Thank you to the Wavescan staff for sharing this week's feature on Kaliningrad
Jeff: Squeezed between the countries of Lithuania to the north and Poland to the south, up against the Baltic Sea, is the small territory of Kaliningrad. It’s actually a part of Russia, but since the demise of the USSR in 1991, it has been separated from the rest of Russia by more than 200 miles. Given its strategic location, though, Kaliningrad, or Koenigsberg as it was once known, became a very important base for radio transmissions from the Soviet Union. So here today with that story, is Ray Robinson in Los Angeles.
Ray: Thanks, Jeff. One of the great landmarks in the city of Koenigsberg for more than 700 years was its grand castle. Construction of this monumental edifice began during the year 1257, soon after the city was founded by its early Prussian ancestors. Over the centuries, Koenigsberg Castle was enlarged and beautified, and it became the pride and honor of the city's inhabitants.
During 1944, the city of Koenigsberg and its grand castle were largely destroyed by aerial bombardment, and the last standing ruins were completely blown up 24 years later to make way for the modernization of the city. Today, all we can learn about the once-famous castle is just what the history books tell us – there’s nothing left on the ground.
The city itself was founded two years earlier than the castle, in 1255 A.D. It became an important German city on the edge of the Baltic Sea, and it was at one stage the capital of the German state of East Prussia. The city was taken over by the USSR on April 9, 1945, and during 1946, the name of the city was Russianized from the German Königsberg to Kaliningrad.
The surrounding territory, also known in earlier times as Koenigsberg, became the Kaliningrad Oblast, a province in the Russian Empire. However, in 1991, when several of the Russian states became independent, Kaliningrad was left separated from the mother country by more than 200 miles, with the independent Baltic states and Belarus in between.
Thus, Kaliningrad is described these days as a Russian exclave; that is, Kaliningrad is recognized as an integral part of Russia, though it is separated geographically from the main territory of Russia itself.
A major radio broadcasting station was established in Koenigsberg nearly 90 years ago, a radio station that rivaled the castle in importance. So, here in Wavescan today, this is the story of wireless and radio in Koenigsberg and Kaliningrad.
For the beginning, we must go back even further, 102 years ago, to when a wireless communication station was established in old Koenigsberg, and this was identified on air in the German version of Morse Code with the two letters KO, remembering that there was an umlaut, 2 dots, over the letter O.
The same year, on June 14, 1924, the first radio broadcasting service was officially inaugurated in Koenigsberg, with 1.5 kW on 462 metres, 650 kHz. This service was identified by name rather than by callsign letters, as Ostmarken Rundfunk. Because the city was important, so also was the radio station; and over the years, this grew in size, in programming and in equipment.
A second program channel was implemented in the early 1930’s, and as a result of the frequency coordination conference known as the Lucerne Plan which went into effect on January 1st, 1934, both channels changed frequencies, to 1031 kHz for the first channel, and 1348 kHz for the second. The first channel was upgraded to a 100 kW transmitter in 1937, while the second continued with 2 kW.
When open hostilities commenced in continental Europe in September 1939, Germany proudly stated that "a powerful broadcasting station was already on the air in Koenigsberg". But during the following year, 1940, a new program service was inaugurated over the main broadcasting system in Berlin, known in English as the "Radio Koenigsberg Program". It was a nationwide broadcast intended to demonstrate the national unity of the German territories. Soon afterwards, the production of this national program was transferred to the studios in Koenigsberg itself; and then in 1944 with the East Prussian territory under pressure from the Russians, the production of this program was transferred again to studios in Oslo, Norway.
In 1946, Koenigsberg Radio, or more accurately, Kaliningrad Radio now that the territory was part of the USSR, was listed with just 2.5 kW on 959 kHz. During the following year again, the administration of Kaliningrad Radio was transferred from Kaliningrad itself to the major radio station located in Leningrad. Kaliningrad thus became simply an authorized relay station for Russian programming from the motherland, with the medium wave transmitter identified in Russian documents as RV129.
In 1953, a 135 kW Hungarian-made medium wave transmitter was installed at Kaliningrad, and this was inaugurated on 1386 kHz as transmitter RV143. 11 years later, a Tesla medium wave transmitter was co-installed as RV 144. Interestingly, at this stage, the transmitters were physically located south of Kaliningrad city, though they were officially listed as Kaunus, Lithuania, some distance further north.
Then, in December 1974, a 2.5 megawatt medium wave transmitter was installed at what became a huge new transmitter site south of Sovetsk. This unit was described as the world's most powerful medium wave transmitter, made by Taifun, and it was heard variously on either 1116 or 1386 kHz.
At the same time, two Tesla 20 kW shortwave transmitters were also installed at this new location. Soon afterwards, additional high-powered shortwave transmitters were installed, rated at 50, 100 and 250 kW. These units were used to relay Radio Moscow programming, and also for jamming purposes.
When political circumstances in Europe changed and Russia dropped the jamming of incoming shortwave broadcasts, it is reported that a total of 30 jamming transmitters were removed from the Kaliningrad facility for installation at other locations throughout Russia.
In 1993, a tourist who was also a radio enthusiast visited the massive Kaliningrad radio station, and he stated it was located a little north of the town of Bolshakovo. He described the massive medium wave antenna system with three beams, each consisting of two parallel rows of four towers, each 850 feet tall. There was also a tall longwave tower, and a bevy of diamond shaped shortwave rhombic antennas.
There was a period beginning in February 1995 when the Kaliningrad station was noted on the air carrying relays not just from Radio Moscow, but from other international broadcasters as well, such as Radio Nederland from Hilversum, Holland, United Christian Broadcasters from the UK, also the BBC from London, ABC in Denmark, the Voice of the Mediterranean, and others as well.
But in early 2006, the Kaliningrad radio station discontinued the use of shortwave, and in the 20-teens, Russia progressively switched off medium wave transmitters across the country. Bolshakovo is still listed with 1200 kW on 1215 kHz in the 2015 WRTH, but by the 2026 edition, the two remaining medium wave transmitters of Radio Rossli at Bolshakovo – 600 kW on 549 kHz and 150 kW on 1143 kHz – are both now shown as being inactive.
Numerous QSL cards from many organizations are known for the longwave, medium wave and shortwave broadcasts from the Kaliningrad transmitters, including a picture card from Radio Nederland showing the Kaliningrad facility.
So, for centuries, Koenigsberg was noted for its grand castle as an ancient landmark; and yes, in more recent times, another significant landmark was the massive radio station in Kaliningrad, verily one of the world's largest.
Back to you, Jeff.
