The remains of the Russian "Woodpeckers"

[Oliver]

The "Woodpecker", so named after its annoying, like a woodpecker knocking noise, was a great plague in shortwave amateur radio of the 80s. What exactly was behind it, at that time was not known, nor what finally brought him in late 1989 to silence. Today you can visit his remains, however.

Starting from 1976, in full expression since 1982, an annoying, like a woodpecker came sounding noise on the shortwave. Shortwave radio listeners and radio amateurs suffered greatly under the "Woodpecker" interferences and some manufacturers of radios built into their devices even special filter circuits against this electronic pest an.
What exactly was behind it, was unknown, but, soon assumed due to the bearings, which pointed to the Ukraine as the location that the USSR was author of the disturbances. From the deliberate troublemakers unwanted broadcasts via targeted softening of the brain by acoustic Psychoterror to new military E-weapons ranged the wild speculations.

Above Horizon Radar with 10 MW ERP

An intentional disturbance of broadcasting could be ruled out since Radio Moscow was also affected by the Woodpecker disorders like Western broadcasts. The other assumptions were also wrong. However, it concerned something military, actually, that is an above the horizon radar, just this look about the horizon it achieved, the fact that it like in the early days of the radar technology on shortwave broadcasted, instead of in the usually usual (standard) millimetre wave band.

NATO had the equipment of course long identified and photographed, they led them under the name "Steel Yard". The Soviet military used the name "Duga" for over the horizon systems. The civilian population in East and West learned this not before the end of the USSR.
The waves of above horizon radars are reflected at the ionosphere and thus be expanding its field of view - but also the range of the noise generated by them. The "Woodpecker" reached up to 10 MW ERP 15,000 km. As for a "sharp" image short pulses must be sent, but they occupy a high bandwidth and there is no escape of the interference of these radar stations by frequency change. The "Woodpecker" facilities were in the USSR. They should be able to explore approaching nuclear missiles from America and Europe early. However, they were unable to recognize individual missiles, only whole groups of them. With the end of the Cold War and the further development of satellite technology that is better suited for such early warning systems, they have been largely shut down and dismantled.

Some of such radars are still active to the disappointment of radio amateurs today. Today's Above Horizon shortwave radars trying to reduce the extreme disturbances of the classic hard pulses with spread spectrum technology (intra-pulse modulation and noise modulation). Nevertheless interfere among other NATO radars in Cyprus to 10.13 and 18.13 MHz with a bandwidth of 40 kHz and Chinese plants at frequencies from 6.93 to 7.1 MHz and the Iranian over-the-horizon radar at 28.5 MHz amateur radio.

Direct connection to the nuclear power plant

The last begun stage in 1970 of the Duga-radar, used as its predecessors separate transmitting and receiving equipment. A distance of 60 km prevented the plugging of the  receiver by the transmitter pulses. A reception system, however, was built less than 10 km from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and is powered directly from this with a high-voltage line. The reason for this constellation: The receiver and computer, working for security against the substances resulting from atomic explosions extreme surges partly in tube technology, and with the very high for that time computing power of more than one MFLOP so required large amounts of energy to operate that building investing in power plant near seemed advisable.
After the block 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, after only three years of operation due to incorrect operation in 1986, the radar receiver system could no longer cleanse them from those other type of radiation that had descended over the whole area and half of Europe. The plant was shut down in 1988 and therefore the electronics moved to other locations or have been looted. However, a dismantling of the antenna was uneconomic as a result of radiation - a simple blasting of masts was not an option either due to the high radioactivity in the soil and it remained complete except for a few minor disassembles until today.

Due to radiation exposure can not be dismantled

The two standing antenna arrays near Pripyat and the Chernobyl nuclear power station are 146 and 90 m high and the larger 750 meters wide. The cylindrical elements which have been partly removed, the radiator, the rest is a reflector. This is probably one of the few radio equipment whose decommissioning enjoys amateur radio operators ...

In addition, there was the "circle", an array of two 120 individual, 10-meter antennas, which were arranged in a circle. The station building in the center was a further antenna. Here, probably the ionosphere has been studied to determine the transmission frequencies for the Duga. The antennas in the "circle" remind of the DEFA film "The Silent Star" from the book by Stanislaw Lem.

https://youtu.be/YeLjJXvtmxo

Meanwhile, the area can be visited at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Ukraine can use the revenue from this kind of "tourism" well.
Andre Friesen, who regularly organizes tours to the region, and is the origin of these pictures here, is also higher on the antenna system - the videos are worth seeing, but for not to be considered vertigo exhausting. Anyone interested can involve yourself in one of the tours.

Source: http://neuerdings.com/2015/10/11/alterdings-verstrahlte-antennen-die-uberreste-des-russischen-woodpeckers/
Translated by Google Translate