How One Man Took On The Russian Woodpecker 

The Woodpecker’s rapid fire sounds are still easy to ‘visualise’ as sound in my head, over 40 years after hearing them day after day in south eastern Australia as a teenager. Heard initially using a receiver built into a dark khaki green metal case that glowed at night. Must have been an ex. airforce WW2 tuner. The only other broadcast I could receive on that clunky receiver was the automated wind speed, visibility and air pressure advisory from Tullarmarine (now Melbourne International) airport. The following year at my school Fete I purchased a second receiver that allowed me to listen to Radio Australia, BBC World Service, Radio Moscow and Voice of America. They were the days, that pesky rapid fire Woodpecker transmission often causing considerable interference to broadcasters (and amateur radio operators, clearly!) My listening using valve radio technology probably cost my parents a fortune in electricity bills! No internet back then, so only years later did I learn more about the Woodpecker origins. Like another poster, I would happily travel to see, in person, the remaining Douga antenna array, Chernobyl, the abandoned support towns with their abandoned public swimming pool, etc. Having the Chernobyl Nuclear Power plant nearby to power the transmitter that fed the Woodpecker signals into that fascinating antenna array that little bit easier! Ironically, walking around Bern in Austria in the rain during a high school cultural study tour to Europe in 1986, I was unwittingly exposed to what was later recognised as considerable radioactive fallout in the days following the Chernobyl disaster. Detailed reports describing the hot spots in Western Europe were published only decades later, by the European Parliament, and made for compelling reading given I had apparently been in one of the two hottest areas of radioactive outfall in Western Europe during those critical first days! My first inkling at the time that things were not normal was when passing through the border crossing into Italy, where military personnel were measuring the wheel arches of our tour bus with Geiger counters with quite some interest. None of my travel companions - teachers or fellow students - would buy into my conclusions that there had been a radiation event. Only the next day did the news of the disaster hit the front pages of the newspapers and begrudgingly my group acknowledged that was probably the cause of the unusual military attention. Some years later I was diagnosed with a form of thyroid disease not usually seen in young males…a momento it would seem from the Woodpecker and Chernobyl! Thanks for alerting us to the report being republished, on-line this time. It will be interesting reading:-)

I've actually met one of those volunteer reporters. My ex's Grandfather. Heck of a guy. A ham for nearly as long as hams have existed. Dude bought and learned to use a 3d printer in his 80's. As far as I know, he's still kicking, he'd be about 96-97.

I remember very well how annoying the woodpecker was when listening to the short waves, but a few years later (1981) I was surprised to be able to operate a 27 MHz CB without any interference. According to your video this band was unaffected: I had to wait 40 years to figure out why! 👍

I remember very well the sound of the woodpecker. i was born in 68, and when i was about 10yrs old in 78 my granddad gave me an "old" radio that had the coolest glass front with all kinds of stations marked/painted on, and a lot of valves/tubes inside that would glow in the dark. I still regret that i gave it away many years ago. I had a lot of fun listening to radio luxembourg at night and sometimes do a sweep across the entire bands searching for other stations to listen to. The woodpecker was really loud here in Denmark when it came online, and no-one knew what it was, although my neighbour who was a licensed radio operator later speculated it was some kind of radar jamming signal but thought it was much closer to us and maybe located in the then east germany. I also remember the many numberstations i found, they were really creepy.

What was once a vitally important piece of technology (to someone) is now just rust. Such is the march of progress. I am sure there is an important lesson to be learnt.

I thought everything about the woodpecker was said already. And then comes Lewis, digs up that report and makes a gem of a video from that! Excellent job! Minor issue: the speech audio level is quite low.

The Woodpecker disrupted my early years of ham radio, I got my HF ticket in 1981. I have plans, currently on hold, to visit the Duga site. I just want to see it.

