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| The Duga-1 radar antenna array near Chernobyl. (Photo by Ingmar Runge via Wikimedia Commons,
CC
BY 3.0, <https://commons.wikimedia.org/
w/index.php?curid=34594448>)
|
The government of Ukraine has declared the
massive Duga-1 antenna array near Chernobyl – the source of the infamous
"Russian Woodpecker" over-the-horizon radar signals in the 1970s and
80s – as a protected cultural monument. According to the Vice online
newsletter, the designation is part of an effort by Ukraine to get the
Chernobyl nuclear power plant and surrounding buildings all declared a UNESCO World
Heritage Site. In addition, the Association of Chernobyl Tour Operators reported
that vandals were removing pieces of the huge structure and that added protection
was needed.
For those too young to remember, the "woodpecker"
was a Soviet-era early warning radar system built to detect incoming nuclear
missiles from the United States. Its tapping signals caused havoc on the HF ham
bands as they swept through the shortwave spectrum. Chernobyl, of course, is
the site of the world's worst nuclear power disaster in 1986 and the Duga-1
array is within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. It is speculated by some that the
Chernobyl power plant was built primarily to provide electricity to the Duga
radar.
