In the Shadow of Chernobyl: The History of the Duga Radar Array
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- Опубліковано 1 лип 2024
- Independence Day, 1976. A day of celebration for hundreds of millions of American citizens. But for those paying attention to the radios, it was equally a day of concern. On dozens of radio stations, those operating on the 3-30 MHz range, an unusual clicking sound emerged out of the blue, disrupting both civilian and military channels. For the next thirteen years, this sound would plague radio broadcasts, and then it would disappear. This is, of course, the interference of the Duga Radar Arrays. One of these arrays happened to be just a few kilometres from the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and sits abandoned today. Let’s trace the story of this gigantic structure to the present day, and see what future awaits it.
Sources.
The Russian Woodpecker.
fakty.ua/100838-vsevidyacshee...
digitall-angell.livejournal.c...
www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/li...
www.qsl.net/n1irz/woodpeck.html
Chapters:
00:00 - Introduction
01:05 - Early ideas
02:11 - The First Duga
02:48 - How does Duga work?
03:22 - The Final Form
03:53 - Chernobyl's Duga
05:13 - Chernobyl 2
06:04 - The Rise of the Russian Woodpecker
07:20 - Radio Enthusiasts vs The Woodpecker
07:44 - Did it work?
08:44 - Krug
09:43 - Challenger
10:07 - A Night in April
11:05 - The First Liquidators
11:46 - Saving Duga
12:41 - Farewell Woodpecker
12:57 - Saving Duga Again
13:45 - Conspiracies
14:02 - The Other Other Duga
14:45 - Conclusion
15:33 - Sources
I visited the Duga site inside the zone at the start of 2020 and the sheer size of the thing really blew me away.
If granted the opportunity and ability would you climb it?
@@basedgodstrugglinsomeone did but I don’t think all the way to the top
500 ft is a LONG way to climb. I had to climb a 150ft tower for work a while back.. I actually had to climb it twice because the rope my tools were attached to somehow got wrapped around the only fricking thing it could have because of the high winds. I'm in really good shape, and by the time I climbed down the 2nd time, after my work was done, my arms were worn out. I think coming down was worse than going up, actually.
Also, my boss had the nerve to call me right after I climbed it the 2nd time and ask me if I was gonna go get lunch. I said, "fuck no. I'm scared to death, the wind is blowing, and it's cold as shit. I'm not coming down until I'm done, and when I'm done, I'm going home"
He just laughed at me
FYI to viewers that the Duga2 complex and other areas are quite dangerous to go anymore, not due to radiation but due to russian landmines. I wouldn't say "the future looks bright" the de-mining efforts which will focus on more important areas first will probably take decades even if the money and will is there...
feel radiowaves in your hands? sounds healthy
"our hands" 😂
Thanks for the video, I had the opportunity to visit the radar and I can't express how minuscule I felt compared with the sheer size of the duga. Truly one of the largest man made objects I have seen, made me think about the amount of work that project probably took... It was humbling
That's the first thing I think about (probably what most people think) is how much work and planning that goes into these large projects. I work for a company that builds and retrofits powerplants, and working on large projects like these are super cool and interesting. I learn something every day, and have been doing it for almost 20 years.
8 megawatts per hour is insane lol
Oh yeah, that shit absolutely gave some people cancer
@@tokyosmash I’m surprised it didn’t boil anyone’s blood or break windows lol
8 megawatts per hour is also an incorrect use of units lol
It's also a completely meaningless incoherent metric of nothing. How do people still not know the difference between energy and power in 2023???
@@tokyosmash No it didn't open a physics book and read about the difference between non-ionizing and ionizing radiation.
i remember the brain scorcher
supersonic brain waves!!!
Everything you produce is absolutely beaming with the effort and passion you have for these subjects. The work you put into each video is evident in their quality, and I sincerely hope you enjoy creating them as much as we enjoy watching them. I have a few hours of original aerial video of the Zone that I would be more than happy to share with you, free of licensing, just for the opportunity of being a part of your process, if you would ever be interested!
