Within the Exclusion Zone, at the end of a long, rough road through dense forest, lies a curious relic of the cold war. Tucked away in this bit of wilderness, the Duga radar installation would have been a military secret, but for one thing: the staccato clicking noises it produced on shortwave radio frequencies. Shortwave users quickly figured out where the interference was coming from, and dubbed the location “the Russian Woodpecker”.
It was a powerful radar system to warn of incoming nukes. It stands today disused. A mass of military office buildings lay just inside the gates.
But that’s not why you come here. You come here for the radar itself: A three-hundred-foot tall, half mile long wall of wire and steel. If you want to, you can climb it. Don’t worry, it’s totally unlegal.
T A B U L A R A S A photography 
The Duga! Now I’m *really* jealous of your trip! š
I’m fascinated by this thing. I’m not a conspiracy theory person but I enjoy reading about all the different theories about it. My favorite “out there” one was that the CIA caused the Chernobyl disaster in order to shut down the Woodpecker – Ha!
I’m enjoying this series, still wowed you traveled to there and got such awesome sightseeing done. Well done sir!
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Thanks SI! A movie you might enjoy is actually titled “The Russian Woodpecker” and I think deals with the theory you mentioned. I haven’t seen it myself, but it was recommended to us as a good watch even if you don’t subscribe to the conspiracy theories
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Thanks for the tip! I’ll have to check that one out.
I watched this homemade video of these two goofballs touring it awhile back, laughed my arse off at the 1:00 mark (“I feel like my brain is effected by this antenna” “it’s not working, take it easy”) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQfzUHeH4Eg&t=301s
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