COUNTRY

My Country

At the entrance to the Golf of Mexico, in the Caribbean Sea, the Republic of Cuba is an archipelago consisting of the island of CUBA the Isle of Youth and around 4,195 smaller keys and islets, with a total area of 110,922 square kilometers.

With a population of more than 10,8 million, CUBA is divided in 14 Provinces and one Special Municipality. The official language is the spanish and the monetary unit is the PESO.

The island of CUBA, the biggest of the archipelago, has a large and thin shape. It is 210 kms across at its widest point and only 32 Kms at its narrowest point. It's 1,200 Kms long, with a coast line 5,746 Kms long.

The highest point of the country is TURQUINO PEAK, in the SIERRA MAESTRA, which rises to 5,933 feet above the sea level. There are also other two large mountain chains; the Sierra del Rosario, in the west and the SIERRA DEL ESCAMBRAY, in the middle of the country.

Cuba has a moderate Sub-Tropical weather. There are only two clearly defined seasons; the dry season, from november to april; and the rainy season, from june to october. Average annual rainfalls is 1,375 mm. Coastal waters have an average temperature of 25 Celsius degrees (76 F).

All Education es free. Medical Services are also free for all cubans and Cuba's health care service is considered unique in Latin America.

FOR THE EL DXCC AND OTHER AWARDS

The Republic of Cuba has four prefixes assigned for ham callsigns by the ITU and they are organized by our regulations as:

CL, third cathegory
CM, second cathegory
CO, first cathegory
T4, reserved for spacial stations

This two first digits are combined with numbers from 0 to 9 and form 10 possible ham prefixes for each cathegory. This prefixes identify the province or type of stations.

??1, province of Pinar del Rio
??2, province of Ciudad de la Habana
??3, province of La Habana
??4, Isla de la Juventud special municipality
??5, province of matanzas
??6, provinces of Las Villas, Cienfuegos and Santi Spiritus
??7, provinces of Ciego de Avila and Camaguey
??8, provincias de Las Tunas, Holguin, Granma, Santiago de Cuba and Guant�namo.
??9, radio clubs stations.
??0, reserved for special stations

GRIDS LOCATORS

In Cuba you may found sixteen 2x1 degrees grid locators.

EL>71, 72, 81, 82, 83, 91, 92 y 93
FL00, 01, 02, 10, 11, 20
FK19, 29

Red color means that have never been activated in VHF.

REFERENCES FOR THE IOTA PROGRAM

The cuban archipelago has seven IOTA references:

NA-015, The Isle of Cuba
NA-086, Archipelago Camaguey
NA-201, Archipelago Jardines de la Reina
NA-056, Archipelago Los Canarreos
NA-093, Archipelago Los Colorados
NA-204, Archipelago Sabana
NA-218, Archipelago North of Holgu�n