The Woodpecker: The Top Secret Military Base Hidden in Chernobyl’s Exclusion Zone

I was recently able to visit the gargantuan Dugar Radar (AKA The Russian Woodpecker) receiving antennae located approximately 60 kilometres away from their transmitter which, together, were capable of detecting intercontinental ballistic missiles fired towards the Soviet Union from the States. There are actually two parts that make up the receiver, a low-frequency antenna with a height of 146 meters and length of almost half a kilometre, and a high-frequency antenna with a height of 100 metres and a length of 250 metres. The radar was operational from 1976, but towards the late 1980s the signals became less frequent, and in 1989 they disappeared altogether. It has since been left to decay, which is made eerier because of the fact that it is located in the Chernobyl exclusion zone.