HAVANA – "Hola amigos...y radio aficionados," he said from his cluttered desk at his Havana home.
Arnie Coro, 74, then quickly switches into English.
"And here is our first and sad news item," Coro said, while making sure he stays on script on his pre-recording show for Radio Havana Cuba.
He does a radio show several times a week but he has competition passions that date back several decades.
He's proud of the greeting cards he holds as proof and memories of his second love: amateur radio.
"Ireland...Germany" are just some of the country names he reads out loud.
These are fellow amateur radio fans who have sent him greetings from all over the world.
"I have thousands of them," he said.
The old radio transmitters, different in age and sizes, remain tucked away in the corner of his small kitchen of his home that sits in a nicely manicured street in Nuevo Vedado.
"Engineering, communications systems," Coro read from the book cases filled with all kinds of information, mainly about radio, television, history and communications in general.
From the age of 12, he remembers being intrigued by the new television medium.
"My dad bought the best TV set that was available at that time," Coro said.
That's when he remembers getting into what was called TV DX-ING or long distance reception.
It became a hobby that taught him how to build antennas.
And to prove his knowledge, Coro showed us an old issue of Popular Electronics published in April of 1959 -- historically significant to Cubans.
But for Coro, it was the year the American magazine published his article on DX-ING.
He was only 17 years old.
"We picked up on a more or less regular basis WPST station from Miami, Channel 10 which is now I understand WPLG. They changed the call signs," Coro said.
The article has several pictures, one of them an image from his TV screen showing the images he was able to get on his screen coming directly from Miami.
Part of the caption under the picture reads, "The signal was picked up with a standard conical antenna during peak sunspot activity."
Coro remembers writing the article in English then handing it over to his mother, who was an English teacher.
He also attended an English speaking school.
"At that time, American television was very interesting," he recalls fondly.
In the new age of Internet, Cubans are just starting to get a taste.
"I think it's very important to use whichever technology you have available to generate good communications between the peoples," Coro said.
He is talking about U.S.-Cuba relations and WPLG employees living in Havana temporarily to cover Cuban life.
It's a good starting point for a respectful, professional dialogue that should continue, he said.
"Your presence here I think marks...is a landmark," Coro said.
