The criminally annoying Russian Woodpecker

[Fansome]

From analogdial@mail.com on rec.radio.shortwave; my apologies if this has been posted here already:

A recent document about the criminally annoying Russian Woodpecker is
now available on Amazon on demand.

https://www.amazon.com/Russian-Woodpecker-Fedor-Alexandrovich/dp/B016Q1NFAI

Actually, the doc covers more than the damn woodpecker.  The central
character, Fedor Alexandrovich, claims the Chernobyl reactor disaster
was engineered to prevent an upcoming military inspection of that RFI
abomination.  He says the inspection would reveal that enormous amounts
of Soviet money had been wasted there and heads would roll, literally.

A rebuttal, of sorts, came from an old Soviet official.  He said the
horrid thing worked perfectly and had tracked all the US space shuttle
launches until the reactor blew up.  To support his arguement, he
compared the lies about the SW radar to all the lies told about Joe
Stalin.  "Stalin could never have done all those things people say he
did!"

Kinda reminded me of that old Monty Python bit about the gangsterls who
nailed people's heads to floors, but were actually really, really
wonderful people.

[Pigmeat]

Al, I once knew an outlaw biker when was about twelve. People were scared of him, and for good reason, but he was cool with his neighbors. He had a welding shop, he would extend the forks on our bikes so we had "choppers" to ride around on. He and his gang had a clubhouse across the river where they confined their nasty stuff.

I don't remember all the details, but the word was our neighborhood biker end up emptying a .22 semi-auto rifle into a guy who turned up over there wanting his money for a drug deal gone bad? The biker takes the body, wraps it in an old rug, sticks a helmet on the the head and ties it to the sissy bar on his bike. He fires the bike up and heads towards Ohio on a circuitous route with the body on the back.  He comes up on a bridge over the Ohio with a toll booth on the far side. He stops in the middle, cuts the body loose and throws it in the river. As he's still legally in Kentucky, the booth operator calls the KY State Police and they catch him. The river is dragged and they find the body, but the murder weapon is nowhere to be found, the clubhouse and lot are clean as a whistle.

A number of trials ensue, there is no murder weapon, the bikers story is he found the body and panicked as he had record, and he's sticking to it, and there is nothing to contradict it. As he'd dumped the body in the river, they finally get him on a the charges of dumping a carcass in the river, a 500 dollar fine and six months in jail.

The local news hounds hit our neighborhood hard in the aftermath of the dumping. About every third comment were along the lines of "He's a little wild, but he's a nice guy."

[MDK2]

The local news hounds hit our neighborhood hard in the aftermath of the dumping. About every third comment were along the lines of "He's a little wild, but he's a nice guy."

That reminds me of the quote about Ed Gein from one of his neighbors, paraphrased from memory: "He was a little odd with that sense of humor of his, but just the fellow to call to sit the kiddies when me and my wife want to go to the show."

[skeezix]

I remember that dumb thing. Interfered with good broadcasting.


This spring I found that a woodpecker had bore a hole in the siding of my house and started a family. For weeks, they were making noise. Chirping & eating. That's it. Then they moved out. Think I saw them yesterday in the tree, where they belong. Hole is patched.

Not sure which was more annoying... The Soviets or these birds.

At least my woodpeckers left on their own and didn't need a nuclear explosion to go away.

[Pigmeat]

My pet peeve are bluejays. I shoot them on sight the mean, SOB's.

[ka1iic]

"You can get anything you want at Alice's restaurant"  Arlo Guthrie

[ka1iic]

QU: Why doesn't a chicken wear pants???

AN: because his pecker is on his face.

'I am funnybot'

[Skipmuck]

My pet peeve are bluejays. I shoot them on sight the mean, SOB's.

A number of years back, I saw a Bluejay take a fledgling out of a birdnest of uncertain species and realized the damn bird was gonna eat the baby bird...I've hated them since then, yet a Bluejay got caught in the netting we used to keep the birds away from the backyard apple tree about 6 or 7 summers ago. I went out there and with a leather glove disentangled the Bluejay foot from the net and set it free. All that time the damn thing was putting up a raucous noise and trying to peck me through the gloves....little bastard. I let it go though....I do stupid things like that sometimes. Something to do with this childhood indoctrination I went through regarding an afterlife.....I remain skeptical

[Pigmeat]

I've had them dive at me when they've nested in trees in the yards of places I've lived in. A .410 shotgun doesn't make much noise, a load of number 7 shot, and no more bluejays. A pellet rifle will work, but you've got to be a decent shot, or have a scoped gun. Walking around the neighborhood in a town with a scoped gun of any kind is likely to get you in helluva lot of trouble these days.

