David Skaggs: “Nonetheless we did this UHF to VHF conversion, and it was really no surprise that the signal still did not get through.…”

“Nonetheless we did this UHF to VHF conversion, and it was really no surprise that the signal still did not get through. Let me just give my colleagues some visual evidence that was elicited by one of our own government technicians who went down to Cuba to check on what was going on technically. This is a picture of the TV Marti logo when it came on the air on Channel 64 while this USIA technician was monitoring signals. A couple of minutes later, once the jamming signal was put on the air by Castro's people, this was the jammed picture that came through. Likewise, sometimes we use a different channel. This is what Channel 50 of TV Marti looks like when the jamming is in place. There has been a survey done by the U.S. Interest Section at the Swiss Embassy where we have our presence in Havana showing that virtually no one sees this new UHF signal. Now, there is some suggestion that this is still a bargain. Let me just tell Members, compared to the costs of our other international broadcasting efforts, TV Marti is not only a waste of money because the signal does not get through but it's also a very, very rich program in terms of our costs of producing an hour that we put on the air.”