BBC story re: Sats to Cuba

[Jim "Spot" Beam]

Cubans warned about satellite TV

The official newspaper of the Cuban Communist Party has warned Cubans against manufacturing or using illegal satellite TV dishes and aerials.
The paper highlighted the case of four men facing up to three years in prison for allegedly making home-made receivers to pick up foreign channels.

Cuba this week condemned a new US strategy of using Florida-based stations to beam TV Marti to Cuba.

Previously Cuba was able to jam most of TV Marti's anti-communist output.

Since December, TV Marti, funded by the US government, has been broadcast on stations in Florida which Cubans using illegal satellites can pick up.

The move has made TV Marti accessible to thousands of people on the island who never would have been able to see it before.

Non-US broadcast

By law, TV Marti is not allowed to broadcast propaganda inside the US.

However, anti-Castro groups believe the Florida stations can be used to transmit programmes as long as any viewing in the US is "inadvertent", the Associated Press news agency reported.

Cuba has a government-approved satellite TV service, but it is only available to resident foreigners, tourists and select officials, AP added.

Three of the men mentioned in the Granma newspaper article were reported to have been caught in a bicycle repair shop in Havana making illegal satellite dishes.

Another man was found with allegedly re-activated satellite receiver cards and dishes.

 

[iafirebuff]

Boy, we think we got it bad here!

 

[Tron]

Boy, we think we got it bad here!

Very true. But if these HOAs and other people's business-minding troublemakers have their way, there won't be much difference between here and there one day

 

[jayelem]

Cuban Goverment controls what people see .

Years ago the big thing In Northern Cuba including Havana was OTA DXing , they were making antennas for the purpose of catching distant Tv signals , ok Key West is only 90 miles away, so I guess this was feasible.

Then came the crackdown , still didn't stop everyone , so FTA made it easier for some , I've seen help threads where Cubans were asking about G10 , for the U.S. Spanish Networks of course.

Money $$$ to be made , running splitters and signal amps they can distribute the signal , people paying up to $10 dollars a month for one station , they take a vote on the station and everyone gets the same one.

This isn't new , been going on since Direct TV boxes were hacked years ago (yes they remember Black Sunday very well) , wondering why Dish or Direct has a Spot beam on Cuba , GTMO Naval Base is part of the answer.

Still , Cuban Tv has come a long way , back in 1999 there were only 2 TV stations broadcasting throughout Cuba , TeleRebelde and Cubavision , now Imagine Simulcasted programming on both networks , strange but neat just walk down the street and never miss the dialogue as the Sound of the Tv speakers in unison follow every footstep. Today they have up to 5 channels.

Anti-American Propaganda aimed mostly at Foreign Policy -Blockade , and thats basically where it ends , Cubans love American Culture , Have you watched the Cuban Mux on Hispasat ? They watch Everyone Loves Raymond , NYPD , CSI :, and about every movie released on DVD within months of the release. Until GTMO stopped their OTA , people in surrounding areas couldn't get enough of Wheel of Fortune.

TV Marti - Boring for the most part ,2nd Audio is Radio Marti.
Repeats of Willy Chirino, Gloria Estefan , and Celia Cruz , the several times a week Propaganda film from the early 60's on Cuban life Pre-Castro, and some pretty smart people talking smart half of the time, still if it's prohibitted then people want to see what they shouldn't watch.

Cuban are ingenious , don't know how they're getting or making the FTA Equipment but they do, they can pretty much forget about ordering a subscription to National Geographic let alone a dish from one of our sponsors.

 

[updatelee]

their probably bring them in from other countries, friends and family living in countries other then the USA.

as far as Ive ever heard, its only the USA that has the real beef with them, everyone else is more the happy to go down there and smoke fine cigars and sip moheta's

if other countries have embargo's against cuba, they sure dont vocalize it like the USA does.

 

[GrumpyGuy]

I'd love to field test one of those homemade Cuban dishes. But I would find it difficult to enjoy a drink served to me by a guy who could get 3 years in prison for hammering a steel drum head into parabola, just so he might enjoy a little Telemundo after work.

Very creative people, the Cubans. Their government is going to find it increasingly difficult to maintain totalitarian control over the flow of information to and from the island. I hope they respond by giving up on the idea rather than ramping up the already brutal penalties.

 

[jayelem]

their probably bring them in from other countries, friends and family living in countries other then the USA.

as far as Ive ever heard, its only the USA that has the real beef with them, everyone else is more the happy to go down there and smoke fine cigars and sip moheta's

if other countries have embargo's against cuba, they sure dont vocalize it like the USA does.