I've seen them run cats out of the neighborhood, who would normally keep their population in check. There's no other way to handle them other than a taste of birdshot. Pawn shops are full of single shot .410's dirt cheap. Mine is the same one I've been blasting bluejays with since I was 8.

A .410 and birdshot will send most large feral dogs of the people mauling size flying, too. A shot in the flanks will normally do it. If they come back, use a slug. Better that than a kid/person getting mauled by what they think is a regular dog. Outside of city limits, get something larger and put a bigger load in their behinds. If they don't have a collar or tags they're fair game to be killed in most cases, with discretion. Only a cruel SOB would shoot the dogs of the poor kids down the road because they didn't have a collar and tags. A local dog that you see regularly, leave it alone. If they're acting in a odd or a violent way, sporting tags or not, let them have it. The dogcatcher won't mind and most owners will understand when they calm down. It's not worth the risk to let them keep running loose.

Rabies is common as dirt here, stray/feral dogs are always tangling with raccoons and skunks, the two primary carriers. I know it sounds cruel to folks who view all dogs as friendly lovable mutts, but as someone who has seen the results of a young relative set on by wild dogs, it's something that has to be done. Two, wild dogs and coydogs kill livestock by the slew and run deer to death for the Hell of it. They're generally shot on sight. The state will pay you for the carcasses of coydogs and coyotes in certain regions of the country as they're an invasive species.

People who don't have the heart to put an unwanted dog down, or take it to a shelter, don't know the Hell they're releasing by turning that unneutered dog loose in the country to breed with the wild ones. It's not days of play in sunny meadows for Barky, that's for damned sure.

[MDK2]

Blue jays rule. That is all. 

[BoomboxDX]

Around here the blue jays (Steller's Jays, actually -- related species) stay up in the trees and make all sorts of racket. Have never seen one bother a cat, or a person. Never seen them attack other birds, either.

They will swoop down and get peanuts, though.

The scrub jays (another related species, moving up from Oregon) are very shy. They keep to themselves.

I save the BB's / Pellets for the raccoons. They don't bother the cats, but will hang around and eat up the food. I don't like them around.

RE: Russian Woodpecker: I remember that noise on the bands. Makes the Chinese OTH Radar seem very, very tame.

[ff]

Rabies is common as dirt here, stray/feral dogs are always tangling with raccoons and skunks, the two primary carriers. I know it sounds cruel to folks who view all dogs as friendly lovable mutts, but as someone who has seen the results of a young relative set on by wild dogs, it's something that has to be done. Two, wild dogs and coydogs kill livestock by the slew and run deer to death for the Hell of it. They're generally shot on sight. The state will pay you for the carcasses of coydogs and coyotes in certain regions of the country as they're an invasive species.

At least you live where the state government is on the same page as the little people Pigmeat.  Here in the upstate region of New York - an area as large as Kentucky - we are lorded over by coastal elites that know NOTHING of which you speak.  They only know that "they LUVVVV the little animals, ALLLLL the little animals".  Over the last 30 years we are being steadily overrun by rabies, Lyme Disease, coyotes and coydogs, and black bears - none of which were prevalent when I was a kid.  Thanks go in large part to truly repressive hunting laws that have nearly shut it down here.  With the destruction of the fur market by well-intentioned but clueless tree huggers no one traps anymore either.  No paying for coyote carcasses here.  At least they've loosened some of the stupidest requirements for bear hunting although you still need to send a premolar tooth from any kills to Albany.  The latest hunting brochure proudly boasts that "New York State has one of the largest black bear populations in the Northeast".  I wonder if the author would be as delighted if (s)he had to live with the garbage mining, feeder destruction, pet maulings, and all the other joys of living in close quarters with bears.  The biggest upset is that we are forced to be "lawbreakers" occasionally in order to deal with it.  I would not attempt to venture solutions to metropolitan problems because I don't - and can't - truly understand all the nuances.  If only that respect were mutual.  But hey, that's why they're called "elitists"...

In other news, I'm GLAD that damned woodpecker is forever broken.  That thing f**ked up more good pirate receptions.  I can't believe it was really that useful.  I successfully tracked all the shuttle launches too.  From my TV...