The "ANARC" radio group no longer exists. I remember as a new SWL and soon after ham in the late '70s and early '80s hearing the Russian Woodpecker, as well as other jamming signals. When the Woodpecker was eventually outed as extemely high-power over-the-horizon radar, I recall it was a viewed as an unavoidable side-effect of the Cold War ... "yeah, we have all these international agreements en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITU-R ostensibly to prevent interference, but what are you going to do when a nuclear superpower decides to do what it wants to do?"

I like how the Russian denied this problem for years. Then the chernobyl accident put it out business. Permanently.

This is excellent. Glad that you were able to connect with Bob Horvitz. Thanks for walking through the detail.

I was a teenager back when the Woodpecker was active and used to listen to shortwave on my fathers AIWA TPR-955G. No SSB mode on the AIWA so it was broadcast listening only but I still remember hearing the radar racket and wondering what on earth it was. A friends father explained that it was supposedly coming from behind the iron curtain. Silly me thinking there was a place that had windows full of metal. HF OTHR still shows up at random just about anywhere nowadays, especially on top of that rare DX station on 20m. Awesome video again Lewis! Illustrates the efforts pre internet to work out what the source of the noise was.

The opening text would do better spoken, especially for the blind.

Lewis, I don’t know where you find the time to do such in-depth research. You must not sleep. Another outstanding ringway Manchester production.

Excellent piece. Very informative. I went looking for a recording of the Russian Woodpecker, and sure enough, it sounded very familiar from my childhood when I was heavily into SWR listening.

I was 12 years old when the Russia Woodpecker first appeared shortly after the 1976 US bicentennial celebrations. My school teacher said the signal was used for transmitting over the air electrical power without wires. I Imagined it being a massive RMS Titanic style super spark gap transmitter The interference peaked in my teenage years in the early 1980's showing up on the telephone, Cable TV, FM radio It was the most invasive, annoying radio signal I ever encountered.

Thank you for sharing the story and the link to the report!

Great radio days I clearly remember this time Lewis hearing this thumping across the bands ....Great history ....well done lewis

Excellent report Lewis, thank you!

As a ham i was driven off some bands by the Woodpecker

Fantastic report on this exciting subject! Thanks!!!

Epic documentary & sources, well done Lewis!

Fascinating! I’m glad to see some history could still be dug up about this. And thanks to Bob Horvitz for sharing what he did. That was a massive project, especially for back then.

If you think about that, the "Noise Blanker" filter was inventend and introduced in HF transciever and cb radios to counteract the Woodpecker back in the days; we still have it, but now we can control the timing and the depth so it can attenuate any kind of ripetitive impulsive noise.

Good one, Lewis! Nice to see Bob is still around. Met him at the 1988 Dayton Hamvention (When it was still at the (in)famous Hara Arena)

A fascinating piece of history. And the music works so well.

Another really well presented video - Thanks! I remember the Woodpecker, heard in my early SWL days during the mid 80's armed with just a "boom box" receiver with very basic single range 6-18 MHz coverage. The signal would jump around the bands just as the report showed, which was quite easy to follow using the radio's fairly crude tuning. This was fascinating stuff to me at the time.

Very interesting. Great job Lewis

Hi I love your channel, I know nothing about radio. But find your numbers station videos intriguing. Never knew it went on. Happy New Year

Thanks for the video Lewis, Happy New Year Sir!

Love your channel. I need to get out the sw and start listening again.

i remember as a kid hearing the woodpecker in the 1980s on a Grundig Yacht-Boy N210 radio and thinking to myself what a curiously annoying sound. i had no idea what its purpose was at that time only hearing others saying it was the soviets jamming us from behind the iron curtain. that made me more curious.

Thanks for this Lewis. Great to hear of the combined efforts of hams and swl's the world over to analyse this signal. Fascinating story.

My first memories of the woodpecker were coming through my Atari VCS! Sometimes you could plainly hear it tapping away as you tried to play some Combat. The a few years later I got a scanner and there it was again!

Great video, Lewis...👍

This was really interesting, thank you so much!

Quite a treasure trove you have opened here Lewis. Bravo man!

