DUGA - Don't Underestimate Giant Antennas 😁

as much as we hated the racket it produced back in the day , now it's fascinating to see these structures . imagine the amount of work it took to make these structures . I'd love to be able to hook a receiver into just one bank of these caged dipoles just to hear what we could on them. - probably would overload a common receiver. the elephant cages would be fun to play around with as well. imagine setting up a ham radio special event station on DUGA ( if the world was at peace) that would be really cool. - thanks for bringing us radio nerds this great content . I always look for your videos and watch your posting as soon as I see them. 73 to you! ..

I think you did a great job clarifying some of the common misunderstandings about the Woodpecker receiving antenna. Too bad we don't have detailed imagery of the transmitter, but much of that info may still be classified in one way or another. I've always wanted to visit the exclusion zone and see the big antenna, as well as Chernobyl itself. I think the antenna is amazing. Sadly, it looks like I may never get an opportunity due to regional instability.

Dear Ringway, great stuff as always. I am of an age when the ionosphere was known as the Kennelly-Heaviside layer. Oliver Heaviside is a neglected figure in electrical communications and his contributions are on a par with with James Clerk Maxwell. I have a biography of Heaviside by Paul Nahin, which I will admit was a hard slog to get through. I have enjoyed this series on the varied intercept and transmissions sites. All the best Phil Sharp.

On a mildly related note, back in my misspent youth as a gubmint apparatchik I shared an office with a guy who'd worked on ROTHR, the U.S. Navy AN/TPS-71 Relocatable Over The Horizon Radar (ROTHR). He had (passed away several years ago), and I now have, a Fleet Surveillance Support Command bumper sticker that says: Big ROTHR Is Watching You

The Mikolaiv Duga transmit site is known as Kopani. It was the site of the Soviet superpower shortwave broadcasts, some of which used 2x 500 kW transmitters in parallel for 1000 kW TPO. This site is along the main road between Kherson and Mikolaiv near the village of Luch, and takes its name from the area town of Posad-Pokrovske, which used to be called Kopani. As a matter of fact, the small railway depot nearby is still called Kopani station. Besides shortwave, the site also hosts 2 medium wave transmitters. This site has been in the middle of a bunch of war activity, so I don't know its present status.

Thanks Lewis, I can only imagine the amount of behind the scenes research and time you put into these and it shows in the quality of the final product. Really enjoy the videos. Thank you.

I've been to Pripyat and seen the structure, didn't know it was a receiver. My Dad was a maritime radio operator and had a chuckle at it, saying it used to 'annoy him to no end'.

I always thought it's called Duga 1 and is the receiver. Thanks for clearing it up, that this was actually the sender for Duga 3 :)

Thank you for FINALLY clarifying this "mis labeled" Duga! SO many posters keep labeling this as the Duga 3 transmitter, when it is NOT #3 and NOT a transmitter!

Once again a great video

6:00 - sadly that one is also gone, only the buildings remain, some parts of the antennas are piled up in the woods but the structure had been dismantled several years ago. Even the buildings are mostly empty, with the basement flooded most of the year and only accessible when it freezes, I have a video of this site on my channel.

Thanks Lewis, very interesting!

Hi Lewis, great video as always! Love this series and the balance between video length and information is perfect! Keep it up!

>does not exist That’s exactly what a soviet agent would say

Thanks again Lewis. Most followers of your videos probably don't realise how much time is required for all the research you do and images you find. Well done you! Unfortunately you'll never end the BS/confusion of some aspects of the subject no matter how many videos you make.

👏👍Nice one Lewis cheers

I'm always impressed by the level of research you put into your videos. Always an interesting watch. Thank you.

It is not just featured in Call of Duty. The DUGA receive array in Pripyat is also used in the city wall in the film Divergent during the opening sequence.

have you ever looked up the Tyrolean Music Station, where it would often play yodelling music, it's sign is G01

I was ever fascinated by Duga 3 antennas

Hi there is a large structure which looks like this just off Nene Parkway in Peterborough

Thank you for the clear and concise explanation and description of the Duga sites and the naming scheme. Peaceful Skies.

Shiey has an UrbEx video where he climbs it.

