The Russian Woodpecker was a notorious
Soviet radio signal that could be sporadically heard on the shortwave radio bands worldwide between July
1976 and
December 1989. It sounded like a sharp, repetitive tapping noise at 10 Hz,[1] giving rise to the "Woodpecker" name. The random frequency hops disrupted legitimate broadcast, amateur radio, commercial aviation communications, utility transmissions, and resulted in thousands of complaints by many countries worldwide. Because of its extremely high power output (over 10 MW in some cases), the signal became such a nuisance that some receivers such as amateur radios and televisions actually began including 'Woodpecker Blankers' in their design.
The mysterious and unclaimed signal was a source for much speculation, giving rise to theories such as
Soviet mind control and weather control. However, after careful study, many experts and amateur radio hobbyists long believed it to be that of an extremely powerful over-the-horizon radar (
OTH) system. This theory was publicly confirmed after the fall of the
Soviet Union, and is now known to be the
Duga-3 (
Russian: Дуга-3)[2] system, part of the Soviet
ABM early-warning network.
NATO military intelligence had photographed the system and given it the
NATO reporting name Steel Yard.
The Ukrainian-developed computer game
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. has a plot focused on the
Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and the nuclear accident there. The game heavily features actual locations in the area, including the Duga-3 array. The array itself appears in
STALKER:
Clear Sky in the city of Limansk-13. While the '
Brain Scorcher' from STALKER:
Shadow of
Chernobyl was inspired by theories that Duga-3 was used for mind control, it does not take the form of the real array.
Radar is an object detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio waves or microwaves which bounce off any object in their path. The object returns a tiny part of the wave's energy to a dish or antenna which is usually located at the same site as the transmitter.
Radar was secretly developed by several nations before and during
World War II. The term
RADAR was coined in
1940 by the
United States Navy as an acronym for RAdio Detection And Ranging.[1] The term radar has since entered
English and other languages as the common noun radar, losing all capitalization.
The modern uses of radar are highly diverse, including air traffic control, radar astronomy, air-defense systems, antimissile systems; marine radars to locate landmarks and other ships; aircraft anticollision systems; ocean surveillance systems, outer space surveillance and rendezvous systems; meteorological precipitation monitoring; altimetry and flight control systems; guided missile target locating systems; and ground-penetrating radar for geological observations.
High tech radar systems are associated with digital signal processing and are capable of extracting useful information from very high noise levels.
Ukraine (Listeni/juːˈkreɪn/ yew-krayn;
Ukrainian:
Україна, transliterated:
Ukrayina, [ukrɑˈjinɑ]) is a country in
Eastern Europe. Ukraine borders the
Russian Federation to the east and northeast,
Belarus to the northwest,
Poland,
Slovakia and
Hungary to the west,
Romania and
Moldova to the southwest, and the
Black Sea and
Sea of Azov to the south and southeast, respectively. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the largest country entirely within
Europe.[9][10][11]
The United States of America (
USA or
U.S.A.), commonly referred to as the
United States (US or
U.S.) and
America, is a federal republic[10][11] consisting of
50 states and a federal district. The
48 contiguous states and the federal district of
Washington, D.C. are in central
North America between
Canada and
Mexico.
The state of
Alaska is the northwestern part of North America, west of Canada and east of
Russia which is across the
Bering Strait in
Asia, and the state of
Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-North
Pacific.
The country also has five populated and nine unpopulated territories in the Pacific and the
Caribbean.
Missile defense is a system, weapon, or technology involved in the detection, tracking, interception, and destruction of attacking missiles.
Originally conceived as a defence against nuclear-armed
Intercontinental ballistic missiles (
ICBMs), its application has broadened to include shorter-ranged non-nuclear tactical and theater missiles.
- published: 06 Mar 2016
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