Sitkūnai Radio Station is a large facility for

medium wave Medium wave (MW) is a 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 daytim ...

and

shortwave Shortwave radio is radio transmission using radio frequencies in the shortwave bands (SW). There is no official definition of the band range, but it always includes all of the high frequency band (HF), which extends from 3 to 30 MHz (app ...

broadcasting at Sitkūnai,

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

. The decision to build a new transmitting centre near the village of Sitkunai, about north of

Kaunas Kaunas (; ) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius, the fourth largest List of cities in the Baltic states by population, city in the Baltic States and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaun ...

was made by the

Government of Lithuania The Government of Lithuania, officially the Government of the Republic of Lithuania (GRL), is the Cabinet (government), cabinet of and exercising executive power in Lithuania. Among other responsibilities, it executes laws and resolutions of the ...

in 1937. The building works started in 1939, and after completion, a 120 kW medium wave transmitter from

Standard Telephones and Cables Standard Telephones and Cables Ltd (later STC public limited company, plc) was a British manufacturer of telephone, telegraph, radio, telecommunications, and related equipment. During its history, STC invented and developed several groundbreakin ...

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

was ordered. However, the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

stopped the shipment. The empty transmitter buildings in Sitkunai survived the war with almost no damage and were used as a military compound by the

German army The German Army (, 'army') is the land component of the armed forces of Federal Republic of Germany, Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German together with the German Navy, ''Marine'' (G ...

in 1941–1944, and later as a

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

. Because the

Soviet Lithuania The Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic (Lithuanian SSR; ; ), also known as Soviet Lithuania or simply Lithuania, was '' de facto'' one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union between 1940–1941 and 1944–1990. After 1946, its terr ...

was badly covered by radio signals, the Soviet authorities decided to continue the building work at Sitkunai and turn the site into a main shortwave and medium wave transmitting centre. During 1951 and 1952 two 50 kW shortwave transmitters, dismantled from an

East German East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from its formation on 7 October 1949 until its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on 3 October 1990. Until 1989, it was generally vie ...

utility site as

war reparation War reparations are compensation payments made after a war by one side to the other. They are intended to cover damage or injury inflicted during a war. War reparations can take the form of hard currency, precious metals, natural resources, in ...

s were installed in Sitkūnai. Several curtain antennas were erected and one 150 kW mediumwave transmitter was installed (665 kHz). During the

January Events The January Events () were a series of violent confrontations between the civilian population of Lithuania, supporting independence, and the Soviet Armed Forces. The events took place between 11 and 13 January 1991, after the Act of the Re-Esta ...

in 1991, Sitkūnai Radio Station was among those transmitting sites broadcasting to the world about the

Soviet military The Armed Forces of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, also known as the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union, the Red Army (1918–1946) and the Soviet Army (1946–1991), were the armed forces of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republi ...

actions in

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

when 14 civilians were killed and more than 600 injured.http://www.zilionis.lt/rtv/qth/sit/RNW_lithuania020204.htm How Lithuania Boosted its Voice on Shortwave. Retrieved on December 27, 2010 Now Sitkūnai Radio Station broadcasts on three frequencies in the medium wave band using two

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter (often abbreviated as XMTR or TX in technical documents) is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna with the purpose of sig ...

s (Russian made Shtorm, 150 kW, installed 1964, and Russian made Vihr, 500 kW, installed 1977) and following antennas: one guyed

mast Mast, MAST or MASt may refer to: Engineering * Mast (sailing), a vertical spar on a sailing ship * Flagmast, a pole for flying a flag * Guyed mast, a structure supported by guy-wires * Mooring mast, a structure for docking an airship * Radio mas ...

257 metre tall, two guyed masts 238 metre tall and two masts 150 metre tall. For short wave broadcasting, a Continental 418F 100 kW transmitter is used along with four antennas: three horizontal dipole arrays beamed at 259, 79 and 310 degrees, and a dipole beamed at 259/79 degrees. The station is owned and operated by

Lithuanian National Radio and Television Lithuanian National Radio and Television () is a Lithuanian public broadcasting, public service broadcaster that has been providing regular radio services since 1926 and television broadcasts since 1957. LRT joined the European Broadcasting Union ...

Centre.

References

External links

AM Radio Stations in Lithuania

Sitkūnai Radio Station layout and photos
* http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?buildingID=93865,93864

References

External links

See also