Late nights, from about 1 - 4 a.m. local, I find Cuban number stations from 9.000 - 9.200 MHz, along with lots of propaganda and jamming from China. Some strange sounding English lessons as well.
Two Minute Video on Numbers Stations
- Thread starter screenersam
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When was the last time you heard a Cuban numbers station station? I don't watch them much, but I thought they are / were down and had been for some time.
T!
I saw one pop up back in March, in the middle of all the Chinese jamming. About 10 minutes long, voice and data. BIG signal.
This is a surprise. I can't remember the last time I logged one. Cuba has had problems maintaining many of their transmitters as well. Hearing these used to be a regular occurrence in the late 80's when I first got into the hobby.
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You did not happen to grab a recording of it, did you? The last I heard HM01 was using a new mode, and the unusually short, 10 minute, duration might be a new habit. Also, your report of March 2025 is the first report of Cuban numbers I have heard or seen since Aug of 2024.
As I said, I don't really pay much attention to the Cuban stations, but typically I catch them a few times a day (assuming I am at the radio), they are easily heard here and the visual pattern is hard to miss on the waterfall. Or rather I did hear them when they were regularly active.
Cuban numbers have been more than a bit irregular since Hurricane Ian in September 2022 (HM01 is/was the only regularly active Cuban numbers transmission remaining at that time, other than the very occasional M08a report). They (HM01 and Radio Habana Cuba, who reportedly uses the same transmitters) were off air for a while after Ian. They came back in 2023, but as I said, irregular. I have not heard HM01 myself in at least 9 or 10 months, at least as far back as Hurricane Rafael. I am not sure I have heard Radio Havana much in that time either. There have been no reports of HM01 in any of the normal numbers station monitoring newsletters since something like late August of 2024.
T!
No, I never record anything on HF. Wasn't monitoring on my SDR at the time, so no screenshot either.