I read the article (both your "cut and paste" job and the actual article in this morning's Palm Beach Post) and your conclusions are not based on the actual text of the article. The basis of the article is that Cuba has a 560AM station that happens to interfere with WQAM. The article does not articulate any "plot" by the Cuban government to specifically block Marlins games. Time for you to go take some reading comprehension classes, especially if you expect to do well on your SAT's!
December 21, 200421 yr Author The interference was noticeable at the beginning of the 2003 World Series, and then seemed to subside until it came back with a vengeance recently. Combine it with the fact that Castro has banned MLB from even being heard in Cuba......you can't be that ignorant SoFlaFish
December 21, 200421 yr Author Castro has also raised power on his station on 640 AM to interfere with Marlins Radio affiliate 640 WJNA in Palm Beach.
December 21, 200421 yr Because he doesn't have the balls nor power to block 1140 or 670, which transmit straight to Cuba.
December 21, 200421 yr Author Response from WQAM Engineering: The beauty of WQAM for the last 75 years has been that it is a non directional station needing only one tall tower to broadcast a very good signal.There are two issues concerning our coverage. The first is that we have to protect many other station in the US and one in Jamaica. I can't just raise the transmitter power of WQAM. The second problem is that if we were to try to combat this problem by raising the power, we would still have to protect the other560 KHz operators in the US and Jamaica. For us to make the change to increase power will cost millions of dollars in land required and additional towers for directional broadcast. The F.C.C. is aware of the problem. I have given them plenty of data to confirm this interference. You could assist by contacting your US Representative and asking them to get involved though another agency to try to communicate the problem to the Cuban Government and perhaps they'll go back to their former power level. WQAM could resume providing the service that it has for three quarters of a century.
December 21, 200421 yr Because he doesn't have the balls nor power to block 1140 or 670, which transmit straight to Cuba. 639903[/snapback] Actually both are regularly blocked by Castro. I live in near the Broward border and on many nights BOTH are blocked out by Cuban radio. I know this because my grandmother comes into my room and says, "Ese hijo de puta me quito el radio otra vez." I've had regular problem with all three stations on my way down to the Keys on Card Sound Road also.
December 21, 200421 yr Author in the keys....it is really bad! i lived in key largo and wqam at night was impossible.
December 21, 200421 yr The radio stations are blocked out by Radio Reloj in Cuba and it's trademark tone like a clock to mark every second.
December 22, 200421 yr Combine it with the fact that Castro has banned MLB from even being heard in Cuba......you can't be that ignorant SoFlaFish 639892[/snapback] No, I'm not ignorant. I'm only stating to you that the fact that Cuban stations are heard in South Florida during the night is something that has occurred LONG BEFORE there was ever a Marlins team here. You are extrapolating certain statements to fit your argument that Castro has a plot to stop the Marlins because they are a threat to his regime. You are ignoring over 45 years of global politics, which is understandable factoring your age. Your assumption is that all U.S. radio was available to the island until the Marlins came over, then, Castro gathered up his henchmen and said, "Oye, that baseball team could be the end of me so lets stop them from broadcasting, but we'll allow Neil Rogers to be heard, and I like Fat Hank, so he's okay too!" ( ). Plus the fact that Cuban stations don't need to power down, therefore they will come in stronger here. It's not only 560, but 940 is knocked out too in the evening. And God knows that Castro just can't stand to hear any George Bush bashing on the island as well! So don't go throwing the term "ignorant" around so lightly here. I've got hemorroids that are older than you, and a big fat Master's Thesis on U.S./Cuban relations, which you haven't "cut and paste" from yet!
December 22, 200421 yr Author I just love how pompous you can be. If your master's thesis on US-Cuba relations is so comprehensive, then please tell me the penalty for listening to a Major League Baseball game on the island? Tell me why the FCC granted power boosts to WDAE in Tampa and WIOD in Miami (naming just a few big ones) in order to stave off the Cuabn interference. Oh, one more thing, summarize why Radio Marti carried Marlins games in the 2003 World Series and Castro has ever since started a heavy jamming campaign on WQAM, WJNA, WWCN and WQBA....all who happen to carry Florida Marlins baseball games.
December 22, 200421 yr Author Another thing SoFlaFish probably doesn't realize is jamming can only occur at night on the US side because AM waves don't propogate enough to reach the mainland and overtake US waves. The station being used to jam WQAM is at 35kw (compared to 'QAM's puny 1kw at night) and broadcasting on 570 khz. The co-channel interference, combined with the 35kw will easily kill WQAM.
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