RT-32
Somewhere between Ventspils and Kolka cape in Latvia is located two radio telescopes that were one of most secret elements in Soviet Army.
There are two antennas left – RT-32 (main dish is 32 meters in diameter) and RT-16 (16 meters). The smallest one – RT-10 – was taken away when soviet soldiers left Latvia in 90's. With those antennas Russian forces were able to spy on phone calls just about anywhere! When entering the complex you first see the abondend city where soviet army forces and scientists used to live. All of that was so secret that even Latvian soldiers and scientists were shocked when they saw what has been here all the time.
Back in 1993, when Soviet forces were preparing to leave Latvia, they wanted to blow up all those buildings but due to a last minute call from Russian Academy of Sciences they just tried damage them as much as possible – Latvia’s scientists received RT-32 and RT-16 with nails hammered into wires, with acid poured on main system parts and with no plans how to start up this equipment! In less than 20 years Latvians managed to repair all this and replace all the equipment with modern PC so that scientists can again use both RT-32 and RT-16.
There are two antennas left – RT-32 (main dish is 32 meters in diameter) and RT-16 (16 meters). The smallest one – RT-10 – was taken away when soviet soldiers left Latvia in 90's. With those antennas Russian forces were able to spy on phone calls just about anywhere! When entering the complex you first see the abondend city where soviet army forces and scientists used to live. All of that was so secret that even Latvian soldiers and scientists were shocked when they saw what has been here all the time.
Back in 1993, when Soviet forces were preparing to leave Latvia, they wanted to blow up all those buildings but due to a last minute call from Russian Academy of Sciences they just tried damage them as much as possible – Latvia’s scientists received RT-32 and RT-16 with nails hammered into wires, with acid poured on main system parts and with no plans how to start up this equipment! In less than 20 years Latvians managed to repair all this and replace all the equipment with modern PC so that scientists can again use both RT-32 and RT-16.
