KIEV CENTRAL RADIO TV TOWER

By: Mr. Rick Slobodian C.E.T. Vernon Bc Canada ph=250-542-5942

Email=hammarlund@shaw.ca

The Kiev Radio Television tower (located in downtown Kiev) near St. Sofia's square). It's hard to miss seeing it since it is THE TALLEST FREE-STANDING METAL STRUCTURE IN THE WORLD ! It is 385 meters tall ( 1263 feet ). The CN tower is the tallest free standing structure, however it is made of cement. There are also a radio tower in the U.S. that is 2000 feet tall, but it is held in place by guy wires, which takes up a tremendous ammount of land.

The construction of the tower was started in 1968 and finished in 1973. The entire structure weighs 2700 metric tons. It is made entirely of steel pipe of various diameters and thickesses. It has a four legged base on which the central cylindrical core sits on. The central pipe, or core, (where the elevator is located) is 4 meters in diameter and made of pipe that is 12mm thick. The four legged base is aprox 100 meters tall, at the top of the base is an enclosed level which houses microwave transmitting & receiving equipment. At about the +200 meter mark is another enclosed level that houses TV & FM transmitters, as well as a control & maintenance shop. This is as far up as the elevator goes.

The structure is also unique in that there are no bolts or rivets holding it together, every joint, pipe and fixture was welded and X-rayed. Even though Ukraine was under the USSR, the entire structure was designed and built by Ukrainian engineers, welders, (the welding institute of Kiev). All material (pipes, steel, fabrication machinery) were all made in Ukraine. This was quite an accoplihment for that time.

RE: TRANSMITTER & ANTENNA INFORMATION

At the base of the Kiev Tower is located the original transmitter building. There are located the VHF TV transmitters, as well as the low band FM (OIRT) transmitters (66-74 MHz). UHF band TV, and new standard FM band (100-108mhz) transmitters are located on two transmitter floors at the 200 meter mark on the tower. There are 11 TV transmitters in total on the ground building and on the +200 level. There are 3 - 50 Kw, 1 - 20 Kw, 3 - 10 Kw, 2 - 2 Kw, 2 - 1 Kw. There are 16 FM transmitters on the groung and at the +200 level. There are 7 old OIRT band FM transmitters, and 9 standard FM band transmitters.

Since no new antennas have been installed since 1973, all antennas on the tower, ( VHF-TV, UHF-TV, OIRT-FM, and STANDARD-FM) are Horizontally polarized. No vertical or circular polarization is used. Therefore TV and FM combiners have had to been used. Up to now, direct transmitter to antenna or 3 into 1 combiners are being used, but with constant addition of new TV and FM stations they will start replacing the 3 into 1 with 8 into 1 combiners.

Many makes of transmitters are in service such as ( "Komintern", Russian), ( "Tesla", Checz ), ( "Harris" USA ), (Rhode & Schwartz