The Kaliakra transmitter was a huge 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 ...

broadcasting in

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

, which was built after 1988 by the former

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

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 trans ...

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 that radiates or receives greater radio wave power in specific directions. Directional antennas can radiate radio waves in beams, when greater concentration of radiation in a certain directio ...

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 () 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 - Plovdiv railway ...

Pleven Pleven ( ) 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 economic center in ...

and

Vidin Vidin (, ) 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 of the Metropolitan of Vidin (since ...

). 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