Many years ago when I was stationed in the Philippines, I used to tune up a high-power (a few dozen KW, or so....) transmitter and then key that transmitter with an electronic keyer, timed to transmit a CW pulse at the same rate as the woodpecker. My antenna was very large and directional towards the received signal. I could usually manage about 25 KHz bandwidth. Most of the time when I unkeyed my transmitted signal a minute or so later, the pecker had by then changed frequency. Whether my efforts did any good to bother the Ruskies....or not, I have no idea. I was probably wasting my time and GOVT electricity. Nevertheless, I kept this up for several years. 😁
Would love to see a video on the conspiracy between the Chernobyl explosion and the Woodpecker.
There is a movie called The Russian Woodpecker that looks into this.
some huge brains in the comment section today
😂🤙🤘👍🙏🙏🤣🤣
I really like how you kept the sound of the transmitter going throughout the video, it added tension and weirdness that was characteristic of the subject and times. I used to hear that on the shortwave receiver I had back then and never really knew what it was until decades later.
I remember hearing that damn thing trying to listen to the SAC hf freqs. Annoying wasn't the half of it!
Great content mate
Really enjoyed this one! It’s quite amazing that the soviets didn’t decide at the time to just decontaminate the site and try and carry on using it. I guess by 1986 the duga array was considered a bit too old fashioned and a less of a priority to spend the time trying to recommission it after June 86. Also, it would be great if you could do a half lives video about Igor Kostin. He had an amazing life, and had a selfless and unwavering commitment to the cleanup, documentation and aftermath of the disaster! Great work as always
I think it would be nice if at least one such installation could be preserved as a historical artefact. As I understand it, the Duga receiver in Chernobyl is the only one still standing and as the whole area now serves mainly as a historical monument, with a practical maximum visiting time for tourists, it may not be too bad that it is located where it is. Let’s just hope for a reasonably secure source of funding for its upkeep and restoration where necessary.
Very good job again sir. Greetings from Germany 🇩🇪
you and your videos are only reason why is it still worth living
Jesus a little exaggerative don't you think?
@@dustinandtarynwolfe5540no
That’s grim
It may be the only thing, but atleast its something.
@@dustinandtarynwolfe5540 no i dont think so
Duga woodpecker = Soviet ASMR
lol
I dunno. It's kind of pecking at my head. 😵💫 Glad to hear what it actually sounded like. You can still hear weird repetitive noises up & down a regular radio dial, in between stations.
Great content, Thank You
The Duga Radar Array just looks like a Massive "Chain Home" Radar system that the UK had in place before WW2. The US took this tech to the absolute limit with HAARP. Originally Created by the United States Air Force. The High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) is the world’s most capable high-power, high frequency transmitter for study of the ionosphere. The principal instrument is the Ionospheric Research Instrument, a phased array of 180 HF crossed-dipole antennas spread across 33 acres and capable of radiating 3.6 megawatts into the upper atmosphere and ionosphere. Transmit frequencies are selectable in the range of 2.7 to 10 MHz, and since the antennas form a sophisticated phased array, the transmitted beam can take many shapes, can be scanned over a wide angular range and multiple beams can be formed. The facility uses 30 transmitter shelters, each with six pairs of 10 kilowatt transmitters, to achieve the 3.6 MW transmit power.
HAARP was used for the research to conduct fundamental study of the physical processes at work in the ionosphere. This research falls into two categories (1) active, which requires the use of the Ionospheric Research Instrument and (2) passive, which only uses monitoring instruments.
The ionosphere starts at about 60 to 80 km altitude and extends up above 500 km altitude. There are free electrons and ions in the ionosphere that radio waves can interact with. HAARP radio waves heat the electrons and create small perturbations that are similar to the kinds of interactions that happen in nature. Natural phenomena are random and are often difficult to observe. With HAARP, scientists can control when and where the perturbations occur so they can measure their effects.
In 2015 ownership and control of HAARP was passed from the US Air Force to University of Alaska research. HAARP was never a classified project and has many wild conspiracy theories of HAARP's abilities such as claims it can control the world's weather.
You mentioned it being made obsolete by phased array radars, but fun fact, the duga array itself is a phased array. SO what is a phased array?