Sweet little video Ringway, seems you have found your niche in the YT radio world over the last year or so, this and pirate radio vids have drawn us in and the channel is growing nicely... Great to see and looking forward to the future of this channel...

Do we know anything about how Duga worked? From the antenna layout, it feels like a giant phased array to me, but there certainly wasn't enough DSP power in the 70s for any kind of digital steering.

great video

Does "Beam Forming" and the resulting very high antenna gain, work for reception as good as it does for transmitting? I suspect that it does,which make monolithic antennas like this a relic of the past.

oh it all makes sense now

We always called it "Steel Yard".

Very Cool. Thanks Again RM. Take Care and Radio On*****

This video proves they are hiding Duga 3 from us.

You can actually go onto Google Earth and use the timelapse feature to look at old satellite imagery. Though it's blurry, you can see the shadows these Dugas cast at each of the sites

Nice video 👍

I’m loving this content. I always wondered where DUGA-3 was and we finally know.

Probably answering my own question here. So is it possible the woodpecker sound so famous with this station is the waves bouncing back and forth between the structures and targets?

Maybe one day it will be safe to go and see it

I'm trying to post a web site claiming to be a photo of the transmit antenna. But each time I include it in a comment here it disappears. I guess YT does not allow web links?

Every time I see pictures of the Chernobyl site I want to repurpose one of those 40m conical dipoles that are going to waste

I immediately knew why before I even clicked on this video. There is no 3rd DUGA antenna array and there is only 2, a reciever array and a transmitting array.

“Cobra Mist” did 😀In the UK

Are both structures at duga-1 RX for receiving or is the smaller lattice for something else?

With an Antenna like this you can hear radio from other galaxies - i hope the play better music 😄

Thanks and cheers from the Midwest U.S.

amazing

6:38 Huh, the place is still used by the air defences. That's an S-300P battery.

The Duga looks like a very large center fed "Lazy H Curtain array" HRS style

Dear Lewis, I can never emphasise enough the amazing quality and content of your videos. I love them so much. Are your videos uploaded on any other video site? It is increasingly impossible to watch videos nowadays with the constant advert assault of KZfaq.

Thanks for the complete and thorough explaination and mapping of the duga system, certainly fascinating, if for no other reason than its massive power and documented disruption of other radio traffic world wide, including the USSR.

These sites are amazing

*_"You understand, Captain, that this mission does not exist, nor will it ever exist."_* *-- APOCALYPSE NOW [1979]*

Any idea why the Duga-1 receiver has 2 structures? One colossal one and then one about half the size? 5:39

Great video, again. I was so tempted to ask "What about Duga-4 and Duga-5?": but thought it would be pushing the joke too far.....

Those things are awe inspiring and I'm sure the reason for the first couple of RBMKs have you looked at the dates concerned

Ah, but that's what they _want_ you to think! :p

Now you tell us doh.cheers sir have a good week.

DIG-DUGA LF antennas linked to a world wide underground network of arcade machines.

Very great video sir! Thanks again for creating quality content.

Love all this :) Theres is some footage on here of one of these arrays being taken down, i think they just blew it up or something. I'll see if i can find the link. In the video with of the transmitter site there is footage near the end of them up on the array. It looked as big as the one Duga 1 receiver site, but maybe only the one array. I did find a website ages ago that looked as if it was for past employees of one of these sites, a few pictures on there but mainly people don't remember seeing much else. I didn't attempt to translate any of it! Also there's a fairly new channel on here which is more about old Soviet computing of this era, i think they're going to cover some of the technology computing wise behind the Duga sites. There's some other antenna arrays that are formed in a V shape, i did find some interesting videos on those. Not sure what they're called off hand. One was open and all powered up in the control room but i think it was more for show as might of been an open day type thing. It looked similar era technology as the Duga sites but i guess everything Soviet looks old.😆

Too bad the transmitter sites aren't still intact somewhat, so we could see what the antennas looked like....

So there were four, and the numbers go up to "2". Cool.

These have all been fascinating. Thank you!

Another great video Lewis!

