TV Martà broadcasts to Cuba from an airborne transmitter have increased to a six-times-a-week schedule by using a civilian aircraft contracted by the US government and flying out of Key West. The new flights, which will take place Monday through Saturday evenings, are part of a $10 million allotment by Congress on top of $28 million to cover operating expenses for Radio/TV MartÃ. The private aircraft likely will replace the Pennsylvania National Guard Commando Solo C-130 that has been transmitting to Cuba. The new broadcast aircraft currently is being used only to transmit TV MartÃ, but a future generation of the plane possibly will be outfitted with an FM band transmitter for Radio MartÃ, according to Alberto Mascaro, TV MartÃ’s chief of staff.
”The transmission from this plane is the fulfillment of the president’s commitment to break the Cuban dictatorship’s information blockade on the Cuban people, and will increase their access to timely and accurate information that they need at this critical time,” Pedro Roig, director of the agency that runs TV and Radio MartÃ, said in a statement.
The Commando Solo C-130 aircraft had been broadcasting the TV signals for only four hours a week since hurricanes destroyed the broadcasting blimp in Cudjoe Key. The new airplane was described only as a twin-engine G1. ”No special equipment is necessary” to receive the station’s signals, Alberto Mascaro. “It’s an over-the-air signal so all that is needed is a television.”
(Source: Miami Herald)
