Radio Rebelde on 5025 kHz: Cuban music, news and baseball on 60 metres

What you hear

Radio Rebelde is a domestic Cuban network, not an international service, and that is its charm on shortwave. The programme is what Cubans hear at home: music, mostly Cuban, from son and bolero to current hits; news bulletins in brisk Spanish; talk and phone-ins; and, in the season, live commentary on baseball, the national passion, with a crowd in the background and a commentator who never pauses for breath. Nobody explains Cuba to foreigners here. You simply overhear the island.

The catalogue says Cuban music around the clock, and music is indeed the backbone, but expect news at the top of the hour and sport in the Cuban evening.

Who transmits and why

Radio Rebelde was founded in 1958 in the Sierra Maestra as the rebel movement's own station, and it kept the name after the revolution; today it is one of Cuba's national radio networks. The shortwave outlet on 5025 kHz is a relay of that network, run from the same transmitter complex west of Havana that carries Radio Havana Cuba. The reason for shortwave inside a country of Cuba's size is coverage: a single 60 metre transmitter reaches the whole island and the surrounding sea at night, where medium wave and FM leave gaps. That it also reaches far beyond Cuba is a bonus for the rest of us.

When and where to listen

5025 kHz is in the 60 metre tropical band, which lives by night. In the Caribbean and the southern United States the station is a strong, steady signal from before sunset to after sunrise, and a public receiver in Florida, Texas or the Caribbean gives it to you at near-local quality. Further north in North America it is still an easy catch after dark.

From Europe, 5025 kHz is a winter night catch. The signal has to cross the Atlantic on a low frequency, so it arrives after midnight European time, peaks in the hours before European sunrise and disappears as the sun comes up. Receivers in the west of Europe have the advantage. Summer nights are short and noisy on this band, and some nights the signal does not make it at all.

The frequency is relatively clear of other broadcasters, but 60 metres is full of utility stations and the noise floor is high, so a narrower filter or a sideband mode can help pull the speech out of the static when the signal is weak.

In ShackDeck

Station catalogue → Shortwave broadcast → Radio Rebelde. The program picks a public receiver that covers 5025 kHz, tunes it and sets AM; you do not need a receiver, antenna or account of your own. A receiver in the Americas gives the fullest sound. Radio Havana Cuba on 6000 kHz is the international neighbour from the same site, with its own article.