Thanks Lewis

I remember listening to Radio Luxembourg in the 70's was always blighted by the woodpecker sweeping across the AM band.

Oh, the Woodpecker was normally around S9+20 or S9+40 at my shack on my Hallicrafters SX 101 a boat anchor but a great radio once old Caps were replaced and retuned and Calibrated

Great video as always. So interesting. However, unless I missed something, I don’t think it revealed the purpose of the broadcasts. Is it known what the woodpecker was for? I seem to recall learning from another one of your videos (or perhaps another channel? my memory is hazy on this!) about the USSR listening for US ICBM launches and this was perhaps the cause of the Woodpecker sound? Anyway, thanks as always and happy new year.

Ah yes , Trying to tune in the am band in the early 80's and only hearing that dreaded woodpecker sound.

I was a ham operator during the Woodpecker Days and remember them well. I wonder if my syncronized dits ever showed up on their screens?

Damn thing drove me nuts during the 80's. Thank you for posting the report, will be interesting reading. 40 years later, may fill in some missing bits.

Remember this era so well - great video, Lewis. ♥

great video lewis. how the hell you get this information i don't know. but please keep uploading this stuff, i find it very entertaining and informative cheers my friend 2E1XDJ.

I've always been fascinated with numbers stations since I ever discovered them. I was born in 91, so I've never even used a short wave radio. Nonetheless I still find the fact this was a successful communication tool fascinating

Nice one Lewis Happy New year 73

This is such a great video!

Don't forget that The Woodpecker wasn't alone, there was also Cobra Mist down on Orfordness Island.

Another excellent video. Thank you Sir!!

Great report, very comprehensive, Thankyou, I have a resent signal report video, they are still transmitting.

Never listened to radio stuff like this but over the last few months have really enjoyed you videos.

I wonder who always dislikes these videos...? Great info, thanks 🙂

I'm pretty sure I heard the Woodpecker in my shortwave listening days as a teen in the late 1980s. Is there any information about the American over-the-horizon radar in Lake Tule, California and Christmas Valley, Oregon? I don't think I've seen a video about it. By the time I got to Christmas Valley, the receiver was gone and I only got to Lake Tule in the past year or two.

Thanks for the interesting story! Although the thumbnail makes me think John Cusack with a boom box playing "In your eyes" :)

Brilliant and comprehensive. I am in awe at your research and presentation 👌

Russia is officially the legal successor if the Soviet Union, so it's correct to refer to that signal as the "Russian Woodpecker".

I was about 10 years old when I started listening to shortwave in 1985 and I remember the Woodpecker being a real problem at various frequencies. Now after all these years I only learned of the various Duga sites as well as the one in Chernobyl and Mykolaiv but didn't know about the one in the Russian Far East. I remember the bands getting far cleaner at least shortwave bands about 1990 when I was 15 years old that year and outside of the HF ham jammers on 75 meters and 20 meters around 3.8945 and 14.313 its far better than what it used to be. The miscreants still exist mostly on 7.200 but 20 meters is far cleaner than it was 15 to 25 years ago.

I remember the chaos this caused, when I was doing illegal CB back in 1980, it messed up all modes, and was much cursed.

That bloody thing drove me mad with my swl back in the 70s

Its a truly jaw drawping thing to have seen, i really hope it survives the war to some degree, such a cool piece of history

Man, do I ever remember that thing! Didn't find out what it was until some time later.

It used to ruin my recordings of Radio Netherlands to north America every time

I'd love you to do a video on Leon Theremin. If you already have, I havent found it.

Hi there. On the UVB76 buzzer there is a live feed on RU-vid. Been listening randomly tonight, 29th December there is talking, singing etc in Russian or Ukrainian from 2100GMT on top of the buzzer. May be interesting for you

It just fascinates me that all this international geopolitical drama just plays out in the air around us all.

with that intro I thought this was going to be a collaboration with Quinn's Ideas, yet thats SciFi not radio stuff, lol.

