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IRCA thread discussing MW 1180 kHz USAGM Radio Marti, towards Cuba island, Latin AM.
Radio Marti 1180 kHz at Sisters Creek Island, Florida Keys, left the air at 1630 UT on 17 March 2025 UTC (~24 hrs after USAGM Greenville-NC SW shut down), then came back on at 1600 26 March 2025 UTC, according to multiple sources in positions to know. The return was on the same day that the USAGM "lockout" ended for the nonessential staff while the DOGE audit was being conducted. The audit was conducted by surprise (and the shutdown with it), to prevent any government records from being destroyed that might reveal any waste or corruption (and they have been finding lots of it across the central government in general).
I first heard Marti back on myself at 2345 UTC on 26 March. It has been audible nightly since then with no observed interruption. The theme song "Clave a Marti", almost an interval signal, punches through the co-channel QRM very well at the top of every hour. I can hear it more easily here (just inland from Cape Canaveral) than via the south FL Kiwi's I'm probably closer to any backlobe axis center than Miami is, even if further away. The signal trades off with the Cubans-proper as everybody fades up and down.
As far as Rebelde is concerned, the carrier count varies from night to night. There are fewer of them on the air than the listed ~40. This is probably due to the "apagones", i.e. power outages across the island, and you can watch them turn on and off on the waterfall. Mostly you will hear a mix of both Rebelde FM and "Rebelde AM" on 1180 kHz. On random evenings here, provincial programming is heard on some of the 1180kHz transmitters.
The most common just now is Radio Guama from Pinar. On 1 April UTC at 0400Z Radio Cadena Agramonte, Camagueey, was noted, just once so far. That one is of particular interest since they currently have no other known active MW frequency (910kHz has been consistently off). Radio Artemisa was heard there as recently as Sept 2024 but not since. One can only speculate as to why this is being done. It could be due to the incompetence of poorly-paid technicians, which has other symptoms such as wobbling car- riers. Or, the Rebelde audio circuit from La Habana could be down and they switch to a local program source. Or finally, it could be that there is not enough power to run both the "jammer" and the nominal local frequencies (now frequently absent), so they'll put the local programming on 1180 kHz to make up the coverage difference.
In addition, there appears to be one tx on 1179.989 kHz carrying only 120 Hz dirty buzz in recent days. Sometimes that is the strongest transmitter on the channel, which suggests it might be the 200kW Matanzas site, but that is just a guess. Given the number of transmitters carrying the same program, it's impossible to absolutely determine whether there is Rebelde audio on this one in addition to the buzz, but the method of the Cubans using 60 Hz-derived noise to jam has a long history on 1180 kHz.
(David E. Crawford, Indian River City, FL/USA)
WWDXC Top Nx 24 Apr 2025)
