Duga: The Russian Woodpecker Near Chernobyl

In July 1976, radio listeners around the world began hearing a sharp, rapid tapping sound, about 10 beats a second, jumping across shortwave frequencies. Nobody announced where it came from. Listeners named it the Russian Woodpecker. The source was a secret Soviet over-the-horizon radar called Duga. It was part of the USSR’s early-warning network, built to bounce signals off the upper atmosphere and spot missile launches far beyond the horizon. Its receiving antenna, a steel wall about 700 meters long and 150 meters tall, was hidden in the forests of northern Ukraine. The transmitter sat about 50 km away. A second Duga system was built in the Soviet Far East, near Komsomolsk-on-Amur. The radar housed its crews in a closed military town known as Chernobyl-2, a few kilometers from the Chernobyl nuclear plant. It didn’t appear on Soviet maps. The Woodpecker’s random frequency jumps disrupted shortwave broadcasts, amateur radio, and aviation and ocean communications. Thousands of complaints came in from many countries. In April 1986, the Chernobyl reactor exploded nearby, and the area around it became the Exclusion Zone. The Woodpecker kept tapping until December 1989, when the signals stopped for good. The giant array still stands. Ukraine has named it an Immovable Monument of National Significance. Before 2022 it was one of the most photographed stops on Exclusion Zone tours. Since the war began, it has been off limits to tourists.