Thanks

I would give anything to have seen the transmission gear , monster Soviet steam cooled pulse Vacuum tubes for sure

you Duga video :)

Duga1,2 did exist at one point But it doesn’t exist anymore

Soviet era ~ Let’s have fun with concrete, lots of it😂😂😂😂😂😂😂🎉🎉

Its 2 and thats the receiver a old one and a new one. Never seen anyone call it 3

These videos are a great window into the creepy tech behind the cold war :)

Its neat that today we can look over the 1900s and see what use to be really up back in the day

Just to get this clear for me: 'Duga-3' is, in fact, the receiver for Duga-2. 🍌🤔

Have you ever seen this video of the Chernobyl one being climbed? Later you see similar parts laying on the ground the guy was climbing on earlier. Kinda scary. Wonder how much longer they'll survive kzfaq.info/get/bejne/oK2Anc1lp8XOdZ8.html

I wonder why Ukraine was chosen as the place for the DUGA1 and not somewhere in European Russia...? Does anyone know? Im just curious

The problem is people getting all their information from video games and KZfaq videos and doing no research of their own.

Thats because it's really called the brain scorcher

Could you make an episode about the history and development of radio communication between ground stations and submerged into the deep submarines, please. So, no communication via satellite or through a towed floating device. Thank you.

Never will?

i miss bionerd23

Thank you for such an interesting fact Lewis! Kind regards, Danielle

I want one of the “bird cage” pieces from DUGA so freaking bad. No idea why…just always have. I’ve scoured the web for any detailed information on the array. Blueprints would be amazing. Alas, I’m afraid I’ll never find them.

Horizon is 40Km, thus the sender n receiver can Not be 37km apart…

Ironically little old Australia has the JORN (Jindalee Operational Radar Network) a still functioning OTHR array that was not just superior to this but is still doing its job to this day

👏👏👏👍

😂 0:26

it was used for fighter aircraft navigation and triangulation, they did not have gps and even to this day russian aircraft use something similar of a system to navigate and know where exactly they are .....cute pronunciation tho :D :D :D

I know it's real, I saw it on the internet. ;) I enjoy your content, I have to say for everything people make up. There is some very real things out there that are far more interesting. Radio is just one piece of those interesting things.

Not quite sure which site this was. Video of an array coming down! kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ppmhf7Grx8W0oI0.html

Duga does not exist anymore but we have 29B6 Kontayner systems which seem to be everywhere and spoil the bands, including amateur & broadcast, just as well as the Duga did. As for Mykolaiv radio site, it was active on mediumwave in recent years. It carried Ukrainian Radio on 549 kHz in the 1st weeks of ruZZia's invasion, afterwards it fot silenced. I don't know its current status, whether it could be brought back to operation or it is destroyed. I know another Ukrainian MW site, Chasiv Yar in Donetsk region (but just outside of the self-proclaimed "DNR") on 873 kHz, had been destroyed by rashist shelling in December last year.

One thing that is interesting is what technology they used for those circular arrays. Not the actual recivers but the analysis..

That great. I remember the hearing the woodpecker on HF and CB bands in the US . the signal at times were S9 or even higher at times depending on propagation. The Ukraine being a receive cite makes sense. the receive only direction finding antenna array right buy. was wondering if anyone has the year the woodpecker was taken off line? 73's Boston NY,USA

Can you do a story on the Australian Jindalee Over the Horizon Radar (JORN)... 😊

If DUGA-3 doesn't exist, then how come there are literal images of the receiver today? Also, if DUGA-3 doesn't Exist, then that would mean that the other DUGA systems are also apparently fake according to your logic, which wouldn't make any sense, especially sense you mention the other DUGA radio systems which would also be fake according to your logic, but you don't say they're fake despite saying DUGA-3 doesn't exist.

Fun fact Russia is using some of the parts from the Original DUGA systems and other retired radar systems on some of the new Resonance-NE radar systems that are popping up all over Russia right now. mostly the structural parts.

I thought the one near chernobyl was the transmitter, purposely located to supply the huge power needed.

The Arecibo radiotelecope was also a project of over the horizon radar, but by the USA

Sounds like wishful thinking. Meaning that they wish that Duga 3 existed, so they pretend that it does.

So, indeed, Duga sites existed in the past but most of them are gone. I have seen reports on the internet for many years that some sites were demolished. What took their place?

I don't get why this is such a hot button issue. Dude just broke it down and people are still arguing.

Russia - Specializing in being annoying