Horizont on 576 kHz: Bulgarian National Radio from Vidin on the Danube

What you hear

Horizont is the main channel of Bulgarian National Radio: news on the hour, traffic and weather in the morning, current affairs, sport, phone-ins and a lot of music, Bulgarian pop and folk alongside international hits. It is in Bulgarian, a Slavic language that Russian or Ukrainian speakers will follow in part. The transmitter is on 24 hours a day, so there is no sign-on to wait for; overnight the channel carries music and repeats. On 576 kHz the sound is medium-wave AM with a strong, steady carrier, and the Cyrillic time checks and the BNR jingles are easy to pick out.

Who transmits and why

The transmitter is at Vidin, the Bulgarian city on the Danube in the far north-west, where Bulgaria meets Romania and Serbia. The catalogue gives 200 kW. The site was chosen in a different era, when the aim was to put a strong Bulgarian signal over the Balkans and into central Europe, and the geography still works: from Vidin the ground wave crosses the Danube into Romania and Serbia and reaches well into Bulgaria itself. Bulgarian National Radio has kept this transmitter while closing others, because one site on a low frequency covers most of what matters to it.

Beyond the power and the hours the catalogue records little, and the station needs little explanation: it is a public broadcaster's main channel, on the air because the country still listens to it in cars and in the countryside.

When and where to listen

576 kHz is low in the band, and low frequencies hug the ground: by day the signal covers Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania and parts of North Macedonia and Greece, and from Hungary it is often audible in the afternoon. Medium wave carries far only after dark, and once the sun sets Vidin becomes one of the stronger signals on the band across central and eastern Europe, reaching Poland, Austria, Germany, Italy and Ukraine, and on winter nights the north and west of the continent. Because the station never signs off, you can listen at whatever hour darkness falls between you and the Danube.

Receivers in Romania, Serbia, Hungary and Greece hear it clearly at any time; receivers in Germany, Austria and Poland after sunset. 576 kHz has other users in Europe, and from the far west another station may cover it at night. The program tunes AM, which suits a strong signal; use a narrower filter or a sideband at the fringe.

In ShackDeck

Station catalogue → Medium and long wave → Horizont 576 kHz (Bulgaria). ShackDeck picks a public receiver that hears 576 kHz, tunes it and sets AM. No receiver, antenna or account of your own is needed; the station is on at every hour, so only the choice of receiver and the time of sunset matter.