Duga Radar
Throughout the 1960s, the Soviets focused on developing early-warning radar for their anti-ballistic missile systems. However, most of these systems operated on a line-of-sight basis, which limited their effectiveness to quick analysis and interception. They lacked the ability to provide timely alerts of a missile launch, which would have allowed defenses to assess the situation and formulate a response. At that time, the Soviet early warning satellite network was still in its infancy. To address this gap, efforts began in the late 1960s to create an over-the-horizon radar system based in the USSR.
The initial experimental system, known as Duga, was established near Mykolaiv in Ukraine and successfully detected rocket launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at a distance of 2,500 kilometers (1,600 miles). This was soon followed by a prototype Duga, which could track launches from the far east and monitor submarines in the Pacific as missiles headed toward Novaya Zemlya. Although both radar systems were directed eastward and operated at relatively low power, the successful demonstration of the concept paved the way for the development of an operational system. The Duga-1 systems, constructed in 1972, featured a transmitter and receiver positioned approximately 60 kilometers apart.
In 1976, a remarkable and potent radio signal was detected across the globe, quickly earning the nickname 'the Woodpecker' among amateur radio enthusiasts. Some of the Woodpecker transmitters were believed to operate at an astonishing power level of up to 10 megawatts, radiating isotropically. Even before this notable year, radio amateurs had experienced similar woodpecker-like interference in the high-frequency bands, with references to "the Russian Woodpecker" dating back to as early as 1963. While details about the power levels and the Russian designation remain scarce, it is thought that these signals were precursors to the Duga radar systems. At the time, many radio hobbyists speculated that these signals were part of an over-the-horizon radar system.
These signals were notorious for causing disruptions on 27 MHz CB radios during the late 1960s and early 1970s, often completely obstructing local communications in places like Portugal, which led to assumptions of several megawatts of RF power being transmitted. Amateur radio operators and NATO conducted triangulation efforts that traced the origin of these signals to what is now Ukraine, then known as the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, a part of the USSR. Due to slight discrepancies in various reports, the source was sometimes thought to be near Kyiv, Minsk, Chernobyl, Gomel, or Chernihiv. Ultimately, all these accounts referred to the same transmitter site, located just a few kilometers southwest of Chernobyl, with the receiver situated about 50 kilometers northeast of Chernobyl, near Chernihiv and south of Gomel. There was even speculation at one point that multiple transmitters might have been operational.
The Soviets designated the radar system with the code 5Π32-West, establishing it in two secretive towns. Liubech-1 housed the transmitters, while Chernobyl-2 was responsible for the receivers. At that time, civilian observers were unaware that NATO had knowledge of this new setup. Additionally, a second installation was constructed near Komsomolsk-on-Amur, located in Bolshya Kartel and Lian, but it remained inactive for a considerable period.
