Radio Signal on 666 kHz: a Russian-language station about Belarus from Sitkūnai

What you hear

Between 14:55 and 21:05 UTC, 666 kHz from Lithuania carries Radio Signal, a station in Russian about events in Belarus: news bulletins, interviews, reports and discussion of what is happening in the country and to the Belarusians who have left it. The catalogue describes it as an information station, and that is what it sounds like, speech-led with music in between, with programmes repeated across the evening. It is produced for listeners inside Belarus, who hear it in a language almost everyone there uses daily. Outside the listed hours the transmitter is off.

Beyond the hours, the language and the subject, the catalogue records little about the station, and this article does not pretend to know more: who makes the programmes and where, and how long the contract runs, are not stated in the data.

Who transmits and why

The transmitter is at Sitkūnai, a few kilometres north of Kaunas, the oldest big transmitting site in Lithuania, which in Soviet times sent programmes abroad on short wave and later carried hired broadcasts for western and independent broadcasters aimed at Belarus and Russia. The catalogue lists 25 kW on 666 kHz, which is small for the rubric; the reason it is enough is geography. Minsk is only a few hundred kilometres from Kaunas, and a modest medium-wave signal from here is heard in western and central Belarus from the moment the sun sets.

The same site transmits Radio Lenta on 1557 kHz, in the same hours, for listeners in Russia; that station has its own entry. Together they are the early-evening pair of Lithuania's hired medium-wave outlets, with the stronger Viešintos transmitter on 1386 kHz taking over the later hours.

When and where to listen

Medium wave carries far only after dark, and with 25 kW that rule applies strictly. In daylight the ground wave covers Lithuania and little else; after sunset the signal reaches Belarus, Latvia, north-eastern Poland and, on winter evenings, Finland, Sweden and northern Germany. The 14:55 UTC start is in daylight for most of the year, so the station is strongest in the second half of its broadcast; in December the whole evening is dark and the reach is widest.

Receivers in Lithuania and Latvia hear it best; a receiver in Poland or Finland is the next choice after dark. From western Europe it is a weak catch, and 666 kHz is shared across the continent, so a louder station from elsewhere may cover it. The program tunes AM; because the signal is small, a narrow filter or a sideband mode often makes the difference. Listen for the sign-on at 14:55 UTC or the sign-off at 21:05 UTC to be sure which transmitter you have.

In ShackDeck

Station catalogue → Medium and long wave → Radio Signal 666 kHz (Russian). ShackDeck finds a public receiver that hears 666 kHz, tunes it and sets AM. No receiver, antenna or account of your own is needed; a receiver in the Baltic states gives the station as soon as it signs on, one further away after dark.