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You're listening to episode 32 of Jimmy Akin's Mysterious World,

where we look at mysteries from the twin perspectives of faith and reason.

In this episode, we're talking about the Russian woodpecker and no, I don't mean a bird.

I'm Don Bettenelli and joining me today is Jimmy Akin. Hi Jimmy, Hey there, Dom.

So in 1976, an mysterious radio signal began to be transmitted and it was so powerful that it

interfered with radio communications over much of the earth that takes incredible power to do that.

And eventually the signal was traced to a secret location in the Soviet Union.

And pulsing 10 times a second, it made a sound like a woodpecker pecking on a tree,

so it became known as the Russian woodpecker.

And this broadcast continued until the Cold War started to wind down in 1989.

So what was the Russian woodpecker and what was the Soviet Union trying to do with it?

That's what we'll be discussing today on Jimmy Akin's Mysterious World.

So Jimmy, what was the Russian woodpecker?

Well, as you said, it was an incredibly powerful radio signal that usually not always,

but usually pulsed at around 10 hertz. A hertz is a measure of frequency or how often something

occurs. So like one hertz, something has a frequency of one hertz if it happens one times a

second. So the woodpecker normally played at 10 hertz, so it would pulse 10 times a second.

And on the radio, it sounded like this.

Okay. Okay. So that's what it sounded like.

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