The Kaliakra transmitter was a huge facility for

medium wave Medium wave (MW) is the part of the medium frequency (MF) radio band used mainly for AM radio broadcasting. The spectrum provides about 120 channels with more limited sound quality than FM stations on the FM broadcast band. During the daytime ...

broadcasting, which was built after 1988 by the former

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

as a

relay transmitter A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater (two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tran ...

for Southeast Europe. After the collapse of communism in 1989, there was no need for the facility and work was stopped. At that time, nine of the planned 10 masts were already completed and work on the final mast had begun. Some masts were already equipped with cage antennas, while others remained bare. All masts of the station were grounded guyed lattice masts with a triangular cross section, equipped with a cage antenna. Their height varied between and . The masts could work as either a

directional antenna A directional antenna or beam antenna is an antenna which radiates or receives greater power in specific directions allowing increased performance and reduced interference from unwanted sources. Directional antennas provide increased performance ...

with low pattern by using two masts or as a highly directional antenna by using eight masts. The broadcasting company of Bulgaria had no interest in using the facility, as it already had several well-equipped high power medium wave broadcasting facilities in several parts of Bulgaria (e.g. in

Vakarel Vakarel ( bg, Вакарел) is a village, away from Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. Population: 1984 people. It is situated in the Sredna Gora mountains, within Ihtiman Municipality. The village is an important transport knot along the Sofia ...

Pleven Pleven ( bg, Плèвен ) is the seventh most populous city in Bulgaria. Located in the northern part of the country, it is the administrative centre of Pleven Province, as well as of the subordinate Pleven municipality. It is the biggest ...

and

Vidin Vidin ( bg, Видин, ; Old Romanian: Diiu) is a port city on the southern bank of the Danube in north-western Bulgaria. It is close to the borders with Romania and Serbia, and is also the administrative centre of Vidin Province, as well as o ...

). Foreign services were not interested in using the facility. In 2001, the station was experimentally used for longwave broadcasting by the Bulgarian broadcasting company, apparently without good results (the company continues to operate its Blaw-Knox radiator at

). In 2005, FM broadcasting antennas were installed on two masts for use by Radio Varna on 98.2 MHz with 500 W ERP and by Darik Kaliakra on 99.3 MHz with 1 kW ERP. 8 of the 9 masts were dismantled in 2014.

References

External links

* * * {{Bulgaria-struct-stub Towers in Bulgaria Radio masts and towers in Europe Buildings and structures in Dobrich Province