I guess if you grease the right palm you might be able to get something in, but FTA tech is contraband no matter where it comes from , now on a note of ignorance maybe you can pursuade someone at customs ( using the FORCE Obi-Wan style ) " thats not an LNB " " It's a New Age massaging instrument " or my "FTA Receiver is actually an Alarm clock".

They have a problem with people bringing in Microwave Ovens and other appliances because of power usage. Blackouts in Cuba aren't technical problems they are deliberate to save energy or reroute power where usage is needed the most, Sugar Mills, Foreign Shopping districts, and factories.

Countries that are pro Embargo , U.S. , Marshall Islands , Israel , a few more if that, you get the picture . We trade with Vietnam , China , yet beaurocracy backed by the most powerful of Cuban exiles in Miami keep us from trading Freely.

 

[MotleyFool]

From what I've heard from people I've met in Mexico some cubans are smuggling in FTA receivers and running hack software to get dish. Not like they can buy a subscription.

 

[jayelem]

Ahhh , much easier to hide a Pizza Dish.
As for smuggling ,yes that would work, plenty of ports in Cuba, so we can pretty much rule out making it through airport security.

Tiny exerpt from article : US media analyst Alvin Snyder explained: "A low-power Miami TV channel, WPMF-TV, Channel 38, carried TV Marti's half-hour early and late evening newscasts, but the channel is also carried on DirecTV, which is pirated by many Cuban civilians."

Brilliant Minds
I thought the days of the hacked Direct TV were over, I guess not.

 

[Mr Tony]

account splitting maybe?

 

[jayelem]

Didn't think of that , a subbed Direct TV receiver via splitter. You can forget the phoneline.

Also , Foreign Consulates-Embassies don't always have to obide Laws for Cubans, so if you make a good contact you can get things , like internet , maybe Satellite.

 

[Mr Tony]

no I meant they activate 5 boxes in Miami and "sell" 4 to cubans

Saldy, some brokers in Canada do the same thing with accounts

 

[mikekohl]

Like many newspaper articles pretending to report on high tech, I think there
were some holes in that report.

It mentions that some South Florida TV stations that were transmitting TV Marti excerpts, were received by people in Cuba using illegal satellite equipment.
DISH Network...maybe, through the gray market or even the black market, possibly. But I am not sure why....see the next paragraph.

Doesn't anyone know about HISPASAT at 30 East? All of Havana's TV and Radio stations transmit there, as does TV MARTI. And a smattering of Spanish language television from places as diverse as Colombia, Argentina, Spain and the Canary Islands. This would have nothing to do with receiving Miami stations, but get
TV MARTI in on the same antenna as domestic Cuban TV. Of course ALL satellite antennas are still illegal in Cuba, but this is an interesting situation.

Tonight I caught an English language broadcast of Al Gore's AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, with Spanish subtitles, just after 6pm Central time on TV REBELDE.
The censor that approved the subtitling must have been asleep at the wheel, because a blurb about the fall of communism slipped through in its entirety, from the English language audio.

 

[jayelem]

Like many newspaper articles pretending to report on high tech, I think there
were some holes in that report.

Doesn't anyone know about HISPASAT at 30 East?.

I agree ........... much easier to get @ 30.West , but a little harder to hide a bigger dish, I saw estimates that 10,000 satellite dishes are in use in Cuba.

I would think true FTA is what most people get , it would be that much harder to have access to a computer ,and even harder to access internet.

Al Gore Documentary Day 2 , On today and yesterday simulcast on several stations, I caught a little bit , lot of people understand English in Cuba so I'm sure the fall of comunism got a laugh.

 

[Mr Tony]

found a new article...kinda amazing
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/cuba/sfl-asattvfeb18,0,6210037.story?track=rss

Havana -- The satellite TV man strutted past a row of crumbling Central Havana tenements, where old women peered down from colonial balconies and clusters of men sat outside playing dominoes.

One entertainment-starved resident after another inquired about the neighborhood's illegal satellite network, which had to be taken down for more than a week after the latest government crackdown on TV piracy.

"Any day now," promised Acea, a 23-year-old medical student and satellite TV entrepreneur. "You'll be watching Sabado Gigante in no time."

But the popular Miami-based, Spanish-language variety show hadn't prompted the most recent government campaign against the banned satellite hookups. The latest raids came two months after U.S.-funded Radio and TV Martí struck deals with two commercial South Florida stations to broadcast anti-Castro programming to Cuba via satellite TV. For years, the Cuban government has successfully jammed TV Martí's non-satellite signal.

