Invader3K wrote:
This reminds me...I read a story today (don't have a link, sorry),
where a lot of 50kW night AM stations in the US are complaining about
Spanish stations interfering with their signals. The signals are
apparently coming from Cuba, but the FCC hasn't determined this
officially yet. Anyone heard of or experienced this lately? I haven't
done much MW DXing lately, so I wouldn't know.

There's been a fair amount of auroral propagation recently. This causes
increased absorption at higher latitudes - "daytime" conditions, where
AM stations don't cover the vast distances they cover at night, have
extended into the nighttime hours, but more so for stations further from
the equator.

This tends to make the signals of northern stations weaker, while not
affecting southern (i.e., Latin American) stations as much. In a place
where you might ordinarily hear WGN Chicago, you may hear Jamaica or
Cuba instead.

The general consesus is that there haven't been any significant AM power
increases in Cuba lately.

There have also been a few problems with interference from
Spanish-language stations *based in the U.S.*. One Miami station got
busted a couple of years back for operating from an unauthorized site,
with an unauthorized non-directional antenna pattern, and at an
unauthorized power. Amazingly, they didn't lose their license. Another
station here in Tennessee has been busted twice for using 5,000 watts at
night instead of their legal six-watt signal. They're not the only two.
--
Doug Smith W9WI
Pleasant View (Nashville), TN EM66
http://www.w9wi.com