[Fansome]

https://loa-shared.s3.amazonaws.com/static/pdf/Twain_Bluejay_Yarn.pdf

[redhat]

I never really minded bluejays (or cardinals for that matter).  I appreciate any brightly colored animal, bird, ect.  Raccoons on the other hand, are destructive, obnoxious (fighting at night, ect) and bother the cats.  A friend of mine doesn't like them either, he poisons them with grape soda and fly poison.  The cats are smart enough not to touch it, but raccoons like anything sweet, and due to their inability to regurgitate, will drink it, make it about 10 feet and fall over.  The next day you put them on the bone pile.

And if poisoning raccoons isn't your thing, you can always poison pigeons.

https://youtu.be/yhuMLpdnOjY

+-RH

[Token]

From analogdial@mail.com on rec.radio.shortwave; my apologies if this has been posted here already:

A recent document about the criminally annoying Russian Woodpecker is
now available on Amazon on demand.

https://www.amazon.com/Russian-Woodpecker-Fedor-Alexandrovich/dp/B016Q1NFAI

Actually, the doc covers more than the damn woodpecker.  The central
character, Fedor Alexandrovich, claims the Chernobyl reactor disaster
was engineered to prevent an upcoming military inspection of that RFI
abomination.  He says the inspection would reveal that enormous amounts
of Soviet money had been wasted there and heads would roll, literally.

Not sure why they would claim it did not work (wasted money), the design is pretty straight forward and the Russians had successfully fielded other radar systems using the same techniques, although not in the same frequency range.

A couple of other things, there is a theory out there that the Woodpecker transmitter drew so much power that the Chernobyl reactor was built to power it.  Errr...no.

First of all the transmitter was maybe as high as 10 MW peak power, and possibly less.  But it was NOT a CW (continuous wave, not meaning Morse code in this application) transmitter, and the duty cycle means the average power was far less, on the order of 10% of the peak power or less, even allowing for only 50% efficiency that means at most maybe 2 MW power requirement for the transmitter.  As a comparison look at HAARP, a transmitter with a known 6.3 MW average power transmitter...and running on diesel generators.

Second...the facility near the Chernobyl reactor was the RECEIVER facility, not the transmitter, the transmitter was 60 km away.  The receiver would have no need for a nuclear power plant for power.

Oh...and I might add, the Woodpecker was actually on air before the nuclear power plant was producing energy.  The Woodpecker was first reported, from this area (there were three sources for the Woodpecker), in mid 1976, while the first reactor at the Chernobyl power station did not go online until 1977.

I watched the documentary, I had been looking forward to it since the first hints of its production made it online a while back.  OTHRs, such as the Duga, are a bit of a focus for me.

The first 25 minutes were full of errors easily confirmed, sensationalist and conspiracy stuff.  Things about mind control, unknown sources, etc.  Statements of "it didn't work, it could not make any interference", despite the fact that many agencies and groups RFDFed it to the source. Or that "the antenna was made to look to the south, not towards America or Europe" despite the fact that you can look at the remaining receive antenna and see it is not pointed south, but rather it is pointed on a bearing of about 322 degrees true, or just about exactly towards the geographical center of the United States of America.  Later in the show they started to get into real information, not conspiracy stuff, talking with people who worked there and with backgrounds in radar.

At that point it starts to take half truths and spin a story of intrigue, saying that the system could never work as it had "no theoretical basis to function", that it was doomed from the start.  Pure bunk, the theory of operation is sound and easily proven.  The documentary basically paints a picture that the Duga did not work, could not work, and it was about to be found as non-working, so the Chernobyl accident was an intentional act to cover that fact up.

The film ignores the fact that the facilities near Chernobyl were only one of three sets of radars, one in the east (near Chernobyl), one in the west, and one in the south.  The southern set was the development set of hardware, and was probably never a commissioned system (combat ready), the one in the west was a duplication of the facility near Chernobyl.  The reactor accident in Chernobyl in no way impacted the other sites.  A theoretical or design shortcoming at the Chernobyl facility would have applied to at least the western facility, if not all three of them, and the Chernobyl accident would not have prevented that fact being found out at the other sites.

The film is a political piece about the recent Ukraine and Russian issues, wrapped around the Duga and the Chernobyl accident, to proclaim that corruption is behind it all (Chernobyl / Duga) and that the old Soviet system is still in control, even if the Soviet Union is no longer called the Soviet Union.

It ends with a statement that after 23 years the Woodpecker signal has returned to the air, and has been traced to be source in Russia.  This is, again, a half truth.  The new Russian 29B6 radar has been activated, however it sounds nothing like the Woodpecker, and uses a completely different waveform.  The related sounder for the 29B6 can, depending on your tuned mode, sound very similar to the old Woodpecker, however it is a completely different waveform, and apparently operates at a much lower power level.

T!