How One Man Took On The Russian Woodpecker

The Woodpecker’s rapid fire sounds are still easy to ‘visualise’ as sound in my head, over 40 years after hearing them day after day in south eastern Australia as a teenager. Heard initially using a receiver built into a dark khaki green metal case that glowed at night. Must have been an ex. airforce WW2 tuner. The only other broadcast I could receive on that clunky receiver was the automated wind speed, visibility and air pressure advisory from Tullarmarine (now Melbourne International) airport. The following year at my school Fete I purchased a second receiver that allowed me to listen to Radio Australia, BBC World Service, Radio Moscow and Voice of America. They were the days, that pesky rapid fire Woodpecker transmission often causing considerable interference to broadcasters (and amateur radio operators, clearly!) My listening using valve radio technology probably cost my parents a fortune in electricity bills! No internet back then, so only years later did I learn more about the Woodpecker origins. Like another poster, I would happily travel to see, in person, the remaining Douga antenna array, Chernobyl, the abandoned support towns with their abandoned public swimming pool, etc. Having the Chernobyl Nuclear Power plant nearby to power the transmitter that fed the Woodpecker signals into that fascinating antenna array that little bit easier! Ironically, walking around Bern in Austria in the rain during a high school cultural study tour to Europe in 1986, I was unwittingly exposed to what was later recognised as considerable radioactive fallout in the days following the Chernobyl disaster. Detailed reports describing the hot spots in Western Europe were published only decades later, by the European Parliament, and made for compelling reading given I had apparently been in one of the two hottest areas of radioactive outfall in Western Europe during those critical first days! My first inkling at the time that things were not normal was when passing through the border crossing into Italy, where military personnel were measuring the wheel arches of our tour bus with Geiger counters with quite some interest. None of my travel companions — teachers or fellow students — would buy into my conclusions that there had been a radiation event. Only the next day did the news of the disaster hit the front pages of the newspapers and begrudgingly my group acknowledged that was probably the cause of the unusual military attention. Some years later I was diagnosed with a form of thyroid disease not usually seen in young males…a momento it would seem from the Woodpecker and Chernobyl! Thanks for alerting us to the report being republished, on-line this time. It will be interesting reading:-)

I've actually met one of those volunteer reporters. My ex's Grandfather. Heck of a guy. A ham for nearly as long as hams have existed. Dude bought and learned to use a 3d printer in his 80's. As far as I know, he's still kicking, he'd be about 96-97.

I remember very well how annoying the woodpecker was when listening to the short waves, but a few years later (1981) I was surprised to be able to operate a 27 MHz CB without any interference. According to your video this band was unaffected: I had to wait 40 years to figure out why! 👍

I remember very well the sound of the woodpecker. i was born in 68, and when i was about 10yrs old in 78 my granddad gave me an "old" radio that had the coolest glass front with all kinds of stations marked/painted on, and a lot of valves/tubes inside that would glow in the dark. I still regret that i gave it away many years ago. I had a lot of fun listening to radio luxembourg at night and sometimes do a sweep across the entire bands searching for other stations to listen to. The woodpecker was really loud here in Denmark when it came online, and no-one knew what it was, although my neighbour who was a licensed radio operator later speculated it was some kind of radar jamming signal but thought it was much closer to us and maybe located in the then east germany. I also remember the many numberstations i found, they were really creepy.

I thought everything about the woodpecker was said already. And then comes Lewis, digs up that report and makes a gem of a video from that! Excellent job! Minor issue: the speech audio level is quite low.

What was once a vitally important piece of technology (to someone) is now just rust. Such is the march of progress. I am sure there is an important lesson to be learnt.

The Woodpecker disrupted my early years of ham radio, I got my HF ticket in 1981. I have plans, currently on hold, to visit the Duga site. I just want to see it.

This is excellent. Glad that you were able to connect with Bob Horvitz. Thanks for walking through the detail.

I was a teenager back when the Woodpecker was active and used to listen to shortwave on my fathers AIWA TPR-955G. No SSB mode on the AIWA so it was broadcast listening only but I still remember hearing the radar racket and wondering what on earth it was. A friends father explained that it was supposedly coming from behind the iron curtain. Silly me thinking there was a place that had windows full of metal. HF OTHR still shows up at random just about anywhere nowadays, especially on top of that rare DX station on 20m. Awesome video again Lewis! Illustrates the efforts pre internet to work out what the source of the noise was.

Lewis, I don’t know where you find the time to do such in-depth research. You must not sleep. Another outstanding ringway Manchester production.

Excellent piece. Very informative. I went looking for a recording of the Russian Woodpecker, and sure enough, it sounded very familiar from my childhood when I was heavily into SWR listening.

The "ANARC" radio group no longer exists. I remember as a new SWL and soon after ham in the late '70s and early '80s hearing the Russian Woodpecker, as well as other jamming signals. When the Woodpecker was eventually outed as extemely high-power over-the-horizon radar, I recall it was a viewed as an unavoidable side-effect of the Cold War ... "yeah, we have all these international agreements https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITU-R ostensibly to prevent interference, but what are you going to do when a nuclear superpower decides to do what it wants to do?"

I like how the Russian denied this problem for years. Then the chernobyl accident put it out business. Permanently.

Thank you for sharing the story and the link to the report!

Excellent report Lewis, thank you!

The opening text would do better spoken, especially for the blind.

Epic documentary & sources, well done Lewis!

Fantastic report on this exciting subject! Thanks!!!

Great radio days I clearly remember this time Lewis hearing this thumping across the bands ....Great history ....well done lewis

Fascinating! I’m glad to see some history could still be dug up about this. And thanks to Bob Horvitz for sharing what he did. That was a massive project, especially for back then.