Radio Svoboda on 1386 kHz: RFE/RL in Russian from Lithuania after dark

What you hear

Between 18:30 and 21:30 UTC, 1386 kHz carries Radio Svoboda, the Russian service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: news bulletins, interviews, talk programmes and the station's familiar jingles, all in Russian. The sound is plain medium-wave AM, a little narrower than FM, with the fading that comes with sky-wave reception at night. Outside those three hours the same frequency is not empty: according to the catalogue it is shared with Ukrainian Radio, with NHK's Russian programmes and with Polish Radio, so if you tune in and hear Ukrainian or Japanese-accented Russian, you have the right channel at the wrong hour. The Ukrainian block that follows at 21:30 has its own article.

Who transmits and why

RFE/RL is a broadcaster funded by the United States and based in Prague; its Russian service is one of the oldest, on the air since the early 1950s, and for most of that history it reached listeners by short wave. Today the main route is the internet, which is blocked or throttled in much of Russia, and medium wave is the way back into cars and kitchen radios that need no app and leave no trace.

The transmitter is at Viešintos in north-eastern Lithuania, run by the Lithuanian state transmission operator, and the catalogue lists it at 300 kW. The site has been a hired platform for broadcasts aimed at Belarus, Russia and Ukraine for many years, which is why several unrelated programmes share one frequency by the hour. The catalogue notes that this evening schedule has applied since 1 July 2026, daily from 21:30 to 00:30 Moscow time, which is 18:30 to 21:30 UTC. RFE/RL schedules change with budgets and politics, so if the channel is silent at 18:30, check the current timetable before deciding the transmitter is off.

The catalogue also lists a short-wave outlet: Radio Svoboda via WRMI in Florida on 15770 kHz, 04:00 to 05:00 UTC on weekdays. It is a different route, aimed across the Atlantic, and from Europe it is usually a much weaker catch than 1386.

When and where to listen

Medium wave travels far only after dark. In daylight a 300 kW transmitter on 1386 kHz covers the Baltic states, parts of Belarus and north-western Russia by ground wave; once the sun sets along the path, the signal bounces off the ionosphere and reaches Finland, Poland, Scandinavia, Germany and, on a good winter night, the whole of Europe. The whole broadcast falls after sunset in the Baltic region from October to March, so winter is the best season; in June the first hour goes out in daylight and only the end of the programme has sky-wave reach.

Receivers in Finland, Poland, Sweden and the Baltic countries hear it strongest. From central Europe it is a reliable night signal with slow fading; from Britain and Spain it is possible on quiet nights but 1386 is a busy European channel and co-channel stations may be audible underneath. The catalogue tunes AM; if an adjacent station on 1377 or 1395 kHz splashes in, switching the receiver to one sideband (USB or LSB, whichever is further from the interference) often cleans up the audio.

In ShackDeck

Station catalogue → Medium and long wave → Radio Svoboda 1386 kHz (18:30–21:30 UTC). ShackDeck picks a public receiver that covers medium wave and hears 1386 kHz, tunes it and sets AM. You do not need a receiver, an antenna or an account of your own; the time window in the name tells you when the Russian programme is on, and the entry for Ukrainian Radio on the same frequency covers the hours that follow.