radarHurricanes & Radars

Featured Articles

Jun 18, 2026schedule17 min read

Epic of the Cuban Doppler-11: From the Hill to Calvary with Murphy's Law

"Epic of the Cuban Doppler-11" recounts the project's dramatic final stretch: commissioning the Doppler radar at its new site, facing Murphy's Law in all its glory. This chapter covers the legal battle against the airport's Control Tower over alleged radiation, the rul— [Note: source text truncated mid-word ("el fal"). Rendered as likely start of "el fallo" (the ruling/verdict), inferred from legal-battle context — flagged as inference, not fact. Provide full sentence to confirm.]

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Jun 10, 2026schedule15 min read

Epic of the Cuban Doppler-10: The Rocky Homecoming of the Prodigal Son

"Epic of the Cuban Doppler-10" recounts the bold decision to move the Doppler radar prototype from Loma de la Mula to the Centro Meteorológico de Camagüey (Camagüey Meteorological Center), a relocation that combined logistical and technical reasons with an ethical commitment to aviation service. This chapter tells how

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Jun 4, 2026schedule16 min read

Epic of the Cuban Doppler-9. A radar does not live on hardware alone

"Epic of the Cuban Doppler-9" reveals the least visible but most decisive secret of the Doppler radar: the software. This chapter explains how the LADETEC group developed the "glue" that binds the hardware parts together, becoming one of the few institutions in the world capable of designing the entire e

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Jun 3, 2026schedule19 min read

The Superheterodyne Receiver: From the AM Radio to the Doppler Weather Radar

Surely most of my readers are left in limbo when they hear that radar receivers are "superheterodyne." Well, it's not some word from another world like "kryptonite" (which everyone knows is the rock that comes from the planet Krypton and strips Superman of his superpowers)

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May 29, 2026schedule12 min read

Epic of the Cuban Doppler-8. "Per aspera ad astra," or When the Mambo Gets Rough

"Epic of the Cuban Doppler-8" tells the breakneck chapter where Cuban engineers, after the blockade on British analog receivers, managed to dodge every obstacle to complete the Doppler radar. This episode recounts how they got high-quality measurement instruments th—

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May 3, 2026schedule10 min read

Epic of the Cuban Doppler-4. The Need, the Obstacles, and the Technological Challenge

«Epic of the Cuban Doppler-4» reveals the strategic reasons, the internal obstacles, and the colossal technological challenge the Cuban team faced upon accepting the mission to build a Doppler radar. This chapter explains why Rubiera (José Rubiera, then head of Cuba's Instituto de Meteorologia) asked for the Doppler, the controversial decision to build it in Cub

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May 2, 2026schedule14 min read

Epic of the Cuban Doppler-3. Fidel and Rubiera: The Conversation That Kicked It Off

"Epic of the Cuban Doppler-3" recounts the decisive moment when Fidel Castro, in the middle of Hurricane Iván, commissioned the building of the first Cuban Doppler radar, hand in hand with Dr. José Rubiera and the engineers of LADETEC (Cuban radar engineering enterprise). This chapter reveals the historic conversation where the purchase of a foreign ext—

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Mar 1, 2026schedule12 min read

Why Is the Return Signal from a Weather Target So Fluctuating?

The signal on the oscilloscope reveals not only the intensity of a storm, but its internal turbulence. In this article I explain why the fluctuation of weather echoes is not noise, but the key to estimating reflectivity, velocity, and hazard level through Doppler processing, and why

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Feb 20, 2025schedule6 min read

ATSORS, the Precursor

It was as early as 1983 that they brought that system, and I say early because the MRL-5 radar in Camagüey had been delivered on December 16, 1981 (a gift for my first birthday, just starting out working in Meteorology). In 1982 the radar barely worked, due to air conditioning problems—

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Jan 15, 2025schedule1 min read

Weather Radar Modernization

Technical details regarding digital receiver and DSP processing upgrades.

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Mar 2, 2024schedule18 min read

LADETEC, Executed Projects

LADETEC has a long history of project execution. Despite having developed our own methodology for project execution — since the official CITMA (Cuba's Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment) methodology isn't suited to the kind of work we do (in another post, where I explained the main characteris

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May 20, 2023schedule28 min read

Wanderer, there is no path, you make the path by… mounting radars

"Wanderer, your footprints are the path, and nothing more; Wanderer, there is no path, the path is made by walking. Walking makes the path, and looking back, you see the trail you must never tread again. Wanderer, there is no path, only wakes upon the sea." Antonio Machado. Mounting radars […]

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Dec 28, 2022schedule8 min read

LADETEC, the Legacy — translated title/excerpt

EN translation of TITULO+EXCERPT provided above, tone preserved (personal, narrative, slightly ironic), no info added/removed/summarized.

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Jan 19, 2022schedule3 min read

The Lord's Ways Are Inscrutable

Often the innovative ideas that revolutionize a field come from outside — from someone who looks at things with fresh eyes, an upstart. That's my case.

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Apr 27, 2021schedule10 min read

LADETEC, Milestones

Let's be realistic: let's do the impossible! — Ernesto Che Guevara. Since 1983, Cuban weather radars have undergone a constant and growing process of technological innovation. Meet the main milestones driven by the Laboratorio de Desarrollo Técnico (LADETEC, Technical Development Laboratory).

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