MONTHLY REPORT--KEY WEST BUREAU--APRIL 1985

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP86-00040R000300550008-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 9, 2010
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: May 8, 1985
• Content Type: MEMO

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FOREIGN BROADCAST INFORMATION SERVICE
KEY WEST BUREAU
MAIN P.O. BOX 1036
KEY WEST, FL 33041-1056
MFL-5014
8 May 1985
MEMORANDUM TO:
Director, Foreign Broadcast Information Service
THROUGH:
SUBJECT:
Chief, Operations Group
Monthly Report--Key West Bureau--April
1985
"What's new on the base housing project," you ask? Nothing! (So
what else is new.) Contact at Naval Facilities Command, Charleston,
S.C., advises that contract should go public on/about 17 May when bid
solicitation is advertised in the "Commerce Business Daily." This
means bid award is pushed back to about mid-July, yet another
slippage of 3 weeks.
Bureau staffing complement was boosted during the month with the
EOD of two contract teletypists and one staff monitor/editor.
However, we lost the services of monitor/editor
who transferred to another component in mid-April. The search for
qualified monitorial candidates continues.
A. Monitorial/Editorial
Cuba's Fidel Castro continued his publicity effort by
granting press conferences to the Mexican daily EXCELSIOR and to a
group of journalists accompanying Ecuador's President Leon Febres
Cordero during his low-key 3-day visit to Havana. Brother Raul and
his traveling companion Vilma Espin wound up their lengthy tour of
East Europe following Chernenko's funeral the previous month.
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Malmierca toured Ethiopia, Laos,
Cambodia, Vietnam and India.
Mexican President Miguel de la Madrid hosted visits by the
presidents of Argentina, Colombia and Ecuador, while NOTIMEX reported
extensively on the capture in Costa Rica of drug trafficker Caro
Quintero, his deportation to Mexico and subsequent judicial
procedures.
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B. Communications
Coverage of the Caribbean News Agency (CANA) suffered during
the month with outages on the landline circuit totaling almost 60
hours due to technical problems in New York. A formal complaint to
CANA General Manager Harry Mayers elicited a letter from CANA to
Reuters New York office requesting resolution of the line problem and
consideration of a rebate due to unsatisfactory service.
C. Technical
1. Bureau monitoring equipment was temporarily installed at
the Navy Communications Unit at NAS Boca Chica for a 3-day reception
survey of the Navy's Hermes Loop Array antenna (a substitute for a
Rhombic antenna system) by contract cruising monitor
Detailed results of the survey were delivered to MOD and ED/FEB.
Although several sectors of the antenna had technical problems,
reception of shortwave targets proved significantly better with the
Hermes than with existing bureau antennas. ED will advise on
feasibility of installing a similar antenna on bureau site.
2. Further evaluation was made on our newest "experimental"
750-ft Beverage antenna. The 600-ft lead-in to bureau had no
noticeable effect on reception. The lead-in cable will be buried in
the near future to enhance reliability. Because of the significantly
improved performance of this antenna on a number of our target
stations, this new Beverage was substituted for the so-called
"longwire No. 2" antenna which was disconnected.
3. Unattended weekend TV recordings with the Betamax VCR
continue to suffer from erratic performance due to malfunctioning of
the Auto-stacker unit. On three consecutive weekends the stacker
failed to feed more than one additional tape into the unit. The
dealer reports this problem is endemic to the unit and for this
reason was discontinued by Sony (stacker supplied by Radio Marti for
their Betamax suffers same problem). The poor audio quality of
soundtracks recorded from Havana TV on the Betamax is further
evidence that VCR's designed for home use are inadequate for
recording of weak signals. One Betamax whose audio-squelch circuitry
was disabled and whose sensitivity was cranked up to maximum levels
still does not perform nearly as well as our old Videotek tuners. In
an attempt to improve the quality of TV recordings the bureau's TV
distribution system was again reconfigured so as to bypass the
inadequate Sony tuners and input the signals directly. onto the tape
from our more sensitive equipment. One drawback of this method is
that the procedures for unattended recordings have become more
complex with greater likelihood of operator error. An expensive but
desirable improvement would be to acquire two state-of-the-art
crystal-controlled single frequency W-J receivers, although there may
be less expensive quipment on the market capable of the same job.
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4. To facilitate split coverage with Panama Bureau of those
significant Cuban events broadcast only on domestic and not
international frequencies, both bureaus dusted off the cobwebs of an
old phone patch system which was tested successfully. Minor glitches
with line connection and audio patch procedures have been resolved.
III. ADMINISTRATION
A. Personnel
1. Part-time teletypist
April.
April.
2. Part-time teletypist
entered on duty 2
entered on duty 5
3. Monitor/editor I departed PCS 12 April in
transfer to another component.
April.
entered on duty 29
B. Buil di ng& Grounds
Problems with the fencing project have been resolved to bureau's
satisfaction and contractor will initiate work in mid-May. The
changes to original contract are minimal and will not result in a
significant cost increase.
1. Monitor/editor
April for PCS processing.
visited Headquarters on TDY 1-5
2. Bureau Chief I (visited headquarters on TDY
14-25 April to attend annual bureau chiefs' conference.
3. MOD staffer arrived 25 April for 3 weeks of
cruising training with
4. Bureau chief visited Panama Bureau on TDY 29 April-2 May for
joint orientation on ROSET operation and discussion of mutual
problems.
5. Operations officer) land cruiser) Ion
17 April visited local COMUSFORCARIB J-2 commander who requested
briefing on recent Cuban media behavior and anticipated fallout from
Radio Marti startup.
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6. On 22 April Navy Captain Leshack, CDR Charles Bledsoe, and
USAF MSGT Obdulia Gamble visited bureau for orientation and viewing
of recent Castro interview.
Chief, Key West Bureau
Attachment:
Production Report
cc: C/Panama, C/Paraguay Bureaus
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KEY WEST BUREAU PRODUCTION REPORT FOR APRIL 1985
1. TOTALS FROM ALL SOURCES:
TOTAL PUBLISHABLE WORDAGE FILED DURING MONTH: 146,660
TOTAL NON-PUBLISHABLE WORDAGE FILED DURING MONTH : 29,950
TOTAL NUMBER OF PUBLISHABLE ITEMS FILED DURING MONTH : 587
BROADCAST PRESS AGENCIES PUBLICATIONS
II. INPUT OF REGULAR COVERAGE: 2,575 14,700 21
(PUBLISHABLE WORDS PER WEEK MIN MIN ISSUES
III. OUTPUT FROM ALL SOURCES:
(PUBLISHABLE WORDS PER MONTH)
BAHAMAS
Nassau Domestic Service
in English
Nassau THE TRIBUNE
in English
BARBADOS
Bridgetown CAtRA
in English
Bridgetown ADVOCATE in English
Bridgetown SUNDAY ADVOCATE
in English
BELIZE
Belize City Domestic Service 60
in English
CUBA
Havana Domestic Service
in Spanish
Havana Television Service 19.250
in Spanish
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Santo Domingo Radio Mil
in Spanish
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KEY WEST BUREAU PRODUCTION REPORT FOR APRIL 1985
Santo Domingo LISTIN DIARID
in Spanish
JAMAICA
Kingston Domestic Service
in English
Kingston DAILY GLEANER
in English
Kingston SUNDAY GLEANER
in English
MEXICO
Mexico City NOTIMEX
in Spanish
NETHERLANDS ANTILLES
Bonaire Trans World Radio
in English
THE NETHERLANDS
Hilversum International
in English
MEXICO
Mexico City International
Service in Spanish
BELIZE
Belize City THE BELIZE TIMES
in English
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