Duga 3

Paranoia comes in many forms. In this case, it comes in the form of a massive antenna just outside Chernobyl, called Duga 3. The Sowiets placed this 900 metres long structure during the cold war to detect missiles that were being launched thousands of miles away. The idea behind this was that it would give the Sowiets time to come up with a counterplan in case of an American attack. The sooner they heard the signal, the better.

The Duga 3 broadcasted a radio-signal itself - sounding like a repetitive tapping that could be heard on shortwave frequencies worldwide - which lend the structure its nickname "The Russian Woodpecker". And although the western world officially didn't know that this structure existed, the Duga 3 was well capable of disrupting disrupted legitimate radio broadcast and other kinds of transmission, which resulted in thousands of complaints from many countries worldwide between July 1976 and December 1989.