Citrojim's AX, Pixo, C3, Running and Cycling Tales

[bobins]

Ahh! The good old 'Buzzer'

The [believed to be] Russians have been doing things like this for ever and ever... Their most famous one was the 'Woodpecker' although this one seems to have gone now. Maybe because its aerial array was believed to be located on Ukrainian territory.

Both the Buzzer and Woodpecker are/were believed to be Over the Horizon Radar systems...

The Woodpecker was located very close to Chernobyl and they kept it going for a short while during the original Chernobyl 'issue', but were forced to shut it down due to the risks around at the time. If the Soviets shut it down due to the risks..... then you have to assume it really really must have been risky

No idea what remains today, but this was what it was like a few years ago......

There were two arrays - Tx and Rx ?
This is the smaller array.

Smaller 'Woodpecker' array - own work

And the larger array.

Larger 'Woodpecker' array - own work

Some of the site buildings contained a training site.
Presumably this model was used to illustrate propogation and/or effects of the Ionosphere, or possibly satellite orbits ?

'Atmosphere' training aid - own work

A lovely old mural......

'Woodpecker' site mural - own work

Some old tech. Somewhere in the piles of old junk there were lovely old solid state memory devices with their web of wires and nodes.

Old Soviet tech - own work

A view from up inside the 'Woodpecker'.

Up close in the 'Woodpecker' - own work

[CitroJim]

Wow! Fantastic pictures Robin and a nice addition to a bit of RF history

[c16rkc]

Nice one Jim - I love those medals!

Very imaginative, and something you can treasure.

[CitroJim]

Nice one Jim - I love those medals!

Very imaginative, and something you can treasure.

Absolutely and displayed with pride

A busy day today - so far... I'd noticed recently that Pix's auxiliary belt briefly screeched when maximum load was called for - immediately after cold-start with headlights on and steering on full lock - so bad I could smell the belt

It needed tensioning... Not such an easy job as the alternator and the adjuster lives low-down behind the engine...

All done now but I'll be keeping an eye on it...

Then I prepared my bike for Sunday's Mallory Park Duathlon... Good job I did as the Di2 (electronic gears) battery needed charging. It's easy to forget as the battery lasts months between charges...

I found a good use for a couple of Febi sphere boxes!

I also gave my road bike a service...

Then I got stuck into the start of decorating my hall, stairs and landing with wall preparation and filling...

That aspect is going to take a while as there's much making good to be done before the walls see some lovely new bright yellow paint... I've masked off my nice new consumer unit ready for the paint to go on... I also need to repair the coving and for that I need some specialist advice/assistance...

[xantia_v6]

Back in the day, I was told that the centre frequency of the woodpecker (around 14 MHz) was related to the wingspan of a certain type of US (bomber?) aircraft.

[Hell Razor5543]

I do recall that The Woodpecker made it onto 'Abandoned Engineering', and it was hinted at that it may have been (at least in part) responsible for the Chernobyl disaster.

[bobins]

Although the 'Woodpecker' was affected by the Chernobyl disaster, the actual primary causes of the disaster are well documented. It's certain that the Soviets really didn't want to abandon it and the area though.

This image may not be too clear, but circled in the middle is the 'Woodpecker' array. If the image shows it - then yes, they really are that tall
The photo was taken from atop one of the tower blocks in Pripyat, which was the 'city' that supported Chernobyl.

'Woodpecker' arrays in the distance - own work

[RichardW]

Not sure you are ever going to hide those repairs around the consumer unit, Jim. Might be better just to box it in covering the extents of the old unit!

[xantia_v6]

The coving looks to be a standard pattern, at least of the period. I recently disposed of quite a lot of it, maybe it is still readily available. Matching the pattern on the ceiling will be much more difficult, a few professional plasterers can do it, but most will leave a worse mess than they started with. For small areas I would reproduce the pattern myself, if I had to, but I would prefer to remove all the coving and pattern from the entire ceiling.

[myglaren]

Yes, the coving is readily available. the difficult part will be matching the Artex, and I say this as someone who has Artexed half a dozen new houses a week back in the sixties
A few years back I removed a ceiling vent and tried to match the pattern with sloppy filler. Not proud of the result.

[CitroJim]

I have the coving to do the job Rescued from the kitchen where it was no longer needed, being hidden behind new decorative panels. I just need skilled advice on how to... The old consumer unit was boxed in and I hated it. I was delighted when we ripped the old one out, complete with box...

I have a plan for matching the Artex... We'll see if it works

Interesting about the Woodpecker's centre-frequency

[Hell Razor5543]

I have just remembered that a Woodpecker made an appearance in Sir Terry Pratchetts "Going Postal". It was developed by 'The Smoking Gnu', and was capable of knocking out the semaphore system (known as The Clacks) run by The Grand Trunk.

[bobins]

He was a clever man, that Mr Pratchett

[Rp0thejester]

From what I remember, when they put the ceiling coating on (Artex), they use a screwed up plastic bag to 'drag it down' to create the stippled effect.

[myglaren]

I had a dedicated stippler. When bodging tried a variety of things, none of which matched the original.