Basically you can feed the same signal into the different individual antenna (what I think are those oblong shaped cage structures dotting the front of the array) and change the phase of the signal going into each (more simply put, delaying the signal going into the different antenna by specific amounts for each antenna). When done properly, the resulting interference will influence the outputted radio waves into a specific direction or pattern. You can steer the radar beam rather quickly and precisely using this method, no need for moving parts (like a large and heavy rotating dish one might associate with a radar system).
Interestingly enough you can do this same thing with sound! If you have ever seen the tall curved stack of speakers hung at concerts, that is a phased array too, just using speakers instead. The principal is very similar in theory.
The USA National Weather Service is considering replacing the current weather radars with modern phased array radars in the coming decade.
Your reply was as interesting as this video(and kinda gets me interested in radio/radio waves). Thanks!
The structure even has elevators lol - visited the site in 2016
Very informative and unbiased video, I am thoroughly impressed as always. I admire that you did not use the false terminology of "DUGA-3" as that is often used when people loop in the prototype ZLGRS DUGA and the 2 operative stations.
I am curious as to where you got the photos and VHS/DV video in the "Other DUGA" section of the video covering DUGA-2 in Khabarovsk Krai, as I have scoured the internet for information, photos, and video of the site, but have only came across a Photoshop mock-up of what the site would have looked like. I'm always looking for ways to expand my knowledge on the DUGA systems and find cool pieces of media online.
I found them by accident, the VHS is in two parts, and also shows the Krug Station, as well someone appearing to bring a teenager on top of the Komsomolsk Duga. I didn't show that footage because you can't really see the station itself. The two photos with the guards were from an urban exploration site, and there's also some images of the site today: urban3p.ru/object24781
Sometimes the coolest finds are found by mistake, haha. Did the VHS come from the same website? I'm unable to find it there, unless it was uploaded on UA-cam itself under some obscure name that doesn't harbor many views. This is very interesting!
Thank you for this incredibly well researched and detailed video. Regarding the transmitter site - there is a video titled: "Duga - Nadajnik Lubecz-1 (unikatowe nagranie)" on YT that appears to show some sort of ceremony that was held at the site when it was decommissioned. If the timestamp of the video is correct, it was shot in May 1998. After the official part, some employees are shown at their former places of work: consoles, maintenance shop, laboratory, cafeteria etc. At approximately 24 minutes, a long corridor with what seem to be many shortwave transmitters one next to the other is shown which could be the same corridor that appears at 12:53 in your video. The inside of one of the many transmitters is also shown, with some large vacuum tubes and coils being visible. After that, the antenna array is shown and the person with the camera climbs up, showing the whole installation from above. From the transmitter building, some 20 high power antenna feeder lines go to the array, which would suggest that each of the shortwave transmitters in the corridor was connected to one vertical segment of the phased array antenna. From the size of the components inside the one transmitter I'd guess each one could be at least 20kW, but more likely 50kW or even more, therefore they would have achieved the 8MW by combining the power of all those fairly standard size transmitters, using the phase angle between them to steer the beam.
The background noise sounds like helicopter rotor blades. I have heard from another source a clicking sound, much more like a woodpecker. Was there different sounds depending on weather/solar interference/direction/other?
Could be the difference how it was supposed to sound and how it was perceived/recorded by someone else on their receiver.
@@naughtyfred1 That could also be a factor as to why I have heard it sound different from different sources. Thanks!
I waited 11 years to turn 18 so I can finally visit Chernobyl. In June, on my birthday I'm gonna ask for a Geiger counter as my birthday present for it to become my first official step on the way of visiting the exclusion zone.
Just my little hyperfixation since I was a kid :)
i have some bad news for you...
Good luck getting there with the ukrainian war
Maybe after about 10-15 years you will be able too.
the “zone” has been changed somewhat Russian soldiers during the Ukraine war dug trenches everywhere in the surrounding forests and around the site (also exposing the old top soil and possibly gettting radiation sickness) and there are probably unexplored munitions every where near these trenches which will require cleanup if the left any explosives behind
h ttps://ua-cam.com/video/8jWnuvrPgu4/v-deo.htmlsi=z7o2uWA_WvDkd4e_
GET OUT OF HERE STALKER
One thing is that the Krug system near Duga is not an ionosphere probing station but a CDAA for tracking the location of radio transmissions.