Concealed on rooftops throughout Havana, thousands of illegal satellite antennas have become one more symbol of the ceaseless efforts by communist authorities to control the information that flows to the island and by hard-line exiles across the Florida Straits to undermine the government of ailing president Fidel Castro.

Many Cubans who rely on state-controlled media for entertainment and news are caught in the middle. They merely seek to circumvent the tired political rhetoric coming from both sides, they say, to escape lives marked by food shortages, crumbling housing, inadequate transportation and meager state wages.

"You have four channels of communist TV," said Acea, who asked that his full name not be used for fear of government reprisals. "People get tired. If you have children at home, they get bored. If it's not the Mesa Redonda [Roundtable news program], it's the story of the execution of so and so. But it's always politics. Why is our government so concerned that we watch political shows from the U.S. when we're being inundated with political programming here?"

Typical TV offerings in Cuba include math and language courses, the nightly 90-minute pro-government Roundtable news program and local sports.

Recent raids came in the days before and after the Feb. 8 publication of a full-page article in the communist daily Granma about a group of men prosecuted for fabricating illegal satellite dishes. The article said programming by TV Martí and some Miami-based commercial Spanish-language stations was "destabilizing and interventionist and forms part of the Bush administration plan aimed at destroying the revolution and with it the Cuban nation."

Acea and some friends said they operate a burgeoning pirate TV network with two strategically mounted satellite dishes plus a web of cables and boosters to 60 Central Havana homes. They charge about $10 a month for the service, almost as much as most Cubans earn each month. The satellite dishes, they said, are usually smuggled into the country by exiles visiting from the United States. Sometimes airport customs agents are bribed for each dish they allow through.

"Some police officers in the neighborhood have satellite service," Acea said. "Sometimes we provide them with free service and in exchange they let us know when a raid is being carried out."

When they receive word of raids, cables are quickly disconnected and put away. The network is shut down. With the system down most of February, subscribers have not had to pay this month. "It's all part of doing business," Acea said.

One friend handles installations, he said. Another handles the technical aspects of the trade. Acea is treasurer and enforcer.

"I go out every month with a wire cutter and wood plank in case there is trouble," he said. "If they don't pay, I cut the wire right there."

Many Cubans who purchase illegal satellite hookups think the government may be worried about something more ominous than the stridently anti-Castro programs -- the TV commercials.

"It's inconvenient for the government that we see that in Florida you can buy three housecoats for $9.99 and here you pay $6 for one," said Frank, a 50-year-old welder, who has an illegal hookup at home. "They don't want us to see that you can buy a kilo of chicken legs in Miami for 99 cents and here you pay $3 for the same thing."

Between 10,000 and 30,000 illegal satellite dishes operate throughout Cuba, leaving some analysts to question their impact in a country of 11 million. But many programs are taped and distributed around various neighborhoods.

"On the news, we sometimes see friends who have left for Miami," said Angel, 32, a member of Acea's team. "Sometimes we'll see someone we know on Sabado Gigante. Other times we'll see friends being picked up from rafts by the U.S. Coast Guard. Days later, you see them walking down the street after being sent back to Cuba."

This week, after another round of police raids, Acea's Central Havana neighbors were not sure when they would tune into Sabado Gigante again.

 

[jayelem]

Many Cubans who purchase illegal satellite hookups think the government may be worried about something more ominous than the stridently anti-Castro programs -- the TV commercials.

This is so true , state run Tv Channels have no form of advertising , I think it's great that you can watch a movie without interuptions, but on another note commercials are pretty neat and stimulating to the eye.

Dodge Caliber for instance has a neat ad with all the gadgets available in there high end models , lighted cup holders , portable dome light , years ago this would have been a cool concept car of the future , " You have no idea of how many people would be OOHS and AAHS seeing that ad ".

For the Goverment it's scary to have masses of people thinking that the only way to have that lifestyle would be under another form of Non-Socialist Goverment.

They want MTV ,McDonalds, and all the good stuff we take for granted here in the U.S. , and yeah they want SABADO GIGANTE too.

 

[mastermesh]

a couple of interesting stories on Cuba showing up on msnbc's website
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17192366/

HAVANA - Cuba built an Internet search engine that allows users to trawl through speeches by Cuban leader Fidel Castro and other government sites, but does not browse Web pages outside the island.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17190349/

HAVANA - Cuba's communist government is trying to shake off the yoke of at least one capitalist empire — Microsoft Corp. — by joining with socialist Venezuela in converting its computers to open-source software.

Both governments say they are trying to wean state agencies from Microsoft's proprietary Windows to the open-source Linux operating system, which is developed by a global community of programmers who freely share their code.