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National Radio Quiet Zone

96.83.99.105
Posted on August 23, 2016 at 21:41:04
Awe-d-o-file
Dealer

Posts: 21037
Location: 50 miles west of DC
Joined: January 10, 2004






In Green Bank, WV is home to nine radio telescopes. In Green Bank itself (pop 123) there is no Wi-Fi or cell service.

Its the nations only quiet zone set up by the FCC in the late 50's. My house is just within the quiet zones north east corner.

I always meant to post on this.


ET

"If at first you don't succeed, keep on sucking till you do suck seed" - Curly Howard 1936

 

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RE: National Radio Quiet Zone, posted on August 24, 2016 at 06:41:29
Sondek
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Posts: 9620
Location: Fort Worth
Joined: May 17, 2000
Contributor
  Since: April 5, 2002
 Awe-D,

Thanks for posting. Very interesting and I had no idea such a thing even existed. What I'm not sure of after reading is whether foil hats are more or less a necessity there. Kidding of course. It must certainly create some inconveniences for those living there. Wonder why that area was chosen versus the middle of bumf?ck Utah or some other place in the vast nothingness of the US West?

 

Very Cool!, posted on August 24, 2016 at 06:50:19
MannyE
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Posts: 2088
Location: Miami Beach
Joined: March 4, 2001
 I saw a TV show that documented this zone a couple of years ago and all I could think was how wonderful it would be to not have a cell phone. For all the reasons we already know.

 

RE: National Radio Quiet Zone, posted on August 24, 2016 at 08:09:00
Awe-d-o-file
Dealer

Posts: 21037
Location: 50 miles west of DC
Joined: January 10, 2004
 I couldn't tell you why its there, my guess is politics. The ban is just a small part of the square not the whole square. Next time that cell company commercial shows their map in red you'll see that part of eastern WV is blank. Even if there were no ban there wouldn't be cell coverage, hardly anyone lives there. Even my large county only has 22,000 people,all two lane roads and only two traffic lights. Its a temperate rain forest area too. Mountains and trees and almost no flat land.



ET

"If at first you don't succeed, keep on sucking till you do suck seed" - Curly Howard 1936

 

RE: National Radio Quiet Zone, posted on August 24, 2016 at 08:22:49
steve.ott@kctcs.edu
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Posts: 795
Joined: January 16, 2009
 Been there a few times for radio telescope workshops. Really nice place. We brought our (visual) telescopes one trip and set them up inside the gated area (very dark there), but couldn't drive our vehicles in since the large telescope picks up interference from spark plugs, so we used one of their Checker cabs, which are diesel and have glow plugs instead of spark plugs.

There is a star party down there every year which I need to get to one of these days. It's about a six-hour drive from my house in KY to there; not too bad.

 

RE: Very Cool!, posted on August 24, 2016 at 08:23:03
Awe-d-o-file
Dealer

Posts: 21037
Location: 50 miles west of DC
Joined: January 10, 2004
 Indeed. Too bad the electrical grid is so noisy. As a ham radio operator I always look forward to a power outage only for the fact that the bands become quiet.





ET

"If at first you don't succeed, keep on sucking till you do suck seed" - Curly Howard 1936

 

RE: National Radio Quiet Zone, posted on August 24, 2016 at 08:52:48
Awe-d-o-file
Dealer

Posts: 21037
Location: 50 miles west of DC
Joined: January 10, 2004
 Yep, very little ambient light in the square due to small population. Great for sky watching. Yes no ignition noise from spark allowed. Signs everywhere. I cannot transmit !y mobile ham rig near there either.


ET

"If at first you don't succeed, keep on sucking till you do suck seed" - Curly Howard 1936

 

"in the vast nothingness of the US West?" They did. In New Mexico, near where I went to college, posted on August 24, 2016 at 09:11:58
Raiderman
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Posts: 2129
Location: Silicon Valley, California
Joined: March 14, 2003
 Very Impressive.
There are 27 radio telescope there, mounted on rail cars.

 

RE: National Radio Quiet Zone, posted on August 24, 2016 at 11:54:43
fantja
Audiophile

Posts: 15518
Location: Alabama
Joined: September 11, 2010
 Very cool. Nice people in WV. Thanks! for sharing.

 

Did you to to NMT?, posted on August 25, 2016 at 07:53:47
David S.
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Posts: 3552
Location: Mountains of WNC
Joined: August 31, 2000
 I attended there back in '87-'88 :)

 

Yeah, I went to NMIMT, (I was majoring in the second "M" of that title!) ;-), posted on August 25, 2016 at 09:18:56
Raiderman
Audiophile

Posts: 2129
Location: Silicon Valley, California
Joined: March 14, 2003
 I went there from '78 to '80.
(Man, that was a loonnngggg time ago.)

Yep, Socorro NM, 50 miles from water, and half a mile from hell as we used to say! ;-)

Did you ever take the tour of the VLA?
I did, and it was pretty cool.
Remembering back on it, and thinking about all those banks of computers, (the size of refrigerators!), that used tape spools, is now pretty funny.

 

Answer may be in the radio telescope's name, posted on August 25, 2016 at 11:03:13
headphonejack
Audiophile

Posts: 47
Location: Western Pennsylvania
Joined: January 20, 2007
 Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope. Drive through West Virginia and you will find more evidence of his remarkable ability to bring federal funding home to WV.

 

RE: Answer may be in the radio telescope's name, posted on August 25, 2016 at 11:16:06
Sondek
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Posts: 9620
Location: Fort Worth
Joined: May 17, 2000
Contributor
  Since: April 5, 2002
 Damn! He sure has a LOT of stuff named after him. Although I suspect he's not the reason for the NRQZ being there. According to the Wiki on NRQZ it was established in 1958 to protect the scopes at Green Bank and Sugar Grove. That predates his tenure in the Senate by quite a while.

 

Physics with electronics option for me, posted on August 25, 2016 at 12:35:59
David S.
Audiophile

Posts: 3552
Location: Mountains of WNC
Joined: August 31, 2000
 VLA was one of the few things in the area I never managed to visit - and I quite regret it! Especially on days when they were set up in the close configuration.

Still have some nifty things pulled out of F4s & other planes out in the artillery range. ;)

 

And I abandoned my mining engineering studies quickly after I left NMIMT., posted on August 25, 2016 at 14:48:22
Raiderman
Audiophile

Posts: 2129
Location: Silicon Valley, California
Joined: March 14, 2003
 I ended up doing civil engineering and land surveying.
(My lifespan will probably be greatly lengthened by not getting "slabbed" in the mines, as a couple of my friends were. Yikes!!!)

So, did you ever end up climbing "M" mountain for that stupid initiation?

 

Didn't do "M" mountain either. Don't particularly regret that one. nt, posted on August 25, 2016 at 16:02:06
David S.
Audiophile

Posts: 3552
Location: Mountains of WNC
Joined: August 31, 2000
 .

 

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