"It's not true I had nothing on, I had the radio on" - Marilyn Monroe
During the opening on 22 May I received several stations from Bulgaria: BNR Radio Varna, Radio Shumen, Radio Hristo Botev and the national program Radio Horizont. Via reception.report@bnr.bg I received a beautiful QSL card confirming my reception report:
I received BNR Horizont via their 91 kW transmitter located in Kavarna, situated on the Black Sea coast.
I like it when an organisation understands that they are representing a country. And send QSLs to people who are interested. If anything Bulgaria is on my “bucket list” now for visiting European countries. My report of a reception of Radio Shumen on 87.6 MHz was confirmed by BNR reception.report@bnr.bg . They sent this beautiful QSL card by mail!
I received Radio Shumen with a sports coverage on a local sports game. The ID is clearly heard on 7 seconds in this audio clip:
There are a few Radio Shumen transmitters, but the one from Venets is one of the stronger ones with 100 kW. Not that this necessarily matters much with Sporadic E receptions.
And here is the front of the QSL card:
On the 22nd of May there was a nice SpE opening towards Bulgaria. One of the stations I heard was BNR Radio Varna playing some traditional music.
Mrs Kremena Ivanova was so kind to confirm my reception. She wrote that Radio Varna celebrated its 90th birthday on December 9th, 2024 being the oldest radio station in Bulgaria. A bit of history from Wikipedia:
In 1933, Dimitar Kulev, then a student at the Varna Boys’ High School, assembled two amateur radio transmitters together with his physics teacher , with the more powerful of which on January 6, 1934, he broadcast a live performance by the “Sea Sounds” choir.
On May 25, 1933, the Varna Radio Club was established as a section of the Rodno Radio Union. The first live radio broadcast from Varna was made on January 6, 1934 on medium waves with a frequency of 1276 kHz. On July 19, 1934, the Ministry of Railways and Transport authorized the construction of a radio station and in September 1934, the trials of Radio Varna began.
The birth date of the radio is considered to be December 9, 1934, when a concert was broadcast from the Varna “Unity” Hall, which was the first medium wave broadcast in Northern and Northeastern Bulgaria
On 25 January 1935, Tsar Boris III signed the decree establishing the Bulgarian National Radio. The document, which officially marked the beginning of “Radio Sofia”, as the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) was then called. Radio Varna got a new board an became part of BNR.
46 years ago Radio Sofia, the international service of Bulgaria, was one of the first shortwave programs I regularly listened to in the evening. Radio Sofia, now renamed to Radio Bulgaria, terminated their shortwave service in 2012. But the powerful 270 kW transmitter from Vidin on 576 kHz with the BNR Horizont program is an easy catch though. And fortunately they still issue traditional QSL cards:
I sent my report to reception.report@bnr.bg and received my QSL 3 months later.
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