Las Tunas. – When suddenly your favorite television program is interrupted by an annoying image in blue or of black and white dots moving in total disorder, Jaime Ojea Robaina does not throw an expletive as any of us would probably do; He hastily picks up the phone and immediately calls his colleague on duty at the Las Tunas FM Radio and Television Transmitting Center. It’s an almost instinctive reaction, he says. “I do it to find out what the problem was and see what I can help with,” he explains.
After 23 years working as a technician in that property belonging to the Division in this eastern Cuban province of the Radiocuba company, and having held various responsibilities there, Jaime talks about the sleepless nights experienced at the top of this hill to the south of the territorial head .
His day-to-day emulates with the doctors, only that in his case the task consists of watching over the vital signs of “patients” who are healthy, but that if they “fall ill” would affect the daily lives of thousands of people. “I check the parameters of each one, I check their operating hours; and I keep doing tours of the different areas, checking them every 10 or 15 minutes and noticing any changes. Without forgetting the lighting control to turn off unnecessary lights or take care of the performance of scheduled maintenance ”, he adds.
In the Center, any extreme situation causes a lot of tension but without immobilizing its workers, on the contrary. Each severe meteorological event, for example, activates contingency plans because this gear of teams must guarantee a high-impact service on the population at all times and 365 days a year.
“On one occasion, Jaime says, when the signal reached us through the parabola system, one of these hurricanes crossed the province of Matanzas and caused a cut in the television signal that affected all the eastern provinces.” “Then, he relates with satisfaction, we communicated with the colleagues from Santiago de Cuba and they sent us the signal through the coaxial cable. Here we inject it into the transmitter and go on the air. At that time, only Las Tunas from all over the East managed to get the Cubavisión signal. ”
Jaime is part of a team of six specialists who in successive shifts are alert to the correct operation of the main battery of radio and television transmitters that cover the city of Las Tunas and little beyond. Under his responsibility there are seven left for television, both in its analogue and digital versions; in addition to eight for the modulated frequency of radio stations of provincial and national scope. During the past year, the Center saw its benefits improve with the entry into operation of the high definition transmitters of digital terrestrial television.
“The talent of the technicians and the support of the Company are very important here, as well as the efforts we make with other organizations and institutions”, highlights Alfonso Cañete Ladrón de Guevara, head of the Center.
Jesús Peña Feria, founder of Radiocuba in the province and with more than 40 years in the communications sector, knows a lot about repairing and maintaining. Each new generation of specialists and technicians, says Jesús, arrives better prepared, but the first and defining lesson remains the same: know each one of the transmitters by heart because only then are you ready for any eventuality.
The proximity of February 24, Communications Worker Day, is the pretext to remove from anonymity those who exercise a profession of which we see its value if our radios or televisions suddenly go silent. Because if nobody notices them … everything is fine.
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