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.

Another Moscow radar site

Few people in the business know about the Chulkovo radar station. Another one of those non-descript dome-shack-and-a-mast site that has never been talked about or reported. However, this very installation is responsible for most of radar and communications monitoring, also for ensuring secure communications for Russia's government and military transmissions, including those originating from Moscow's airports, one of these located nearby the neighboring Bykovo. Google Maps here

This is another view, courtesy of Google Earth.

And this crowning touch is from our friendly and erudite photog, the very one that took the pictures of Butovo Radio Surveillance Site, after his plane took off from the aforementioned Bykovo airport.