Duga Radar V
The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone has many sites that are surprising tourist attractions, but none could be less likely than the Duga Radar.
This was the site of one of three “Over The Horizon” radars (OTH) in the USSR. This and another site in Ukraine beamed towards Europe; one in the Russian Far East, beamed out into the Pacific. By using shortwave rather than the UHF or SHF frequencies usually used by radar, the range could be extended over the horizon by detecting signals refracted by the ionosphere. Despite the fact that the ionosphere is always in a somewhat chaotic state, in theory a powerful enough computer could still detect the source of any given reflection.
In a metaphor for the entire Soviet system, however, no computer powerful enough existed and these enormously powerful 10 Megawatt transmitters merely sent out an intensely irritating pulse known as the woodpecker which blocked most shortwave transmissions over large parts of the world, annoying Soviet friends and allies alike to absolutely no utility. The system operated intermittently from 1976 until 1989. It was located near Chernobyl to benefit from the enormous amount of electricity it generated.
Ugly as the signal generated might have been, the antenna array itself is a thing of majesty, bursting from the forests that stretch on a flat plain for miles in every direction; a cascade of metal cones and struts that is 150 metres high and 700 metres long.
The radar had its own secret town attached; it was never officially acknowledged but was known as ‘Chernobyl-2’. It came complete with a gymnasium, school, hotel, and fire station. This was the only fire station in the region not called out when Reactor No. 4 caught fire on 26 April 1986 – a sign of the importance attached the OTH radar project.
Maintaining a structure like this is expensive, and nobody is expending any money on it, so see this strange Cold War engineering wonder while you can. It won’t last forever.
Duga Radar V
The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone has many sites that are surprising tourist attractions, but none could be less likely than the Duga Radar.
This was the site of one of three “Over The Horizon” radars (OTH) in the USSR. This and another site in Ukraine beamed towards Europe; one in the Russian Far East, beamed out into the Pacific. By using shortwave rather than the UHF or SHF frequencies usually used by radar, the range could be extended over the horizon by detecting signals refracted by the ionosphere. Despite the fact that the ionosphere is always in a somewhat chaotic state, in theory a powerful enough computer could still detect the source of any given reflection.
In a metaphor for the entire Soviet system, however, no computer powerful enough existed and these enormously powerful 10 Megawatt transmitters merely sent out an intensely irritating pulse known as the woodpecker which blocked most shortwave transmissions over large parts of the world, annoying Soviet friends and allies alike to absolutely no utility. The system operated intermittently from 1976 until 1989. It was located near Chernobyl to benefit from the enormous amount of electricity it generated.
Ugly as the signal generated might have been, the antenna array itself is a thing of majesty, bursting from the forests that stretch on a flat plain for miles in every direction; a cascade of metal cones and struts that is 150 metres high and 700 metres long.
The radar had its own secret town attached; it was never officially acknowledged but was known as ‘Chernobyl-2’. It came complete with a gymnasium, school, hotel, and fire station. This was the only fire station in the region not called out when Reactor No. 4 caught fire on 26 April 1986 – a sign of the importance attached the OTH radar project.
Maintaining a structure like this is expensive, and nobody is expending any money on it, so see this strange Cold War engineering wonder while you can. It won’t last forever.