I wonder if USSR was measuring something about the way the waves propogate and seeing if flying bomber fleets through them changed that in any reliably detectable way

I remember it use to wipe out 15m ham band

If memory serves, didn't they eventually design a woodpecker filter for receivers?

Funny how sdr recivers today woud make hunting the wood packer so much easyer Just drop a broudband sdr reciver whit a mini whip on solar powered boxes hooked up to a 4g trancever and you can literly drop hunderd of boxes all around the globe Heck most new radios have spectrum analisers build in

Excellent video thanks I remember the woodpecker from my young day in SWL'ing it was a dam newsence just like 99.9% of Chinese stations now occupying the entire SW bands from 160m's to 10m's the bloody Chinese have no respect for anyone or any rules or laws.

I heard most of woodpecker showed up in SSB/ voice portion of band, because CW dit interfere with their pulse return. AG6JU

I've heard of it.

Wow it took months and hundreds of people to do what an SDR can do now ahahah

It’s correct to refer to anything as it was at the time. Everyone needs to shut up and listen instead of trying to ‘correct’ people.

3:01 now THAT is a beard 😮

Chinese jammers are actively around South & South East Asia. Is there any project on it?

JORN operates between 5 and 20 MHz … it uses some FM modulated CW beam … why isn’t it an issue?

wow

Why did the Soviet Union build those stations in the first place; what purpose did, or was it intended to, serve?

Very interesting video Lewis, De M0HLG

But, what were they for???

I love how your precis is essentially "Sorry fam, just followed UN Guidelines, hope that's gooooooooooood."

Still no clue what it was for? - Or have i missed something?!

Every dot on every graph is essentially a crime if a citizen were doing it.

Excellent! Now, who's got one of those excellent t-shirts tucked away in their closet? Or perhaps Lewis can start the reproduction effort for some radio relevant cause.... ;)

I know this voice...Forty 2

tks fer info, 73 de py2wg

here early, this is an unusual occasion.

👏👏👍🎄

If you were an amateur operator in Ukraine, would you petition the government to restore said antenna for it historical significance and just use on amateur bands at legal limited power!?

Was it ever disclosed what the soviets were trying to do with that signal?

I had to retrain my brain to drop "the" from Ukraine after the Russian invasion. Given that I spent the first 20+ years of my life always hearing it as "The Ukraine", it took a bit of effort. Then again, I still want to visit Leningrad again.

Makes me wonder if it was planned to maybe jam a Western numbers station of the era to cease sending messages to those emplaced inside Russia.

Yeah, in Western terminology, before the fall, The Soviet Union was one and the same as Russia. And even though that was both wrong and a massive oversimplification... there are times to be correct and times to be historically acurate.... and you can't have both.

omg i can't believe the nafo trolls tried to cancel you

Adding "the" in front of place names is simply an English language convention. If the Ukraine thinks they can police other languages, they're wrong. I *LIKE* the peculiarities of English. Russian and Ukrainian have no definite article, but that doesn't mean we aren't entitled their use.

Этот передатчик "дятел" не был частью какого-то серьезного научного проекта. Это была попытка советской власти выдать желаемое за действительное, убедить мировую общественность в том, что русские имеют много продвинутых военных технологий. Никакой ценности это сооружение не представляло, русские всегда с легкостью тратили миллионы на создание иллюзии и запугивание запада. Население ссср жило очень бедно, но вещательные радио-компании ссср убеждали их об обратном. Чтобы советское общество не знало, как живет запад, власти запрещали прослушивать верхние КВ диапазоны. Советский союз и коммунисты применяли радио подавление на своей территории, суммарной мощностью порядка 40 MVA. Ну какой еще загоризонтный радар ? это просто смешно! Отраженный сигнал не мог быть получен от запущенных баллистических ракет и самолетов. Но наделал много шума, именно этого добивались эти аферисты.

"The Ukraine" irks me just as much as Nev-odd-ah as spoken by seemingly everyone on TV and no one who lives there.