Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Putin's Exotic Tropo Site


This is the center for Russia's Tropospheric Radio Relay network called Sever ("North," ironically, it is truly severed from the rest of the country), near Norilsk. According to my source, besides the typical Gorizont-M and TP-120 systems , it has unique, custom produced signals processing equipment supplied by a group of military ("OOO" and "unitary") enterprises that also include the famed Tochmash of the silenced handgun fame.

The area is off-limits, though the landscape is too wintry and forbidding throughout most of he year, and its perimeter is studded with "photography prohibited" signs. The source says the military sections of the Russian radio spectrum are exceptionally active (thanks to Putin, no doubt) around the installation.

The center, despite its high security status, responds to anyone who knows how to exploit the tropospheric communications technology whenever the center's callsign "Луч" (LOOCH) is heard on its hailing frequency.

The installation and the network ares staffed by employees sent directly from the Moscow Electrotechnical Communications Institute, now MTUSI; Bonch-Bruevich Saint-Petersburg Electrotechnical Communications Institute, now SPbGUT; Minsk Radiotechnical Institute, now BGUIR; and Sverdlovsk Communications and Electronics Technical School, now UrTISI.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

SEVER is already inactive: www.trrlsever.org

Ze Kremen said...

never take internet as the last word