Kalundborg Radio was a major transmission facility for

long Long may refer to: Measurement * Long, characteristic of something of great duration * Long, characteristic of something of great length * Longitude (abbreviation: long.), a geographic coordinate * Longa (music), note value in early music mens ...

- and

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

at the harbour of

Kalundborg Kalundborg () is a Danish city with a population of 16,659 (1 January 2025),Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

. Longwave broadcasts on 243

kHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in terms of SI base uni ...

began on 27 August 1927 and ceased on 31 December 2023. Mediumwave broadcasts on 1062 kHz began on 1 October 1951 and ceased in June 2011.

History

The transmitter site was inaugurated on 27 August 1927 and started broadcasting the first channel of Danish radio on 243 kHz longwave (LW) with 300 kW. On 1 October 1951, mediumwave (MW) broadcasts of

DR P2 DR P2 – in Denmark normally referred to as simply P2 – is a Danish radio station operated by the Danish Broadcasting Corporation. It specializes in classical music, both recorded and in live performance, as well as reporting on and providing d ...

commenced on 1062 kHz (282 m wavelength) with 250 kW. These two transmitters had a common reserve transmitter. On 15 February 2007 at 00:05, LW transmissions from Kalundborg were suspended after 80 years of service. They resumed in

Digital Radio Mondiale Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM; ''mondiale'' being Italian and French for "worldwide") is a set of digital audio broadcasting technologies designed to work over the bands currently used for analogue radio broadcasting including AM broadcasting—p ...

(DRM) mode at reduced power (200 W) on 3 October 2008 after substantial modifications to the aerial earlier that year. During 16-31 October 2009, the old MW and LW reserve transmitter served in place of the regular MW and LW DRM transmitters. Until mid-June 2011, broadcasts on 1062 kHz at 250 kW continued on a restricted time schedule. After that, the MW transmitter was taken out of service. A new 50 kW LW transmitter replaced the MW service. During 6-12 September 2012, the transmitter also broadcast

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

programmes with 10 kW of power in DRM mode outside DR's broadcast blocks in connection with the international broadcasting exhibition IBC 2012 in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

Shipping Forecast The ''Shipping Forecast'' is a BBC Radio broadcast of weather reports and forecasts for the seas around the British Isles. It is produced by the Met Office and broadcast by BBC Radio 4 on behalf of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency. The for ...

bulletins produced by the

Danish Meteorological Institute The Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI; ) is the official Danish meteorological institute, administrated by the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Utilities. It makes weather forecasts and observations for Denmark, Greenland, and the Faroe Is ...

(''Danmarks Meteorologiske Institut'') ceased on 1 November 2023 ahead of full closure of the longwave service on 31 December 2023. It was possible to receive the LW signal of the Kalundborg transmitter outdoors over a distance of 800-1,000 km on a standard transistor radio or a longwave-compatible car radio. By connecting the receiver to a stationary or a maritime wire, frame, or active antenna, reception improved up to 1,500 km of range. Every year on 4 May, Danmarks Radio rebroadcast the "message of liberation," from the Kalundborg transmitter in an hour-long memorial broadcast that began after the news at 20:00. On 4 May 1945, the Danish service of the BBC broadcast the original "message of liberation," marking the end of

WWII 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 ...

in Denmark: "At this moment, it is announced that Montgomery has stated that the German troops in Holland, Northwest Germany, and Denmark have surrendered."

LW and MW antennas

The LW antenna was an Alexanderson aerial with two grounded 118 m steel lattice radiating towers connected by top capacitance wires. The northern tower was fed from the transmitter through a top coil, with the top coil of the southern slave tower being fed via the capacitance wires. The MW aerial was an insulated guyed steel lattice mast with a height of 147 metres. All masts virtually stood in the sea on the narrow Gisseløre peninsula, providing excellent radiation efficiency.

Normal daily programming schedule

Times given in

Central European Time Central European Time (CET) is a standard time of Central, and parts of Western Europe, which is one hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). The UTC offset, time offset from UTC can be written as UTC+01:00. It is used in most parts of Eur ...

. Source: *06.00 - 06.05: News (''Radioavisen''), rebroadcast from

DR P4 DR P4 is the regional radio channel of Denmark's national public broadcasting corporation, DR. The 10 regional stations which make up P4 originate their own local programming and also carry jointly produced nationwide content. P4's programming is ...

København *08.00 - 0.805: News (''Radioavisen''), rebroadcast from

København (Not broadcast on Sundays and public holidays) *08.05 - 08.30: Act of worship - Morning Devotion (''Morgenandagt'') from the Church of Our Lady in Copenhagen produced by

(Not broadcast on Sundays) *08.30 - 08.45: Morning gymnastics - Body and Movement (''Krop og bevægelse'') produced by DR P5 *09.00 - 09.05: News (''Radioavisen''), rebroadcast from

København *12.00 - 12.05: News (''Radioavisen''), rebroadcast from

København *18.00 - 18.05: News (''Radioavisen''), rebroadcast from

København

Photo gallery

File:Kalundborg-mediumwave.swn.jpg, The mediumwave antenna File:Kalundborg-longwave.swn.jpg, The longwave antenna File:Kalundborg-mediumwave-base.swn.jpg, The base of the mediumwave antenna factory

References

External links

How to receive DRM from Kalundborg
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Drawings of Kalundborg Radio Tower 1 - SkyscraperPage.comDrawings of Kalundborg Radio Tower 2 - SkyscraperPage.comDrawings of Kalundborg Radio Mast - SkyscraperPage.com
{{Kalundborg Municipality Towers in Denmark Mass media in Denmark Buildings and structures in Kalundborg Municipality Longwave radio stations