N810CB, Phoenix Air Group Psyops/Proganda/News plane grounded

Aircraft vendor paid to do nothing

There really is no particular paragraph in this article that tells the whole story, so I will summarize it. President Ronald Reagan decided to take on a war of words against the Evil Empire, AKA the commies. [Of course the US wasn't evil when it invaded Grenada to take on some unarmed janitors.] Reagan started Radio Marti, a shortwave station to broadcast Spanish language news to Cuba. It later expanded to TV. They used a C-130 as a transmitter in the sky, but that was expensive, so N810CB, a commercial turbo prop, was converted to an airborne TV transmitter. Spending cuts have stopped it from flying, but the right wing Cubans that occupy Florida won't allow the program to be eliminated. Thus the stalemate situation of a plane all dressed up with no place to go.

Needless to say, TV is really easy to jam. Same goes for shortwave. Radio Marti probably has more listeners in the US than in Cuba.

US office of Cuba Broadcasting

The Phoenix Air Group is a reasonably well known government contractor as far as aircraft goes. They are better known as a "rent a bogie" vendor.
Phoenix Air Group on ATS

reply to post by gariac


I'll just bet that $6,600 a month it says we're all paying to park the plane in a hangar, and insure it does not fly would pay for at least a couple public tours restored to the People's House. You know, the one in Washington we're told the nation is too broke to let anyone actually SEE anymore?

Hmmm....... I wonder... Should we have cut public access to the White House or cut this junk off the dead weight list of Gov't assets? I'm thinking we could have lost a plane before one-in-a-lifetime experiences which a tour of the White House truly IS by all accounts I've heard. (I'm among those that spent years saying 'when I get a chance...' and now? Likely never will see it open to tour again with these tyrants we have living in it now)

reply to post by gariac


I've never heard of a contracted aircraft to be used in PSYOP. But I know for a fact that we have used the following aircraft for quite some time.

en.wikipedia.org...

The EC-130J is always busy. The Squadron that operates them is actually a Air National Guard squadron. Though you find a mix of the services on board many times. They're very cramped as well.

reply to post by TDawgRex


Some people call it news, other people call it Psyops. It is like comparing NPR to Fox News Channel.

Take Radio Havana Cuba for example. The news from Radio Havana Cuba is actually news, but they pick stories to make the US look bad. Corrupt politicians for instance, for which we have no shortage. [Bob McDonnell, I'm lookin' at you!] I never heard a lie on Radio Havana Cuba, but I also never heard anything nice about the US over their station either.

In all fairness, I haven't a clue what they say over Radio Marti since I don't speak the language.

Propaganda is a bit of a problem these days in that there is a law stating that US propaganda is not to be heard in the US. That was easy to do when all the radio stations doing propaganda were in the Middle East or Europe. When Radio Marti started, it was a WTF moment. With the internet, there is no way to isolate US propaganda targeted to foreign countries from the mainland.

Most propaganda is done by lies of omission. Radio Havana Cuba will rant about Cubans in US jails, but fails to mention their own political prisoners. In the case of Fox News Channel, they augment their lies of omission with the phrase "some people say". Once you say "some people say", you can say just about anything. Hey, some people say they were abducted by space aliens.


The Voice of America seems like a decent news organization. You really need to work at it to detect bias.