Just a few miles away from the exploded nuclear power plant of Chernobyl, stands a huge Soviet abandoned rectangular antenna made by an array of cylindrical/conical cages fed by a ladder line suspended from stand-off platforms.
The structure, named Duga-3, (Arc-3) was the mysterious origin of a peculiar woodpecker-like radio signal that could be heard all over the world between 1976 to 1989. The unclaimed signal, sporadically disrupting radio broadcasts, amateur transmission, commercial aviation communications was a source for much speculation (weather control? mind control?).
Only after its abandon it was confirmed that the giant structure was an extremely powerful military (10MW) over-the-horizon radar (OTH) system, a radar capable to provide early warning of a ballistic missile launch, giving the Soviet defense time to study the attack and plan a response. NATO military intelligence discovered and photographed the system and given it the NATO reporting name Steel Yard.
Three structures have been built in USSR territory, and the Duga-3 lied within what was later called zone of alienation, with a distance of 60km between the receiver and the transmitter. Deactivated in 1989 at the end of the Cold War, the antenna still stands and it is a photographic wonder.
Further infos:
Wikia abandoned places – Duga-3 site (Russian Woodpecker)
Via: English Russia
I don’t want to be anywhere near that calamity once it rusts and rots and collapses under it’s own weight. . . with a territory the size of Russia to watch over . . . they need to build things super big!