unid Channel 4 from Caribbean?

[Joshua]

At 1625 EST, I put on Channel 4 and saw color bars (actually were black and white due to the weak signal). I was surprised since many Americans and Canadians don't even sign off at all, let alone sign on in the evening, so I knew it may be E-skip. The bars were blank- no logo or station ID. The station signed on at 1630, and an ID appeared. Unfortunately, all I could make out was "Canal"- there was a logo above it and another word below it. The signal faded out again, reappeared few minutes later with some animated smiley faces on screen (perhaps a children's program?), and then faded out for good. DX-Sherlock paths were mostly to the southeast at that time. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Joshua

[cd637299]

All I can go by here is that you may have seen Canal Educativo, Channel 4 in Havana, Cuba. I believe they do run a test pattern at times. I was down in the FL Keys monitoring Cuba last week, but Canal Educativo I do not monitor a lot.

But I'd be 98% on this one.

cd

[cd637299]

Was the "CANAL" anything like this?

http://www.tvdxtips.com/dcanaled2004.jpg

cd

[Joshua]

cd,

I believe the "CANAL" was in capital letters and had a font similar to the image you linked to. In addition, I remember seeing a word, in all lower case with a similar font similar to the "educativo", scrolling on the bottom upon sign on.

One other thing: The time was 1825, not 1625.

Joshua

[cd637299]

If they still do this at Canal Ed., the scrolling on the bottom is "donde siempre se aprende" (where one always learns), and I think it keeps saying that until it's time for the next show.

cd

[Danny]

Cubans are the most common TV Es catches that run color bars late in the day.