3:34 mic symbol
Something always gets through the editing, ha ha :)
For some reason, interference created by a USB adapter makes nearly the exact same sound as the Duga radar, only on 600khz and at short range only, of course.
99 red balloons!!!
10MW transmitter power,
Receiver station located far north
very good very nice another great vid alasf
Thank you!
Are you going to make a half life video about Alexander Akimov?
Another great video! This piece of infrastructure is pretty crazy. I remember first researching it when I saw it in the game Day Z.
If you speak about POWER the unit has to be MW (Megawatt) not MW/H ( Megawatt per hour).
Very interesting video!
'megawatts per hours'?
And you wonder why your math teacher made you declare your units in the answers.
Need a hot meal, meh, just hold it up in the rf Field 😂
Yes please a Duga / Chernobyl accident foil hat video!
All I can think of is Grid from BO1
Was it located near Chernobl for the larg amount of power it needed?
Yes, from what I have read.
Just so you know, there's a strange repeating percussion sound in your audio, it almost sounds like the reel of an old film projector.
That would be Duga...
@@andreascarlsson6579 lol
I don't hear it, so the problem has to be in your computer/TV/mobile...
That’s the sounds of the Duga interference that is being discussed in the video
The popping sound stops at the point where he tells us that the Chernobyl array was switched off so...
anyone know the frequency it would sound on?
There were rumors that Duga was actually responsible for the Tschernobyl disaster, because the Duga site was required to keep on working no matter what.
It was used to divert weather fronts away from the building preventing seasonal rains from flooding the reactor basement and causing a flashover. The process has been talked about in several books but not the technology. Given the DUGA array’s proximity and its operating envelope it’s reasonable to conclude this was its purpose
The ol' Russian Woodpecker.
You need a pop filter for your mic
This just after I find out about Numbers Stations. 😂
They quickly localized it.
I wonder why
makes me laugh how many people get one thing so wrong when they talk about Chernobyl and say its the town when in actual fact the town is called prypyat and the power station where reactor unit number 4 ( the one that went into meltdown and blew-up in 1986 ) is located is called Chernobyl
The prototype transmitter outside of Luch was built at the Kopani shortwave and mediumwave broadcast site. I believe the towers you show were part of a shortwave broadcast antenna array fed by a pair of 500 kW transmitters, aimed at a semi-parabolic reflector screen and ultimately toward the Americas, used by Radio Moscow. The OTH radar transmit antenna array aimed to the west was located 1.25 miles south-southeast of the broadcast towers you show. It and its transmitter building have been completely razed, only foundations exist today, but they are clearly visible on the satellite view of Google maps This general area, just off the main road from Kherson to Mikolaiv, has been subjected to sometimes heavy fighting in the war between Russia and Ukraine.
Sorry, but to me, it sounds much more like a helicopter than a woodpecker...
SHADOW OF Cernoytl
Its DugÁ not DÚga, too late for the video, but for future reference.
Hello STALKER ;)
Someone call the FCC
The 4th reactor at chernobyl blew up at 1:23 am, not 3 am.
Yes, however the personnel at Duga were not informed until 3AM.
Duga means rainbow, not arch
Dont eat that much chilli pepers
So basically it didn't work lolol
You need a pop filter badly.
Great video as always mate, would love to sit down with you, share a pint and just talk about topics like these forever. Definitely a quality over quantity channel, and one of the only few I am actually subscribed to.
Supposedly it was a failure and Chernobyl was a cover up.
Speculation of course, one will never know…….
Why is there a chopper in the back ? So annoying
/s
Non binary voice on fleek right cheer
Mue USA
Please get a pop filter.
First again!
Nope
ooooo first
Nope
Breadbasket of Europe pmsl do your research
To be fair, Ukraine has been colloquially known as the "breadbasket of europe" for decades. If you're upset he used that instead of "breadbasket of the soviet union", he's likely just using the modern identifier for the country